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I was always amazed by it. Other PDAs used a special alphabet one had to memorize, but Newton learned and recognized natural handwriting. And while Newton didn'
by Maursault 4y ago
I was always amazed by it. Other PDAs used a special alphabet one had to memorize, but Newton learned and recognized natural handwriting. And while Newton didn't last long, the handwriting recognition did, reincarnated as Inkwell.[1]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inkwell_(Macintosh) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inkwell_(Macintosh)
- mikestew 4y agoAnd then Microsoft acquired the company that made Calligrapher (which originally ran on the Newtons), and it ended up in the early WinCE PDA devices. I used it with the WinCE devices, and it worked quite well. "Egg freckles", indeed.
- gumby 4y ago> Other PDAs used a special alphabet one had to memorize, Graffiti was so easy to use that you would see people write with it on whiteboards.
- projektfu 4y agoThis has always baffled me. Graffiti was generally less than 20 characters per minute for me and I was an early palmpilot adopter. Eventually better options came out resembling the smartphone keyboards we have today. I never used a Newton but the Microsoft handwriting recognition was pretty good on the iPAQ. Maybe the Palm graffiti approach is ok for people who don't care about feedback and can edit tiny characters on a tiny device.
- macstainless 4y agoGraffiti was great to use, but felt like a step down because it required memorizing the input method whereas the Newton's promise was to have full handwriting recognition. Granted I was on as MP 1200 but I don't think the 2000 series improvements were enough.
- gumby 4y agoThe motivation for Graffiti was it could be recognized by a small microprocessor meaning the palm devices could be quite inexpensive.