Do you use a handheld device? (CE device, palm device) If so, what brand?

[Optimus]

An Apple Newton.

I'm not kidding... my brother gave it to me (it was given to him). It is big and clunky and the handwriting recognition is the single funniest thing I've seen in computing. My wife and I often play a game where one of us writes something and the other guesses what it was before the Newton butchered it.

The only thing we actually USE it for is to switch off recognition and use it as a shopping list at the grocery store.

 

<< The only thing we actually USE it for is to switch off recognition and use it as a shopping list at the grocery store. >>


Hmm, wouldn't a paper pad be a lot more efficent than a big clunky Newton?

It's funny how these devices are being overused. I used to use my Palm for shopping lists until I found it was easier to just bring a pad and paper and cross off the stuff I got, rather than keep pulling out the stylus and clicking off items as I put them in the cart.

I love watching people trying to show off their devices. It's so funny when you just know when someone has a device out just to show off. I see it a lot on the subway.

One day I saw a guy who had a spanking new Nomad II and rather than use the remote which makes a lot of sense and hides the unit from muggers. He had to take the device out of the satchel and flash it around, looking at the display and hitting all the buttons on the unit. The funny part is that the headphone cord is about 2 feet long without the remote, so every time the train would shift he would get thrown and the cord would get ripped out of the unit. Jackass.

Last week I saw a guy with the Casio PocketPC on the train playing MP3s. He had to take the unit out and keep picking songs with the stylus just to show off. It was so funny because you know it was awkward to do so, but he just had to show off.

I saw another guy with an iPac on the train last week clearly showing it off. He was playing Pacman with the internal speaker cranked up so everyone could hear it. That's really obnoxious IMHO. He finally stopped playing after everyone gave kept giving him dirty looks. He might as well have just used PocketPaint to make the display say &quot;MUG ME!!!&quot; and held it up for the entire train to see.

Thank God cells don't work in the Subway or it would be hell on Earth. Everybody in this city has a damn cell. It's bad enough you can't walk the streets without some cell talking moron walking into you. Picture the subway with a dozen different cells ringing at once.

Don't get me wrong, I love devices. It's just the people who are not over the &quot;whiz-bang&quot; mode that get really annoying, especially in public.

 

[Optimus]

dwell - true, true, but we have fun messing with the Newton... drawing pictures and joking around. Believe me - no showing off with this thing! Its a damn Newton for Pete's sakes! We leave it in the cart... drop it... one day we hope it will get stolen

Its a toy - I have it to commemorate the worst computer marketing failure I know of.

This one ain't a status symbol - we just play with it for laughs.

(And the shopping list thing is because I hate shopping, so it amuses me whaile I push the cart)

 

Optimus hehe, yeah I understood your relationship with the Newton.

I would love to have one of those for my dead technology museum.