Newton Poetry

This time, Jon Rettinger promises more reviews of the actual Newton OS features, which should be fun.

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.

Fancy leather satchel? Check. Gun? Check.

Newton MessagePad? Check!

Here’s a scene from Under Siege 2, starring the acting superstar Steve Seagal, where the Newton helps to save the day.

Shucks, it’s virtually a commercial for the little gadget.

I just hope it doesn’t reveal too many of those top-secret recipes.

PowerbookMedic takes apart a Newton MessagePad:

If the iPhone 3GS had parents, its father would be the iPhone 3G, and its mother would be the 1st Gen iPhone. If it had a Grandma, that would unequivocally have to be the Apple Newton. We’ve done teardown videos on all of the iPhone models, and so it seemed only logical (and respectful) to give the Newton the same honor.

A few things struck me about this video: the infomercial music, the rate of unscrewing screws (what, no fast forward?), and the brave use of a soldering iron. Maybe it’s early, but taking a red-hot poker to my Newton is a bit too advanced for me.

Anyway, a good how-to if you feel like getting your hands dirty.

[Via NewtonTalk.]

A bit of fun today. It was only a matter of time before someone would parody the “Congrats, It’s a PC” ads by Microsoft.

Apple has already responded in their smug way, but this kind of thing is much better. I mean, not even the homeless guy will buy an HP.

I wonder how Blue Ray compatibility would help Homeless Frank’s cough?

Sadly, YouTube took the sound away from this Newton tribute video promoting WWNC 2009.

You can view a Quicktime version with sound on the WWNC page.

Did you notice Mr. Ballmer’s picture on there, at the end? It comes from my post about FSB a while back.

You know me: I’m always a sucker for a good iMac G4 appearance.

Back in December, I went to see The Verve Pipe play in East Lansing, Michigan (their hometown – about an hour north of me). A great post-grunge, straight-up-rock band, The Verve Pipe put on an amazing show. I looked up their videos on YouTube and found the one for “Happiness Is,” starring an old friend:

“Happiness Is” shows singer Brian Vander Ark wooing his lady friend with thoughtful gifts while she’s at work. The video, dating back to 2001 or 2002, would place the iMac she’s using in the brand-spanking-new category.

While not as classic as the Macs in the Tragically Hip video, this one holds a special place in my heart.

Happy National Bring Your Mac To Work Day, everyone.

Wait, what? You’ve never heard of NBYMTWD?

Here’s how it started. I have some video projects to do at work, and Microsoft Movie Maker just isn’t cutting it. First, I’m new to video editing and codecs and file types. Second, Movie Maker will only let you edit movies in a certain format.

My solution? Bring my iBook to work. The MPEG files I have will work fine with iMovie (I think), and I can do some translating with VLC.

Plus, I can set aside the Dell and work with a real computer.

I almost brought my PowerMac G4, just so I could use my work LCD and keyboard, but the G4’s video card isn’t up to snuff – I got a warning that said transitions and the Ken Burns Effect might not work without a Quartz Extreme-compatible video card. Oh well.

January 9. Let this be a day we can revisit every year: bring your Mac to work to get things done. Make it a good one!

Boy, do I feel like a goober. A commenter on my “DVD-ROM doom and gloom” post, Seele, pointed me to a how-to article on switching the optical drive in a blue and white Power Macintosh G3. Here I had been having issues getting the drive tray out from the inside of my PowerMac G4; it turns out I was going about it all wrong.

My objective was to switch out the CD-ROM drive in the PowerMac with a DVD-ROM drive I picked up on eBay. Looking back at the original post, you can see where it all went wrong:

Early on, though, I found several obstacles – including ill-placed screws holding the CD-ROM drive (one placed behind the drive, facing the other side of the PowerMac, which is impossible to get to) and power supply in place. The power supply’s screw was put in such a spot that one would need an L-shaped screwdriver of some sort, while the CD-ROM’s hidden screw requires the abilities of Plastic Man.

In other words, I was trying to unscrew screws that couldn’t be unscrewed. What commenter Seele pointed out to me was I needed to start in the front of the PowerMac G4 by taking off the plastic drive covers.

A quick Google search brought me to this classic Quicktime video from Apple about how to get it done. Watching that, I couldn’t believe my own foolishness. Why hadn’t I just did some research before plowing into this project?

More… »

Old iPhone commercial music and all.