One reason why I am asked to testify and play expert witness a lot lately is because I have a deep memory and deep shed, of all things that were long forgotten from an era that should have been known as the era of smartphones and tablets done right.  We are still behind in some ways  - I know thats hard for people who see there iPhones become obsolete within a year…

Anyway, guess what year this was made?  (ha ha, its right in front of you).   So, when I read comments from those that Samsung ripped off the tablet idea based solely on the success of the iPad, I crack up.  Not even close.

One the many tablets I worked on

http://margaretroseweimer.wordpress.com/

Billy – YouTube.

It’s cool all the old USENET stuff is available and searchable via Google Groups.  For you non-techies and young ones, these discussion newsgroups WAS the social internet ,  well before the Web ( as we know it) was announced (on a newsgroup, BTW).  This was the pre 1995 era, and yes, I was connected to the Internet (using AT&T Easylink) via a wireless connection, using a tablet.

Walking Office (long) – comp.sys.pen | Google Groups.

Below is the text of the post along some of the replies…

Clayton Weimer     Sep 1 1993, 10:53 am

I AM A WALKING OFFICE
I’ve finally transferred my life onto the EO and now I’m a walking office.

Not just a mobile office that can be used from place to place, but while
going from place to place, you know “anytime, anywhere”.

Yes, I have been living the dream, doing “D”s on Highway 101 (dialing
up people by writing a “D” over their name in an address or
appointment book);  sending and receiving faxes on the beach ( I
actually write this as the surf brushes my feet and the sea breeze
whips my hair); doing real work applying ideas to technical diagrams
conveniently as soon as I think of them (which I did this morning after
a cup of coffee, the EO is the ultimate napkin).

WHAT DO YOU LOSE WHEN YOU STAND UP?  YOUR LAP-TOP

Computers are supposed to be adjuncts to the all important personal
computer we use 24 hours a day, our brains.  But brains are
connected to heads, which are connected to necks (you know the
song), which eventually are connected to legs which are always being
ordered around by the brain to take it to various places.  Tools for the
brain should go where the brain goes, not vice a versa.  Why should I
have to go to a desk to use a computer? Why can’t I use one
wherever I may have a thought?  For me, my great thoughts are born
while I’m getting out of the shower and drying off, while driving to work,
or while suntanning beside a body of water with bikinis surrounding
me.  My EO is the brain tool I’ve been waiting for, replacing and
combining a lot of devices and tools I use in my everyday activities
from time to time, and place to place.  It is a sum of parts that make a
simple, yet powerful whole.

I’ve had many needs for my desktop and laptop computers: e-mail,
presentations, letters, reports, drawing diagrams games, personal
database, on-line bulletin boards, and programming.  All but the latter
is conveniently available, and therefore more useful on my EO.
Beyond that, the human to computer interface of the EO is much more
powerful, fun, and easier to learn than traditional computers once you
get the hang of it (unless you’re a traditional computer user, but that’s
okay, these are “computers for the rest of the rest of us”).

So what about the things I never could do on a laptop or desktop
computer before?

AS CLOSE TO A SECRETARY MY WIFE WILL LET ME GET

For keeping track of appointments and contacts, the laptop was never
a personal enough “Personal Computer” for my personal organization
needs.  Never there when I needed it during meetings, or while
running into someone in the hall, or in the car to beep me and let me
know I had an appointment in one hour, or while I’m on a phone away
from my office, my stationary office that is.

Now I am a walking office.  My good ‘ole Day Runner organizer is no
longer with me, superseded by the EO (anybody for a personal
organizer and address book burning party?).

THE HOOK IS ON THE PHONE

Of course,  often  I need the assistance and advice of the one true, all-
knowing personal organizer of my life, my wife.  With the EO, she’s
just a few taps away.

Much talk has been made about the need for a “killer application” in
pen computing, that is, the hook that will bring in masses of
consumers to use these devices.  How about “killer integration”?; a
term coined by my colleague Steve Cox at AT&T to describe this
phenomena of melding communications, information services, and
computing technology into a single solution.

I’ve never been a cellular phone user before, but now its hard to
imagine living without it (kind of like the VCR).  I’ve often joked that
now I’m even more of a menace on the freeway than ever with my EO,
taking  a couple lanes here and there to “call Bob”.  But actually one
could argue that I am a safer driver because when reality hits me that I
am going to be late for an appointment, instead of driving like a
maniac to get there on time I simply call ahead and let those who
would be waiting  for me know I’ll be late, and calmly continue driving
(and reading the latest mail on my EO, which only requires a lane and
a half at the most) .

