Re: Marketing, was Re: C


Mon, 11 Dec 1995 12:45:23 -0800

Greg Alt wrote:
> In article <4afpqu$ph3@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU> sanj@mit.edu (Sanjay S Vakil) writes:
> >Hey there. I was the voice a while back that was trumpetting IF on the
> >newton. It rocks. I mean it is *very* cool. The cost of the old MP100s
> >is about $150 now, which is significantly more than the $40 you mention.
>
> Could you give some more info about the newton engine? And also about
> the newton, as I know little.

I haven't seen the newton zengine yet, but I can answer some of these other
questions, I bought a newton about six weeks ago and I love it.

> Like, how do you get the data onto it,

It has a PCMCIA slot that can hold a modem, an IR port (though I don't
think many people use this for anything but newton->newton comm, and a
serial port.

I use the serial port to send software, syncronize my data with my desktop,
etc.

> how much data can it hold,

The current version has 2meg of internal storage, I think about 1.3 of that
is available to the user. I also have an 8meg PCMCIA card that I keep big
stuff on.

> how long can it run on a set of batteries,

On rechargables I get a couple days, on alkalines you can get an amazing (to
me) week or two.

> how much info can you see on the screen,

It's 240x320 pixels, can hold a good sized chunk of text.

> can you scroll back to see past
> moves, etc? Also, if someone wanted to tweak the code, how tricky would
> that be? Would you need to buy a development package for the newton?

Can't answer the first two, but there is a $50 shareware compiler for newton
development, as well as the $300 commercial version (that I would try, but
it's only available on the mac thus far).

> >However, having a touch screen and never having to type is *wonderful*.
> >
> >Basically, the UI I've worked up lets the user tap on any word in the
> >'output area' and have it appear as the next word in their 'input area'.
>
> But don't you still have to write most verbs? How about something that
> keeps track of all the words that have been used previously. That way,
> you would only have to write out each verb once (and the obvious ones
> could be given already, like 'north,' 'south,' etc.).

That'd be how I'd like to see it, space permitting..

-- 
____________________________________________________________________
jesse montrose <jesse@spine.com> http://www.hooked.net/bin/jesse.home
After seven years, I was sent home to my family.  Little man, I give
the watch to you.