Not that such lists matter, but see here:
You can argue over whether the design of the G4 or G5 iMac was more influential on the all-in-one desktop market, but the G4 set the stage.
I don’t think there’s any question. It was the Mac, after the original iMac G3, that made people stand up and take notice and what Apple was doing.
From Riccardo Mori’s System Folder:
Over the years [Claudio] gave me a few of the Macs in my collection, such as the Macintosh SE FDHD and the Apple IIGS. He was my vintage hardware ‘pusher’, and I used to ask him for help when something didn’t work (and I regularly paid for his expertise, although he — being the utterly honest guy he was — never charged me the prices other Apple repair shops used to charge at the time), and every now and then I helped him put order in his crammed, messy (in a beautiful sort of way) laboratory; he called me when he meant to clean it up a bit, and gave me a lot of interesting pieces. When I was looking for a PowerBook 100, he gave me three dismantled units and told me: Here you have all the pieces to build one functional PowerBook 100.
That’s great: Mac fandom as DIY repair, probably the best way to learn how to be a Macintosh devotee.
Mori’s Mac 128k photos are great, but so is his story of the Mac repair friend that showed him how they worked, and how to piece them together.
Mac users who have Apple Wizards as friends (as I do – thanks Curtis!) are the luckiest, because they have someone to share their joy with.
Newton users have a deadline approaching: January 5, 2010 at about 6:48 p.m.
That’s when Newtpocalypse is scheduled to happen.
The bug strikes because of how NewtonScript handles dates with repeating appointments and other apps/settings, says Eckhart Köppen:
The overflow happens in all NewtonScript functions which use seconds as the resolution. In contrast to the 32 bit unsigned integer used by the C++ functions, NewtonScript integers are only 30 bit wide. While the C++ functions can handle times from 1904 until 2040 without an overflow, the NewtonScript functions had to be designed with a smaller range of applicable times due to the limited precision.
The seconds-based functions are implemented by taking the value of the real-time clock, subtracting the offset to January 1st 1993, and converting the results to a NewtonScript integer. This limited range causes an overflow on Tuesday, January 5, 2010 at 6:48:31 PM.
But fear not. If you’ve installed Köppen’s patches, and uninstalled the Fix2010.pkg, you should be safe for the New Year.
I prepared for the Y2010 bug in August when I installed Patch 73J186 on my eMate 300. For MessagePad 2000 and 2100 users, you have your own patch.
The Newton’s Y2010 bug got plenty of airtime in the Mac world earlier this year. And for a while, Newton users were nervous that we’d have to resort to setting our clocks back to avoid the trouble.
Thankfully, Köppen went right to work and saved the day, with some help from many testers in the Newton community.
It’s a great retro technology story, filled with villains and heroes and a community coming together behind a cause.
So come January 5, 2010, Newton users can use their pioneering PDA with reckless abandon. They have themselves to thank.
“The coming of an Apple tablet has been rumored since the death of the Newton. Talk to anyone versed in Apple lore, and they’ll tell you one’s just around the corner. Not only that, they’ll probably tell you what it’ll be like.
…But it’s important to remember that for every true rumor out there, there are five false ones and, most importantly, three things that no one’s even imagined.”
– The Macalope on the spread of rumors about a device no one has even seen yet, and how rumor-spreaders have been wrong (way wrong) before.
A little Christmas present for you: Grant Hutchinson has created a Newton-ized desktop wallpaper for your computer over at Simple Desktops.
Splorp has posted a few other simple desktops on the site, too – be sure to look for them.
Thanks Grant!
“Sometimes I wonder just how “Newton” I could go. Clear off my desk and leave only an eMate and Color StyleWriter 2200? Would love it.”
It’s rough writing about the Newton. There are only a few things that pop up, here and there, that are considered “news” in the MessagePad community. Like fans of the Amiga or Commodore, Newton users try to relive the glory days and make their devices applicable to modern times.
Though with the Newton, it’s fun. It’s such a sweet platform.
As far as I knew, there was only me and Tony Kan out there blogging at least semi-regularly about the Newton. But sometimes other sites pop up on the radar.
The Unofficial Apple Weblog often posts news and updates on happenings in the Newton community – more than the regular, echo-chamber type posts that appear every where else.
Every once in a while, something random will pop up. Like High Caffeine Content, a blog from Irish iPhone developer Steven Troughton-Smith, creator of Lights Off and Chalk, an upcoming Twitter client.
There’s also Johs Burker and his Blog of Musings. Burker works in education and uses his MP2100 and eMate for real life stuff, like calculating gas mileage and computing on the road. His post on getting RemoteCam working on his eMate is amazing.
As for blogs that look like Newtons, you can’t beat Thomas Brand’s excellent Egg Freckles blog. It really speaks for itself.
The Newton platform attracts die-hards, hobbyists, and everyone in between. It’s nice to see some of those folks writing about their experiences. As more new technologies are released, leave it to the MessagePad user to figure out a way to make it work with Apple’s PDA.
If you’re a Newton blogger, or you know of someone who is, let me know.
Andy Galluzzi, developer of Newton Connection Tools for Windows, is now giving the full $45 registration cost of his software to support the United Network of Newton Archives (UNNA).
The Newton Connection Tools license key and the donation to UNNA are intertwined, Galluzzi says on his web site:
The first time you connect, the software will disconnect immediately and you will see the newton information screen. Here you have to export your newton information data (a file nwi will be created) and send me that file . Morgan (administrator of UNNA) gonna tell me who has donated money, and with your newton information data and Morgan confirmation of the donation, I will send you the license code.
A bit complicated, but at least it’s in support of a site we all need and rely on.
Newton Connection Tools is much like NCX, but for Windows, allowing for Outlook syncs, package installation, and backups. Newton users with Macs have a few options to sync their MessagePads with their computer, everything from Apple’s original Newton Connection to NCX, Escale, and more. Windows users, from what I understand, have fewer options with their Newtons – especially with the newer versions of Windows. There doesn’t seem to be a bit support base, at least developer-wise, on Windows – as opposed to the Mac, where enthusiasts are everywhere.
Taking all that into consideration, Galluzzi’s efforts are even more appreciated.
[Via NewtonTalk mailing list.]
Just created a gallery over at Flickr in honor of my favorite Macintosh, the iMac G4.
Enjoy. I sure did.
[Image courtesy of Splorp: http://www.flickr.com/photos/splorp/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 He gets thumbnail-of-my-gallery honors.]
A great find from the Apple marketing archives, showing the target market for the eMate: education.
The video may have been produced before the eMate name was finalized, because you never heard it called an eMate through the whole thing. One teacher keeps calling it “the machine,” but no one comes out and says it’s a Newton product.
“It’s definitely ageless,” one of the teacher says.
Ruggedness, flexibility, tons of uses, usability – these were the eMate’s strengths, especially as it was carried around by fifth graders. Apple had that in mind, at least, when they put together the commercial.