
Why I Carry a Newton - ingve
http://eggfreckles.net/notes/why-newton/
======
carlivar
Why I carry a paper notebook

Battery life - infinite

Handwriting recognition - I can recognize my own handwriting.

Document centric workflow - The document is definitely front and center.

Share Everything - in the paper notebook, everything is shareable, and shared
in the same way. Either take a picture of the pages, type them in somewhere
else (and edit while you do so), or make a photocopy. Optical Character
Recognition may be possible but would arguably be adding unnecessary
complexity.

Expandability - either purchase more notebooks, or use the 3-Ring Binder (tm)
model to expand the capacity of your existing device.

Community - the paper notebook is no wonder device. The spiral notebook was
patented in 1935 and has a large community of nearly all of western
civilization.

~~~
Tloewald
Cheap shots.

Speaking as a huge fan of the Newton MP 2000 (which I kept using for years
after the Newton was cancelled):

1) You can search your meeting notes. I had four or five years of meeting
notes that could be instantly (well, by late 90s standards of "instantly")
searched.

2) You could point it at any IRDA printer and just print stuff. (I was
astonished by this when I discovered it worked, because the first IRDA printer
I got was made long after the Newton was cancelled.)

In contrast to this, most of my paper notes (and I've gone back to paper) end
up being lost, and those that aren't lost are horribly disorganized.
Generally, the half life of paper notes -- for me -- is perhaps a month.

~~~
coliveira
> most of my paper notes (and I've gone back to paper) end up being lost, and
> those that aren't lost are horribly disorganized

I agree that this happens, but it is your own decision. Until the 20th
century, scientists had to maintain notes of everything they did in notebooks.
They kept them organized and accessible, despite having to use handwritten
notes.

~~~
Tloewald
Ah yes, every scientist has beautifully organized paper notes. Of course.

Why use word processors? Quill and ink has served us for generations.

~~~
rawTruthHurts
Not so cheap shots then!

~~~
Tloewald
Countering the usefulness of free text search of one's notes with "you can do
it manually" doesn't even rise to the level of a cheap shot -- it's
ridiculous. Which is my point.

------
Gracana
Eat up Martha?

I used to have a Newton, also long after they were "obsolete" (as in, years
ago, but I sold my Playsation Portable to buy it.) It was a fantastic little
device. I had a MessagePad 2100, which had two PCMCIA slots and an awesome
green-backlit screen. WiFi worked. Handwriting input was not great, but it
worked to a degree that was pretty impressive - I've tried text input on
modern devices, and I can't really say that they're any better.

I wouldn't mind having a device like that again, if it were easily hackable
(something that was my main issue with the Newton).

~~~
VonGuard
I still have my 2000. I bought it in 1999, second-hand on Craigslist. It's
still a brilliant device. I really wish I had something in EXACTLY the same
form factor that had a modern screen.

There is one aspect of the Newton that I feel is still unrivaled in all the
pen-based systems: It has a little stylus caddy for when you're using the
device on a flat surface. Not only can you store the stylus inside the device,
when it's out, it's got a little place to put it in between siblings.

Another thing that is unique about the Newton is its heat dissipation. It
never gets hot. When you pull the stylus out, it's frequently cold to the
touch, even....

Such a great device.

~~~
Gracana
> I really wish I had something in EXACTLY the same form factor that had a
> modern screen.

Yeah, totally. It's a chunky device, but that's really not a problem... And
you could have one hell of a device in that form factor now. Multi-day battery
life, a pair of PCIe card slots, a nice screen, and lots of RAM and storage.
That would be neat!

------
cstross
Has a Messagepad 100 back in the day; hated it, sold it and bought a Psion
3MX. (Alas, Psion shrieked and ran away when Microsoft announced a competitor
to their micro-laptop-esque palmtops, which eventuated as vapourware.)

Some of us just don't get on with handwriting.

Having said that? If you have a smartphone but the list of benefits from the
Newton appeal to you, you might want to try a Livescribe+ smartpen. Syncs with
your phone or tablet, works like a pen on notepad or paper, the sync app takes
care of handwriting recognition, and you can sync through it to Dropbox or
Evernote. So you can leave your phone in your pocket and just use a pen and a
notepad, and still have the benefits of everything being transcribed
automagically and available online. (Yes, it needs special paper, but the dot
pattern is available as a PDF if you want to print your own.)

~~~
devin
Toward the end of my college career I fell in love with my LiveScribe. You
might hear an aside in a lecture about X, and you could simply write X in your
notebook. Later on, you could search your notes for X, and if you were
wondering what exactly was said about X, you can tap on that note to hear what
was happening in the lecture at that point in time.

