Newton Poetry

Here’s a call out to all my classic Mac using friends.

From what I’ve read here and here, it’s not looking good. All the updates Apple threw into OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, and with the abandonment of PowerPC Macs, things like networking with OS 8 and 9 Macs and AppleTalk have been put out to pasture.

I was trying to network my PowerMac G3, running Mac OS 8.6, to my new Snow-Leopard-powered iMac over my Airport hub. No luck, despite some handy how-tos here and here.

After a half day spent trying to figure this out, and a bunch of forum list reading, I’ve just about given up. I thought it would be a fun rainy-day project for those with new and old Macs, especially for you, the people, who have OS 9/8 Macs still sitting around collecting dust.

Any suggestions, drop me an e-mail.

“We had some little design victories, like the eMate or the 20th Anniversary Mac. But they were never mainstream products. It was incredibly frustrating.”

– Apple lead designer Jonathan Ive, on the unoriginal design of Apple products during the ’90s.

[Via System Folder.]

Todd Ogasawara gives us a tour of his MessagePad 130 while waiting for his iPod Touch, for old-time’s sake.

[Via NewtonTalk.]

Newton users may wonder, with the release of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, whether their MessagePads and eMates would still play nice with the new operating system. You get a new Mac (as I did) with the latest install, and you might worry – is it going to work?

I’m here to report: everything works fine.

I started by download the Keyspan USA-28x driver to my new iMac for the serial-to-USB adapter. Things got weird when Snow Leopard recognized the Keyspan adapter as some sort of dial-up device (above). This wasn’t the case, obviously, but I pressed on just to see if it would work.

I went with Simon Bell’s excellent Newton Connection for Mac OS X (NCX) for the software connection, using a Newton eMate 300.

Since I’m working through the serial connection via USB, I select “serial” in the Newton’s Dock app and – whala. NCX and the Keyspan adapter give me a connection on Snow Leopard.

First, I wanted to try the new screen shot function on NCX – something that was only possible before in a few roundabout ways, like with Newton Toolkit.

In NCX, head to File > Screen Shot, then press the little camera (above) and wait a few seconds.

And bam, you get a little window pop-up with a screen shot of your Newton. Pretty handy.

Next, I tried doing what every Newton user does at some point: install a package file. In this case, I picked a periodic table app from UNNA.

This worked exactly as before.

So everything, from the screen shots to the keyboard function – which, for me, worked faster than on previous Macs – works great with OS X 10.6.

The real test, and the one I’ve had issues with on my eMate since forever, is syncing Address Book and iCal names and dates to the Newton. I’ve had no luck at all so far, besides a few to-do items syncing from iCal to the Newton’s Dates app, and I don’t guess it’ll get much better on Snow Leopard. I tried using NewtSync (above), but had no luck syncing anything.

The important message to take away is that, with software like NCX, it’s possible to connect your Newton, install packages, and do a few other tasks no matter which version of Mac OS X you’re using.

This may not always be the case. There could be some future OS X release that cripples any potential Newton-to-Mac connection. I would think it’d be in the areas of data syncing or unavailable drivers for serial adapters. But the newer MessagePads and eMates allow for Bluetooth compatibility, which shows no sign of going away.

I love how Google Chrome’s icons are a throwback to Susan Kare’s classic Macintosh icons.

This is the only one I’ve seen, but there are others that mimic the Sad Mac icon, too.

Grant Hutchinson warns the good folks over at the NewtonTalk mailing list that, with a server switcheroo, some outages might creep up.

Says Splorp:

Bill Shamam and I will be migrating the NewtonTalk mailing list and website to a new server within the next several days. This move will also involve switching the mailing list to run on new software. This is a necessary change as the current list software (eCartis) has not been supported or actively developed for several years.

With any transition that involves technology, data and the aethernets, things are bound to break. We will be doing our best to keep the downtime to a mimimum, but there will be gaps in the availability of the list and the website.

The mighty list admins will be using Mailman to power the e-mail list from now on.

Right now NewtonTalk.net is in fact down. Keep up-to-date on list happenings over at NewtonTalk’s Twitter account.

