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Five Years Later, Newton Still Going Strong

Posted by timothy on from the well-engineered dept.

CrezzyMan writes "Today is the five year anniversary of Apple's cancellation of the Newton platform. In spite of this, the Newton community has remained stronger than ever: it has even been the subject of academic research. In just the last few days, an IrCOMM stack and a new connection library have been released, on top of OS X syncing and 802.11b support."

5 of 299 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I've still got mine. by Dr+Caleb · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Proud Owner of a Newton 503. It still does my calendar, time accounting and notes to self.

    The only game on it is Lunar Lander, and I've got the LCARS Tricorder on it. Nothing like hitting the "Red Alert" button when the boss walks into a meeting.

    The company gave me an iPAQ, which I like. It has an IBM 1G microdrive that I use for movies while I travel. But it just isn't the same....

    --
    "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Mark Twain
  2. Maybe... by dave+at+hostwerks · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Did Newton owners choose wrong or were they simply ahead of the curve?

    Remember, Grafitti was developed by Palm for Newton. Their device did not exist at that time.

    Without Newton, the technology and the marketplace for handhelds would not be what it is today.

    The fact that Newton was only available for five years and has had five more years of life post-Apple is the real story.

    --
    d a v e
    "Hmmm...upgrades."
    1. Re:Maybe... by Drakonian · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Without Newton, the technology and the marketplace for handhelds would not be what it is today.

      I disagree. Maybe I'll agree for the technology, but not the marketplace. Apple unfortunately completed missed the boat with regards to what the public wanted in a PDA, even though their offering was very cool.

      Now without Jeff Hawkins, the PDA market would not be what it is today. I'm sure everyone has heard the story about how he carried around a wood block in his pocket to get a feel for if it was usable. He'd actually pull it out and pretend scrawl on it at the appropriate time to get a feel for the proper weight and size. That is what the market wanted - a *small*, usable, electronic daytimer.

      --
      Random is the New Order.
  3. I switched.. .then switched back.... by jbuilder · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.. ;)

    --
    Polymorphism -- It's what you make of it.
  4. Re:You're wrong by doconnor · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If it's just the interface that is so great why doesn't someone re-create it on a modern PDA like a Palm or WinCE device? There isn't really anything that prevents someone form designing what ever interface they like for applications on these devices.