Thursday, August 11, 2005

Nostalgia for Not So Old Things

CNET has a list of the top 10 tech things its editors miss, which include manned space exploration, LPs and GM's EV1. Number 10 on the list? The Apple Newton:

When Apple gets things right, it's spectacular (think iPod), but when the company messes up, it's a hoot. The first popular pen-based PDA, the Apple Newton, was big, expensive, and too smart for its britches. Early models tried to interpret handwriting with often amusing results, making words out of users' scrawls that often combined into surreal "Newton Poetry." We miss the Newton because what it thought we meant was often far more interesting than what we were really trying to say.

1 comment:

Dave said...

I have to agree with you on the wires and noisy keyboards (huh?) issues. I don't miss the clackety-clack a bit.

And of course the NASA geek in me wholeheartedly agrees with No. 1, although I think Mars is now the far more interesting prospect.