I wasn't the earliest adopter of the Newton, as I didn't get one until the 2100, but that still made me a fairly early adopter of the electronic handheld computer. I thought it would help my writing, as I could write longhand on the Newton and thus save the work that I normally went through by writing on paper and then having to retype it into the computer for editing. I also thought I could replace my Daytimer with the electronic organizer. It turned out that neither worked for me. While the Newton was amazing at recognizing my handwriting (able to do so for 95% of the words I wrote), I tended to write faster than it could keep up with and the screen was still smaller than the Daytimer page I was used to writing in. As for organizing my day, I wasn't that much better at doing it the Daytimer way, and the technology seemed to put an additional barrier to it. But I loved my Newton; in fact, I still own it, although the batteries have long since given up taking a charge.

I tried switching to a Dell Axim while at ASHA, replacing the screenwriting with a foldable keyboard, but the screen issues remained. I did better at keeping my schedule, due to its ability to synch with our desktop organizers, but after leaving ASHA, I was ready for another change. I switched to using a Moleskin daily organizer, which is not quite as big and bulky as a Daytimer, but has the instant retrievable storage if not a good search tool in it.

I read with interest this person's take on the Nokia N800. It didn't make me want to run out and buy one, but I'm glad to see that the idea hasn't totally died.

(via Dwight, who doesn't email me nearly enough)