Get this. An attempt to sync my Address Book contacts and my iCal dates with the eMate. I’m using NewtSync with a Serial-to-USB adapter over USB on my iMac G4. And everything’s going fine (above).

Then this. What gives?

The process never finishes before this error message pops up. My eMate, though, has a lot of the information from iCal loaded from the sync, including repeating appointments. Address Book contact info, however, never makes it over to the eMate.

I’ve had issues syncing my eMate with anything on OS X. Guess I’ll keep trying.

Happy Halloween, everyone.

Via badbanana.

“Efforts by Palm, Microsoft, and Symbian to encourage the development of third party software for their mobile platforms, much like Apple’s early 90s attempt to market the original Newton MessagePad, largely just copied the desktop PC software model of letting developers ship retail boxes of software on their own. The result was less successful than the PC desktop, with generally poor quality and often unfinished software titles available at only relatively high prices.”

– Prince McLean at RoughlyDrafted Magazine.

The early days of the Newton featured this boxed-software model, but as the Internet came of age Newton users could find apps online. Now sites like UNNA.org (and sometimes eBay) are the only places to find available apps for the Newton.

These days, if you want something for your MessagePad or eMate, you’ve got to hunt for it.

Sometimes the best finds in life come from sheer accident.

That’s definitely the case with the plug-in USB charger I found in my local Meijer auto section while browsing through the aisles on a whim.

First, let me say I bought a new car – a 2004 Volkswagen Jetta 2.0L. I’ve always wanted one, and I got a real beauty at a great deal.

When I travel, though, I always make sure I have a way to listen to my music and charge my iPod or iPhone. The Jetta does not have an auxilery jack in the Monsoon stereo. What it does have, however, is a universal power outlet in the middle console.

Before, I’ve used products like Griffin’s RoadTrip and similar devices that transmit an iPod’s music through an FM signal to the stereo while charging the device.

I purchased a new RoadTrip last winter to work with my iPhone 3G. Over the summer, however, it was stolen out of my car. The killer is, these devices are not cheap – so it’s not like I can easily replace an FM transmitter. On average, they can run from $50 to $100.

But with my new car, I wanted something that would let me listen to my iPod music while driving. I hoped to find something on sale, or at a reasonable price. Unfortunately, I saw the same products at the same prices, and left the iPod gadget aisle.

Then I stopped in to the automotive section at Meijer and looked at the offerings there. What I saw surprised me: the car stereo section featured many of the same products as the iPod section, but from different manufacturers. And at much cheaper prices.

While browsing, a little gadget caught my eye. It was a simple power jack with two USB ports in the back. All it did was power a USB-controlled device, like a phone, digital camera, or MP3 player. That’s it.

And it was $5.

Where the heck has this little handy gadget been hiding? It was just what I needed: a convenient device that did one thing (charge my iPhone/iPod) through a USB connection. I could bring my Apple-provided USB cable, the same one I sync my iPhone with, along on car trips when I need the extra power.

For music playback, I went old school. My Jetta comes with a cassette tape player (that awful, awful technology), and I still had my cassette-to-CD player adapter from high school. Back then, I would bring my portable CD player and connect it through the adapter to my stereo. The adapter works with a simple 3.5 mm headphone connection, meaning I could plug it into the headphone jack in my iPod or iPhone and be in business.

So for $5 and an old relic, I have everything I need to listen to my music and charge my iPods.

I could even charge my Shuffle if I brought along its unique plug-in dock. Sure, this means a few cables (the USB cable, the cassette adapter cable) running around my middle console, but I sure can’t beat the price.

An added benefit is the audio fidelity. Before, with my FM transmitters, I’d fuss with the stereo and transmitter settings trying to find the right station without a bunch of static. Now, with something as simple as a cassette adapter, I get great sound. It’s not perfect, but it’s good enough.

The lesson I learned is sometimes simpler is better. I was lucky enough to have everything – a cassette player, a conveniently-placed power outlet – at my disposal. But I was also lucky enough to go shopping in my local retailer’s automotive section, too, which is something I didn’t know before.

Often, when you buy a product, you’re just buying the name. Some people claim that about Apple, of course, but in the case of iPod accessories, it really is true.