ADDS TO THE LIST OF FUN THINGS YOU CAN DO ON YOUR
BACK

Two years ago I bought a mini computer chess game, which turned
out to be a sleeping aid, for about forty bucks. Now I have a much
more powerful chess on my EO, which I play on my  chest, playing the
role of the sandman.

Much of this article is being written while lying on a lawn chair on a
beach house terrace during my summer vacation

Behind me a couple, laughing and drinking, just sat down and pretty
much ruined the ambiance of the occasion.  I heard the woman
whisper to her husband, “What’s that he’s writing on?”, and he
whispered back (actually it was quite loud, inebriated people don’t
really whisper), “Its a computer.” in that condescending tone guys like
to use on woman when they think they know something.  She
answered back “No, its not.”, in that other familiar tone woman use to
cut men down.  Well, instead of helping out on the little debate I
decided I was just too comfortable to turn around, and decided to play
a little chess.

AS GOOD AS THE PAPER ITS NOT WRITTEN ON

Wow, I can even get rid of those two dollar pads of paper and pen for
when I take notes at meetings and such (I always filed and lost them
anyway).

It works just like pen on paper, just go to a page, write on it, then turn
away from it, turn back to it, and its just like you left it.  But it goes
beyond that. You can treat ink as objects that can be copied, moved,
scaled, aligned, linked with other information on your EO, searched,
deleted, and of course, translated into typewritten text.  Yes, you can
do all kinds of “ooh wow” stuff like getting circles and squares to be
beautied up as you draw too.

Everyday I discover something new I can do with the EO which makes
it easier and easier to use.  The text processing facility on the EO
allows for automation of copy-editing notations (based on standards of
the professionals).  Just five seconds ago I learned that a right-up
gesture over a word will capitalize the  word (right-down uncapitalizes
it, then again if I used the ‘?’ gesture I would have known all this and
more).

Little things everyday, but sometimes you learn something that just
blows your mind and realize this just might be greater than “sliced
bread”.

For example a “mini revolution” for me was figuring out how to fit a
cursive  handwriting recognition component into my way of doing
things on the EO. I’ve finally got it all working to where I can
simultaneously write and translate to text productively without it being
too much of a hindrance to my thinking.

With the EO I can compose where no man has composed on a
computer before.

But wait, like the lady said, this is not a computer,  this is a Personal
Communicator!

NO MAN (WITH AN EO) IS AN ISLAND

All the different kinds of information and ways of manipulating it on the
EO that I have just described are wonderful, but it would be a lot more
powerful if that information could infiltrate the rest of the world and vice
a versa.  Again, the key is the “killer integration” concept.

All information created and modified on the EO is sendable.   That is, I
can fax, electronically mail, move or copy any information I desire to
some other place.  That other place can be a printer, fax machine,
computer or some information network or mail box in the sky.  I have
the ability to do this anytime, whether wired to a phone line, or
wirelessly on my cellular.

Anytime includes now when information is at its most usefulness.  For
example, a colleague of mine just recently was attending a very crucial
status meeting at another company.  It was critical that he relay their
project schedules as soon as possible to our main office so we could
promptly update our customers in another meeting that was to occur
shortly thereafter.  In real time, as he got the updates he wirelessly
faxed the information back to us during the meeting with his EO.

Anytime also means, when it is convenient.  For example, I can decide
to put the information I want to send into a waiting queue as I’m
working, and then later send everything off at one time when I’m at
home (I don’t always want to send via cellular, though the rates are as
cheap as they have ever been, they still are a bit more expensive than
the wired option).

Of course, the information in the rest of the world would be nice to
easily access so I could do all kinds of wonderful things with it on my
EO.  In fact, this is the hidden gold of the whole Personal
Communicator concept.  To be able to access information “Anytime,
Anywhere” from anywhere is an idea that has no bounds.  I am
experiencing the tip of this wondrous iceberg right now with my EO
just by receiving e-mail from individuals and subscribed information
sources.  A mailman and newspaper boy all in one.

