Einstein at SNUG

We had a small group at the Stanford Newton User Group meeting tonight, with only Flash, Peter, Dave, and myself in attendance. I demoed the impressive Einstein Newton Emulator on my G4 PowerBook. Paul has been doing some optimizations on the emulator and has it running a bit faster than when I first tested it. On a Dual-2GHz G5 PowerMac (thanks to Steven, it seems to run about half as fast as a Newton MessagePad 2×00!

On my PowerBook, it’s running about 4 times slower than an MP2x00, but it’s still faster than an eMate. Paul has some more tricks up his sleeve, and I no doubt expect the emulator to run as fast or faster than an MP2x00 in the coming months.

Something that’s cool about the emulator is that you can specify the screen size. Newton enthusiasts will note that most Newtons had a screen resolution of either 320×480 or 240×320. With Einstein, you can specify a virtual Newton with a screen of 800×600 or 640×480!

Dave showed his Tungsten T-5 that he just got a few days ago. It makes me think that this is what the Newton would be like today. Of course, it would have merged with the iPod to be an uber-MP3/PDA/telephone converged device!

Apple’s rumored to have new iPods to announce on Wednesday. Gotta check out the web site and all of those Mac fan sites! I ended up ordering a 512MB iPod shuffle the other day. It should arrive sometime next week; once I get it, I’ll turn my attention to mounting it onto my road bike with the PodWave speakers.