Later on, Y might be brought up in relation to X. Write Y in the notebook, and
draw a line to X, and so on.

I am not much of a note taker nowadays, but I highly recommend trying out the
LiveScribe. I am considering buying a new one just to see how things have
progressed.

~~~
cstross
Livescribe's developers pivoted.

The original model was positioned as an app platform -- the OLED screen, the
downloadable extras. It was a bit clumsy and annoying (and had a steep
learning curve).

I recently bought the Livescribe+. It cut back on features but made the core
functionality work a _lot_ better. Charges over micro-USB (like everything
else these days), can run on generic pen refils. No apps, but realtime
streaming to your phone (iOS or Android) over Bluetooth. It can still do
pencasts/audio recording (but doesn't give you a headset so you can replay
audio notes on the pen itself -- it's not a true dictation machine).

In other words, it does more by doing less (but doing it better).

~~~
matthewmcg
Second this. The OLED screen conked out on my WiFi-enabled Sky pen and they
sent me a free + model. I love it for all the reasons you've listed.

------
cschmidt
For you kids who don't remember the Newton the first time around, this is the
egg freckles reference:

[http://doonesbury.washingtonpost.com/strip/set/24](http://doonesbury.washingtonpost.com/strip/set/24)

------
sswaner
I still own a Newton. Used it heavily back in the 90's. At MacWorld in '97 or
'98 I was in an Adobe presentation where John Knoll was demonstrating how he
did special effects for a Star Trek movie. At one point, he offered to give
away a copy of After Effects for whoever had the best drawing of Bill Gates --
on a Newton. I jumped up and hurried to the front, drawing a smiley face as I
walked up the aisle. Just as he saw the screen, the handwriting recognition
converted the drawing to "Owwh". He still gave me the software.

I keep the Newton in my desk drawer. It still works great, but I am writing
this on an iPad, sitting on a plane. I wouldn't go back.

------
mietek
Note it is possible to emulate NewtonOS on OS X and, yes, on iOS.

[https://twitter.com/allaboutjake/status/664708492226404353](https://twitter.com/allaboutjake/status/664708492226404353)

[https://github.com/pguyot/Einstein](https://github.com/pguyot/Einstein)

~~~
tl
Unfortunately, it's not practical to emulate battery life.

------
zachgersh
Recently switched to using these at work for quick notes (before they are
transferred somewhere else):

[http://www.myboogieboard.com/shop/store/original](http://www.myboogieboard.com/shop/store/original)

Heavily writing focused and the newer ones actually sync your notes to an app
as needed.

Having used it for a few weeks now, definitely one of my favorite devices of
2016 and I really appreciate the singular focus it has as a device.

~~~
copperx
> definitely one of my favorite devices of 2016

These devices are at least 3 years old.

Honestly, the fact that I can only erase the whole board and not a small
section is a deal breaker for me. As is the form factor.

Make them as big as a small whiteboard, add local erase features and they've
got a winner.

While we're at that, they could manufacture boogie board whiteboard
replacements. That would be a hit in all teaching institutions. Imagine: No
more markers or chalk. One click erase.

~~~
TranquilMarmot
I went through high school in the mid 00s, and just recently graduated from
college. Every classroom I've been in for the past 10 years has had a "smart
board", which is basically a giant whiteboard with touch recognition. They
have "markers" you can pick up and write on the screen with, and an eraser
that lets you erase what you've written. They were very successful, and
incredibly useful- plus teachers could save the images they drew and then put
them up for the class to access later.

Where I work now we have one as well- except instead of a projector it's just
a big LCD touchscreen.

------
kev009
There are really salient points in the article about how the general purpose
smartphone/tablet adds small friction to simple tasks that end up being large
distractions.

I have a huge collection of print books and that is my preferred way to learn
because I can step away from the computer and digest what I am trying to
learn. An epaper reader would be a semi-acceptable compromise, but the tactile
feedback of page flipping and bookmarks are also very gratifying. A physical
book also has the tangible affect of being physically present; not something
to just purchase and file away. Generally I don't want to search books as I'm
trying to understand overall concepts, or perhaps quickly consult the ToC to
zip to a specific concept. When I want to search I want to search a code base,
API docs, or something like stackoverflow/mailing lists/newsgroups so I've
never missed that from ebooks.

For note taking, I can use either pen/paper, or a laptop with a simple vim
session. The paper is most useful if there are non-text things that need to be
quickly noted, and can be turned into charts/graphs or whatever later on if
needed.

