Info-Mac 3/Info_Mac_1994-01.iso/Newton/Information/Newton Gripe 'N' Bug 1.1 Part 2

Text File | 1993-12-30 | 19KB | 442 lines

Part 3: Gripes
==============

  Things that, while not necessarily bugs, can be annoying.


Hardware
--------

  It seems to be pretty easy to put a nice scratch on the top layer
  of the screen. All it takes is to pick up a little bit of sand or
  grit with the pen. There should be an easy way to replace the top
  layer of the screen (if not user-installable, it should be an easy
  job for a dealer).

  The plastic socket on the back of the Newton that allows it to attach
  to the carrying case is pretty flimsy on the early units. Apparently
  Apple is using a better one now. If you ever take your unit in for
  repair, you can ask for it to be replaced. (Information from Eric
  Shapiro).

  The little rubber feet on the bottom of the Newton are apparently
  rather easy to break off (Rainer Joswig, [e-mail]-
  hamburg.edu).

  I have heard a couple of reports from users who say that their
  screen dims slightly when the Newton is doing handwriting
  recognition. This seems to be normal, or at least to occur in
  quite a few units, so I wouldn't worry about it unless the
  problem is so severe that it really bothers you; in that case
  you may have a hardware problem (see Newton bugs, above).


Recognition
-----------

  Newton is fairly consistent about misinterpreting my uppercase "T"
  (and that of other users) as a hyphen followed by something else.

  Some users would like to see a little more tolerance for lines that
  almost connect, but don't quite (for example, if I draw an uppercase
  "N" in three strokes and they don't connect perfectly, Newton will
  almost certainly interpret the "N" as three different characters.

  David Myers ([e-mail]) thinks that it would be very useful
  to have a recognizer icon that would turn on and off "Words not in
  word lists" for times when you know the word you're going to write
  will be wildly misinterpreted if the Newton does dictionary lookup;
  this would be quicker than going through the Prefs screens.


Phone/Fax
---------

  I have heard that many people can't get their Newton to dial phones
  properly or fax numbers properly. Most of the difficulties seem to
  be user errors rather than Newton bugs (Newton is pretty smart, but
  it can't think for you). Here are some suggestions from Markus,
  26ssvo$[e-mail]:

  Make certain that your country field is set properly (Newton handles
  international dialing), as well as your area code (if you've set
  your country to Graceland to see the Newt startup screen, set it back
  to dial or fax).

  Make certain that your phone numbers entries in your phone book don't
  have ones or other special codes before the area code, since Newton
  tries to handle this by itself.

  Better quality phones tend to work better when dialing via Newton's
  speaker. Many phones, though, even expensive phones, don't seem to
  recognize the tones produced by the small Newton speaker.

  Krishnan Aghoramurthy and others report that they would like to be
  able to review outgoing faxes in the Out Box by looking at the number
  it is being sent to.


Notepad
-------

  Rainer Joswig ([e-mail]-hamburg) reported the following:
  write "This is a line of text." Select "line" and drag it out of
  the sentence, which closes up. The word "line" is now deselected;
  dragging a word around under other circumstances leaves it selected.

  Rainer again: After scrolling, the selection is unselected. This
  makes it impossible to select things that lie across scroll
  boundaries.

  Sometimes it is difficult to make the Newton recognize the
  horizontal line that starts a new note. (Also reported by:
  Stephen R. Fleming, [e-mail]). (Similarly, I've
  noticed that many times if I actually want to draw a wide
  horizontal line - not edge to edge, but filling most of the
  width of the screen, the Newton tends to think it is the
  "new note" gesture).

  I have heard a few complaints about the scrolling. If you have
  text or graphics near the top of a note or the bottom, it can be
  difficult to get to it in order to select it or edit it.

  Eric also reports, and I corroborate, several different problems
  related to separator bars, dividing up notes, and inserting new
  notes. This can be awkward, or produce unexpected results.
  Fortunately none of these quirks seem to result in lost data.

