“We pitted the Apple Newton Messagepad against the latest Samsung Q1 ultra-mobile PC (Origami project), and — despite being a decade old — the Newton won. Find out why by checking out the blow-by-blow account here. If you’d like to add your thoughts on the results of the match, click on the comments button below,” Crave at CNET.co.uk writes.
“Apple launched the Newton over ten years ago, but it failed to capture the public’s imagination and was ultimately discontinued. Many critics held the view that the Newton failed, not because it was a badly designed product, but because it was simply ahead of its time — a market for ultra-mobile computers simply didn’t exist back then,” Crave writes. “A decade on and it seems we’ve learnt little about mobile computer design. Apple’s Newton trumped Samsung’s offering with two knockout punches in our head-to-head battle.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The Newton 2100 is still amazing technology; truly ahead of its time. Imagine what it would be today had the project never been axed. Some might even go as far as to say that Apple is working diligently to morph iPod into a Newton right now.
Related articles:
Apple Newton fans keep platform alive – September 03, 2004
Apple’s Newton will never die: Newton-powered mobile blogging – May 05, 2004
Apple’s Newton: the PDA that just won’t die – March 24, 2003
Five years ago today Jobs axed Newton – February 27, 2003
Woot! I love me some Newty Newt Goodness!
MDN MW: trade, as in, How long before these Koreans trade in their Origami’s for MP2001’s?
I love my newton 2000! I even used it in most of my classes last semester.
Cute article.
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I still like my Newton. I’d be using it if I could find the short that’s draining the batteries.
“Some might even go as far as to say that Apple is working diligently to morph iPod into a Newton right now.”
Actually, if you’d like to see what Apple is planning on morphing the iPod into, you should go watch old episodes of the cartoon TRANSFORMERS
Thats right, the iPod, in two years time, is going to be a fully functional, ass kicking robot truck known as Optimus Prime.
“Some might even go as far as to say that Apple is working diligently to morph iPod into a Newton right now.”
Wait–I thought Apple has a KISS philosophy? Wouldn’t that violate it? I’d say the iPod and the (possible re-released) Newton would be separate products.
Call me an idiot, but what is a KISS
philosophy? Oh wait, wait, I know
what it is!
“rock and roll all night and party every day”
Perhaps the Newton was too far ahead of its time; if iPods morph into the new Newtons, it’s because the audience is now ready for it.
The Newton 2000 series was really ahead of it’s
time. I used to refurbish them when I worked for
a reseller. They were quite expensive and still
sold pretty well. Even the very first Newton
(Message Pad 100?) had great handwriting
recognition, once you trained yourself, that is.
Well I had an old Newton 120 back in the days… I’ve always secretly lusted after a 2000. This review got me wondering, but I can’t find a decent video player for the Newton. I googled around and nothing like the Core Pocket Media Player for Newton could be found. Also, seriously… I have an Intel Mac, and it seems nSync isn’t being developed anymore, the NewtonWorks docs can’t be opened on my Mac, and most of the connection software requires classic. I’ll probably just go with a Treo.
Please bring Newton back to life…………………
Until Apple release a similar product, it is like comparing Apples to oranges.
Incredible!
I heard about the Newton, but never cared much about them, and all those guys still celebrating them seemed to me to run in the same vein as all the die-hard Amiga users (sniff… Amiga!).
I’ve got a Palm T3 (best palmtop Palm ever produced, and still better than their newest offerings), and use it every day for work and leisure; it syncs great with the Mac and I’m happy.
But now… wow! I’m seriously considering getting one of those Newtons.
Unfortunately Steve hates the Newton, and there’ll never be another one, no matter how much wishful thinking is going around… but if they do bring a nPod out, I’d buy one in a heartbeat!
Thorin:
KISS is a design principle/philosophy Microsoft would be well advised to listen to.
KISS:
Keep
It
Simple,
Stupid!
I still use my Newton 2100. I’ve upgraded it with a WiFi card to access the Internet via my iMac’s AirPort connection.
Ocasionally, I drop in on MDN using the 2100 on the road.
‘Ocasionally’ = ‘Occasionally’
Sigh!
No, no, no. KISS = Kippers Intimidate Selfish Sycophants.
While Apple may have discontinued the Newton the community still thrives and is still adding things to the overall Newton experience.
All you have to do is check out the newton talk mailing list archives and see that tons of cool things are still going on (like an emulator to let you run Newton OS on linux based PDA’s, wirelss, USB and loads of other things)
http://www.newtontalk.net/archive/
One thing I forgot was that some Newton technology lives on in actuive use in OS X
If you use InkWell it is the Newton handwriting recognition engine in there
I keep trying to replace my Newton 2100 with a Palm: Palm V, Treo, Handspring, even a cool Sony Clie PEG-UX50. I realized I kept trying to _replace_ my Newton, which is impossible. None of the others even tried to learn my handwriting, which my N2100 does perfectly.
MDNSW: “standard” as in, “Newton, the gold standard”.
I had a couple of Newtons, including the 2100. Great device. Mine slipped out of my jacket pocket in an airline storage bin. If any of you found it, I would like to have it back please. I have never found a better business organizer because the 2100 handled my handwriting and printing so well. I would love to see a resurrection of the Newton!
The iPod will NOT be morphing into a Newton! That name carries way too much baggage for Apple to use it again.
Now … about the possibility that the vPod will bear a huge resemblance to a Newton 2100 with a million-color screen …
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”surprised” style=”border:0;” /> Wouldn’t run OS X, I suspect, just a next-gen of what it already had. Wouldn’t get 30 hours on four AAs, either … maybe 10 (four times what the Samsung gets. Same old stylus? And some neat in-screen controls.
As much like a Newton as a G3 running Jaguar and a G5 running Panther.
Hang-in there guys, Newton may be back (or at least the tech behind it). If you all remember, The Great One upon returning to our favorite fruit company, wanted to sell the Newt to anyone interested ( Probably because it was developed under The Scull Man). But, at the last minute he pulled it off the shelf and buried it for the future. Now the time may be right, maybe not for the Newton comeback, but for an upgraded, present day version of it’s tech. Not a bigger iPod, but something in between an iPod and a MacBook. Since Apple’s alliance with InTel, there has been talk of a mini laptop.
The iPod is not being “morphed” into a Newton exactly. I think it will become the “hub” of a wearable computer system. But that means there might be a thin pad-like accessory that functions like a Newton, but the data storage and heavy processing will be handled on the iPod, connected wirelessly like with the Nike running kit.
I never owned a Newton, it would have been fun watching it evolve and shrink. There might have been a “Newt Phone” by now.
toolazytotell,
thanks for the info, and the link.
The Newton is alive and well thanks to the Einstein project!
http://www.kallisys.com/newton/einstein/
It’s a Newton emulator that runs in Mac OS X or the Sharp Linux based PDA. Runs pretty well in Mac OS X and is great for showing off the technology to those unfortunate enough to never have tried one.