Newton Poetry

Something called Magic Cap has been mentioned in the NewtonTalk mailing list lately. It has some resonance in the Newton community: Magic Cap was a competing PDA paradigm, and was helped along by two Apple pros – Bill Atkinson and Andy Hertzfeld.

Developed by General Magic, Magic Cap was an operating system that operated with a room-based metaphor: you did work in your office, you went in the hallway to grab an app, and maybe you strolled outside to get something else done. Tasks were assigned objects in each room, like a notebook to write notes or a file cabinet to access files.

Steven Levy, writing for Wired, gives a good description of the Magic Cap OS:

It had a very nice interface that obviously drew upon Bill’s HyperCard and Andy’s Mac interface, with the unmistakable graphic imprint of Susan Kare. The basic screen looked like a desktop with various tools; on the desk was a postcard that one could fill out and send to anyone…And incidentally, the interface does not use handwriting recognition. You can use a pen or your finger to draw or write on the screen, but digital text is entered with a virtual keyboard – which, surprisingly, doesn’t work too badly for short messages.

Sony (above) and Motorola, among others, developed hardware for the Magic Cap OS in the early ’90s. It became quite the operating system, using object-oriented programming and connecting with the Information Super Highway (this was the ’90s), mirroring both the user-friendliness of the Mac and the usefulness of the Newton.

Funny thing, though: there’s a psuedo-version of Magic Cap, General Magic 1.5, for the Newton.

Phil Muller pointed me to UNNA.org’s archived version of Magic Cap/General Magic. I read that the MessagePad’s version of General Magic only worked on Newton OS 1.3 systems, and that it had only been tested on MP120s.

My MP110, however, runs OS 1.3, so I downloaded the package file from UNNA and installed it using Newton Connection Kit (above). After a quick upload, I found General Magic in my Newton’s Extras – and what do you know, it launched fine.

General Magic presented a literal desktop interfact, complete with notepad (that led me back to Notes), calendar (that sent me to Dates), and both an Inbox and Outbox. In the upper corners of the screen, pointers directed me to the Hallway, where the rest of my packages – like Newtris and Pocket Money – sat inside picture frames. Click on the app icons with a stylus and the app opens up. Tony Kan over at My Apple Newton does a nice job of going through many of the Magic Cap apps and settings.

It’s a super-simple interface, and I supposed once you memorize what each icon represents (it wasn’t always intuitive for me), you can navigate your way around the Newton. General Magic is just another way to interface with the Newton OS (which is why it’s filed under “Backdrops” in UNNA’s archive), except with pictures and icons showing you where to go. It reminds me of Apple’s eWorld interface.

General Magic seems silly, though, when you need to make your way to your apps. Instead of the Extras drawer sliding up, showing you all your installed apps, you have to click your way down a hallway to view each app’s icon individually. I can’t imagine a circumstance where this would be easier than simply picking one icon from a few that are in the Newton’s Extras drawer.

Still, it’s a fun emulator to play with – especially considering Magic Cap was competing with the Newton back in the day.

It may have only been in jest, but Larry Dignan’s suggestion that the rumored Apple tablet be called a Newton seems a bit far-fetched.

But ZDNet’s editor isn’t the only one mentioning both devices, one true and one maybe true, in the run-up to some Apple product that has more possible release dates than Smile.

I haven’t dipped in to the Apple Tablet pool because, just like the iPhone before it, we have little way of knowing what it will include, how much it will cost, when it will be unleashed, and what groundbreaking new whiz-bang feature it will release upon the world. There’s just no way.

And frankly, Apple isn’t going to release another “Newton”-named product in this lifetime. This is not a company who relishes in the past, and certainly not one who would want to revive a questionably-successful product’s name when another would do just dandy.

[Via NewtonTalk.]

The New York Times’s Tech Talk podcast talked with Newton savior and Y2010 bug squasher Eckhart Köppen on avoiding Newtpocalypse, how the Newton stays relevant, and how to find a MessagePad or eMate.

It’s a great (but short) interview, and helps spread the Newton virus into the world at large.

“It is a device that does what it has to do. I keep most of my information on there,” Köppen says of his Newton. “It’s always there, and it’s really practical.”

Köppen brags about the Newton’s battery life, which is excellent, and about its data reliability.