  I have heard a number of complaints on the difficulty of controlling
  vertical spacing and formatting in notes, and the difficulty in
  getting paragraphs started and concluded (Stephen R. Fleming and
  others).

  I have had trouble when drawing charts with text captions, like
  organizational charts. If I try to place two boxes containing text
  captions, separated by vertical space but in the same horizontal line,
  the formatter will "grab" them and put them next to each other as two
  words on a line, which isn't what I want.


Assistant
---------

  Krishnan Aghoramurthy ([e-mail]) pointed out that if you write
  an item like "Remember the Alamo" and have the assistant turn it into
  a to-do list item, it appears in an odd font (not Plain for Fancy).
  (Why?)


Cards
-----

  If you have been playing the handwriting game and remove the
  Getting Started card, your high score will be lost.

  Rainer Joswig ([e-mail]) reports, and
  I have verified: Put in the Getting Started card. Open the
  Names applet. Bring up the Unfiled Names (using the folder
  menu at the top of the card). Move to one of the Names items
  on the card (such as Apple Assurance). Now, search for any
  other name in your Names file on the Newton itself or on the
  card (such as "Canadian," for Canadian Service and Support).
  When the card is found, the Newton will say "This name card
  is on a write-protected card and cannot be changed," even if
  it isn't, and besides, you didn't try to change it, just view it.


Dates
-----

  Eric Shapiro ([e-mail]) complains that the
  view of an entire month should show day events like birthdays
  and anniversaries, and that some pop-up windows, such as the
  one that appears when entering detailed information about a
  calendar item, have recognizer fields that are too close to the
  top of the window, making it difficult to write in them.

  Michael Toy ([e-mail]) gripes that if he has
  entered a birthday on a name card, having to enter it again on
  the calendar is annoying.

  Ray Davis ([e-mail]) was unhappy that alarm messages went
  away after a few minutes if you weren't there to see them. [This
  should probably be configurable; I'd hate to have an alarm go off,
  wake up my Newton, and then have it stay on for the next 24 hours
  and use up the battery].

  Ray Davis also reports that, when printing a seven-
  day overview from the calendar, the font was too large, text was
  clipped, and the printout only covered from 7 am to 7 pm, which
  cut off some sheculed events. He reports that printing from the
  connection kit gave much better results. (system version 1.02,
  so some of this may have been fixed by 1.04).

  Charles Menser ([e-mail]) asks if there is any good
  way to move date items to and from a memory card.


Names
-----

  Mike McKee ([e-mail]) reports being irritated by the
  fact that when you make a new card, even if you have just set the
  card style to something else, you always get the card style with
  the zig-zag line across it. Being able to set a different default
  would be nice.


General Newton Interface
------------------------

  I find that the scroll-down button can be hard to accurately hit
  with the pen; it has a very small "sweet spot," and I often hit
  the overview button instead, which means the Newton then spends
  a minute or two creating an overview when I just wanted to scroll
  down. Maybe these could be enlarged on future units. I have been
  told that this can be improved by aligning the pen to account
  for the parallax (difference between the alignment necessary at
  the top of the screen vs. the bottom). (Contributed by Tim McNerney,
  [e-mail].

  Some users have trouble getting the "erase" gesture recognized.
  Stephen Fleming ([e-mail]) wishes for a way to use
  a different sized pen-tip to erase, as if the stylus had an
  eraser on the other end, as a more natural interface.

