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The Apple PDA At Last (11/15/00)
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Heads up, everyone; it's been over two months since our last mention of the long-rumored and exquisitely vaporous Apple PDA, so we figure we're due for an update. When we saw an article at Go2Mac titled "Apple PDA Rumors Persist," our hearts soared with joy-- not because we still entertain any real hopes that Apple will ever make good on its promise to replace the ill-fated Newton with a Mac OS-based handheld (even we aren't that irrationally optimistic), but rather because we love a good rumor with legs. The Apple PDA one ranks right up there on the longevity scale with the Disney-Apple buyout and the Mac OS on Intel.
Unfortunately, the Go2Mac story's title is a bit of a misnomer. Rather than contributing more fuel for the fire, the author simply notes that people still whisper about an Apple-branded PDA, and then goes on to state that the odds of such a device appearing any time in the foreseeable future are slim to none. Other than including a nifty blurred photo of something that could be an Apple handheld (but isn't), it's more of a debunking than a jolly ride down the speculation superhighway. Well, we're here to remedy that situation. Yes, Christmas comes early this year; we, the AtAT staff, are going to give you all the single biggest reason why an Apple PDA is just around the corner: we stopped waiting for one.
See, while Katie (AtAT's resident fact-checker and Goddess of Minutiae) has been happily using a Palm V for almost a year now, Yours Truly got bitten by the Newton bug many years ago and was infected with a predisposition toward intuitive notepad-like operation and real handwriting recognition. As such, I've been holding off on a Palm purchase in hopes that Apple would finally release a co-branded Palm device with the Newton's excellent handwriting input method grafted on. However, I finally decided to bite the Graffiti bullet and recently ordered a Handspring Visor Prism, which ought to arrive any day now. Which means, of course, that as soon as the return period lapses and I'm stuck with the Prism, Apple's going to release a kick-butt handheld that's everything I dreamed for and more. So get ready, because if anything can make Apple release a new handheld, this will.
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SceneLink (2681)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 11/15/00 episode: November 15, 2000: Apple denies that it runs a server called "littlebuddy.apple.com"-- so why is Mac OS 9 sending information to that supposedly nonexistent entity? Meanwhile, some Power Mac G4s are suffering from power switch burnout, and AtAT reveals the one thing that might finally prompt Apple to ship its long-rumored handheld unit...
Other scenes from that episode: 2679: "Skipper!" "Little Buddy!" (11/15/00) Rule number one of successful television production: give the rabble what it wants. We've received a staggering volume of mail from viewers demanding that the "Little Buddy" mystery be added to the AtAT script, many of whom have already concluded that our failure to pounce upon such suitable soap fodder so far is damning proof of our own involvement in the cover-up... 2680: Power Switch Glitch Hitch (11/15/00) Hey, remember the hubbub over how Apple chose to omit the power key from its new Pro Keyboard? How much do you want to bet that whoever made that decision is having second thoughts about that move? Because a keyboard-mounted power key would be awfully handy in the unlikely event that, say, the power buttons on a slew of Power Mac G4 systems started to fail.....
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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