"Ink text" captures the user's free-hand writing but allows it to be treated somewhat like recognized text when manipulating for later editing purposes ("ink text" supported word wrap, could be formatted to be bold, italic, etc.). "Shapes" and "Sketches" can be scaled or deformed once drawn. With "Shapes", Newton can recognize that the user was attempting to draw a circle, a line, a polygon, etc., and it cleans them up into "perfect" vector representations (with modifiable control points and defined vertices) of what the user is attempting to draw. Text can also be entered by tapping with the stylus on a small on-screen pop-up QWERTY keyboard. The Newton can recognize hand-printed text, cursive, or a mix of the two, and can also accept free-hand "Sketches", "Shapes", and "ink text". It was developed by Apple's Advanced Technology Group, and was described in 2012 as "the world's first genuinely usable handwriting recognition system". Newton's handwriting recognition, particularly the print recognizer, has been considered by many reviewers, testers, and users to be the best in the industry, even 10 years after it was introduced. However, with the release of Newton PDAs based upon version 2.0 of the OS, the handwriting recognition substantially improved, partially being a product of ParaGraph and an Apple-created recognizer pair: Apple's Rosetta and Mondello. The earliest versions had weaknesses that resulted in bad publicity and reviews. The Newton uses the CalliGrapher word-based handwriting recognition engine developed by ParaGraph International Inc, led by former Soviet scientist Stepan Pachikov. Book Reader - Support for displaying electronic books is built in.The Newton clock also includes features for an alarm, minute timer and the date. Clock - A small floating window type application, known as a desktop accessory on the Macintosh.Calculator - A basic calculator with square root, percentage, MR, M+ and M- functions additional to the basic functions found on a calculator.Formulas - Program that offers metric conversions, currency conversions, loan and mortgage calculators, etc.Names - Program for storing extensive contacts information in a flexible format.Dates - Calendar program where you can schedule appointments and other special events.Notes - Used for checklists, as well as both drawing and writing in the same program either with a newton keyboard or a stylus pen.Works - A program for drawing and word processing, with typical capabilities such as: rulers, margins, page breaks, formatting, printing, spell checking and find & replace tools.The basic software that came with Newton OS: Several programs were made by third-party developers, including software to enhance the disappointing hand writing recognition technology of Newton OS 1.x. It was not until two years later that developers saw a potential market available to them in creating software for Newton OS. ![]() Shortly after the Newton PDA's release in 1993, developers were not paying much attention to the new Newton OS API and were still more interested in developing for the Macintosh and Windows platforms. Many features of the Newton are best appreciated in the context of the history of Pen computing. Menus - Similar to menus seen in Mac OS, but menu titles are instead presented at the bottom of the screen in small rectangles, making them similar to buttons with attached "pop-up" menus.Send documents - Documents can be sent to another Newton via Infrared technology or sent using the Internet by E-Mail, or faxed.Print documents - Documents on the Newton can be printed.File documents - Notes and Drawings can be categorized.Screen rotation - In Newton 2.0, the screen can be rotated to be used for drawing or word processing.Tabbed documents - Similar to tabbed browsing in today's browsers and Apple's At Ease interface, documents titles appear in a small tab at the top right hand of the screen.Icons - Similar to the Macintosh Desktop metaphor, Newton OS uses icons to open applications.Sound responsive - Clicking menus and icons makes a sound this feature was later introduced in Mac OS 8.An animation similar to this is found in Mac OS X, and parts of the Newton's handwriting recognition system have been implemented as Inkwell in Mac OS X. Newton OS features many interface elements that the Macintosh system software didn't have at the time, such as drawers and the "poof" animation. Many applications were pre-installed in the ROM of the Newton (making for quick start-up) to save on RAM and flash memory storage for user applications. It was written entirely in C++ and trimmed to be low power consuming and use the available memory efficiently. ![]() Newton OS is a discontinued operating system for the Apple Newton PDAs produced by Apple Computer, Inc.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |