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History of the Apple Newton
Sabah Arif writes "We've all heard of Apple's Newton, the portable handheld device under John Sculley's rule at Apple that debuted to big media attention and much fanfare but never managed to take a strong footing in the marketplace. The same handhel that went on to be 'Steve'd' when Mr. RDF killed the project after taking control of Apple. That's the extent of knowledge most of us have with regard to Apple's first handheld device. OS Opinion sheds light on the early days of the pocket Apple." From the article: "Apple in the late eighties had become stagnant. The Macintosh had become Apple's cash cow like the Apple II that had preceded it. To protect the Mac, Apple was hesitant to start or pursue any project that might compromise the company's revenues. Several people in the corporation were weary of this approach, and began to look at the future of computing. One of those people was Steve Sakoman."
Eat up Martha
Written four years ago, here's a piece about Apple's other historical tablet initiatives, and speculation about a Mac tablet (there's always speculation)...
Kevin Fox
The Newton was way ahead of its time in many aspects: versatility, portability, object-oriented based language (at first), etc. If the Newton had flourished as well as our current Palm devices and Pocket PC devices, we might all be using Newtons, or a derivative, instead.
Of course, we can all thank the Newton for paving the way to a lot of our mobile device concepts. Well, the Newton, and Star Trek.
I am a meat popsicle.
There's a fantastic book called Defying Gravity about the development of Newton. It's worth the read.
Sure wish I got one while they were around--a local store was giving away a copy free with every Newton 2100 back in the day.
Though, the Newton really was a failure. It did many things right, but it was too bulky and costly: the Palm Pilot was less sophisticated, but it really matched what consumers needed.
RDF = "Reality Distortion Field"
I know some of you don't like the idea of Tablet PC but I think they are terrific personally. I've always wished that Apple would dump their Newton technology into a Tablet style machine. It would be fantastic for note taking during meetings and would allow me to better edit and distribute my notes. Not to mention the ones with the foldable keyboards are a more flexible form factor for mobile professionals like me. And I'd rather use a Mac than Windows with its underlying unix goodness and sweet interface.
Who knows if we'll ever see it though. It's not clear if there is a big enough market (I think there is but the products aren't good enough yet) and Steve Jobs just doesn't seem fond of the idea. But if anyone could really make it work, I think it would be Apple. Guess I have to keep dreaming...
I had several Newtons - an MP 100, an MP 120, and finally an MP 2000 (that was later upgraded to an MP 2100). The technology improved dramatically over those generations, and I really would love to see what would have emerged had development continued.
Since the Newton, I've used Palm, PocketPC, and Sharp Zaurus PDAs, and have yet to find anything I consider a worthy successor to the Newton. The integration of all the applications was seamless, and the software was truly designed to be used on a PDA, not just scaled down from some desktop application.
The form factor was a little clunky - either a smaller pocket-sized device, or a full-size tablet would have been better in my opinion - but I'm still looking for an overall user experience that's comparable, and haven't found it.
Subscribers can see articles in the future? So what? Everyone gets to see them in the future.
at first when i read the headline i thought it was talking about fig newtons with apple flavor..
Anyway, there's a great Newton book - Defying Gravity - which was released. I've got a copy. Best thing is the typo on the spine.
I'm not sure you're making such a good case for this book...
I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
hawk
In a MP 120 with the 2.0 version of the OS, write "Egg Freckles" and then hit Assist.
In the prototype MP 2000 units (code named "Q"), the first run or EVT units: Write "About Newton" and press Assist. In the DVT and production units it says "What about Newton?" followed by "What about xxx?" where xxx is the name of each developer who worked on the project (sequentially).
In the EVT units, instead of the developer names, it uses Larry, Moe, Curly, and Shemp.
Also, you gotta love the Area 51 Easter egg in the first 2.0 Newtons.
There was also a Solar Eclipse easter Egg, but I can't remember what OS version/models had it. (Possibly the MP100.)
I love the Newton.
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
Old news for Nerds. Stuff that doesn't matter. This is a rather universal sentiment nowadays, but the cliche that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it is quite often accurate. This applies to nerds as well, especially in technology. Looking at what was done with the Newton can help us understand why it failed and potentially help us to prevent similar problems from happening in future products.
"We've all heard of Apple's Newton, the portable handheld device under John Sculley's rule at Apple that debuted to big media attention and much fanfare but never managed to take a strong footing in the marketplace -- only to be "Steve'd" when Mr. RDF killed the project after taking control of Apple. That's the extent of knowledge most of us have with regard to Apple's first handheld device.
Thomas Hormby submitted the following editorial to osOpinion/osViews, which gives us more in-depth knowledge about the Netwon project during its original development -- such as the fact that it could be said that the Netwon originated from a concept device Sculley called Knowledge Navigator."
