November/December 1995
Newton Software: First Look
Newton OS 2.0
Apple has delivered a compelling new version of Newton Intelligence.
When Apple introduced the Newton Operating System a little over two years
ago it was the subject of a great deal of criticism. The Newton was even
spoofed by Gary Trudeau's Doonsberry character for a week. Much of this
was probably due to the amount of pre-launch hype coming out of Apple. Everyone
wanted a hand held system and everyone wanted it to work. The desire for
such a system was so strong that no shipping product could possibly hope
to fulfill the expectations.
Apple seems to have learned a lesson from all of this and has kept a tight
lid on information about version 2.0 of the Newton Operating System (NOS),
code named "Dante". In this article, we provide an overview of
NOS 2.0. The unit reviewed was a MessagePad 120 running a candidate for
"Gold Master" release of the new operating system. This is significant
since it means that all of the MessagePad 120s can be upgraded via a chip
swap. MessagePad 110, 100 and original MessagePad owners do not appear to
have an upgrade path.
If you ask anyone who has used a Newton device extensively what their main
gripes are you will hear a variety of complaints. Most people complain about
the handwriting recognition system and how they can't get 100% recognition
(most don't understand the complexity of this problem). People are also
disappointed with the speed that the software runs. Loading a few hundred
names and filing them in different categories is sure to bring your Names
file to a crawl. People complain about how the applications don't seem well
integrated. With the exception of "Intelligent Assistance", the
Names and Dates applications don't really interact with one another as elegantly
as they should. Finally, some things that should be easy to do simply are
not. Creating a new note by drawing a line across the notepad is simple
in theory. In practice, one has about a 50/50 chance of getting a new note
as opposed to a picture of the line they just drew.
Handwriting Recognition
The new Newton Operating System uses two different engines for handwriting
recognition. The system for recognizing cursive text is much improved over
the old system. It is still dictionary based but seems to default to letter
by letter recognition if a certain confidence level using word based recognition
is not met. Also, the user no longer has to add each word to the dictionary
as they are encountered. The Newton now stores new words in a buffer. The
user can edit this buffer at a later time and add words to the dictionary.
The real breakthrough in handwriting recognition is in the recognizer for
printed text. This recognizer was developed internally at Apple and is truly
marvelous. Provided that the user prints each letter distinct from its neighbors
the recognizer works with amazing accuracy. The only trouble I encountered
was when I ran letters together such as the word "to" when I cross
the "t" in the same stroke as the "o" is written. This
recognizer does not rely on any dictionaries for recognition so that names
and technical terms can be recognized without any user training. This recognizer
is not "trained" so it should read your writing out of the box
as well as it ever will. Any improvements to recognition will be because
the user is adjusting his or her handwriting.
Previously, there was no indication of where a word would appear on the
Newton's screen when handwriting recognition was being used. This lead to
inconsistent data entry. With NOS 2.0, there is a caret shaped cursor that
shows where the next word will be inserted. One moves the caret with a single
tap and can then write anywhere on the screen confident that the word will
appear in the correct position. Tapping on the caret pops up a menu of difficult
to enter punctuation marks.
In previous versions of the Newton Operating System, one could recognize
text, shapes or record "digital ink". The recognizers for each
of these systems could be active at any time so that it was up to the operating
system to decide if you were drawing a circle or writing the letter "o".
Apple explained that user research indicated that few people need to record
multiple type of data at any one time so they made the choice of recognition
a single choice of 4 types: Text, Ink Text, Shapes or Sketches.
The new addition to the recognition family, Ink Text, is meant to be used
for deferred recognition. Using Ink Text, each word is recorded as it is
written and inserted in the position indicated by the caret. This is in
itself different from the current digital ink model but in addition, the
ink text is scaled to a point size and can have formatting such as bold,
italic and underline applied to it. Ink text can also be cut and pasted
within text or other ink text such that the words flow and re-wrap.
Finally, another handy addition to the recognition system is the ability
to program in "macros". One might write an abbreviation on the
screen and have it automatically expanded to some verbose text.
System-wide changes
At first glance the experienced Newton user will note that the default font
is new. Apple has created a friendlier sans serif font named "casual".
This font is still easy to edit on screen but has a softer and less utilitarian
feel to it than the "Fancy" and "simple" fonts that
were the only choices available to users under version 1.x.
Preference used to be accessible only through the "Prefs" icon
in the Extras drawer. Many preferences still reside there but now some are
readily accessible from the application that call on them. For example,
anywhere the recognition toggle is available, the user can pull up the preferences
for fine tuning handwriting recognition. The Notes, Names and Dates applications
each have their own preferences so that the user can specify where, on a
application by application basis, to store new items.
The Notepad
The Notepad sports a host of new user friendlier features and a means for
third party developers to provide added value by incorporating their own
programs into it. The default name for a note is still the date and time
that it was created. However, tapping on the notepad icon at the upper left
corner of each note now gives the user the opportunity to name this particular
note as well as see when it was created, how much memory it uses, and whether
it resides in internal memory or on a memory card. Tapping the overview
button displays the names of the notes in a much faster manner than under
1.x.
