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Topic |
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MrLynn
Junior Member
USA
394 Posts |
 Posted - 01 Jul 2002 : 21:18:34
Conventional wisdom has it that the Newton had the best handwriting recognition software, unequalled even after all these years.(A) Is this true, or just fond remembrance? (B) Does anything made today, handheld, tablet, or whatever, have handwriting recognition as good or better? (C) If so, what is it--and is it really capable, or (as they say about voice-recognition) 'not ready for prime time'? /Mr Lynn Curator of: SE (6.0.4), SE w. 020 accelerator (6.0.8), SE w. no HD, IIfx (7.1), IIci (bad HD); plus various PPCs in family (blue G3/350 is main Mac these days). |
~Coxy
Leader, Tactical Ops Unit
Australia
2822 Posts |
Posted - 01 Jul 2002 : 21:32:57
True, Newton 2x00 models had instantaneous handwriting recognition built on character formation, not what it actually looked like. That means no real 'training' period, and the Newt is able to recognise messy scribbles very accurately.And I haven't heard anybody raving about the HWR of anything newer, either. ~Coxy - Leader, Tactical Operations Unit
Mayor of NuBus City v3.0
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NotEnufCash
Starting Member
Canada
26 Posts |
Posted - 01 Jul 2002 : 23:13:23
My Newton 2100's HWR is, in a word, amazing. I've tried out all the newest Pocket PC's that supposedly have some limited sort of handwriting recognition... I trained it all, set up each letter the way I wrote it, did everything it asked... and at the end of it all I got about 10-25% accuracy  And this was on a brand new Hp Jornada too. I got my 2100 last month, took it out of the box and turned it on. I put in the Flash RAM card that came with it. It asked me to name the card. I scribbled down "My 32 MB Card" Pop. Recognized it perfectly. I was stunned. I, too had heard about the supposedly awesome recognition but that just sealed the deal for me. After a month or so I'd say it's 99% accurate with my printing and probably +95% with my handwriting. And my handwriting isn't what you'd call neat or easy to read  Sure, it makes errors, but I find most of them are due to my bad writing and/or trying to fix up words I've spelt wrong without lifting my pen ie. "Oops! That S doesn't look too great, I'll go back over it" That stuff tends to mess it up  Sometime I get annoyed by a particularly bad bit of recognition but then I just remember how awful it would be trying to write as much as I do using graffiti or something like that  One thing I do notice about the newton is that it's retraining my handwriting a bit. I've always written certain letters and numbers from the bottom up. Things like 2s, 7s and 5s aren't recognized at all when I write them bottom to top. But I love the Newton so much it's making me rework what years of basic handwriting classes couldn't. Writing 5s from the top almost feels natural now!  Anyways, that's my 5¢ Private NoCash
Localtalk Engineer 2nd Class
68ks Liberated: Ummm... Does a Newton count? Proud owner of a Newton 2100, a Quadra 610, and a Powerbook 520c...
Oh, and the G4/733 of course |
~Coxy
Leader, Tactical Ops Unit
Australia
2822 Posts |
Posted - 01 Jul 2002 : 23:50:06
That's exactly what happened with my numeral drawing skills... ~Coxy - Leader, Tactical Operations Unit
Mayor of NuBus City v3.0
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Alien
Junior Member
Netherlands
269 Posts |
Posted - 02 Jul 2002 : 03:15:19
Actually, the Newton had two HWR engines; The cursive recognition engine, called CalliGrapher, was developed by [url=http://www.paragraph.com/]ParaGraph[/url], and the print recognition engine, Rosetta, developed by Apple.NOS1 machines only have cursive recognition, NOS2 machines have both, except the eMate, which only has print recognition. CalliGrapher is now available for PocketPC. ,xtG
.tsooJ --
RTFM |
MrLynn
Junior Member
USA
394 Posts |
Posted - 02 Jul 2002 : 10:40:23
I'll look into Calligrapher. We have a medical office, and the providers are getting a Compaq IPAQ (Pocket PC) handhelds. I'd like eventually for the docs to get their notes directly into a (yet to be obtained) electronic medical records system from the handhelds.Apple sure missed the boat by killing the Newton, which by now would be an Nth-generation product and killing Compaqs (and M$'s Pocket PC) left and right. /Mr Lynn Curator of: SE (6.0.4), SE w. 020 accelerator (6.0.8), SE w. no HD, IIfx (7.1), IIci (bad HD); plus various PPCs in family (blue G3/350 is main Mac these days). |
thelip
Full Member
USA
729 Posts |
Posted - 02 Jul 2002 : 14:21:42
quote:
Apple sure missed the boat by killing the Newton, which by now would be an Nth-generation product and killing Compaqs (and M$'s Pocket PC) left and right.
