Reading Signals from the Future: EDUCAUSE in 2038
In 1992, I was in a meeting at Apple Computer and was asked if I wanted to see the next “killer technology” the company would soon release. My Apple colleague left the conference room and came back to unveil the Apple Newton, a handheld device (sort of) that Apple was calling a “Personal Digital Assistant” (PDA) and that featured handwriting recognition. I flipped back the gray metal lid and tried the stylus, writing to my wife, “Dear Pat.” My writing, converted to text on the fly, came back as “Deal Pot.” The Apple team reassured me that the software was getting better, but problems in the Newton’s handwriting recognition continued to plague the device, as did its high price, and Steve Jobs killed the product in 1998. The Newton was widely considered a failure.
