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first: NeXT

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Old Tandy portables reborn

Newton Usin'

This is a new description of my Newton, the old one being found here. The old one still holds, it has a few links, but the links to the programs below can be found on my Newton links page.

A lot of things have changed in my use of the Newton since I first began, a year ago. For one, I now have a 6 MB flash card that lets me load on a TON more packages than before. That's change the way I view games, email, and databases.

For earlier comments on how I write with a KISS machine and its instant on features, go read about the Model 102 and how I used it. I still write a lot.

The other main use for the Newton has been to organize my ever more hectic life. I keep my schedule on here, transfer the information via Lookout to Outlook on my desktop, and generally try to keep myself organized in only one location. No more lost notepads, slips of papers, and misfiled or forgotten post-its....

What's on the Newton?

I try to keep only the essentials on the Newton itself. That would be my Dates, Names, and daily used Notes. Archived Notes go to the card, for whatever reason, or are deleted when I've printed out copies. Since much of the Newton's use is as personal writing ground, I end up printing things for my journal at home and deleting them from the Newton to save space. Old lecture notes stay on the card, though.

NewtDB continues to amaze and astound me. I have a few different databases running right now, and they are getting large. No problem, the machine handles it fine. Among other things, I can plan ahead with my project databases (copy the screen, change the source database, and boom, you've started another project). Very important, lately. I continue to use it for the radio station work, which is great.

Email software stays on the Newton, though. I use SimpleMail, which is a wonderful piece of writing. It does me fine. the MP2000 doesn't have the most heap (the Newton equivalent of RAM), so it has memory problems when doing email, but I don't have the cash to spend on an upgrade or anything (you can still get them via Digital Ocean Dave, I've read). I keep most of the packages frozen, but have the full complement needed to do email only. It works fine, and it's a gas to get my daily or weekly news summaries and read them at the breakfast table.

TapBar is one of the more convenient pieces of machinery out there. It's like a control strip (for you Mac users) or a taskbar (the area on a PC where links to things like AIM or RealAudio or virus programs go, on your Start bar). In mine, I have links to a rotate button (no need to open Extras), a battery status button (tells voltage and percentage), a password toggle, a card unmounter (for when I remove the card), a slick hack that lets me write in the first few letters of someone's name and Names opens to that name, a styles button, a dock button, and more. Very nice. Highly recommended.

System enhancements disappear into the background but make a huge difference in the way the machine runs.

• For the general system, I have:
  • the Dvorak keyboard (I'm slowly learning).
  • Autorotate switches the machine to landscape orientation when I plug in the keyboard.
  • Extras Layout lets me arrange the screen in Extras and on the Button Bar, which means I have quicker access to my most used packages.
  • noFX turns off the silly sliding paper action and the trashcan when deleting items. They're silly because they take up too damn much time, when my fingers are reaching for other taps or already writing again.
  • Options gives me additional clipboards and lets me set the battery warning time, which is convenient for the different types of batteries I use (NiCads drain so quickly at the end and you want to be warned at a higher number).
• For Dates, I use:
  • DateBar lets me switch quickly between different views in Dates, so that I can see the day, the agenda, the to do's, or the week, or whatever.
  • I can listen to the Newton with Macintalk and SpeakText, which allows me to have Talking Alarms, which read out the appointment when the alarm goes off.
  • Plan 9 gives me alien fonts in my Dates, which is silly, but makes me laugh eveyr now and then (when I notice anymore).
• When in Notes, I prefer:
  • OneTap scroller lets me jump from note to note and hope to the very first or last note. Convenient.
  • NoteSlider adds a slider to the edge of the screen so that I can slide a Note by only a little. This is good for editing in the range of the Note that's right at the screen break.
  • Proofread is a search-replace utility that I rarely use, but it's nice.
• And finally, there's the miscellaneous extensions that move the system pretty far away from the original:
  • NamesHack switches the small screen Names application into one that takes up the whole screen, which is nice.
  • HWRworks gives me hand-writing recognition in NewtonWorks
  • SpellWorks gives an Autocorrect feature to NewtonWorks
  • InOut Select All and Extras Select All allow me to save some tapping when I need to delete or freeze lots of things at once.
  • QuickPort gives fast dumps of data into a terminal program (I use laptap.exe, which is a convenient hack that works with no brain input required).