See here, from this month’s issue of Wired. Looks like my little April Fool’s idea hit the big time:
iNewton: Turns your iPhone into a perfect re-creation of the coolest PDA of 1993.
Coolest PDA ever is more like it.
Now if only someone would take the idea seriously.
He may not even remember, but in August 2002, Leander Kahney of Cult of Mac posted a piece called “Newton’s Return: A hit and a myth” on Newton resurgence rumors after a New York Times piece hinted at something called…
The iPhone.
The Times claimed “…Steve Jobs was pushing development of a new PDA-cum-cell-phone. Dubbed the iPhone, the device would lead Apple back into the dangerous ‘land of handhelds,’ the Times opined,” Kahney writes.
Flash forward a little under five years later, and everything comes to fruition. Amazing.
A pair of researchers studying the Cult of Newton found that such “brand communities” predicted or spread rumors that the MessagePad would return five times between its death in 1998 to 2002. “Through detailed analysis of news groups and websites,” Kahney writes, “the researchers conclude that the rebirth rumor is central to the ethos of the Newton community.”
Jesus Phone, anyone?
Any return of the Newton would simply validate “the platform’s technical superiority. If it’s good enough to be reintroduced, it’s good enough to keep using, fans reason.” Amen, brother. And the Newton idea did stick around: calendars, notes, third-party apps, unique input mechanism, e-mail on a handheld – they’re all there on the iPhone today.
I couldn’t believe I saw the word “iPhone” pop up in an article from 2002. We all know that Apple started working on the iPhone years ago. But sometimes those crazy rumors have a way of surfacing – and resurfacing – time and time again.
Leander Kahney’s profile on Bill Atkinson, the original designer of Apple’s super-cool program HyperCard, has some folks feeling nostalgic for easy programming and cards arranged in stacks.
Which is cool. Stories about companies keeping inventory and invoicing duties on HyperCard – still to this day – remind us that old-school Apple is still usable and practical.
But how about for the Newton? Well, there’s NewtCard.
For $99, NewtCard
lets you put text, drawings, pictures and sound into a stack of smart cards. Add buttons to navigate, fields to collect data and scripts to bring your project alive with the tap of a pen. NewtCard is a Hypercard-like environment for Newton devices.
This according to NS Basic’s FAQ.
I’ve only played around with HyperCard on my Mac SE, but it seems HyperCard was an earlier version of HTML forms. In fact, Atkinson laments that his hyper-creation didn’t involve networking, or else it could’ve become the first (hyper)Web.
“Support is definitely limited,” George Henne of NS Basic says. “Still making NewtCard available makes absolutely no sense commercially, but it’s one of our favorite products of all time.”
A hundred bucks seems like a steep price for something to play around with on your Newt, but what the hey – HyperCard still has paying fans. Why not for MessagePad users?
Even better? NS Basic is offering a package deal: NewtCard AND NS Basic/CE for $99.95. Order it here.
“Please understand that it’s been years since we looked at the code,” Henne told the Newtontalk list. “We’ll do the best we can to help with support, but our memories are limited.”
Like it hasn’t happened before, right?
This time, our green friend made Wired.com’s “Lamest Fetish Items” list. Gear lust gone bad? Says Wired: “Most misunderstood gadget ever? Or biggest flop? Both.”
Flop this. Newton seems to appear on every list ever made by a technology-based site, for good or ill.
Enough’s enough already, folks. We know the MessagePad was both cool for the time and a big commercial flop. We get it.
Happy Memorial Day.
An oldie but goodie: a 2004 Cult of Mac story about bloggers using their Newtons to upload posts.
Mike (above) runs his Dumb Blogs Have More Fun moblog “almost entirely from his Newton.” What makes the Newton so handy for moblogs? Says Kahney:
the important thing for moblogging is the Newton’s portability; because it’s easy to carry, it’s always handy, and moblogging becomes a regular habit. The same is true of camera phones.
Unfortunately the link to Mike’s blog doesn’t work (you’ll notice that a lot with Newton sites), but this was an interesting look into the beginnings of the blogging craze – especially because it involves Newtons.
Leander Kahney, author of the Cult of Mac blog, got a cover piece wondering if Apple is an evil genius (and it’s caused quite the reaction).
What caught my eye, however, was the binding on the cover of the magazine. Notice anything?
Look here:
Wired had a bit of fun with the old-school Apple logo colors – placing them in the original order, even.
I didn’t even notice it when my subscription edition came, but today I sat at my desk, turned around, and *BAM* it hit me. The old Apple rainbow.
Say what you will about Wired pimping their writers’ upcoming books, or their stance on whether Apple is “evil” or not (because they do things differently?), but their design is fun. If you’re not an Apple fan, you may not have even noticed the subtle clue.
In spite of everything, thanks for the nod, Wired.
Screw you, Wired.com:
Arguably the most famous Apple flop of all, the Newton (which was actually the name of the OS and not the device) started out as a top-secret project with a lofty goal: to reinvent personal computing. During its development, the Newton took on many forms, such as the tabletlike “Cadillac” prototype, before its eventual release in 1993 as a smaller and considerably less revolutionary PDA. Although the Newton was available for six years (longer than most other Apple flops), it was a prime example of an idea that was simply ahead of its time, and sales never lived up to Apple’s expectations. When Steve Jobs resumed his stewardship of Apple in 1997, one of the first things he did was to axe the subsidiary Newton Systems Group. By the following February, the Newton was dead.
From their “Learning from Failure: Apple’s Most Notorious Flops” lineup.
Great minds – and web sites – think alike.
My post on the other iPhone.
Wired.com’s post on the other iPhone.
The difference is Wired has access to Linksys reps and great sources.
I wonder if something is in the water.
Back in January, when the iPhone was first announced, Leander Kahney did a roundup of what Newton users thought of the iPhone.
Newton users, he said, were still angry at Steve Jobs for killing the Newton:
But in the meantime, they’ve kept the platform very much alive and technologically current…Thanks to the efforts of hundreds of active Newton users, the Newton supports things like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and memory cards. It can synchronize with OS X and iTunes, just like an iPod.
Albert Muniz said, “”It fails to include a key part of the Newton’s soul – handwriting recognition.”
Plus, says NewtonSales owner, Marsh Man, the iPhone’s constant thirst for power makes it lag behind the Newton in stamina: “The battery life with a refurbished battery pack will enable you to use this device for 40+ hours on a single charge, making it something a student could use for a couple of weeks or more in class taking notes before having to worry about charging the device.”
Keep in mind, this was back in January. I wonder if any thoughts have changed since summer, when the iPhone was released.
Cult of Mac had an interesting refresher on Wired’s “101 Ways to save Apple” story that ran in 1997.
Here’s number 15:
15. Dump (or outsource) the Newton, eMate, digital cameras, and scanners.
Huh. How about that. Interesting on number 59:
59. Invest heavily in Newton technology, which is one area where Microsoft can’t touch you. Build voice recognition and better gesture recognition into Newton, making a new environment for desktop, laptop, and palmtop Macs. Newton can also be the basis of a new generation of embedded systems, from cash registers to kiosks.
So which was it? Apple, at the time, was swimming in a sea of “we don’t know what the hell we are.” If they had stuck to the Newton and really ran with it, it could’ve been Apple’s iPod before there was an iPod. Let’s face it – the iPod helped save Apple. Now look what the iPhone is doing.
Speaking of which – how prophetic:
31. Build a PDA for less than $250 that actually does something: a) cellular email b) 56-channel TV c) Internet phone.
Thanks to Cult of Mac for reminding us of Apple’s conflicted frame of mind about the MessagePad.