  The limited built-in dictionary can be very frustrating. For
  example, Newton as it comes out of the box does not know words
  like "adapter," "alarms," "alkaline," "cells," "compressed,"
  "copying," "enclosed," "ExpertPad," "folder," "glare," "incorrect,"
  "infrared," "insert," "liaison," "mailed," "marketed," "MessagePad,"
  "NewtonMail," "NewtonScript," (it does know PowerBook, however!),
  "obsolete," "outdated," "Overview," "PCMCIA," "recharge," "recognizer,"
  "reflective," "reset," "separator," "soups," "static," "tap,"
  "toolkit," "Unicode," and "upgrade." This limited dictionary is
  one of the reasons that Newton's handwriting recognition is getting
  a lot of criticism in the press; a reviewer isn't likely to take
  the time necessary to add all his or her commonly use words to
  the dictionary. I can buy a handheld spell-checker and thesaurus
  for under $50 with at least ten times the number of words the
  Newton knows. I realize that having a small dictionary saves
  valuable memory space and allows the recognizer to perform more
  accurately, but I hope this limitation can be overcome in the
  future, or the Newton will not  be a truly useful tool for writers.


Part 4: Wishes
==============

  These are things that I or other contributors would like to
  see in future releases of the Newton system software (or in
  future Newtons).


Hardware
--------

  Stephen Johns ([e-mail]) had an interesting suggestion:
  make the pen holder an on-off switch, so that the Newton goes on when
  you remove the pen and goes off when you put it back.

  Also from Stephen Johns: support many-to-one and one-to-many infrared
  beaming; allow Newton to learn how to act as a remote control.

  Bradley Holt, holt.cheme.washington.edu had a very simple but useful
  suggstion: the pen should have grips on the edges as well as on the
  flat sides, to make it easier to remove it from the pen holder.

  Stephen Fleming ([e-mail]) would like to see a beam
  interface to the Mac. [I think it would be cool too. Can you picture
  one built like those little infrared remote-control "boosters," in
  the shape of a translucent plastic pyramid? There should also be
  support for moving single notebook items, datebook entries, and
  name cards back and forth, instead of having to synchronize everything
  and pull it out of the Connection Kit application].


Printing
--------

  Stephen R. Fleming reports the need for better print options for
  calendar items, and for better control over type styles in the
  datebook and to-do lists, and for batch printing in order to waste
  less paper.


Recognition
-----------

  Many users would like to see optional multiple handwriting
  profiles. (This is probably more a memory limitation than a
  technical limitation).

  Recognition of certain gestures, such as the "insert line break"
  gesture, could be better.

  Some users wish for recognition of words written in Landscape mode
  (rotated 90 degrees from the current orientation).

  Several users would like to see the recognizer able to realize that
  its guesses aren't close, and to do character matching instead in
  this case.

  Some users are frustrated by the fact that you can't teach the
  Newton the way you make a letter, if it differs too much from the
  letter styles it already knows.


User Interface
--------------

  It would be nice if there was some equivalent to the Macintosh watch
  cursor to indicate when the Newton was busy. I know there isn't really
  a Newton "cursor" (just an insertion point when editing text), but
  the human-interface gurus ought to be able to come up with something.

  One thing I find annoying is that I have not yet heard of a way
  to move applications between the card and main memory, or to beam
  them. So far the only ways I know of to install applications is to
  download "package" files created with the developer's kit from a
  Mac, to use a card, or to download from a company that provides
  enhancement, using a modem (I haven't heard of any being available
  that way yet).

  Also from Stephen R. Fleming and T.X. Yuan: 14-point type would be
  useful. T.X. Yuan would like to see italic type available.

  It would be nice to have audio feedback for the Shift and Caps-Lock
  keys on the mini-keyboard, and when changing pen thickness (Stephen
  R. Fleming). [You get an audible click when you change point size;
  why not when changing pen thickness?]

  A "don't sleep when plugged in" option, like the PowerBook has,
  would be nice. I want the Newton to know that it should sleep
  when it is running on batteries but that it doesn't need to sleep
  when I'm using AC power, without having to change the sleep settings.

  David Myers ([e-mail]) would like to have a routing button
  to delete To-do list items (because they are difficult to scratch out),
  and to have an option to make to-do items repeating; the example he
  gave was having "Take out the trash" appear every time it was trash
  day.


