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genghis7777

Member since: Jun 16th, 2009

genghis7777's Latest Comments

Blog Activity
Blog# of Comments
TUAW.com3 Comments
Engadget6 Comments
Switched1 Comment

Recent Comments:

Tweeting from a Newton (TUAW.com)

Jun 2nd 2011 8:35AM You might be able to find something here to help you: http://www.djajic.com/palm-phone.html

Kindle's digital book sales overtake hardcover, device purchases triple after price drop (Engadget)

Jul 20th 2010 11:08AM @weg You can

Entelligence: Five gadgets that could have and should have done better (Engadget)

Jul 18th 2010 9:52PM Apple probably didn't have enough resources to keep too many irons in the fire at once. Sadly the Newton was just starting to take off with large volume orders starting to come in for industrial and military applications (see http://marc.info/?l=newtontalk&m=99627122306728&w=2 and http://marc.info/?l=newtontalk&m=99794045201387&w=2) when it was discontinued. People forget that Apple was in bad shape back then. Even Microsoft had to bail it out.

I still use my Newton as my everyday planner and diary. Although modern smartphone devices can allow web surfing, the pricing of mobile data plans don't allow the decision to use them to be a no-brainer as yet.

Five ways Keynote for the iPad badly misses the mark (TUAW.com)

Apr 10th 2010 8:17PM Just more reason to wait a year or two while the wrinkles get ironed out

Switched On: Courier courts the creative (Engadget)

Apr 3rd 2010 8:05AM @detusueno

The current UI model from Xerox Parc and exemplified by Mac OS and MS Windows, though a huge leap forward from MS DOS and other Command Line Interfaces, has reached its zenith.

Adoption rates have fallen away. Yet there are still many people who do not have a computer and those that do, often do as little as possible with them. What will lift the game another notch? UI’s such as iPhone OS are another leap forward in user friendliness.

Apple have shown the way: iPad is a computer for non-geeks. It’s for people who want to easily send email, browse the web, do their internet banking, watch a bit of telly and see their family photos.

The Gizmodo Microsoft Courier videos look promising and goes along way to making everything so natural.

Two screens mean twice the battery drain but then there is enough volume to have double the battery storage. Dual screens also mean there is potential for a leap in productivity. Look at how many people have dual screens on their desktop workstations these days.

I hope the hinge will be really strong as it will get a lot of twisting and bending forces.

It looks like it's going to be too big to use “out in the field” because it won’t fit in anyone’s pocket. It seems to me to be a good candidate for a laptop replacement. I wonder if MS will be canny enough to simultaneously release a new version of MS Works optimised for the new UI?

If it’s output was compatible with MS Office file formats then we could be on a winner here.

Pen input with HWR will make it ideal as a meeting/lecture notes taker. I hope the Courier has a good sized pen and a safe and convenient place to stow it.

Maybe Courier will end up being what the Tablet PC concept had always meant to have aspired to.

I don't think Apple's first-mover advantage will be insurmountable. MS have shown they can come from behind and still reach a dominant market position. In Japan, MS Word used to have less than 10% market share but with a bit of sustained development focus, they were up over 75% over 2-3 years.

Ironically, the Courier, with its emphasis on pen input, handwriting recognition and cut-tuck-paste method looks like it captures the essence of the Apple Newton better than the iPad has.

Switched On: Courier courts the creative (Engadget)

Apr 3rd 2010 7:59AM @ECH

I suspect that they are going to have to put a locking mechanism in place so that it sits flat while working on your lap or sitting up in bed.

Switched On: Courier courts the creative (Engadget)

Apr 3rd 2010 7:47AM @xconan

What you're implying is that once third party developers start to get their creative minds set on it, the Microsoft Courier could really take off in terms of its applicability. The trouble with the concept video is that everyone judges it in terms of the one industry/application/use case that is being illustrated.

I'm interested in seeing how developers will rewrite MS Office to suit the new UI. Then this could really be a laptop/desktop/netbook replacement we're all looking for.

Switched On: Courier courts the creative (Engadget)

Apr 3rd 2010 7:42AM @Sparks

But what if you turned the Courier on its side and had one half flat on a surface (could be your lap) and the other half upright for viewing your video? The screen that was flat could be used for video controls or even writing notes while you review the movie...

Microsoft Courier Details Leaked, iPad Looks on in Envy (Switched)

Mar 7th 2010 3:09AM I'm a long time Apple Newton user, so I'm understandably intrigued by this device.

The size looks good: Meaningful productivity shouldn't be a problem, depending on the apps that will be available.

I wonder how they will stop the two screens from scratching one another, and how they will make the hinge sufficiently robust to stand up to the rigors of day to day use?

Now if handwriting recognition is native to the operating system, then we might have found the spiritual son of the Newton...

Beware the Newtapocalypse, a 2010 bug for the Newton MessagePad (TUAW.com)

Jun 16th 2009 3:54AM Nothing to see here folks, move along.

As Grant has said, the patch that overcomes the Y2010 bug has been released after extensive testing gave it a clean bill of health.

Although the patch only supports two models and both US versions of the device, further development is underway to patch the other models effected by the bug.

As for those who scorn us Newton users, they probably haven't used a Newton before; if you get the opportunity, try it and then you'll see what a well designed UI should be like.

If you can't wait, read Paul Glasnowsky's (who owns both an iPhone and a Newton) comments here: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13512_3-10104996-23.html. I use the Newton a lot for my day to day work. Something I wouldn't do if the screen were any smaller. From Paul's experiences, you wouldn't use the iPhone's onscreen keyboard for any significant length of time either without fatigue setting in: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13512_3-10245284-23.html