~~~
dozzie
> I have a huge collection of print books and that is my preferred way to
> learn because I can step away from the computer and digest what I am trying
> to learn.

Paper has different profile of use friction than computer or tablet.

You can't easily search it for words, and paper book forces you to use its
index and table of contents, so you have to actually think about what you're
looking for. This is stark contrast with how digital text works.

You can make notes in a book, you can put shims and bookmarks, you can bend a
page corner. How it works in a computer is not as seamless as with paper; you
have to spend some attention to make a mark, and the mark will be limited in
one way or another.

And you can flick through a paper book. This is an important way of working
with a textbook, and no software can render that.

> An epaper reader would be a semi-acceptable compromise, but the tactile
> feedback of page flipping and bookmarks are also very gratifying.

Page flipping is an unimportant detail, and you can have markers in digital
text, too. What is important is how much and how cheaply (in terms of
attention) can you put in your notes, and -- much less tangible thing -- how
the medium inclines your mind for its content.

> For note taking, I can use either pen/paper, or a laptop with a simple vim
> session. The paper is most useful if there are non-text things that need to
> be quickly noted, and can be turned into charts/graphs or whatever later on
> if needed.

I actually design my code on paper. And I'm not talking about UML diagrams,
which I hate. I'm talking about rough sketches on programming interfaces
(which covers pretty much everything, since I build my systems out of
libraries written specifically for the system I'm building). I'm taking
advantage of the friction that paper gives. It forces me to think in different
way than when I'm writing on a computer, and that different way works very
well for me.

~~~
kev009
Uh, thanks for contradicting everything I opined with out own opinions I
guess.

------
colinbartlett
Can a mod please append "(2011)" to the title?

~~~
ndespres
That addition seems unnecessarily pedantic, as carrying a Newton in 2011 is no
less novel than in 2016.

~~~
acqq
It's not "pedantic." I was confused by "ten years old" written more times. But
mentioning the community etc it appeared to be about something that I maybe
don't know. The Newton was discontinuited in 1998 so now it's more like "20
years old device." Just "2011" makes the text clearer.

Please (mods) add it to the title.

------
chipsy
This article provoked me to think about devices I had purchased in the last
5-6 years and left to rot. I charged up an Android tablet I got in late 2012.
Then I brought out the Asus EEEPC 900 I got, two years earlier.

The tablet has always had issues holding a charge even when turned off, and
it's a bit bulky, so I might put it back into service as a wall-tethered
calendar and planner.

The EEE I stopped using because the original SSD was painfully slow and the
bigger/faster one I got as a replacement died within a month or so. I ordered
a new 64GB SSD for the EEE and am typing on it right now off a USB boot - it
could become my future writing and notetaking device. It doesn't have the
battery life of the Newton, but I could invest in a few aftermarket batteries
as backups. This would complement my existing paper workflows, which come into
play for the cases where I want to switch between drawing and writing.

------
Pxtl
Surprised he'd stick with a Newton and not a PalmOne device - they had the
better community.

That said, I have a Pebble and it has reminded me of the simple effiency of
black-and-white LCD and lightweight processors. The battery lasts all week.

~~~
voltagex_
>black-and-white LCD and lightweight processors

I wish there was a modern-ish Kindle that supported an SSH client. I'd
definitely carry that around instead of a laptop some days.

~~~
morganvachon
The more modern Kindle devices don't have a physical keyboard (I've tried
typing on my wife's Kindle Paperwhite, it's not a pleasant experience) and are
harder to mod. What you're looking for is a Kindle 2 or Kindle 3 (AKA "Kindle
Keyboard") which can boot a light version of Ubuntu[1], or you can just add a
SSH client to the existing Kindle software[2]. Get the 3G version and you have
a SSH client that works practically anywhere.

[1] [http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/09/02/photo-and-
descripti...](http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/09/02/photo-and-
descriptio.html)

[2]
[http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1220552](http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1220552)

------
kabdib
Some great presentations on Newton by Walter Smith:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fzDimBmNgg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fzDimBmNgg)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2p4RCx9OYE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2p4RCx9OYE)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7MuC5ytjec](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7MuC5ytjec)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drmpohs6iXE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drmpohs6iXE)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOwqu2gGrb4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOwqu2gGrb4)

------
Apocryphon
Why specifically a Newton, and not a PalmPilot or any other PDA? Especially
since Graffiti, while making the user learn a handwriting script, reduced the
difficulty of dealing with '90s-era handwriting recognition.

~~~
yourapostasy
The handwriting recognition was the Newton's oversold aspect, leading to (in
my opinion) many to overlook some unique system-wide architecture decisions
for data representation; the data soup [1].