“You don’t have to worry about your stuff when it’s on the Newton,” he says. “It keeps track of your stuff as you need it, when you need it.”

And hey, I learned that Köppen works for Nokia.

Check out the July 29 episode (iTunes link) for the full interview.

[Via System Folder.]

Tai Shimizu, a photo blogger, got his hands on a Newton MessagePad 2100 and posted his initial thoughts – along with some gorgeous isolated pictures of his new gadget.

Shimizu seems most impressed with the handwriting recognition capabilities and the user interface:

The UI of the Newton feels saturated with innovation, even when compared to new devices. The idea of the notepad being the centerpiece of the device is not only vastly different than current UI paradigms, but extremely useful due to the addition of the assist functionality.

The pictures, like the one above, are great.

The Worldwide Newton Conference 2009 took place over a week ago in Vancouver, BC, and John Coady at the NewtonTalk list offers his observations from the weekend’s festivities:

Larry Yaeger gave us a fascinating glimpse into the development of the Newton and, of course, the work that he spearheaded on the second generation print recognizer – which was based on the use of artificial neural networks – that made Newton OS 2.x so incredibly better than the original (non-Apple) version. We were shown some of the original Newton prototypes and development/testing equipment (I hope that one day these end up in a suitable exhibit in Apple’s own museum). Larry then took us on a short stroll into Polyworld where he currently explores the further application of neural networks, and their various properties, in artificial life systems (to me it looks just like a straight extension of his work on the Newton!!!).

Sounds like a blast, despite the low turnout.

I couldn’t make it, unfortunately, but WWNC organizer Ryan Vetter has posted materials from the conference at the WWNC 2009 site.

[Ed. note: I had “Dennis Coady” when it should have been “John Coady.” Sorry about that, John!]

Morgan Aldridge at Makkintosshu points to МУЗЕЙ APPLE NEWTON, a Russian site devoted to the MessagePad. There’s a page for each of the Newton models, OMP through the eMate, with technical descriptions for each, as well as a video, photos, and original Newton documentation.

It’s a good idea to run the site through Google Translate (Russian > English) so you could read the text.

“A beautifully designed museum site for Apple Newtons in Russian,” Aldridge says. “Especially excellent device photography as well.”

He’s right: some of the close up eMate shots are spectacular.

Morgan Aldridge has added the Newton MessagePad 2100 and eMate 200 to gdgt.com, “a place to get to know your gadgets even better.”

gdgt.com is a gadget social site, allowing users to “own” or “want” different gadgets, as well as rate them, give tips, and share their device collection.

The lineup also includes the OMP, MP110-130, and MP2000 models.

Hip hop hurray.

Newton savior Eckhart Köppen announced yesterday that the Newton eMate and German MessagePad 2100 Year 2010 patches are complete and ready for installation. These patches fix the dreaded Newtpocalypse on Newton OS 2.1 models.

Be sure to download the Y2010 patches at Köppen’s Sourceforge.net project page.

I’ll be running the patch on my own eMate, and will post a breakdown when it’s complete. In the meantime, if you have an MP2x00 or eMate, run these patches yourself and report back to Köppen if you face any troubles.

The entire Newton community appreciates Köppen’s work on this. Thanks to him, and all the volunteers who test the patches, our Newtons will keep running for the foreseeable future.

Eckhart Köppen is looking for testers for his eMate and German MP2100 Year 2010 patch. He says on his blog:

The Y2010 patches for the eMate and German MP2100 are ready, and they seem to work fine here, but I’d still like to give them more testing. Like with the first Y2010 patch, I’m looking for people who can either risk bricking a Newton (with me unbricking it), or who have access to a US MP2x00 to unbrick a Newton themselves via a ROM board swap. Note that I don’t expect any unbricking to be necessary, but you never know.

If you have a spare eMate or Deutschland MessagePad, you can help prevent Newtpocalypse.

Martin Hahn, developer of SBM Utilities for the Newton, has released the application (ZIP file) he uses to create registration codes for the app, essentially unlocking the app for all to use. Via Frank Gruendel at PDA Soft is hosting the file.

Hahn at Softwarebüro Müller has created many other packages for the Newton, including Icon Editor and Soup Transport.

[Via Newtontalk.]