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Apple in the late eighties had become stagnant. The Macintosh had become Apple's cash cow like the Apple II that had preceded it. To protect the Mac, Apple was hesitant to start or pursue any project that might compromise the company's revenues. Several people in the corporation were weary of this approach, and began to look at the future of computing. One of those people was Steve Sakoman.
Steve Sakoman worked at Hewlett Packard before he came to Apple, where he helped develop the first HP notebook. When he joined Apple he was happy that he 'was not going to make DOS clones for the rest of my life.' Steve had joined Apple to work on the MacPhone, a collaboration between Apple and AT&T.
After the project was canceled, he saw that Apple was not willing to take the same risks it had with the original Macintosh or even the Macintosh II. He went to Apple's director of new products, Jean Louis Gass'e, and threatened to quit unless he was allowed to create the 'future Macintosh', a computer that would be as influential on the computer industry as the original Macintosh was. Gass'e sympathized with him, and gave him permission to begin an independent research group
While Sakoman was at Hewlett Packard, he saw several 'hand entry computers that did not use keyboards. He was intrigued with the idea of scrapping the keyboard. The fact that most computers used a QWERTY keyboard was a mere fluke, he thought. Steve thought that a more natural method of input would take hold, like handwriting or speech.
Sakoman set to work immediately, getting his brand new research group off the ground. He recruited developers from around the company, including some original Macintosh developers. Like the original Macintosh and their off-site office, Texaco Tower, the new team moved to a converted warehouse on Bubb Road. Steve named the team 'Newton'. He did so because Sir'Isaac Newton was featured prominently in Apple's original logo and because he had prompted so many changes in the way people viewed the world.
At the time of the Macintosh II introduction, John Sculley had a video produced featuring his Knowledge Navigator device. He envisioned a tablet style device that would fold out to reveal a large color LCD display. The software would interpret the users commands via a humanoid assistant. The device could recognize voice commands, and interpret handwriting commands. Prescient of the internet, Sculley would have the device be able to communicate fluently with similar devices and servers around the world.
The Knowledge Navigator never went any further than the video, but John Sculley hoped that the technologies he had envisioned in the device would find life in other Apple projects. He thought that the Newton would be able fulfill his vision, and became one of its most vocal proponents.
The research group first found out what they wanted in a computer, and created a prototype design. Without any marketing staff, the team came up with a very advanced, very expensive device. The new machine was to be based on two AT&T Hobbit processors (a design that was very easy to program for) and would be about the size as an A4 sheet of paper, and feature a large, LCD, grayscale display. The true star of the new computer would be its software. The engineers wanted full handwriting recognition that
He was intrigued with the idea of scrapping the keyboard. The fact that most computers used a QWERTY keyboard was a mere fluke, he thought. Steve thought that a more natural method of input would take hold, like handwriting or speech.
Handwriting: vastly slower than typing, even for crummy typists like me.
Speech: unusable except in private.
Does anyone see anything replacing keyboards anytime soon?
Free, legal music for iTunes users.
I am a Newton user (MP130), and my favorite feature is being able to create ink outlines. No other PDA that I know of includes the functionality out of the box.
PostNuke... as in PostSlashdot!
Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity
Have you ever gone to a Disney theme park and been asked to take a survey? The handheld they use to write down your answer is a Newton.
..... or so have I been told by an Apple higher up.
Apple has a contract to supply Disney with them until 2010.
I owned a MP130. The other problems were the built in software, while innovative, wasn't nearly as streamlined as the Palm PIM suite later released with the Pilot, the device was a bit sluggish, and the screen -- especially the MP100 -- was very hard to see and had a poor contrast ratio, and was really reflective and had lots of glare. Also, the handwriting recognition really sucked. And you're right, they were also pretty expensive. The Newton had a ton of good ideas and was very innovative, but it wasn't quite there.
And I love it. I print rather than write with it, and I find the accuracy is great. I also have Grafitti installed on it, but I hardly ever use it.
I've used Palms and PocketPC's, but go back to the Newton for it's simple and elegant interface, which makes we actually want to use it, and keep my calendar and contacts up to date.
Although the HWR gets all the attention whenever someone writes about the Newton, the one aspect I would have loved to see advanced and developed was the Assist button. Tap on it, enter something like "Have lunch with Bob on Tuesday", and it will search your contact list, automatically create a meeting on Tuesday for you.
Why the Apple Newton Failed - written by Larry Tesler, Newton Development lead for two years.
Since no one got it: the above is the embbeded Newton easter egg. Type Rosetta! Rosetta! Rosetta! and the 3rd Rosetta! is replaced by "Hey That's Me!" Incidentally, the same easter egg is there in the current Mac OS X's handwritting component: Inkwell. Understandable; the Newton software was far ahead of its time.
- Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
Q: How many Apple Newton users does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Faux! There to eat lemons, axe gravy soup.