Long live The King of PDAs

x136 writes "Despite being cancelled over four years ago, the Newton Messagepad is still getting better. You can now connect to an 802.11b network, install packages from OS X, and play the MP3s that you transferred from iTunes to your Compact Flash cards. It's pretty hard to imagine how great the Newton could have become had it not been abandoned."

Popular.

Can something be called popular when a story about Quake on the Newton [slashdot.org] gets 0 comments?

Impressive for its day

With a 20 MHz RISC processor and 4 MB ram, this baby was well designed, and the software genuises at apple and at large were able to keep it useful.

That is remarkable.

-D

Re:Impressive for its day

I can't tell if this comment is in benign ignorance, or a joke...

The most recent and most capable model, the one which is largely being talked about is the MP2x00 series. It has 162 MHz StrongARM processor, 5 or 8 MB of RAM and a luxurious 480x320 screen (compared to the piddly 320x240 res of so-called modern PDAs). However, the MP120 and MP130 running Newton OS 2.0, with their 20-25 MHz ARM and 2-4 MB of RAM are also still incredibly useful, although not as powerful.

The MP2100 model is still impressive, not only in it's day, but today as well. :)

Newton Replacement

Frankly, I'm disapointed by the other options in the PDA market today. It's sad, really. So, to try to recreate a little of the Newton spirit, I'm working on Dynapad [sf.net], which isn't a Newton clone per se, but a PDA environment that will embody many of the core ideas and goals of the Newton, as a truly personal communicator, a computer, and an information device.

shameless plug out...

I have a newton, it won't power on.

A friend brought me this messagepad 120 some months
ago. I tried some tricks i found on newton fan pages but it's still not getting any better. ;-)

iFake

What happened to the iWalk?

Simply a fake or is it a prototype?

Hey, i can keep dreaming can't I? :>

i'm in hell

hoping to get one soon..

and it will rock.
soap, shampoo and conditioner clean it.. ah mean it..

Got a Newton 130

And I still use it. What a great machine it is. I'll probably replace it someday with something that can run a Python interpreter, but for now it's what I need.

Still amazes me

I bought a MP 2100 from an ebay auction a year ago. Still amazes the heck out of me. Full featured e-mail access over Ethernet (POP3/IMAP/SMTP), browsing the internet, playing MP3s , text to speech (Macintalk) support are quite amazing.

The incredibly well done data soup architecture, fantastic hand writing recognition, the intuitive interface are still unparalleled/unmatched. Hats off to the Newton visionaries!

Newton in Ricochet network

You can even use your newton on the almost dead ricochet network.

Check this [ucsc.edu] out.

What I'd like to see

What I'd like to see will never happen, but I think it's a cool idea.

I'd like for either Apple to bring back the Newton (I've never used one, so that explains my next comments) with an iPod storage enhancement, or to contract with Palm to use the iPod.

Imagine a world like this. You have your PDA (Newton/Palm/otherwise), and there's a slot where you can slid your iPod inside. Now your iPod is supplying the power/disk space for your PDA. When you slid it out and plug it back into your Mac, now you can just pull whatever files you edited/autoupdate your calender software/send emails composed/etc, etc, etc. Leave your iPod inside the device, and you can still play MP3's while editing a document/spreadsheet with your little PDA. Or read e-books. Or do your calender thing. Or...you get the point.

Or with digital cameras. Why worry about uploading/downloading, if you had a digital camera that used the iPod as the storage device? (Probably would need extra battery power, but you get the idea.) Plug it back into the Mac, and there's the image files, ready to be edited/copied. When they're good, copy them back to the iPod, and plug it back intot the camera, and "preview" the pictures with other folks.

With Apple's whole "digital hub" idea, using the iPod as a major piece of that as a PDA enhancement/camera system/digital video (maybe not high quality - "good enough") would be an interesting move on their part.

This is a serious question

Is there a project porting Linux to the Newton? I googled for it a bit and didn't find anything... It just seems like a cool inexpensive platform.

The Newton was before its time

I'm sure that most, if not all of you that bash the Newton never touched one because it had an Apple logo on it. It was a gorgeous machine. My friend still has his 2100 and brought it over a month ago. I have an iPaq, but using the 2100 reminded me of how great the Newton OS was. I agree...it's hard to imagine what the Newton would have been like if it wasn't abandoned. I think it would have given the other PDAs a run for their money. In fact, they already had Windows connectivity built in, so it wasn't a Mac-only system by any means. Mike

Newton 2100 web server

A guy I worked with had the local Newton user group's web site run off his Newton 2100 (had an ethernet card installed obviously). Kinda cuts down on the mobility (drum hit). I saw it in action and put out the info (all text) at a decent speed. Point is that it was kinda neat.

Re:Like the Apple ][ fan club...

Of course you can get it serviced. It's an Apple, you take it to an Apple service department just like you would a Macintosh.

Re:I've read an interview with interface developer

Unable to give URL, probably it even was a paper interview. Anyway it was in russian - you see, pen input interface was developed by Russians.

Correction: the original handwriting system (Calligrapher) was developed by Russians. And it sucked. And it still sucks, even now on WindowsCE. It just sucked much much less than the alternatives at the time.

Two years later Apple released version 2.0 of NewtonOS, with a far FAR FAR improved handwriting system (Rosetta) developed in-house at Apple. To this day, Rosetta is still basically the best handwriting system out there. Too bad it's only available on Newtons.

No April fools- Newton *is* still cutting edge.

Great irony here- the last Newtons are nearly 5 years old, but there's no other handheld out there that can do what it does.

I still use mine for keeping a journal- when people see what it does for the first time, they're typically fascinated. When I tell them it's 5 years old and no longer available, they're shocked.

Re:King of PDAs?

or maybe

Long Live the Amiga of PDAs