4 ms·

Ok, I know it has entered the popular culture and become a myth, and thus fighting it is kinda pointless, but the newton was not a failure, neither technologica

by nirvana 15y ago

Ok, I know it has entered the popular culture and become a myth, and thus fighting it is kinda pointless, but the newton was not a failure, neither technologically or from a business perspective. First off, Technologically. It worked. I have terrible handwriting, and the newton I had was the 100- the original message pad. It could recognize my handwriting, just fine, well north of %90 of the time. When it got a word wrong, it was trivial to correct. I was able to write on it at the same speed that I would be writing on a pen and paper. I could increase this recognition rate to %100 by altering the way I wrote, if I wanted to, but it was more convenient to write my normal way. Further, this was all done on an ARM RISC 610 CPU running at 20Mhz with 640kb of RAM! It was "technology from the future", and unfortunately it came at a time when, at least in america, "computer literacy" was a big thing. Many people weren't really computer literate, and having a computer in the home was not rare, but not exactly common yet. Secondly, the Newton was not a failure in the marketplace. The device found wide adoption in industry where its unique features provided exceptional value. In places where a Palm could compete (because the newton's superior technology wasn't significantly more valuable) it didn't do as well... but that doesn't mean it was a failure as a product or was losing money. (Interestingly, NeXT, widely also regarded as a "failure" was also profitable when Apple bought them.) The newton was building momentum and was about to be spun out in an IPO as Newton Inc, when Steve Jobs returned to Apple. I don't know the reasons that Steve Jobs killed the IPO and the product. It seems to me that letting it spin out would have been the wiser move. I understand why it was popular for doonsbury to make fun of it, and the simpsons, etc. It exhibited a kind of hubris. Handwriting recognition? At a time when people are barely grasping the value of a computer to begin with? I think the lesson to learn with AI like products is to make sure that the target market is receptive to the idea. I hope people are now more receptive to Siri than they were to Newton.

wanorris 15y ago
Teas Willis, and the sticky tours Did gym and Gibbs in the wake. All mimes were the borrowers, And the moderate Belgrade. "Beware the tablespoon my son, The teeth that bite, the Claus that catch. Beware the Subjects bird, and shred The serious Bandwidth!" He took his Verbal sword in hand: Long time the monitors fog he sought, So rested he by the Tumbled tree, And stood a while in thought. And as in selfish thought he stood, The tablespoon, with eyes of Flame, Came stifling through the trigger wood, And troubled as it came! One, two! One, two! And through and though, The Verbal blade went thicker shade. He left it dead, and with its head, He went gambling back. "And host Thai slash the tablespoon? Come to my arms my bearish boy. Oh various day! Cartoon! Cathay!" He charted in his joy. Teas Willis, and the sticky tours Did gym and Gibbs in the wake. All mimes were the borrowers, And the moderate Belgrade.
- WildUtah 15y ago
  Wow, actually transcribed two lines correctly: One, two! One, two! And through and though, ... He left it dead, and with its head, That's two more lines than I'd have guessed.
- pak 15y ago
  OK, I get your point, but transcribing e.e. cummings poems is kind of a corner case for voice recognition, no? What Siri is going to test is whether the 80/20 rule applies to a voice recognition based personal assistant. By constraining it to assistant-type tasks, and with what seems to be the most intelligent design we've seen yet, it has a better shot of achieving it than anything else out there. Previous entrants have been tripped up by the lack of a decent UX, failure to integrate with other data sources, or any number of shortcomings in the long chain from microphone to software back to speaker. Apple is the first company to have such precise control over every component in that chain. (For instance, I wouldn't be surprised if part of the reason Siri is 4S-only is because hardware has been added for smarter noise or echo cancellation, or other subtle design changes.) And the fact that it can learn from the internet, and presumably submit its training data back to the cloud, means that maybe it will eventually be able to handle not just 80%, but 90% or 99% of total inputs.
  - trafficlight 15y ago
    It's Lewis Carroll, but your point stands.
- chunky1994 15y ago
  This actually makes for good reading! (Although I do like the original better) But this certainly shows Siri's got potential, it didn't miss any normal words now, did it?
smackfu 15y ago
Interesting article from the time, before Jobs took over: http://www.nytimes.com/1995/09/18/business/apple-s-newton-poised-for-a-rebirth.html?scp=2&sq=%22apple%20newton%22&st=cse http://www.nytimes.com/1995/09/18/business/apple-s-newton-po... I think Newton was both a failure (in its original goals) and a success (in the more realistic industry specific use). It did not light the world on fire, and the average consumer did not care for it and was not interested in buying it. So I wouldn't really agree with a blanket "it was not a failure", especially when part of the argument is "it was catching on right when people who knew the financials killed it."

by nirvana 15y ago

wanorris 15y ago

Teas Willis, and the sticky tours Did gym and Gibbs in the wake. All mimes were the borrowers, And the moderate Belgrade. "Beware the tablespoon my son, The teeth that bite, the Claus that catch. Beware the Subjects bird, and shred The serious Bandwidth!" He took his Verbal sword in hand: Long time the monitors fog he sought, So rested he by the Tumbled tree, And stood a while in thought. And as in selfish thought he stood, The tablespoon, with eyes of Flame, Came stifling through the trigger wood, And troubled as it came! One, two! One, two! And through and though, The Verbal blade went thicker shade. He left it dead, and with its head, He went gambling back. "And host Thai slash the tablespoon? Come to my arms my bearish boy. Oh various day! Cartoon! Cathay!" He charted in his joy. Teas Willis, and the sticky tours Did gym and Gibbs in the wake. All mimes were the borrowers, And the moderate Belgrade.

WildUtah 15y ago
Wow, actually transcribed two lines correctly: One, two! One, two! And through and though, ... He left it dead, and with its head, That's two more lines than I'd have guessed.
pak 15y ago
OK, I get your point, but transcribing e.e. cummings poems is kind of a corner case for voice recognition, no? What Siri is going to test is whether the 80/20 rule applies to a voice recognition based personal assistant. By constraining it to assistant-type tasks, and with what seems to be the most intelligent design we've seen yet, it has a better shot of achieving it than anything else out there. Previous entrants have been tripped up by the lack of a decent UX, failure to integrate with other data sources, or any number of shortcomings in the long chain from microphone to software back to speaker. Apple is the first company to have such precise control over every component in that chain. (For instance, I wouldn't be surprised if part of the reason Siri is 4S-only is because hardware has been added for smarter noise or echo cancellation, or other subtle design changes.) And the fact that it can learn from the internet, and presumably submit its training data back to the cloud, means that maybe it will eventually be able to handle not just 80%, but 90% or 99% of total inputs.
- trafficlight 15y ago
  It's Lewis Carroll, but your point stands.
chunky1994 15y ago
This actually makes for good reading! (Although I do like the original better) But this certainly shows Siri's got potential, it didn't miss any normal words now, did it?

smackfu 15y ago

Interesting article from the time, before Jobs took over: http://www.nytimes.com/1995/09/18/business/apple-s-newton-poised-for-a-rebirth.html?scp=2&sq=%22apple%20newton%22&st=cse http://www.nytimes.com/1995/09/18/business/apple-s-newton-po... I think Newton was both a failure (in its original goals) and a success (in the more realistic industry specific use). It did not light the world on fire, and the average consumer did not care for it and was not interested in buying it. So I wouldn't really agree with a blanket "it was not a failure", especially when part of the argument is "it was catching on right when people who knew the financials killed it."