AS much as I hate to admit it, apple (steve jobs) killed the newton at a time when apple had spread itself out beyond any control and it needed some serious organization. Steve killed many projects when he came back in hopes that apple could focus entirely on less and be more efficient. The newton is amazing, but in 98, i was 17-18 and couldn't drop $1200 on a pda whereas today, a few hundred could have been an option. The economy in today's world, i don't think would buy a new apple pda. At least not enough to make it worth it in the long run. I could be wrong, but I trust apple as a business to know what product is going to make money and which will not. At the time the newton was getting a lot of bad press, i think we all remember the simpsons episode (if not, it's at www.planetnewton.com as a movie for your newton). Obviously (to us), a new apple pda would be a good idea for the digital hub, but if that's the case then they would be making another round of apple digital cameras, printers, etc. It just wouldn't make sense with the market already saturated with palm, handspring, pocketpcs, olypus, kodak, sony, epson, lexmark, hp, etc. even though most of the pdas on the market suck, the issue is like windows, EVERYBODY has it. Give apple a few more really successful years, then i might expect a pda if they are still the thing to have by that time. _______________________
Sgt. Thelip
Heavy Weapons Specialist
950 division
Liberated Macs: 12 |
MrLynn
Junior Member
USA
394 Posts |
Posted - 02 Jul 2002 : 15:25:03
quote:
AS much as I hate to admit it, apple (steve jobs) killed the newton at a time when apple had spread itself out
beyond any control and it needed some serious organization.
You may well be right; there are always trade-offs in business, and everyone at the time was speculating how long it would take for Apple to sink beneath the waves. Still, had Steve been content with spinning off the Newton (while maintaining some interest), it might have capitalized on the handheld explosion and come back into the fold as a money-maker. There is an emerging market for IPAQ-type handhelds, more powerful than Palm-type devices, for professionals to use as field computers. This was the Newton's forte (it was too big for shirt pockets), and an evolved Newton (smaller, color) might have been a player today. For what 'might have beens' are worth.... Time to invent the Tricorder. /Mr Lynn Curator of: SE (6.0.4), SE w. 020 accelerator (6.0.8), SE w. no HD, IIfx (7.1), IIci (bad HD); plus various PPCs in family (blue G3/350 is main Mac these days). |
Trash80toG-4
NIGHT STALKER
USA
2899 Posts |
Posted - 02 Jul 2002 : 15:37:10
quote:
quote:
Apple sure missed the boat by killing the Newton, which by now would be an Nth-generation product and killing Compaqs (and M$'s Pocket PC) left and right.
a new apple pda would be a good idea for the digital hub, but if that's the case then they would be making another round of apple digital cameras, printers, etc . . . . even though most of the pdas on the market suck, the issue is like windows, EVERYBODY has it. Give apple a few more really successful years, then i might expect a pda if they are still the thing to have by that time.
the newton is a small notepad computer, NOT a large PDA, i would not be surprised to see both a larger Newton-like notepad and a licensed Palm OS based iPod rework, any day now, (downtown at javits center) to fill the huge gap in the product lineup between the iPod and the iBook. this would make the Apple Store a one stop shopping destination with Apple Hardware and OSX a tightly integrated solution from mp3 players (/cellphone?) to server backbones for small enterprise applications and the medical/imaging vertical markets.dunno, all the pieces are there except the PDA/NotePad gap and a cross between the Quicksilver and the Xserve with big helpings of open bays, lots of fast slots and maybe a new high bandwidth memory technology developed at Apple while they stuck it out (and us) with the PC-133 in the data bottleneck doldrums. perchance to dream! but when has apple ever acted like it had a clue about marketing?  jt  ™.
Trash Hauler: call sign: eight-ball
C.O. AC-130H SpecOps 68kMLAAF |
Trash80toG-4
NIGHT STALKER
USA
2899 Posts |
Posted - 02 Jul 2002 : 15:40:06
quote:
There is an emerging market for IPAQ-type handhelds, more powerful than Palm-type devices, for professionals to use as field computers. This was the Newton's forte (it was too big for shirt pockets), and an evolved Newton (smaller, color) might have been a player today.
yup! they just might lock in Palm support real soon now too!they are on a buying spree of late.  jt ™.
Trash Hauler: call sign: eight-ball
C.O. AC-130H SpecOps 68kMLAAF |
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Handwriting recognition question
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