iNewton

CNET has recently published an interesting comparison of Apple Newton and Samsung Q1 UMPC. Ten years gap between the two devices should potentially result in an absolutely killing victory of the Q1 Windows - based UMPC, but apart from flash and hype, Q1 has very little advantage in terms of day to day productivity. It is very interesting to see what components of a mobile device got the most technological lift. Definitely LCD displays are much better today than before. Apple Newton is a gray scale unit (who can remember gray scale laptops today?). Q1 UMPC shines with active matrix colors. But overall the comparison is very sad... Especially when you look at battery performance. Q1 runs for 2.5 hours, while the Newton scores 30 hours (on a pack of AAs).

You probably remember I predicted the UMPCs would not hit the hall of fame. There was a reason - I have a Newton at home :). It shares the shelf with other vintage machines. I do not use it for just a few reasons: lack of USB port (for charging and synchronizing), lack of WiFi/3G (for wireless connectivity) and lack of a modern Web Browser (the reason number one).

So here is my personal petition to Steve Jobs. Dear Mr Jobs. Please make me an Apple Newton 2007. Call it iNewton. Give it all the features of the old one, plus USB, WiFi and Bluetooth. Please put in a color display and a Web browser. Keep the 30 hours battery life. You can stuff it with some iPod goodies (music, video playback) but to be honest, this is not necessary. I would rather prefer the local versions of Google applications - Gmail, Calendar, Writely, Spreadsheet