Quote:
Originally Posted by
JeffDM 
I can't find anything that says this is true. Some information I've found suggests that Palm might have licenced Grafitti to Apple after Apple's handwriting recognition failed. This was before Palm started making their own devices. Palm did have to pay someone for it the technology, but that was Xerox, not Apple, because of a patent Xerox filed.
Palm was developing for other company's PDAs before Newton was introduced.
http://www.answers.com/topic/palmone-inc
This isn't entirely correct. I've got friends that owned Newtons, one of which whom still uses his.
I remember the Newton with the last OS as having quite complex recognition, and doing very well at it, certainly as good as Graffiti.
Even the very first OS had sophisticated recognition, even though you had to spend time training the device. Problem was, most people didn't want to take the time, and so it didn't work well. Like voice recognition. No trainie, no workie.
I also remember them TRYING to sell Graffiti to Apple, but didn't succeed.
It's really too bad about the Newton. The 2100 was a really fine machine, and far better than the Palm. Two strikes against it though.
Despite its much more sophisticated hardware and OS, it was too big and too expensive.
Still, when Jobs discontinued it, sales had gone well above where they had been, and people were thinking that it would be a success.
The OS was very sophisticated. All programs and info were kept in a "sea", where they could be recalled at once, and could be used to form new types of programs from snippets. You could get various little packages, and use them as if they were part of one program.
I can't imagine what it would look like today after so many years of development of the hardware and software. No one else would be close.
Too bad.
The Palm was a toy in comparison.
