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Subject:Re: PC World RTFM From:jsokohl -at- mac -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 11 Dec 2003 07:49:44 -0700
Re: :That's exactly what the inventer of the Palm (originally Pilot, then
Palm
Pilot, until the lawyers at Pilot Pen got their panties in a bunch) did:
he
carved out blocks of wood and carried them around with him, in his pocket,
mimicking the actions he might do with a device that size. He actually
pretended to press buttons and write on a "screen" to see how different
sizes and shapes worked both in the pockets and in actual use.
This, instead of how most products are designed: by marketing and sales to
win the bullet-point competition."
Before this, the Newton dev team had designed one that would fit in the
pocket...but the project was killed. Also, apocryphal stories state that
John Scully had demanded that the MessagePad fit in a jacket pocket. So
the dev team snuck into his office, stole his suit jacket, and had the
pocket tailored to fit the width of the MessagePad!
Here's an interesting story about the history of the Newton:
www.unna.org/unna/apple/documentation/
misc/Why_did_Apple_kill_the_Newt.pdf
BTW, the documentation for the Newton is some of the best tech writing
I've ever come across. I still keep PDFs of the Developer's Guide,
Reference Guide, and Script Language Reference Guide for inspiration.
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