Note Pad
--------

  Suppose I file a whole bunch of notes in a new folder and call it
  "Camping," then I go through all the items in that folder and move
  them to a memory card, then eject the card. The Newton then creates
  a new note with the current date and time and continues to show
  that folder. I don't like this behavior. I would prefer that that
  if I move the entire contents of a folder to a card, the folder
  itself go to. That way I can use the card for archival storage and
  treat an entire folder full of notes as a single entity, and not
  have to look at the empty folder on the Newton when I'm not using
  those notes.

  Password-protection of individual notes, instead of the whole
  system, would be very nice.

  There doesn't seem to be any good way to tell if you are at the
  top of the notepad paper roll, other than clicking the scroll
  up button and waiting to see if nothing happens, or clicking
  "overview" and looking to see if the first note at the top of the
  screen is the first note on the overview list (which doesn't work
  for graphic notes). Some sort of indicator would be nice.

  Rainer Joswig ([e-mail]) would like to see
  more than two clipboards (and so would I).

  Stephen Fleming ([e-mail]) would like to be able to
  sort the overview of All Notes by folder name.


Datebook
--------

  Several users report that they would like to see improved handling
  and display of anniversary items like birthdays.

  Several users requested that alarms not go away after going off, or
  repeat every five minute. Perhaps the way the alarms behave should
  be a user-configurable option.

  John Brewer ([e-mail]) would like to see alarms without
  corresponding appointments; David Myers ([e-mail]) would
  like to see alarms for To-do list items.

  Rainer Joswig ([e-mail]) says "since it
  is not possible to give them start and end times, it is not useful
  to display these options when editing Day Notes." He would also
  like to see the ability to enter appointments that last longer than
  one day.

  Stephen Fleming ([e-mail]) would like to be able to
  set the datebook to open by default to 7:00 a.m., since his days
  start then. He'd also like to see a way to block out events that
  span multiple days in the calendar. He also reports "I live in
  Nashville. My Newton thinks I live in Chicago. On a product that's
  supposed to be cute and cuddly, it sure seems silly not to have a
  way to fix that." [My Newton thinks I live in Detroit - ick!]

  Stephen Fleming again: the month and year at the top of the calendar
  should hilight separately, since they do different things [taking you
  to the year overview vs. the month overview... I was confused by this
  also]. "Yeah, it's in the manual," he says, "but who reads manuals?"
  Exactly.

  He also reports a wish to shrink the date screen to show more of a
  day at once (12 hours at a time, for people who work more than eight
  hours). [maybe a view like this, showing the whole day with items
  marked in smaller type, could be the default day overview?]


Names
-----

  Some users would find it useful in the Newton automatically created
  your own business card based on the information you enter in the
  "Personal" area. (suggested by Kevin Altis, [e-mail]).


Miscellany
----------

  Rainer Joswig suggests: it should be possible to route (fax, print,
  beam, etc.) items from the "find" listing - for example, to fax
  a group of names, without having to move them to a separate folder
  and fax the folder.

  Support for more folders, and the ability to scroll the list of
  folders, would be useful.

  Allowing items to belong to multiple folders (like aliases) would
  be useful. [Since data on the Newton, wherever possible, is stored
  as references to objects, this should not be difficult to implement].

  The ability to turn off all notifications and alarms would be nice,
  along with a list of all recent notifications (like the list of
  recent error messages). Rainer also suggests allowing a user to
  click in an alarm notification and jump right to the appropriate
  calendar entry.

  Stephen Fleming ([e-mail]) reports that it is hard
  to distinguish the dark grey used to indicate letter forms that are
  marked "rarely" in Letter Styles.

  Rainer again: there should be some way to visually identify if a
  window will move, or if it can be scrolled. [I would add that it
  would be nice to know in advance if the Overview button was
  supported; one way to do this might be to make the overview and
  arrow buttons transparent, and if they were enabled, the Newton
  could fill them in... is there actual usable screen real estate
  under the row of buttons at the bottom, or does the digitizing
  pad extend farther down than the screen does?]

...