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Steve and his Sony Magic Link - Year 1

Fall/1995

Topics

• One year anniversary
• Screen Update
• Thanks for the memory
• The tortouis and the hare
• Magic Link vs. Newton
• Publisher is no more
• I'm no longer on PersonaLink
• Magic Exchange needs to take a IQ test
• The future
• Summary
  
  

  Disclaimer: This is a report by me (Steve Riggins) on my use of a Sony Magic Link. I am not affiliated with Sony or General Magic, except that I have friends that work there. 8-) The information contained herein is personal opinion and I will not be held responsible for any decisions you make based off of my writings. Make sure you tell this to your spouse, the one who balances the checkbook.

It was a little over one year ago when I purchased my Magic Link and stopped using my Newton. I'm still using my Magic Link but over the year I have run into some issues that are annoying with the current hardware and software.

I still think the Magic Link is a neat piece of hardware. It is, however, much tougher to write software for than the Newton is and I think this fact, along with the fact that the Magic Link is poor on memory management has kept the device from seeing its full potential.

Its not tough to come to the conclusion that the Magic Link screen stinks. After using my Newton for an hour after using my Magic Link, I found myself really wanting to swap screens. The Magic Link is 4 grays whereas the Newton is black and white, but that is besides the point. It is too hard to read the Magic Link's screen in anything but the best light.

The system update released earlier this year solved a lot of the lost memory issues. What happens is that the Magic Link stores a lot of objects in ROM to save memory. If you modify the object by, for example, moving a dialog box window, the Magic Link needs to copy the object into RAM into a section of memory called the ROM shadow. After a while, a lot of memory can be used by ROM shadowed objects.

The system update cleared out a lot of the ROM shadowed objects and apparently keeps the memory used by ROM shadowed objects to a minimum. Before the update, I had around 115K free at any one time whereas now I have around 200K free.

The main problem with the Magic Link's memory management is that it is indeed object oriented. Data stored on memory cards still take up internal memory because the Magic Link needs to keep references to the objects and other housekeeping.

The Magic Link can be really slow at times. One of the most often asked questions of me is "Where can I get five of those cheap RAM cards from Fry's?" My answer is, "You don't want five." To swap memory cards is, on average, a total of 5-9 minutes!! That is unacceptable but because of the way the Magic Link stores objects internally, its unavoidable in the current software.

The Magic Link doesn't feel anywhere as snappy as my Newton either and with the new Newton OS coming that (from rumors) runs existing software 2.5 times faster, the Magic Link may be left in the dust.

The current Newton does not compare to the Magic Link. The Newton's name app is inferior, the input mechanism is inferior and the battery life sucks compared to the Magic Link's awesome Lithium Ion battery.

The Newton's screen is better and the Newton is snappier. The Newton has a plethora of software whereas with the Magic Link, there is some software out there but because the unit is so memory strapped I elect to not use any third party software. Couple this fact with the very lame Magic Exchange software, there is no way I'm installing extra software.

I'll have more comments once Newton OS 2.0 ships.

In a prior report I mentioned a service from General Magic called Publisher. Alas, Publisher has not existed for many months. May it rest in peace.

I'm signing off of PersonaLink. I love the service, but I am averaging about 1 message a month so I can no longer justify the $10/month charge. I am a firm believer of flat rate charges but the promise of using my Magic Link for communications has just never panned out.

The Magic Link is too slow and too memory limited to handle all of my email and despite what ads say, TeleScript is non-existant. Everything I can do with PersonaLink/Telescript is doable with Eudora on my Macintosh and is 100 times faster and more integrated than email on my Magic Link.

Magic Exchange may be the only connection/backup game in town but I'm sorry, it SUCKS! Part of the reason it is poor is because of Magic Cap and its notion of backing up. For example, since when does "Full Backup" not mean FULL BACKUP? Since the Magic Link shipped I guess.

In order to fully backup my Magic Link I have to do a full backup, which really only backs up the internal memory and then back up each and every package on my memory card BY HAND! I cannot even tell if the package NEEDS backing up. I'M supposed to know that! This is really, really sad.

Comare Magic Exchange to the Newton Connection Kit and you'll find yourself beating yoru head against the wall.

So what is the future for this device? If Sony ships a new box with a faster OS, backlit screen, near instaneous removal/insertion of PCMCIA cards then the Magic Link will live on. If not, its doomed to failure as someone else will surely pass it up.

Apple has stuck by the Newton and OS 2.0 *sounds* very interesting. I've only heard rumors from the net so I have no real information on 2.0, but if its all its cracked up to be, it may be enough to retain its lead and gain even more market share.

Another cool feature for any device would be better integration for those of us who are bi-cpudal. I'd like to snap my Magic Link into a dock and instantly have access to all the data on the device from my computer. With the proper interface libraries available free of charge to developers, access to the Magic Link could be added to a product such as Eudora fairly simply allowing me to send email by looking up addresses on the device. Need to add a new address? Do it from the Mac and have it stored on the device. Until this happens, those of us bi-cpudal people will have to deal with data in two places.

Regardless of cool features, all of these devices need to start breaking the $200 price point AT TIME OF SHIP, not when the manufacturer is trying to dump inventory.

I still use my Magic Link and will continue to do so until something better comes along. The world of the electronic whizmo will not stop with the Magic Link. If you need a PDA to handle names, addresses and dates, the Magic Link is an excellent choice.

If you need something small and better integrated with your Mac, buy a Newton.

If you are not sure you need one of these things, wait. Your dayplanner will lose less value over the next six months that anything you buy today.

© Copyright 1997-2002 Steve Riggins. Graphics by Andrew Duncan.