Anybody ever own an Apple Newton?

[thewayne]

I've got a line on one on Ebay, seems to me like it would make a good ebook reader. I don't need the capability to buy new books that the Kindle provides, and I don't like the price of the Kindle or the Sony, sweet machines as they are. So my intent is to download books from Guttenberg for free, I don't really have another purpose for it.

Just wondering if anyone had any experience with it. I look forward to it, I think it'll be fun.

Comments

[fastlearner.livejournal.com]

My best buddy (at the time) had a Newton. It was pretty sweet, but really, only pretty sweet for the time. The screen was nothing to write home about.

If I wanted a cheap ebook reader today, I'd look into getting an older (like > 5 years but < 8 years) HP iPaq. They had those great screens that were both reflective and transmissive, so you could see it clearly outdoors or in.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Good point. I'm not familiar with models, but that wouldn't be difficult to research.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Ah, just thought of some potential disqualifiers. Outdoors isn't much of an issue, battery life is. I'm not looking for a pocket device, but something for reading in bed and on long flights.

The iPaqs that I recall from 8-9 years ago were not very good on battery life, maybe 3 hours or so tops from a charge cycle. The Newton 2100 is good for 30 hours off a set of AAs.