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In article <841977070.4807@dejanews.com>, richar88@upenn.wharton.edu wrote:

> I purchased a Message Pad 120 a couple of months ago and have not been
happy with it at all.  There are multiple reasons for this.  Please weigh
my experiences into your purchase decision:
> 
> 1.  The screen emits a high pitched whine.  I called Apple about this. 
They said it was a known but unrepairable problem.  According to customer
service at Apple, the whine is caused by transistors in the display.  The
severity of the whine varies from unit to unit.  In some it is very severe
and people can't stand to use the machine and in others it is nearly
quiet.  Mine is pretty bad, but Apple will not REPAIR their product.
> 

I hear it when the backlighting is on, but it's a lot less bothersome than
my laptops harddrive spinning all of the time. I don't hear it unless I'm
in a very quiet setting.

> 2.  Connection software is nearly impossible to acquire.  It is my
understanding that Newton Connections for Windows 95 which would allow me
to dump my Notes pages into Microsoft Word is not yet ready. 
Additionally, the Spreadsheet software from Holosoft (Equate) was slipped
again. 
> 

WinLinx will do exactly what you wnat to do. Call Newton Source 800-newton-1

For Spreadsheets -- have you tried QuickFigurePro? Call PDA Direct 800-cry-4-pda

> In short:  If you want a PDA as a portable computing device:  Do not buy
the Newton if you expect to be able to link the PDA to your Windows-based
spreadsheet programs or your Windows-based word processors.
>

See above two products.

> 3.  The handwriting recognition is faster than the old version but still
too slow to use in business meetings or for taking notes in an educational
environment.
> 

MP130. That will be fixed if Apple ever releases the rumored new hardware.

Yes, the HRW is still too slow. I can enter 25-30 words per minute when
I'm in a rush, the quality fails slightly because I'm messing up what I
write, but the builtin printing HRW will move right along on the  Have you
tried Grafitti? Grafitti is faster than Apple's builtin HRW.

> 4.  While software is supposed to be readily available, I have had very
little luck at companies such as CompUSA, MicroAge, etc.  Most of the
"Computer Superstores" do not carry much if anything.
> 

Where do you live? 

Try Newton Source in LA, Chicago, New York, Boston, San Fran.
Try The Newton Store in Toronto or Montreal

Try mail order thru PDA Direct, Newton Source, or Club PDA. 

Most Newton developers are small shops. The large distributors want your
life savings to be distributed thru them. It's more profitable (enough to
live on) to do direct sales to the Newton speciality shops.

> 5.  The Newton Executive Organizer I bought from an Apple Reseller in
Dallas is worthless.  It was obviously was designed by a bunch of
technical engineers with no regard for usability.  It holds my Newton and
Cellular phone quite well, but has insufficient pockets for credit cards,
business cards, airline tickets, paper, or pens.  (Despite having the
Newton, one needs traditional pen and paper once and a while -- e.g.
giving a colleague contact numbers.)  The system is not able to replace my
Franklin Planner.
> 

There are several third party cases. Maybe one of these will better suit
your needs.

> 6.  Every now and again, certain "To Do"s will start returning errors if
I try to edit them.  
>

Not sure why that happens.

> SUMMARY
> 
> Apple has a nice concept, but they have failed to implement.  They tried
to produce an open system and to license software development to several
small companies.  In my experience I have been only frustrated by the
inability to execute by Apple and its licensees.  Lastly, Apple will not
stand behind its product (see #2).
> 

It's easy for software development. Newton Toolkit is $299 and then you
have all of the tools you need. The Newton developement environment is the
best I've used.

Intuit, Symantic, NOW, and Monsanto are a few of the not very small companies. 

> IN SHORT -- THE MESSAGE PAD IS A COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY IF
YOUR NEEDS ARE DAILY ORGANIZATION IN A TRANSIENT PROFESSIONAL ENVIRONMENT
REQUIRING PC COORDINATION.
> 

There are more solutions which you haven't tried. Maybe the Newton doesn't
work out of the box exactly how you expect it to work, but there are
viable solutions. A communications device is one of the big areas for the
Newton. I have thousands of customers using the Newton to log onto AOL to
check their mail. You can send and receive faxes and surf the net. It's
not a toy platform. It's powerful.

> If you appreciate quality products, lobby Apple to license Microsoft to
product software for their product.  Hopefully, Apple can get HP to make
the hardware as well.  (Actually maybe, HP and MS can get together and
finish off Apple.)
>

Microsoft has already failed once at trying to produce a PDA device. MS
jumped on the Apple bandwagon as usual when the Newton first came out and
then they left hundreds of developers in the cold when they decided that
they couldn't create the same quality product as Apple did. And, HP just
lost a class action suit when they were charged with using used computer
parts in computers there were selling as new. I like, Apple. Apple might
be going thru a lot of rough times, but their products do work well and if
they only had Microsofts marketing machine then they could have owned the
world like MS.

-- 
Hardy Macia      *  Catamount Software  * Newton Software Development  
(802) 372-9512   *  hardy@catamount.com *  http://www.catamount.com 
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