Benson --

What the Newton had was an innate understanding of several key (colloquial) phrases.... such as 'next <week:month:year:tuesday>' or 'after <noon:lunch:dinner:2:30PM>', etc. Combined with a knowledge of how the address book and appointment calendar stored its data, it could turn "lunch with susie a week from next friday" into an actual calendar/todo entry... even figuring out who 'susie' was (or presenting a list of choices), and scheduling around items already on the calendar.

It went like this: geek is playing with neat electronic gizmo, and naturally piques the curiosity of nearby females predisposed to nerdy guys. she starts conversation about gadget. geek demonstrates gadget's unique properties, including handwriting recognition, and this built-in "AI" that could turn vague english language into real 'data', and even determine what class of data it is... after a relatively short demo, the girl has not only provided the geek with her address and phone number, but actually scheduled a lunch date with him! (yes, i used my messagepad 110 to good effect dozens of times while i was skipping class and 'hanging out'.)

...and, to date, the newton is the only apple product i've ever purchased (or owned)

ps: and i still have it. it doesn't impress the geek-loving girls anymore, though.