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Long live The King of PDAs

Posted by Hemos on from the still-kicking dept.

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."

4 of 71 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Impressive for its day by Tug3 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Impressive for its day - in every aspect.
    Still impressive - would it not be for its size.

    That's mainly my point. I used to have a Newton 120, and I'm still longing for it. For example the cut&paste -feature with pen was something else. I would just throw the cut (or copied) text to the top corner of the screen. Then at my target application just take the cutted object from the top corner and paste it where I wanted.

    Another feature was the ability to have links to other documents. For example in calendar I could link people and documents into a meeting the way I wanted.

    These two are just some of the features I miss. I've tried Palms, Psions, even WinCE PDAs and they all lack the same ease of use the Newton had... ...would the Newton only be smaller, I would run straight to my nearest dealer to get one! (Ofcourse there are no dealers left, now that Apple did cancel the Newton years back...)

    --
    If all else fails, pull the plug and get out...
    The Life is out there...
  2. Still amazes me by d0n+quix0te · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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!

  3. Re:Impressive for its day by RevAaron · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I agree, taking notes on my iPAQ is a pain in ass. Again, the weight didn't bother me, comapred to the weight of a bookbag. But a modern version would be quite a bit smaller and lighter, yet retaining the big screen.

    --

    Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
  4. Re:Popular. by Aftermac · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yeah, or how an article about 802.11 support on the Newton only got 63 comments...oh...wait...it must be popular!