[50] in bcs-newton
Re: Nihongo Newton?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Carl R. Manning)
Fri Mar 12 09:46:58 1993
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1993 09:46-0500
From: Carl R. Manning <CarlManning@ai.mit.edu>
To: bcs_jim@MIT.EDU
Cc: bcs-newton@world.std.com
In-Reply-To: <9303121324.AA05445@MIT.EDU>
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1993 08:39 EST
From: bcs_jim@mit.edu (Jim Rinaldo)
HI Carl
I thought the MacHandwriter stuff has been on the market for a year or
two; seem to remember reading about it way long ago. (People kept
talking about when Apple was going to have it for 'Mericans.
I assume since you're talking about MacWrtr II, the first one was not
Kanji.
Actually, MacHandwriter (the first) was announced around September 1991 in
Japan, distributed by Apple.
What is the character count/typeface size? I know Apple/Adobe put out
the Laserwriter Js and they could only hold two typefaces in ROM.
I ask this because any Newt version would have to have TrueType faces;
Apple would have to have a foundry design them; they would take up a bit
of space. How likely is that in the 1st gen device?
I don't know about this. One of Newton's competitors, the EO, has 8Mbytes of
ROM, so I don't know how much of a problem space is. (Of course, you'd like
the recognition software to be upgradeable as the technology improves. Anyone
heard about likely the RAM/persistent-store capacities of the Newton?)
(Speaking of competitors, I noted at Mobile World last week that Pensoft's
Perspective [in PenPoint on the EO] includes a feature called "the Associate"
which cross references what you write, giving you capabilities which start to
look similar to the Newton's "Lunch with Jane" scenario, at least the "which
Jane?" part.)
Apple may also leave it up to 3rd party types. They, according to
MacLeek, are supposed to announce more partners at the end of March.
Ok. I was assuming Apple might be taking the Japanese market more seriously,
since the Newton is being co-developed with Japanese companies, and their
recent Mac announcements were made in Japan (MacWorld Tokyo). But I suppose
the Japanese versions might be marketed by the Japanese companies.
Thanks,
CarlManning
