New PDAs

Ummm...why did you start this thread? :rolleyes:

And to top it all off, he starts the thread with a half-assed 2 sentence introduction. People these days! :D ;)

[quote]Originally Posted By Fran411:
Apple had a PDA ready to go a few years ago and decided not to release it. Shortly afterwards, they started to deny that they would ever release one again.

We just have to wait and see what happens.<hr></blockquote>

Are you talking about that silly picture that was on Spymac in Dec 2001? Apple probably had it in the development stages, but if they had it ready to go I don't think that a company would axe a product or would they? They did it with the famous Copland project, but Copland was not really ready to go.

Didn't Jobs try to buy Palm around 97 or 98?

[ 03-14-2003: Message edited by: Mac OS X Addict ]</p>

Actually I do not rememeber a hole. 2001 was a long time ago :)

i believe it was the hole left when apple had the ibook, powerbook, imac, powermac, and then cube as the transition mac between imac and powermac. (basically, you had a 2 row by 3 column graphic on the screen at a keynote, and a simple apple logo filled the remaining spot -- i recall it now).

plus, i recall fran mentioning on several occassions being shown at least a little something that apple was at least protoyping at the time and showing to developers under NDA's. i am assuming you are still under that NDA, huh fran?

anyway, i guess by this statement that we can infer that apple has intended this "pda" to be the "cube" of the portables... whatever that means.

[ 03-14-2003: Message edited by: rok ]</p>

Thanks for the link Fran, I now know what hole you are talking about. Boy is my memory getting aweful. There was a lot of talk about that hole. :D

Or maybe Apple was preparing to go into the Apple business with the Apple being in the square and all :D

And of course the Apple branded Apples will be much more expensive than the non-Apples. Even if they have just take the Del Monte stickers off and replace them with the Apple Logo stickers :)

That's still not what I was talking about.

I was referring to the keynote that felt like something that was cut at the last minute. That's what was cut. I don't know why, but I do know that it was a PDA (and it was not the iPod).

[quote]Originally posted by Bioflavonoid:
<strong>
iWalk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</strong><hr></blockquote>

iRun, iScreaming all the way to Realityville.

Believe me, I'd love to see an Apple branded PDA. But with Steve's adamant "No" and the current economic climate I doubt we'll see one for some time.

Fran, your desire for a Newton replacement has you phantasying conspiracy from the shrinking ranks of the Newton faithful. Apple NEVER cut a Newton at the last minute, that much is very clear, any number of new model propositions must have fallen through over the last two very dissapointing years from Apple, especially with their extensive CPU woes. Any holes in many of their keynote let-downs go directly back to a total miscalculation about what buyers consider a fair price or significant innovation, or the dishearteninng knowledge that they just didn't have anything that even Steve might convince people they needed. I remember embarassing silence after cube prices and iMac patterns to name but two instances. If a Newton update was ever killed, it was mostly likely done immediately after Steve's return and was a mild bump, not some planned out Newton revival.

Apple might have considered branding a palm at one point, when they considered buying palm, but that's as far as it goes, they weren't going to release an Apple branded palm unless they owned the brand.

Newton is dead and never threatened to return, especially inthe timeline you describe.

Matsu- I never said that the Newton was coming back.

But I can assure you that Apple had a handheld device ready to be introduced at Macworld, and it was cut from the show.

Maybe we could talk about it privately in an AIM chatroom or something...

[quote]Originally posted by Aries 1B:
<strong>

Fran:

I think that I recall that your posts had some
element of 'knowing something', but not being able to say anything about it.

Are you still under NDA? Can you say anything about this PDA?
Re-branded Palm?
Ressurected Newton?
Reduced OS X?
Respond when you can.

Respectfully,

Aries 1B</strong><hr></blockquote>

Yea, common spill the beans! I get sooooo excited when I hear a thread like this.

[ 03-16-2003: Message edited by: Mac_Man ]</p>

Bulky? Nah, sounds just about right for a small tablet (rather than PDA-sized).

[quote]Originally posted by Kesh:
<strong>Bulky? Nah, sounds just about right for a small tablet (rather than PDA-sized).</strong><hr></blockquote>

That would be ~6 inch screen... A bit small, yes/no?

But if the price is good, then of course, this might be a killer...

I never liked the idea of a 12" tablet.. To bulky for notes! :)

Nice to see that Fran has conveniently avoided replying to this thread any more. :)

As a few of the Digital Hubbers may recollect, I broke down and bought a Palm M505 at Christmas.

It's alright, but only when you stop thinking about how great the experience should be.

No hard drive or Firewire, no recording or dictation to text abilities, even the syncing is a kludge between needing BOTH iSync and Palm Desktop.

I now wonder not why Apple isn't doing it, but to question why NO-ONE is doing it.

Think about that for a minute. Apple-devotees have been calling for a new PDA since the Newton 2100, oh so many years ago. Unlike areas like iTunes and iPhoto, Apple has specifically and openly disavowed any interest in the segment.

Why haven't any of the Mac-centric companies picked up the torch and run with it? A small LCD attached to a hard drive and firewire port, along with compatible productivity software is within the realm of many of the companies that advertise their wares in the back pages of Macworld.

Does anyone know why no-one dares take on Palm? Or maybe everyone agrees with Jobs that this is a segment destined to be owned by the Cell Phone makers. However in my fifteen years with the Mac, I've seen venture capitalists back some really hare-brained products, and it just seems strange that with a market like this up for grabs, no-one is answering the call.

It would seem like a lot of trouble to have a PDA ready to go - and to cancel it at the last minute.

I mean, unless they were gonna post-ship it a couple months later - they would have to already have signed a contract for production, etc.

If something was THAT close to being released and shipped, we DEFINITELY would have heard something or seens something.
SOMETHING would have leaked.

I won't question that it was something that was being explored - but there's no way they would have gotten that far only to cancel it at the last moment.

[quote]Originally posted by Fran441:
<strong>I know I'm loved when I can't even celebrate my birthday without being missed. :p </strong><hr></blockquote>

Happy belated birthday Fran :)

... now spill the beans!! :D