That technical description doesn't easily convey the benefits for those who
have never seen data soups before, but this blog post [2] gives some idea.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soup_%28Apple%29](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soup_%28Apple%29)

[2] [https://blog.mozilla.org/faaborg/2007/06/29/why-the-
iphone-i...](https://blog.mozilla.org/faaborg/2007/06/29/why-the-iphone-is-no-
newton/)

~~~
jegoodwin3
This was very helpful. Thanks. The second link made it sound very smalltalkish
to me -- it sounded like an OODBMS that real world users could relate to. So I
followed the link at the Wikipedia article and was surprised to learn that
NewtonScript was a prototype-based inheritance language modelled on Self.

If the secret sauce is a user-accessible OODBMS written in a prototype-based
scripting language, would it not be possible to build a Data Soup system in
JavaScript? No need to bring the device back -- just replicate what people
liked about it.

~~~
yourapostasy
You totally can re-implement the data soup in JavaScript. At the same time,
revamp the data soup for a default-untrusted environment (with accompanying
management UI/CLI/API), and extend it to multi-user contexts, and I think it's
worthwhile to explore for use in groupware. I'm not entirely convinced the way
we're currently sharing referential data in groupware is sustainable, though I
don't know large-scale data structure design well enough to know if a new kind
of data soups approach would be any better for a global scale. My gut reaction
is data soups are not extensible to the global Net, but groupware-oriented
applications would likely benefit since there is so much back- and cross-
referencing in groupware transactions. The data soup's union capability would
be ideal for helping manage mobile "islands" of data, as consumer/employee
mobile devices add ever-greater capacity and synchronization to the data on
those devices is introducing unacceptable latencies to live, accurate data
representation.

------
vertis
I wonder how complicated it would be to replicate the functionality of a
Newton with off the shelf components now (Arduino, etc).

I guess the low power touchscreen would be the least accessible part.

~~~
VLM
Screen's not so bad.

You can select a difficult small amount of memory for code and storage with
slow CPU and slow access to bulk storage with an arduino, or somewhat
complicated I/O and software stacks with high power use on a RaspPi.

There's a hole in the market around many megs of storage and a tenth of a watt
or so of power and 10 MIPS of non DSP or so. Below there's tons of offerings,
and above there's tons of offerings, but in between theres not much. Probably
because there's not many applications. The world's full of engine computers
and toasters, and tablets and phones, but in between not so much.

~~~
marf41
> _many megs of storage and a tenth of a watt_

Just combine an ARM Cortex-M (~50-100 MIPS) and SD card.

------
macspoofing
Come on, you're carrying around a Newton for the attention.

~~~
erikpukinskis
I hate this attitude. It's one of the ways conservative people rationalize
their fear of difference and shame people into conformity.

~~~
lamby
I like how not carrying a Newton is considered conservative.

~~~
erikpukinskis
Conservative means supporting the status quo.

~~~
dbdjxjcnd
Which isn't necessarily a bad thing all the time.

~~~
PhasmaFelis
When you start assuming that anyone who behaves differently is just doing it
for attention, then yeah, that's a bad thing.

------
0xCMP
I wondered why no one comes up with a modern newton using things like eink or
something. Give it a nice wifi radio, and a big battery in a small size and
try to emulate the feeling and design of the newton but for today. I think
it'd be a perfect fit for people like him who love his Newton because it's not
like it'd be impossible to make. The advantages of technology are not small,
but his points of distraction on an iPad are very real. I changed to using
paper because honestly paper is the only easy way to focus on ideas without
being distracting by every little thing you can get done a computer as I know
from experience.

Someone mentioned boogie boards on this thread, but I found that they broke a
lot and obviously weren't as feature filled as they could be. Not to mention
they were pretty expensive for what they were... which was a digital
whiteboard, not quite a PDA or Newton by any means.

------
happywolf
Here I do see a business opportunity for a device that has: 1) adequate
battery life (> 1 week standby) 2) focused on note-taking + sharing 3) enable
plug-in/extension for future compatibility

Unfortunately what I am seeing devices nowadays are racing towards thinner +
bigger screen which to me is really missing the point. Who cares the device is
0.9mm thinner than the previous generation?

------
woodruffw
I have two of these on my desk, bought by one or both of my parents during the
PDA craze.

For the time and technology, their handwriting detection is extremely
impressive - I have fond memories of doodling on them and watching it
transcribe my (childish) handwriting into neat type. It's awesome to hear that
someone is still (well, as of 2011) still using a Newton regularly.

------
bitwize
Or: Why I Just Out-Hipstered You By Carrying Not Just An Apple Product, But A
Long Obsolete Apple Product.

