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The Newton is dead.

Newtons never die, they just get new batteries. And then they get new hardware.

I made something like this for the Newton a few years ago. I forgot to patent it!
http://dev.newtontalk.net/~dpadilla/2003/01/new-pr ogram-for-you-to-test-voiceturn2.htm

I think there's some truth to the parent post. A single PDA that merged the best features of both the Newton and the Palm could be really slick. While I'll assume that most people reading this are pretty familiar with the Palm and what it has to offer, I recognize that the Newton may be a bit more of a mystery. I blogged a bit about what the Newton has to offer in 2006 elsewhere and won't repeat it all here.

The Newton has actually been mentioned on various news sites a lot lately, due largely in part to the recent Worldwide Newton Conference but also because of recent advances like the Einstein project and the Newton book reader for Firefox.

I'm personally hoping that maybe some of its innovative user interface ideas get carried over into other projects. Obviously Apple's current Ink tablet handwriting recognition system is a direct port from the Newton. Less obviously perhaps is that its Dock removal animation is, too.

I think people who don't actually know much/anything about the Newton are missing the point here.

Of course the Newton is not "coming back". Its fate was sealed when Apple shut it down but refused to sell the technology.

But at the Newton conference yesterday one speaker said, "I've been trying to replace my Newton for almost ten years now." The audience agreed. But the design philosophies behind the Newton (continued in Mac OS X) have kept it ahead of unambitious crap like the moribund Palm OS (talk about dead--*that* OS sure won't remain in use for a decade after it gets discontinued). And in these intervening years Newtons have remained in service and the data on these things has even continued to accumulate.

Is the Newton coming back? No, it is not. But what Einstein means is that it may be able to STAY AROUND for a couple (several?) more years until the industry can come up with something good enough to actually replace it fro the people still using them.

It's cool to be able to emulate old systems

An awesome picture of the crowd in 2004. More pictures.

it has a standard PCMCIA slot which will accept an ethernet or wireless card - drivers available online, but you'll likely still need a machine that can connect over serial to do the initial install. there's a number of shareware and open source apps for pc, mac and linux that you can use to sync data, contacts, etc. links below

i have a 2100 that i sync up over my 802.11 network at home.

for that matter, you may be able to save your documents on the a pc flash card, and pop that into your laptop or other device that accepts such cards. i'm doubtful of this, tho, since the newton os stores everything in "soups" instead of a traditional filesystem - built from the ground up to use flash memory instead of spinning media.

anyhoo, specs for the emate are here:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/messagepad/s tats/emate_300.html

emates for $50 here:
http://macsruscomputers.com/apple-newton.html

nsync software here:
http://homepage.mac.com/nowhereman77/hacks/newton/

another similar package here (tho it may be defunct now)
http://www.everchanging.com/newton/

if you've got one, subscribe to newtontalk for a very active and helpful community of newt users:
http://www.newtontalk.net/

Bet you thought you were kidding.

• Sub-$500
• Quiet
• Bulletproof [once the hinge cable is fixed!]
• Easy on the batteries
• Can draw sketches as well as type

First off, the handwriting recognition is fabulous. And the assistant is just too cool for words. Write "lunch next Wednesday with Connie" and it'll ask you to pick which Connie is in your address book if there's more than one, then schedule an appointment next Wednesday from noon to 1pm with her. Make a long to-do list of things like "Call Jim". As you're going through your list ticking things off, highlight "Call Jim" and activate the Assistant, which will ask which Jim you want to call from your address book and dial the number through the built-in speaker or PCMCIA modem card, then pull up a call log app with call timer and notepad. Speech synthesis. Audio recording and playback. I've got my Newt MP2100 synced to OS X's iCal and Address Book already. (My wife has her's synced to Outlook at work.) I can connect it into any network (via ethernet or WiFi) and print directly to any networked printer, surf the net, or send an email. I can swap the network card for a modem card and fax or dial in to an ISP. The only problem with the Newton is its size: too big when you're not using it but just right when you are. I have a Palm Vx that I carry with me so I have quick access to phone numbers and (most importantly) my checkbook. But if it wasn't for the checkbook software, I would have ditched the Palm completely in favor of the Newt.

If anyone out there is looking for the best in PDAs, look into getting a MP2100 off eBay... they're only about $100. Once you add a WiFi card, ethernet card, modem card, large-capacity storage card, and a couple pieces of shareware, you'll spend about $250 total, and you'll never regret it. Matter of fact, you'll be wondering why the Newt -- which the last model, the MessagePad 2100, came out in 1997 -- can do so many things that Palms and PocketPCs can't, even today.

