The MessagePad is a series of personal digital assistant devices developed by Apple Computer for the Newton platform, first released in 1993. Some electronic engineering and the manufacture of Apple's MessagePad devices was undertaken in Japan by Sharp. The devices are based on the ARM 610 RISC processor, run Newton OS, and all feature handwriting recognition software. Alongside the MessagePad series, Apple also developed and released the eMate 300 Newton device.
A personal digital assistant (PDA) is a multi-purpose mobile device which functions as a personal information manager. Following a boom in the 1990s and 2000s, PDA's were mostly displaced by the widespread adoption of more highly capable smartphones, in particular those based on iOS and Android in the late 2000's, and thus saw a rapid decline.
Palm OS is a discontinued mobile operating system initially developed by Palm, Inc., for personal digital assistants (PDAs) in 1996. Palm OS was designed for ease of use with a touchscreen-based graphical user interface. It was provided with a suite of basic applications for personal information management. Later versions of the OS were extended to support smartphones. The software appeared on the company's line of Palm devices while several other licensees have manufactured devices powered by Palm OS.
Psion Organiser was the brand name of a range of pocket computers developed by the British company Psion in the 1980s. The Organiser I and Organiser II had a characteristic hard plastic sliding cover protecting a 6×6 keypad instead of a computer keyboard, with letters arranged alphabetically.
A graphics tablet is a computer input device that enables a user to hand draw or paint images, animations and graphics, with a special pen-like stylus, similar to the way a person draws pictures with a pencil and paper by hand.
The REX 6000 is an ultra-thin Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) produced by Xircom, and later Intel, from about 2000 to 2001. The REX may be synchronized by inserting it in a host PC's PCMCIA/PC-card slot. Docking stations were manufactured for connection to hosts without PC card Type-II slots, which allows the REX to be connected via a USB or serial connection.
Handwriting recognition (HWR), also known as handwritten text recognition (HTR), is the ability of a computer to receive and interpret intelligible handwritten input from sources such as paper documents, photographs, touch-screens and other devices. The image of the written text may be sensed "off line" from a piece of paper by optical scanning or intelligent word recognition. Alternatively, the movements of the pen tip may be sensed "on line", for example by a pen-based computer screen surface, a generally easier task as there are more clues available. A handwriting recognition system handles formatting, performs correct segmentation into characters, and finds the most possible words.
Graffiti is an essentially single-stroke shorthand handwriting recognition system used in PDAs based on the Palm OS. Graffiti was originally written by Palm, Inc. as the recognition system for GEOS-based devices such as HP's OmniGo 100 and 120 or the Magic Cap-line and was available as an alternate recognition system for the Apple Newton MessagePad, when NewtonOS 1.0 could not recognize handwriting very well. Graffiti also runs on the Windows Mobile platform, where it is called "Block Recognizer", and on the Symbian UIQ platform as the default recognizer and was available for Casio's Zoomer PDA.
A personal organizer, also known as a datebook, date log, daybook, day planner, personal analog assistant, book planner, year planner, or agenda, is a portable book or binder designed for personal management. It typically includes sections such as a diary, calendar, address book, blank paper, checklists, and additional useful information like maps and telephone codes. It is related to the separate desktop stationery items that have one or more of the same functions, such as appointment calendars, rolodexes, notebooks, and almanacs.
Newton OS is a discontinued operating system for the Apple Newton PDAs produced by Apple Computer, Inc. between 1993 and 1997. It was written entirely in C++ and trimmed to be low power consuming and use the available memory efficiently. Many applications were pre-installed in the ROM of the Newton to save on RAM and flash memory storage for user applications.
GEOS is a computer operating environment, graphical user interface (GUI), and suite of application software. Originally released as PC/GEOS, it runs on MS-DOS-based, IBM PC compatible computers. Versions for some handheld platforms were also released and licensed to some companies.
The HP 200LX Palmtop PC, also known as project Felix, is a personal digital assistant introduced by Hewlett-Packard in August 1994. It was often called a Palmtop PC, and it was notable that it was, with some minor exceptions, a DOS-compatible computer in a palmtop format, complete with a monochrome graphic display, QWERTY keyboard, serial port, and PCMCIA expansion slot. The abbreviation "LX" stood for "Lotus Expandable".
The Microwriter is a hand-held portable word-processor with a chording keyboard. First demonstrated in 1978, it was invented by UK-based, US-born film director Cy Endfield and his partner Chris Rainey and was marketed in the early 1980s by Microwriter Ltd, of Mitcham, Surrey, UK. By using a mnemonic alphabet, its manufacturers stated it allowed note-taking of up to 8,000 characters at an input rate averaging 1.5 times that of handwriting.
A tablet computer, commonly shortened to tablet, is a mobile device, typically with a mobile operating system and touchscreen display processing circuitry, and a rechargeable battery in a single, thin and flat package. Tablets, being computers, have similar capabilities, but lack some input/output (I/O) abilities that others have. Modern tablets largely resemble modern smartphones, the only differences being that tablets are relatively larger than smartphones, with screens 7 inches (18 cm) or larger, measured diagonally, and may not support access to a cellular network. Unlike laptops, tablets usually run mobile operating systems, alongside smartphones.
Pen computing refers to any computer user-interface using a pen or stylus and tablet, over input devices such as a keyboard or a mouse.
The Newton is a specified standard and series of personal digital assistants (PDAs) developed and marketed by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1993 to 1998. An early device in the PDA category — the term itself originating with the Newton — it was the first to feature handwriting recognition. Newton devices run on a proprietary operating system, Newton OS; unlike the company's Macintosh computers, Apple licensed the software to third-parties, who released Newton devices alongside Apple's own MessagePad line.
Pencept, Inc. was a company in the 1980s that developed and marketed pen computing.
The history of tablet computers and the associated special operating software is an example of pen computing technology, and thus the development of tablets has deep historical roots. The first patent for a system that recognized handwritten characters by analyzing the handwriting motion was granted in 1914. The first publicly demonstrated system using a tablet and handwriting recognition instead of a keyboard for working with a modern digital computer dates to 1956.
Microsoft Tablet PC is a term coined by Microsoft for tablet computers conforming to hardware specifications, devised by Microsoft, and announced in 2001 for a pen-enabled personal computer and running a licensed copy of the Windows XP Tablet PC Edition operating system or a derivative thereof.
Pocket PC 2000 was the first member of the Windows Mobile family of mobile operating systems that was released on April 19, 2000, and was based on Windows CE 3.0. It is the successor to the operating system aboard Palm-size PCs. Backwards compatibility was retained with such Palm-size PC applications.