This is just the beginning, only after a little less than two months of
use. What will I be able to do tomorrow?  I and my great
communicator will be letting you know…

Written (not typed) on an EO

–
– Clay
These views are my own, and when they change my
observers will be notified.
Obvion
c…@netcom.com

J. Eric Townsend  Sep 1 1993, 5:15 pm   More options  Regardless of how cool I think your ‘puter is/isn’t. “cew” == Clayton Weimer <c…@netcom.com> writes: cew> I AM A WALKING OFFICE [...] cew> Yes, I have been living the dream, doing “D”s on Highway 101 cew> (dialing up people by writing a “D” over their name in an address You’re not just a ‘walking office‘, you’re a moving road hazard endangering the lives of hundreds of other motorists by irresponsibly playing with a pen based system while operating a motor vehicle. (Cell phone usage is also dangerous, check out the number of countries making using a cell phone while operating a motor vehicle illegal.) This is not just a matter of rudeness/courtesy.  It’s a matter of endangering the lives of others because you’re too busy/careless to pull off the road before operating a device that demands a large amount of your attention. Personally, I don’t want to be injured or killed because of your stupidity. I still think EO’s are way cool. – J. Eric Townsend j…@nas.nasa.gov 415.604.4311| personal email goes to: CM-5 Administrator, Parallel Systems Support  |   j…@well.sf.ca.us NASA Ames Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation    |————————— PGP2.2 public key available upon request or finger j…@simeon.nas.nasa.gov

Michael Cerda Sep 1 1993, 6:37 pm   More options >cew> Yes, I have been living the dream, doing “D”s on Highway 101 >cew> (dialing up people by writing a “D” over their name in an address >You’re not just a ‘walking office‘, you’re a moving road hazard >endangering the lives of hundreds of other motorists by irresponsibly >playing with a pen based system while operating a motor vehicle. The EO is a big improvement for me. It was really hard to drive with a laptop and mouse. I’m glad that’s over! -Zoom Zoom Mike – Michael Cerda (Sir Da) —   UNIX/VMS Support Group Computation Center (COM 1)  Internet: ce…@bongo.cc.utexas.edu Univ. of Texas at Austin    UUCP: {uunet,harvard}!cs.utexas.edu!cerda Austin, TX  78712-1110      VOICE: (512) 471-3241       FAX: (512) 471-1582

Nigel Ballard Sep 7 1993, 5:10 am  View profile    More options  Evening Clayton If they are your own thoughts, and you are not just repaying a favour to AT&T, and you REALLY wrote the article on the EO….then well done that man.  Great article, a most interesting read, and we are all green with envy!<G>. Cheers Nigel *********************************************************************** * Nigel Ballard | INT: ni…@dataman.demon.co.uk |  I’M PINK          * *  Bournemouth  | CIS: 100015,2644   Radio-G1HOI |      THEREFORE     * *     U.K.      | AOL: Pelham123     Label-4AD   |          I’M SPAM  * ***********************************************************************

Someone on the GO/EO Alumni group I am on asked:

“Does EO-440/PenPoint (1992) = Apple iPad (2010)?”

Here’s the best answer…

—–

Absolutely.

I could go on and on why the GO/EO machines (eventually known as the Personal Communicator) didn’t make it back then – now that I know what really happened along with having been forced to recreate and dig up the past in the last few years. Those pages of history will be put into their place in proper time.

As for comparisons, let’s see…both are built on 20 year old message-based operating systems ala Smalltalk, implemented in C…using a gesture user model and application framework built from the ground up for mobility and communications. Both bury the concept of files and the application life cycle beneath a non-desktop metaphor.

The iPad is solid state, instant on as originally envisioned by GO. It has integrated wireless, its a phone (I just made several calls on it yesterday via Skype – putting a phone to your ear is not the future, or should I say the EO is back to the future).

Both are built with the mouse and keyboard out of mind. The finger is a stylus. The iPad has handwriting recognition capability, it has ink capability, there is a chinese handwriting recognition, and besides a myriad of drawing apps (there is a pen stylus for them as well) the old ParaGraph guys (now phatware) have apps that show handwriting recognition and ink can be an awesome experience on the iPad (that is about as close to having anything to do with a Newton – which is a laughable comparison IMHO).

Both have integrated address book, calendar and email…and apps that could be purchased for just about every category of use (here’s another ironic history tidbit: the original technology that became Flash – which of course Apple abhors for many good reasons – was developed on PenPoint and shipped for the EO).

Yes, you can even appease a fat cat from a gondola with it (though Apple’s marketing is slightly better doncha think?)

http://www.wanderbook.com/blog/iphone/2010/03/08/youve-been-here-before-alice-dont-you-remember/

Putting aside advances in hardware, the iPad in many ways is inferior to what the GO/EO machines would have been. For one, I think the phone metaphor has its limits, but at least its not the old WIMP interface stuck on a digitizer like the ridiculous tablets from MS.