FWIW the Newton community is very active and passionate, and there's a lot of support for OS X and iApps, as well as loads of software. Oh, and if you want developer tools, there's plenty to pick from.

True, it's not easy being green. But after using both a Palm Vx and a Newton MessagePad 2100, while it's a bigger thing to cary around, there's no comparison... the Newton rocks.

The Apple Newton is, in my opinion, a great example of technology living beyond its expected lifetime and abilities:

There's a very strong and active user community, plenty of help, and gobs of software. An incredibile amount of work has been poured into the device with addons like wireless networking, CompactFlash ATA support, Shoutcast and MP3 playing, web serving, and desktop synching. All this adds to the Newton's built in PIM, notetaking, and email support.

I use my Newton for a telnet client, guitar tuner, notepad/to-do lister, and MP3 player.

The first usable Newton was put out in 1996 and the most powerful and expandable Newton was released middle of 97. The thing's lived a long life and looks like its gonna keep on chugging for a long time more, expecially since they can be found for just over $100 on eBay and the continued support of the Newton community. I know I won't ever ditch it.

No, I think I just munged the link when I posted it to NewtonTalk. Sorry.

I use my Newton MP2100 daily. In fact it's sitting here next to me as I type this. I put Linux docs and HOWTO's relevant to my work on it that I need on it and well as various notes on Java programming. When SJ ended the Newton I tried other PDA's: CE, PalmOS (I stuck with that one for about 4 years) but in the end the *only* PDA I have *ever* used that allowed me to truly store and manage the information I needed for daily life was my Newton. So I switched back.

Now, Paul Guyot at http://www.kallisys.com has made an ATA driver for CF cards and instead of having a slot with a 20MB card for storage I have a slot with 128MB of storage divided up as 4 32MB stores.

Need support? Not a problem. The community is still alive and well. Sign up for the Newtontalk list at http://www.newtontalk.net and ask away. We get PalmOS converts daily signing up.

Surfing the web and checking email works fine on the Newton. I can even chat with people via IM programs like Jabber and ICQ or on the IRC. In addition to that I get weeks of use out of a set of batteries.

Now would I *like* for something newer/smaller/faster/prettier to come along? Sure. But so far nothing comes close to managing information for me the way my Newt does.

And unlike the Simpsons episode's depiction, when I type "Beat up Martin" it digitizes it into "Beat up Martin"... I really was hoping to see "Eat up Martha" but no such luck.. ;)

I don't use this myself, but if you manage to wade through the endless piles of crap that is the newtontalk mailing list you'll find people at least being able to connect to their desktops.

Newton 2100 has the following features:

1) 160 MHz processor runs on 4 AA batteries for 24 hrs (i.e. weeks of use from a set)
2) webserver for accessing data from anywhere
3) wireless 802.11b tcp/ip and synching with windows/mac/outlook/palm Desktop/tab-delimited-text.
4) fastest pen-input (joined-up writing) of any device ever + excellent external keyboard + large on screen keyboard
5) 2 pcmcia slots for ethernet/wireless/modem/mobile-phone/cardphone/las er-printer/gps
6) Serial port for print/modem/fax/pc connections
7) 480x320 greyscale LOW POWER LCD - can view fax legibly at full width
8) enormous range of now mostly free software including terminal emulator, ftp, browsers, mail, webserver, vnc, digital camera &c.
9) $100 on eBay
10) an OS modelled on a pocket notepad, not an office desktop.
11) an 'Intelligent Assistant' button which makes a diary entry if you write "lunch with Steve next Friday".

Newton handwriting recognition was useless in Newton version 1 and excellent in version 2.1. Sadly, its detractors conveniently ignore version 2.1. Just try it. Even iPaq users will be amazed.

Find out more

Hmmm - The same waning community as this mailing list of over 1000 subscribers?

If you want to get vicious, I can also run VNC over Ethernet or wireless LAN on the Newton's 480x320 display after I'm done syncing with my PC and interacting over http. And after my VNC session, I can browse the Web and send/receive POP3/SMTP e-mail in real time on an Ethernet or wireless LAN from my Newton as well. Let's see your little Palm do all of that.

It can't, I know, I had a Palm before the Newton! :O