“Apple Inc, which helped spawn the PDA market with its Newton MessagePad line in the early ’90s, plans to give the concept another go with a modern day reincarnation of the old fan favorite based on the company’s new mutli-touch technology,” Kasper Jade reports for AppleInsider.
“With the initial iPhone now out the door and two successive models well underway in Apple’s labs, it’s believed to be full steam ahead for the modern day Newton project. Like iPhone and the iPod touch, the new device runs an embedded version of Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard operating system,” Jade reports. “Externally, the mutil-touch PDA has been described by sources as an ultra-thin ‘slate’ akin to the iPhone, about 1.5 times the size and sporting an approximate 720×480 high-resolution display that comprises almost the entire surface of the unit.”
“More broadly characterized as Apple’s answer to the ultra-mobile PC, the next-gen device is believed to be tracking for a release sometime in the first half of 2008,” Jade reports.
More, including an artist rendition of the rumored device, in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “MacVicta” for the heads up.]
BRING IT ON!
I still have an eMate 300 that has WiFi. It’s soooo cool.
I miss the Newton. Great device, way too early for the market though. People couldn’t understand the product.
at last I can then replace my newtons.
I have 5 in working order.
1 with bluetooth and wifi.
Bullshit.
Seriously–between iPhone and touch (and maybe Macbook), I think we’ve got all the hybridization we’re getting for a while. We’re only going to see variations on these concepts.
A multitouch Newton seems a bit redundant in this day and age, considering the iPod touch or iPhone could easily fill the role with software.
This makes perfect sense as a product. The iPhone is pretty much a PDA that does a lot more, but it comes with a service contract. The iPod Touch is an iPod and iPods have never allowed any form of input to the device that can be saved other than song selection. You can’t enter text or addresses or anything else. The PDA version would be the iPod Touch that adds the ability to input text into email, calendar, notes, etc. It would lack the phone part though, thus it would be cheaper over a couple years than the iPhone.
This is exactly what I am hoping happens. It would fill the void that exists between the iPod Touch and the iPhone. The void being the lack of text input and email without the expensive service contract.
Yeah Baby! Now that’s what I’m talkin about!
I seriously doubt this will happen.
PDA’s are so….. 90’s!
iPod Touch and iPhone are more than capable of filling any of those needs with some software.
How do you guys get wifi and bluetooth on yours? I am still trying to keep mine useful. Everyone I’ve shown it to (who haven’t heard of the Newton) is blown away by the interface. All I need now is wifi and bluetooth to keep it current.
I think this is the new category that Phil Schiller mentioned. It would sell like hotcakes.
So that explain why they took out the ability to edit calendars on the iPod Touch.
Yes, I believe my iPhone ‘eInstein’ is years ahead of the Newton…
Relativitily speaking.
MW:efforts
Just open up the iPhone to third party apps and it will be better than the newton. Allow people to create, edit, and store files and the iPhone can completely replace my laptop when I am traveling. And if it had a BT/WiFi/Wireless connector for a video projector for presentations, I would have everything I wanted.
(the cord is too short for the conference rooms I use)
Maybe this has something to do with the $200 price drop on the iPhones recently. They’re about to introduce something in the price range where the iPhones used to be.
I’ve been hearing for about eight months that something like this was in development, but it’s hard to say if those rumors are true.
Could be though, makes sense from what we’ve heard.
why??
other than the whole not having to have a service contract with a mobile phone provider, i don’t understand this. i mean, isn’t the iphone pretty much a pda (with mobile phone capability)?
idk, maybe there’s a market for it somewhere, but i thought ppl were trying to do away with having to lug around a thousand diff devices.
Once again Apple has sniffed out Microsoft secret project regarding the re-incarnation of MS BOB. By leaking rumors of Newton, Apple hopes to take the thunder away from this impending announcement from Bill Gates and Ballmer. MS BOB was the forefront of consumer UI excellence. Unfortunately, the market was too naive to understand the new system. Many Mac OS Fanboys spread lies and rumors regarding MS BOB. The cutting edge search help system with the friendly doggy interface was ridiculed because of pure jealousy. The new BOB will be an embeded version for Zune 2.0 and will have the new high speed protocol “WMME” ( Wi-Mad-Max-Extreme ).
@Newtontard
Check this link:
http://www.kallisys.com/newton/morewifi/
Also just search Google for Newton wifi.
Lots of underground support.
I have just a small question; we now have the touchscreen iPhone, touchscreen iPod and touchscreen PDA. Variety is certainly nice, but do you think they will eventually include all of the PDA features into the iPhone? Why hasn’t Apple embraced business application compability that Blackberry has, such as the ability to connect to an Outlook server?
This is STUPID…just upgrade the iPhone and the iPod touch’s features and you’ve got a Newton on steriods. Don’t clutter up the product line, folks…Apple is not that stupid. Now, a 10″ flash based Macbook is another story.
Why do you think Palm dropped their phone assisted device? Uh huh!
Here is another great article on Syncing a Newton with a modern Mac.
http://douglasjohnston.net/weblog/archives/2007/06/03/newton-syncing/
Got my kids three e-Mate 300’s to use. Very indestructable and usefull.
Ahhh…
Isn’t the iPhone pretty much already a Newton?
I mean, just add some more software and you have a Newton.
oh boy … if you think the complaints about crippling were bad on the iPod touch relative to the iPhone, just wait until this thing comes out.
Apple makes this gamble all the time: more expensive with more features. People respond with the same complaint all the time: the differences between the various products are artificially imposed to justify the higher price.
Apple usually wins this fight because the higher end product has something people want and are (reluctantly) willing to pay for.
As someone without a mobile phone, PDA, or current Gen iPod (still rocking with the 3G model and 1G nano), i’m curious to see how this turns out.
PDA marketshare and usage is declining while Smartphone adoption is increasing year over year. Apple knows this and therefore will not be pursuing a stale concept in electronics. They have their smartphone (iPhone) and now their wirelessly enabled PVP (iPod Touch), there’s no reason to crowd the market segment with any additional devices. This rumor is completely baseless, we need look no further than Palm to see the effects of the PDA market…
“I skate to where the puck is going” remember?
Apple needs to launch the “iBandolier”, so I can clip my iPod 3G, iPod 5G, my iPod Mini, my iPhone, my soon-to-be Apple PDA and a holster for my MacBook Pro.
A place for pens would be nice too.