The iPad (like the iPhone) is disruptive technology , as the GO machines should have been, maybe hard to see for techies, but when a 7 year old, and a 70 year old fight over using it as I saw yesterday, its easy to see where this stuff is going, and where it should have been years ago.

I just saw Alice in Wonderland, in 3-d Imax and all its glory.  I liked it a lot.   I was grateful it was not the same old story.  My daughter liked it, my wife liked it, my 18 and 20 year old sons thought it stunk.   In fact they both laughed at us and couldn’t believe we thought it was good at all.

I wondered, if when I was their age, would I have had the same review?…Has there been some kind of testosterone shift in me now that makes me a wimpy lover of girlie fantasies.  Hmmm. I do remember thinking along with many others that Lewis Carroll was on drugs back then, my tastes used to tend towards the less surreal side of fantasy, more towards sci-fi from the likes of Isaac Asimov.

But taste changes..which is a good thing because as you get older you realize “history does repeat itself – only in different ways” as someone once said to me.  I now understand what that means.

Almost twenty years ago today, the iPad came out – not the iPad, they called it something else back then Alice. Not “Tablet”.  What was it?  ”Pen Computer“, no can’t use the acronym…”PC” already taken.  Nomadic device?, yuck.  Handheld?  Boring.  Palmtop? Ugh.  PDA that’s it! no…that’s what “they” called it.  Aha! It was called the “Personal Communicator”!   Yep, PC for short…(ooops, hey I wasn’t asked to make these marketing decisions).

Anyway, we did have “Smart Phones” on the drawing board, but that was supposed to come after out iPad, er uh, I mean Personal Communicator.   We had it all bassackwards…

But we have been here before, its just twenty years later.

I just digged up this Ad for the EO Personal Communicator (the first one) and I remembered HATING IT when I first saw it.  I like it A LOT now…I think it captured everything we were trying to do at the Hobbit group in AT&T (yes, it was called informally the Hobbit group)…I guess I have changed.

How To Appease a Fat Cat in Gondola

Do the pundits go from a YADA template?  Are they really set deep in retardation, or do they just write for the opposite effect?

I can’t pick from all the brainless articles that have been going around since the iPad announcement  (that I will humbly remind you that I discussed in August 2009).  Which one to tackle? Hmmm, easy pickings, here’s one… from Yet Another Dumb Ass (YADA).  And then you  YOU HAVE TO see the original article linked to at the end…ya just have to.  Now to be honest, I changed a few words (in underline bold italics ) , just so to underline-embolden and italicize the points made here.

Apple iPad Will Fail in a Late, Defensive Move: Matthew Lynn

Commentary by Matthew Lynn

Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) — Few products have been launched with such a blizzard of publicity as Apple Inc.‘s iPad.

To its many fans, Apple is more of a religious cult than a company. An iToaster that downloads video and books while toasting bread would probably get the same kind of worldwide attention.

Don’t let that fool you into thinking that it matters. The big competitors in the mobile industry won’t be whispering nervously into their clamshells over a new threat to their business.

The iPad is nothing more than a luxury bauble that will appeal to a few gadget freaks. In terms of its impact on the industry, the iPad is less relevant.

If column inches and airtime guaranteed commercial success, Apple would already have a global hit on its hands. For the past week, it has been impossible to open a newspaper or look at a Web site without reading something about the shiny new tablet.

Certainly, it loors like a nice piece of equipment. The iPad combines Apple’s iPhone and an eBook with a browser as well as having wireless Internet access for full e-mail. Instead of lugging around a netbook or laptop.  Even better, its battery life lasts all day.

It will be released in the U.S. in June, with a rollout to the rest of the world later, and will cost $499 to $599, depending on how much storage space you want. How many might they sell? Millions, according to Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs.

Three Reasons

Not everyone is sold on the idea.

“The iPad will not substantially alter the fundamental structure and challenges of the mobile industry,” Charles Golvin, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc., said in a report this month.

There are three reasons that Apple is unlikely to make much of an impact on this market — and why it is too early to start dumping  netbooks, ebooks and tablets competitors shares.

First, Apple is late to this party. The company didn’t invent the personal computer or MP3 player, but it was among the pioneers of both products. Yet there is no shortage of netbooks, ebooks and tablets out there. There are already big companies that dominate the space, all of whom will defend their turf. That means Apple will have to fight hard for every sale.

Next, the mobile  industry depends on cooperation with the other big companies [...].  Apple has never been good at working with other companies. If it knew how to do that, it would be Microsoft Corp.

