Newton Report for Technologic publication September 22, 1993

By Jason Romney

Technologic recently hailed the tiny, handwriting-recognising personal digital assistants as a milestone in consumer electronics. Certainly the idea of a ``personal digital assistant" represents a huge boost for communications (eg you will be able to send-receive faxes and electronic mail from anywhere after simply writing - not typing - your message on an electronic screen).

But it seems the first generation of PDAs have disappointed many early-adopters. Apple maintain a special forum on Compuserve (just type `go Newton' to join) devoted to the Apple Newton MessagePad.

This forum has so far contained a great deal of negative feedback, not all of which has been satisfactorily dealt with by representatives from ApplePIE (the Apple Personal Interactive Electronics division that created the MessagePad).

The dissatisfaction ranges over numerous areas such as battery life, system software freezeups and mysteriously disappearing items from the MessagePad's `To Do' and `Calendar' entries.

The following points are a representative cross section of messages:

* PROBLEM: the MessagePad's system stability is poor. Many users find a complete system reset is required on a daily basis. This is awkward because the MessagePad offers no external reset switch (the provided button is inside the battery compartment).

* PROBLEM: downloading hundreds of entries from other types of tiny organisers such as Sharp's 9600 model (which many people converting from an existing machine will need to do) can significantly slow down the Newton's performance and lead to numerous error messages.

* PROBLEM: the waveband frequency required by the Message Pad's proprietary American wireless communications card is presently occupied in Australia by taxi radios which will need to be ousted before NewtonMail, the proprietary Apple electronic mail system, can be activated - rewiring of the card for the Australian market is unlikely.

Although NewtonMail is scheduled for activation in the US next month, there are no firm dates for Australia.

* PROBLEM: the MessagePad's handwriting recognition, which distinguishes it from products such as the Tandy Zoomer and (see below) Amstrad Pen Pad, often fails due to factors such as memory fragmentation.

Apple recommends a ``simple" solution: open the battery door and press reset; Apple says this does NOT destroy any data or lose your work, however it is a definite inconvenience.

* PROBLEM: almost any serious use of the MessagePad will require more memory than is initially provided - eg a 2MB PCMCIA card allows the dictionary to be expanded and also significantly faster program execution and handwriting recognition, but is a costly addon.

Even if you do add a memory card, movement of MessagePad contents to the card is presently an ungainly process. And note that only memory cards of certain types will work with the MessagePad so ones you have already purchased may not be transferrable to the MessagePad.

* PROBLEM: some fax-modems refuse to work with the MessagePad, due to eg an incorrect initialisation string being sent to the modem by the MessagePad.

* PROBLEM: as data is moved around the MessagePad, fonts selected by the user seem to be randomly changed.

* PROBLEM: some users have found the `Intelligent Assistant' which analyses entries and attempts to sort them into relevant areas automatically, can be VERY slow to finish its interpretations - with no opportunity for cancellation of the process or provision of an indicator to show the system is `thinking' rather than `hung'.

* PROBLEM: third-party applications are proving very slow to emerge.

* WARNING: taking out the Newton's main batteries will erase system software upgrades.

* POTENTIAL: services that display digital books on the Newton screen are slowly arriving. Such books multiple-fonts, bitmap and PICT graphics and on-screen controls for hot-linked content navigation.

* ADVANTAGE: new users enjoy constant attention from the curious (which has proven to be a surprisingly effective way of ice-breaking at meetings and getting `dates') and from users for whom it works, the Newton MessagePad generates almost religious ecstacy.

Early adopters have always been the guinea pigs for new products but leaving aside the specific technical glitches mentioned above, are products such as the Apple Newton MessagePad the best solution for YOUR needs even in the most general sense?

While a properly functioning Newton MessagePad will greatly assist people with extensive communication needs and poor keyboard skills, users will need to be patient and flexible as they, and their MessagePad, learn about each other's eccentricities in areas such as handwriting recognition.

If you lack patience and even a certain spirit of adventure, the MessagePad path may not be the best one for you.

MessagePad users will also need to collectively help one another by exchanging tips in places such as Compuserve's Newton forum about how to solve problems and about new software appearing in Compuserve's Newton forum libraries.

In conclusion, one MessagePad user made an intriguing point when he said: ``Short of people who feel like they just HAVE to have a Star Trek communicator in their pockets, doesn't an OmniBook-type product start to look like a reasonable alternative for folk who demand so much more than the standard Newton has to offer?"

He was referring to Hewlett Packard's recently released subnotebook computer, the OmniBook. Technologic will evaluation its strengths - and how it compares with a personal digital assistant - in detail next week.

Also, given that the Apple Newton MessagePad is still in short supply in Australia, in two weeks time Technologic will review the more readily available, less expensive, but less powerful Newton competitor - the Amstrad Pen Pad PDA 600.