Moving a note is also much easier now. Under version 1.x, the user had to
move their pen up and down in the vicinity of the upper border of the note
in the hopes that the border would move. Usually, they just got a bunch
of up and down lines recorded on the notepad. Under NOS 2.0 tapping and
holding the pen on the upper border of a note results in an audible feedback
as well as the border becoming highlighted. Once highlighted, the user can
move a note up or down.
One can still create a new Notepad entry by drawing a horizontal line across
the screen. The Notepad status bar now sports a "New" button.
Tapping on this button allows the user to create a new Notepad entry. However,
one sees that there are two new types of entries available. The user can
now create a collapsible outline or a checklist with outline hierarchy in
the Notepad.
The addition of new types of entries in the Notepad demonstrates a new concept
known as "stationery". Through stationery, Apple gives third party
developers the opportunity to add their own data types into the built in
applications. Stationery is also available in the Names file where a developer
could add fields such as car type or favorite color to a person's file or
even an entire new class of objects to be inserted in the names file (the
built in choices are person, company or group). A developer might choose
to create a new type of entry called "Patient" which would essentially
be a person type entry with the addition of a variety of medical information.
Names
The nicest addition to the Names application is that there are no longer
a static number of fields available for each entry. A person can now have
many addresses, phone numbers or email addresses associated with their entry.
The Names application is also where the most dramatic speed improvements
can be seen. It used to be that if a user had several hundred names filed
into different categories they could grow impatient waiting for the overview
list of names to build. No longer is this the case, the application is definitely
snappier.
Dates
The Datebook now supports a variety of data entry types. These are: Meeting,
Weekly Meeting, Event, Multi-Day Event, Annual Event, or To Do Task. Each
of these types of events now has its own icon as well as it's own set of
data to be collected. Events that involve people now let the user select
one or more persons from a rolodex type listing of the Names application.
A variety of new calendar and time pickers make data entry simple without
relying on handwriting recognition. Tapping on the month in the calendar
now lets the user jump to any of the 12 adjacent months. The daily schedule
is now scrolled using up and down arrows onscreen. Using the hard icon scroll
arrows at the bottom of the MessagePad screen now scrolls the date. I found
this feature to be particularly annoying. If I want to jump to another date,
I'd just as soon tap on it on the calendar.
Extras Drawer
The Extras Drawer now supports filing and scrolling. It seemed like with
the original MessagePad, the designers never thought that a user would have
more then twenty applications. Under NOS 2.0, the user can create categories
of applications to file applications within. Two of the default categories
for filing are "Storage" and "Extensions". These now
allow the end user to see "autoparts" (programs without icons)
and "soups" (data files) that were not available to the casual
end user under version 1.x.
The Extras Drawer can display unfiled application or all applications and
can be scrolled up and down when the number of applications overflows the
screen. Users can also select to view only those icons that reside on internal
memory on a memory card. Application icons can be dragged and dropped to
re-order the Extras Drawer. Icons can be selected singly or many at once
for filing, deleting, changing stored location and, yes, beaming.
Another welcome addition to the Extras Drawer status bar is the "Rotate"
button. Tapping on this button rotates the view on the MessagePad clockwise
ninety degrees. Applications must support rotation to operate in landscape
setting. If an application does not support rotation the user will be given
the option of running the application in the 1.x orientation or aborting
the launch of the program.
Selecting "Memory Info" from the "info" button on the
Extras Drawers status bar now allows the user to select what built in application
to make the "Backdrop" application. Under 1.x the backdrop or
bottom layer was always the Notepad. Under NOS 2.0 one can make the Names,
Dates or Extras drawer the backdrop.
The Calls application
Gone is the Sharp icon from the Extras drawer. It has been replaced by a
"Calls" application which allows one to log phone calls and take
notes. The party called can be selected from the Names application or added
to the Names file from within the Calls application.
New hardware
With the introduction of NOS 2.0, Newton devices can now accept input via
a keyboard. The Newton keyboard is a bit longer and wider than the MessagePad
120. To use it the user simply puts the MessagePad to sleep, plugs the keyboard
into the serial port and turns the MessagePad back on. Text is inserted
as directed by the insertion caret.
A cornucopia of solutions
The launch of version 2.0 of the Newton Operating System should be a grand
event spanning many months. Aside from the new operating system and keyboard,
we should be seeing early third party applications that take advantage of
the new features of NOS 2.0. Developers will be getting tools like a Power
PC native version of Newton Toolkit and the Newton Toolkit for Windows.
Answering the demands of the masses, Apple is preparing to ship a standalone
BookMaker tool so that the end user can create Newton Books with graphics,
indexing and hyper-linking. A new backup utility will allow Newton devices
to mount a desktop hard drive and browse the directories for packages to
download.
Many people ask me why I ever stopped practicing medicine to develop Newton
solutions. With the introduction of version 2.0 of Newton Intelligence,
I hope the answer will be more clear. Medicine is an industry that cannot
survive without adopting bold new technologies. Apple has made it clear
that it is serious about its commitment to Newton and that the PDA market
is more than a passing fancy. I never had a doubt.
Vernon Huang, M.D. is a principal in Tactile Systems, Inc. He consults
on the uses of PDA's in medicine and lives in the Seattle area. Dr. Huang
can be reached at vernon@tactile.com.
Pen Computing Issue #7