So, now that we know

So, now that we know that messages can be sent via a mobile device, the question becomes one of how big a message.

Going Primitive

This is being sent via my Jornada. Why, you ask? This is a test. I believe
that the Internet should be open to all, including those of limited means.
So, here we are.

Apple, Tablets & Hybrids

Tim Coook has weighed in about the future of tablets, at least those that are not Apple's. He feels that tablet/laptop hybrids have no place in the marketplace. 

While he may have something of a point, given the checkered history of tablet computing, he may have a point. I suspect that there is more to this. Obviously, simply adding a keyboard to an iPad makes it a fairly decent laptop replacement (with caveats). The most inexpensive laptop that Apple produces is on average nearly twice as expensive as an iPad, so perhaps Cook is looking out for another product line, though the iOS products are Apple's biggest sellers. 

It has also been suggested that Apple may be planning such a device. To be honest, I doubt that. The iPad is such a well designed gadget that simply adding a keyboard suffices for that "hybrid".

I think that what we're really seeing here is marketing, plain and simple. Apple would rather have you purchase their masterfully crafted devices than those less refined from their competitors. 

Still, I also suspect that such devices are coming. 

Breaking Connections

I had the misfortune of spending too many hours this today trying to get my eMate to talk to my Windows XP laptop. This was never an issue before; three months ago, it synched up just fine. Today, it simply wouldn't budge. It would connect, but whenever I tried to export a NewtonWorks document, it would encounter a communication error. 

This is problematic. 

The only computer in the house that the eMate will connect to now is our Bondi iBook running OS 9.2.2. 

While I am keeping my three Newton devices for various reasons, this is disconcerting. The recently acquired MP100 is a great e-reader, the 2000 will probably be as well, but I've used the eMate as a portable word processor almost exclusively. It has a number of items on it that sorely need to be moved. They can be moved, but only to that iBook. 

This is nothing against the iBook, it is a great old computer. But it has a hard time connecting to the Internet, and for me that is a make-or-break matter. It can connect, thanks to a great browser called Classilla, but is somewhat limited. It can move files that way, though, and today that's what I did. But it is inconvenient.

While I may be a big advocate for older systems, we are trying to eliminate some of the older systems we have due to space. The iBook was not slated to be retired, but was to be stored. Now, it appears as though that can't happen, at least until I off load the rest of those files from the eMate. The sad thing is that the eMate has been cutoff from my main computer directly. 

I may believe in older systems, but I am a bigger believer in simplicity.