Jobs’ New Computer Lives Up to Its Hype
As I arrived at San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall to take my first look at Next--Steven P. Jobs’ new computer--I was prepared to be disappointed. How could it possibly live up to all the hype that preceded the announcement?
Well, like many of the 3,000 attendees, I came away impressed. Jobs, who is largely responsible for the Apple II and the Apple Macintosh, has done it again.
For the record:
12:00 a.m. Oct. 22, 1988 FOR THE RECORD
Los Angeles Times Saturday October 22, 1988 Home Edition Business Part 4 Page 2 Column 2 Financial Desk 1 inches; 34 words Type of Material: Correction
The Unix operating system was developed by AT&T; Bell Laboratories. Some later versions of Unix were designed at the University of California, Berkeley. The original developer of Unix was misidentified in Thursday’s Computer File column.
The Next Computer System represents breakthrough technology at a bargain price. Unfortunately, I can’t buy one. It’s available only to those who work or study at institutions of higher education.
The basic machine, which sells for $6,500, comes with eight megabytes of random access memory and a revolutionary 256-megabyte optical disk storage system--that’s equal to nearly 80,000 double-spaced pages. The machine also has special chips developed by Motorola that reportedly allow it to perform several tasks at a time with no degradation in operating performance. A 17-inch black-and-white display uses the PostScript language to form text and graphics on screen. PostScript is widely used to enable laser printers, including the Apple LaserWriter, to generate a wide variety of type styles and graphic images.
Next is the first computer to use PostScript on both the printer and screen, providing users a realistic on-screen preview of their printed output. It’s also the first modestly priced laser printer with a resolution beyond 300 dots per inch. With a resolution of 400 dots per inch and a $2,000 price tag, it’s a great deal. The lower price is possible because the PostScript language and memory required to run the language reside in the computer instead of the printer.
Like the Macintosh, Next uses a mouse and on-screen graphics to help make the machine easier to use. But Next has another interface--voice. A built-in microphone jack and accompanying software allow users to add speech to their electronic mail messages. With the appropriate software, it will also be possible to include voice annotations on spreadsheet, word processing files, databases and other applications. As far as I know, we are still years away from voice recognition software, so, don’t expect the machine to transcribe your letters just yet.
The optical disk is the machine’s most revolutionary innovation. The disk works like compact discs used in stereo systems and some computer systems, but unlike the CD ROM (“read only memory”) drives from Apple and others, the Next disk can be erased or modified.
Tandy had earlier announced that it is developing a read/write optical disk, but deliveries are not expected for at least a couple of years. Next was able to jump the gun on the competition by forging a deal with Canon--the Japanese electronics firm that developed the drive. But before other computer makers can use the drive, they must develop chips so that it can exchange data with the computer. The chips that Next uses to control the drive are proprietary to the company.
The drive’s removable cartridges, which will cost about $50, can be easily transported between computers. Jobs envisions students using the cartridges to transport all their data and software between home and class.
As if to emphasize the enormousness of this storage medium, the Next computer will come with a “Digital Library” that includes a full dictionary and thesaurus, a book of quotations and the complete works of William Shakespeare. Accompanying software makes it possible to locate a word or quote in an instant and to copy that information into a file created with a word processing program or other software.
Of course, it will take awhile before there are anywhere near as many programs as there are for the Macintosh or IBM PC, but the machine is getting off to a good start. Included with the machine is a word processing program, called WriteNow, the Sybase database program, an electronic mail program with voice mail and Mathematica--a powerful mathematical modeling program.
What’s more, the machine’s operating system (Mach) is compatible with Unix. Developed at the University of California, Unix is the leading operating system for academic and scientific computing. There are versions for mainframes, minis and micros, including the IBM PC and Macintosh II. Unix was selected so that Next users could take advantage of the large number of existing programs available on campuses.
The problem is that Unix is difficult to use. To solve that, Next comes with “NextStep,” an easy-to-use software environment that makes the machine as easy to operate as the Apple Macintosh. NextStep also makes it easier to write software, according to Jobs. Rather than having to write long programs, software developers “assemble” their programs by using the mouse to point to predesigned “objects” that provide instructions to the computer.
Creating a program with Next-Step is like selecting a meal at a cafeteria--at least that’s how the concept goes. At the announcement, Jobs demonstrated the language by writing his own program to control the speed of a bouncing ball. What was not clear from his demonstration was how much work went into creating the modules. If it’s anything like Apple’s HyperCard or other so-called easy-to-use languages, you can be sure that some experienced programmer put some time into developing the modules before Jobs strung them together.
If this machine were available to the business community, it would be a price/performance leader, but it is aimed at higher education, where student budgets and faculty resources are generally more limited than corporate budgets. As attractive as it is, not many students will spend $6,500, especially when they can get less powerful but perfectly adequate Macintoshes or IBM compatibles for a fraction of the price.
If the machine were made available to the business community, there probably would be a strong initial interest, especially among companies that need high-speed computing for scientific purposes or stunning graphics for desktop publishing. For the foreseeable future, however, Jobs says Next plans to stay within the higher education market. He did have one word of advice for those who desperately want one of his machines. “Enroll.”
