June 7th, 2010
Picture this: Jurassic Park, Smashing Pumpkins, and the Newton MessagePad were all released on the same year, 1993.
Which, for me, makes 1993 the nigh-perfect year. Jurassic Park is one of my all-time favorite movies (I saw it in the theaters three times), and Siamese Dream is the greatest rock record of the ’90s and on constant rotation in my iTunes collection.
The Newton? Well, it just goes without saying that it was a big release for Apple.
Plus The X-Files hit the Fox airwaves, Bill Clinton became President of the United States, André the Giant died, and I was twelve years old. All this random trivia brought to us by Stuff.tv. They assembled a “what happened that year” collection, and boy – 1993 was a very good year.
Posted by davelawrence8 at 7:41 am on June 7th, 2010. Categories: newton history. Tags: 1993, apple, jurassic park, siamese dream, smashing pumpkins, x-files. Subscribe via RSS.
December 9th, 2008
Found a cool blog, System Folder, that highlights a technology called Mac ‘n’ Touch – a precursor to the finger-controlled iPhone. Author Rick Mori dug through an 1993 copy of MacUser and found this Mac ‘n’ Touch technology, developed by MicroTouch, was an add-on to monitors that allowed users to interact with software without a keyboard or mouse.
Unlike the Newton, Mac ‘n’ Touch used a “capacitive sensor” that worked only with touch, not a stylus, much like today’s iPhone.
As you can imagine, this kind of innovation was aimed at the education market. Kids love to touch, right?
Read the rest of Rick’s post for more details. Touch-screen Mac rumors have been around for a while now, especially since the iPhone came out. It’s nice to see that a touch-controlled Mac isn’t such a new idea after all.
Posted by davelawrence8 at 6:16 am on December 9th, 2008. Categories: lowend, macs, newton history. Tags: 1993, apple, iphone, mac, macuser, messagepad, newton, platinum, stylus, system folder, tablet, touch screen. Subscribe via RSS.