[muglo] Re: palm pilot
- From: "Galen P. Zink" <blueandwhiteg3@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: muglo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2003 23:57:42 -0700
On Tuesday, June 10, 2003, at 11:42 AM, Alex wrote:
>> As far as the functions of the Newton, it was certainly a very
>> impressive piece of technology at the time. If you're willing to use
>> special software and consider the "real" possibilities of a piece of
>> hardware, I challenge you to compare the Newton to the Sharp Zaurus.
>> You get regular handwriting recognition, amazing expansion, endless
>> software possibilities (the OS can be completely flashed, other linux
>> distros are available) including X11 and KDE. The expansion
>> capabilities exceed that of the newton (more hardware is supported -
>> ethernet, 802.11b, cellular data, bar code scanning, bluetooth,
>> compact
>> flash/sd memory, 56k modem, and more),
>
> well, here I am reading mail from 2 years ago.... late in replying of
> course, LOL
>
> I just have to say on this newton thing, that the expansion
> capabilities of the newton include :
>
> ethernet (well, not really expansion since it was already built-in)
> 802.11b wireless
> cellular data
> bar code scanning
> text scanning
> ata flash memory cards/compact flash & the older flash cards
> 56k modem
> and more....
The Zaurus has all that... and bluetooth support via your choice of
cards, USB host support via compact flash and syncing via built in
TCP/IP over USB (Mac OS X compatible) compared with pokey old serial.
It uses internal (flash) memory and has a compact flash and secure
digital/mmc slot for expansion. So you can have endless combinations of
expansion AND it is hot-swappable. IIRC, the Newton uses PCMCIA which
is not hot swappable. And as a final touch, there are probably more
drivers for the Zaurus than the Newton because it is open source and
existing drivers can be quickly ported.
>
> (not to mention the undisputed, best handwriting recognition any
> device ever manufactured has ever had)
>
> seems like all it's missing from your list is bluetooth
I forgot to include it.
> I think the newton is capable of more than you think....
The Newton isn't incapable, it's almost as capable (no color screen,
slower CPU are the biggest points) as the Zaurus but it weighs 2-3x
what the Zaurus does and is much larger... one fits in your pocket, the
other in your briefcase. In terms of software, the Newton might have
better handwriting, I'm not sure. But the Zaurus is totally open, so if
I really wanted better handwriting recognition, I could write my own
code and implement it, not via a hack, but right into the OS. And it's
rather nice that all the major open source apps will compile for the
zaurus... can you read and write word, powerpoint and excel files on
your Newton? How about near-Photoshop quality photo editing (GIMP)? How
about emulate a Palm? What about using standard network protocols on
your Newton (HTML, SSL, SSH, VNC, etc)? Watch video (video lan client,
mplayer, etc - plays divx/mp4/mpeg1/mpeg2/avi files)? Run Java
(functionality built in!)? Much of this isn't possible because the
Newton uses a closed-source OS and lacks a color screen.
The Newton was a *completely amazing* machine when it came out. It's
still a nice PDA but is rather behind the times - lack of color, closed
OS, slower CPU, large size. Now when the XNewton (or would it be
iNewton? :) comes out, this will change, but for now, that's the way
things are. And since I'm not waiting around for Apple whenever they
decide to release their PDA, I'll be picking up a Zaurus here in the
next few months.
Galen
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