Lastly, the iPad is a defensive product. It is mainly designed to protect the iPhone, which is coming under attack from mobile manufacturers adding smart phone capabilities to their products. Yet defensive products don’t usually work — consumers are interested in new things, not reheated versions of old things. Likewise, who is it pitched at? The price and the e-mail features make it look like a business product. But Apple is a consumer company. Will your accounts department stump up for a fancy new handset just so you can watch Avatar on your way to a business meeting?

Fresh Competition

In many ways, that is a shame. The mobile industry is becoming a cozy cartel and a limited range of manufacturers. It could certainly use a fresh blast of competition from an industry outsider.

It may come — but probably from an entrepreneurial start-up somewhere.

It won’t come from the iPad. Apple will sell a few to its fans, but the iPad won’t make a long-term mark on the industry.

(Matthew Lynn is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)

And now, here’s the original, enjoy as you read this and all the other YADAs that are a little more current.

Apple Will Fail in a Late, Defensive Move: Matthew Lynn – Bloomberg.com.

Sometimes I will do a Google on “Apple” and click on news…just to see, well, just to see what’s new.

I do believe in the adage “no news is good news”, so when there is no news and all we get is made up news, well it is kind of funny. You know, like those mags you see in the grocery line, kind of takes away from the boredom as the old lady in front of you argues with the clerk about the price of a can of beans.

When googling though, I am looking for real news, so  it is irritating. Like today, the BIG STORY is the rumor that the rumored iPod with a rumored camera may have a technical glitch! Wow!  I just did a Shift-Command-4 (on the mac) to snapshot the results of this historic hour:

Now yesterday, it was different “news”  about different speculations.  Yeah, news about speculations, which is not much different than news about rumors of rumors, but close.   The speculation is regurgitated, cyclic, but these days the blogosphere’s roller coaster had sped to warp speed.  I suspect they are getting paid for this.  But for crying out loud, Beatles and Tablet’s again?  That was the search result topper yesterday.  I didn’t snapshot it.  I think I will do that for now on (Shift-Command-4 is becoming second nature to me anyway).   But take my word for it yesterday, August 7, 2009, the top Apple news story on google was:

Apple telegraphs iPods; fans see Beatles, tablets via The Associated Press: Apple telegraphs iPods; fans see Beatles, tablets.

I actually read the story, then felt stupid.  Even I can get suckered into clicking on certain things.  I am a humongous Beatle fan, big time Tablet  guy for almost 20 years, Apple is my focus these days…I fell for it.  Its really a drag when you read so called “news” and there is nothing new, and it actually is irritating because there is a lot wrong and you almost want to waste your time in the comments section correcting the wrongness.  But I didn’t this time, I’d rather blog about it ;-)

So what was wrong with the article?   Well, on the Beatles, it was the same o same o rumor that the Beatle recordings will be sold on iTunes finally.  Yeah, yeah, yeah, but this time for sure!  Uh, but then the article says only if Paul and Ringo agree to it.  I swear my 8 year old neighbor’s kid could make up better stories than this (btw, Paul and Ringo are all for this, but they don’t have the final say on any of this, the record company does of course…now why does the Sex Pistol’s “EMI” come to mind?).

Anyway, you’ll notice that “Apple Tablet” thingy is still hot too (even along with this iPod glitch tragedy) .  Nothing new.

It’s ain’t going to be a tablet

Then again, Apple could release and market a “Tablet”…which would be a major mistake, and I could be one of those negative pundits.

Why an Apple “iPad” makes sense.

So, yesterday while falling for that I also notice one article on one subject.  Apple Insider published

Technical issues could delay iPod camera upgrade

and of course I fell for that too.  I mean it actually looked like news.  Errr…nope…just a bunch a speculation based on some “reliable source” that there is a camera glitch, bla bla bla.  Yeah, technical product, with technical glitch.  Uh uh.  Now of course, the implication is that this “glitch” is mega news!  The End Of The World news, at least for Apple.  It “could”, “might” RUIN Apple’s big event tomorrow.  It “could, might, maybe”, send Steve Jobs back to the hospital, oh the drama.

I blew it off yesterday, I mean it is silly, it doesn’t make sense.  Yeah, a glitch does, but the end-of-the-world implications is nutso.  Yet…next day, today, there are 218 articles that confirm (cough cough) this.  Regurgitated from the original Apple Insider post which simply used a “reliable source” that basically says not much.  Wow.   Its like astrologists, you know, they may get your horoscope wrong 300 hundreds days of the year, but you remember the few times they were sorta close.   If they are wrong, and you point it out, they will use the semantics of language (like Nostradamus followers) as a defense

…let’s follow this one, be back tomorrow.