This guy seems to have done it all—early computer graphics on the Cray, designing the handwriting recognition for the Newton, building software that simulates life, and generally doing more cool stuff than anyone has any right to do. Reader Jeff interviewed him for Ars Technica and the resulting three-part discussion kind of made me a little happier today.
So while I thought the original, sweeping Newton concept was exciting, and even the reduced vision of what first shipped was intriguing, I had my doubts about whether it could succeed. I also, at various points and with others, lobbied for a smaller form factor, but never seemed to have any impact. (Very, very late in the game I got the then-CEO, Shane Robison5, to agree to investigate what we now call a palm-sized device, but it was too late, as Newton was soon to be reeled back into Apple and killed off.)
In the Loop with Larry Yaeger [ArsTechnica]