~~~
sklivvz1971
Exactly my thought: "I carry a Newton because I am a hipster"

------
ufmace
I've gone back and forth between paper and various gadgets. I kinda like paper
better most of the time - all of the things that the usual gadgets can do
makes them distracting, and you tend to miss more of what's going in the
meeting/discussion trying to get stuff down right. There's nothing to go wrong
and distract or delay you further either.

It's true that you can't share and search handwritten stuff as easily, but I
often find it better overall to sit down after and type up the notes into
something. I have more time to get all of the details typed up while they're
still fresh in my mind. It makes me reconsider things and think about them
more carefully too.

------
dools
I agree with the handwriting component of this, especially during sales
meetings. I have found the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 really fantastic for sales
meetings. Battery life is all day, but not "measured in weeks" (alas).
Handwriting recog is about as good as Newton ever was but I never really use
it -- I like sharing notes as PDFs in Drive then linking to them from todo
lists (I use Highrise so my workflow is to create a PDF in Drive from the
S-Note app then share the link via email to Highrise or someone else on my
team).

Unfortunately Samsung stopped making the Note in a tablet -- the new Tab A or
whatever that has a stylus is a bit underpowered.

Get a 10.1 on ebay while you still can!

------
mwcampbell
Why exactly does the Newton, a 90s PDA, have better battery life than a 2011
smartphone? There's almost certainly a trade-off, so what is it? Lack of
constant connectivity through wireless radios?

~~~
jfb
The Newton was much, much larger than a 2011 cellphone, let alone a modern
one.

~~~
Gracana
The Newton doesn't have an advantage in battery capacity, despite being
bigger. They used 4xAA NiMH batteries in series, so 1800mAh-ish. Two points of
comparison: The iPhone 6 Plus has about the same capacity, and a Samsung
Galaxy S6 has 2500mAh capacity.

~~~
jfb
True. It's probably the screen, and the lack of active radios.

------
mattkevan
I still occasionally use my eMate. It's a great distraction-free tool for
writing. The keyboard is fantastic and NewtonWorks is surprisingly fully-
featured. And it makes cute beep-boop noises.

There's something fascinating about it's bio-mechanical translucency. It feels
like a computer David Cronenberg would design. I kind of hope Apple drops the
minimal glass and aluminium look and goes back to that organic weirdness.

------
headgasket
I carry an apple watch that does not make it past 36 hours of strictly telling
time. (feeling spartiate again, maybe I'll finally order that pebble... :-)

------
vinceyuan
> _I have been accused more than once of stealing the rubberized signature pad
> from a UPS delivery man._

This is the most interesting part of this article.

------
joonoro
I assume this isn't the one he's using
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLg1Wtl9ffQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLg1Wtl9ffQ)

EDIT: okay yeah this looks a lot better
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKHelCE9QAg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKHelCE9QAg)

------
softinio
If it was still available I would totally get one.

~~~
ctdonath
I have two. Make an offer.

------
yq
Talking about writing on PDA, nothing write as fast, as accurate as Palm VX.
Not even today's smartphone responsive as that.

------
wmil
The hipster conundrum. He wants effective handwriting recognition for notes,
but doesn't want to buy a Surface Pro.

~~~
MyScript
There is handwriting recognition for iOS and Android devices as well!

------
Tiquor
I wasked just thinking about this today. I realized that Evernote on my phone
is crap for meetings because I get all the other interruptions. It doesn't
help me focus on the meeting it tees me up for failure.

------
mixmastamyk
I wonder if someone might license the Newton IP and port it to the new iPad
with a stylus. Now that Jobs is gone, perhaps someone could persuade Apple to
let it happen.

------
CamperBob2
Yeah, nice, but I use an even more obscure PDA. You've probably never heard of
it. It's called the Tandy Model 100.

~~~
jeffwass
You mean the TRS-80 Model 100?

I knew a guy who used one regularly, at least up through the year 2000,
primarily for testing serial port hardware he was hacking up.

~~~
chipsy
I've been able to play with one of those in the past year. It's still an
attractive device even today, a bit like a form factor and OS variant on the
TI graphing calculators.

If someone announced a new version with small updates(e.g. backlit screen) I'd
be interested.

Edit: that said it would be competing with tablet + keyboard + battery pack
combos now.

------
newman314
Still have my MessagePad somewhere. My bigger concern now is getting it to
connect over modern protocols.

Time to go do some research.

