eMate 300

[George Rothrock]

I still have mine!  The best "product that was not-mis-un-marketed" by 
Apple.  I believe it was originally designed for the Education market.  
It was essentially a Newton in the coolest, laptop-style case.  It had 
a proprietary network cable.  I believe the idea was: kids take this 
thing home, write homework essays, reports, etc., come to school and 
plug it into the classroom eMate 300 network, which terminated in a 
server-type app on the teacher's desktop machine, and submitted their 
work, got the next assignment, sylabus, scedule, etc. all 
electronically.
It had no moving parts (except keyboard and hinge), was slightly 
upgradeable, the case had a HANDLE! and was pretty darn tough ("you 
know, for kids!").  A stylus could be used with the touch screen, the 
keyboard was really useable, and the case featured an inkwell-style pen 
holder, so the the stylus was upright, next to your hand for easy 
grabbing.  Left side and right side!  I think the design gals/guys on 
this project went on to the first iBook & iMac.  Could be wrong though. 
  All this was shot at Teachers/Students.  I think that they didn't 
evangelize well (or at all), because I learned of it when a friend who 
is a school administrator, noticed an assistant taking notes on one at 
a board meeting.  Upon asking, my friend learned that Apple had given 
them a few (they were in a closet), but had provided no clear idea what 
they were good for...

I fought the "keeping my favorite technology functioning (mainly 
connectivity)" battle until OSX.  Then faltered.
With a modern productivity suites, and an update of simple technology, 
this could be a road-warrior's best friend.  Or a student's dream.  Or 
a digital-gadget guy's next "big thing."  The idea would be to maximize 
portability, rougedness and function over the feature race.  Maybe a 
steno-notebook sized device, with the eMate 300's keyboard and 
approach.  Ah, to dream!
Thanks for reading!

>
> Remember the eMate?  I still have mine, but seldom use it since getting
> a PowerBook.  For a PDA with word processing capability it was
> terrific.  Connecting to the internet was inadequate, but for taking
> notes, writing up reports, and keeping track of meetings and tasks to
> do, it was perfect. And interesting.  And it went for 24 hours or more
> (continuous use) between charges.  Too bad Apple abandoned the Newton
> so quickly.
> -----------------------
> Gina Wallace
> Topsham, Maine
> -----------------------



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