Apple Newton
Encyclopedia
The MessagePad was the first series of personal digital assistant
devices developed by Apple for the Newton platform
in 1993. Some electronic engineering and the manufacture of Apple's MessagePad devices was done in Japan
by the Sharp Corporation
. The devices were based on the ARM
610 RISC processor and all featured handwriting recognition
software and were developed and marketed by Apple. The devices ran the Newton OS
.
2.0, the Newton Keyboard by Apple became available, which can also be used via the dongle on Newton devices with a Newton InterConnect port, most notably the Apple MessagePad 2000/2100 series, as well as the Apple eMate 300
.
Newton devices featuring Newton OS 2.1 or higher can be used with the screen turned horizontally ("landscape") as well as vertically ("portrait"). A change of a setting rotates the contents of the display by 90, 180 or 270 degrees. Handwriting recognition still works properly with the display rotated, although display calibration is needed when rotation in any direction is used for the first time or when the Newton device is reset.
, or a mix of the two. By contrast, Palm Pilot's Graffiti had a less sophisticated design than Calligrapher, but was sometimes found to be more accurate and precise due to its reliance on a fixed, predefined stroke alphabet. The stroke alphabet used letter shapes which resembled standard handwriting, but which were modified to be both simple and very easy to differentiate. Palm Computing
also released two versions of Graffiti for Newton devices. Ironically, the Newton version sometimes performed better and could also show strokes as they were being written as input was done on the display itself, rather than on a silkscreen area.
For editing text, Newton had a very intuitive system for handwritten editing, such as scratching out words to be deleted, circling text to be selected, or using written caret
s to mark inserts.
Later releases of the Newton operating system
retained the original recognizer for compatibility, but added a hand-printed-text-only (not cursive
) recognizer, called "Rosetta", which was developed by Apple, included in version 2.0 of the Newton operating system
, and refined in Newton 2.1. Rosetta is generally considered a significant improvement and many reviewers, testers, and most users consider the Newton 2.1 handwriting recognition software better than any of the alternatives even 10 years after it was introduced. Recognition and computation of handwritten horizontal and vertical formulas such as "1 + 2 =" was also under development but never released. However, users wrote similar programs which could evaluate mathematical formulas using the Newton OS Intelligent Assistant, a unique part of every Newton device.
The handwriting recognition and parts of the user interface for the Newton are best understood in the context of the broad history of Pen computing
, which is quite extensive.
A vital feature of the Newton handwriting recognition system is the modeless error correction
. That is, correction done in situ
without using a separate window or widget, using a minimum of gestures. If a word is recognized improperly, the user could double-tap the word and a list of alternatives would pop up in a menu under the stylus. Most of the time, the correct word will be in the list. If not, a button at the bottom of the list allows the user to edit individual characters in that word. Other pen gestures could do such things as transpose letters (also in situ
). The correction popup also allowed the user to revert to the original, un-recognized letter shapes - this would be useful in note-taking scenarios if there was insufficient time to make corrections immediately. To conserve memory and storage space, alternative recognition hypotheses would not be saved indefinitely. If the user returned to a note a week later, for example, they would only see the best match. Error correction in many current handwriting systems provides such functionality but adds more steps to the process, greatly increasing the interruption to a user's workflow that a given correction requires.
virtual keyboard
, although more layouts were developed by users. Newton devices could also accept free-hand "Sketches", "Shapes", and "Ink Text", much like a desktop computer graphics tablet
. With "Shapes", Newton could recognize that the user was attempting to draw a circle, a line, a polygon
, etc., and it would clean them up into perfect vector
representations (with modifiable control points and defined vertices) of what the user was attempting to draw. "Shapes" and "Sketches" could be scaled
or deformed once drawn. "Ink text" captured the user's free-hand writing but allowed it to be treated somewhat like recognized text when manipulating for later editing purposes ("ink text" supported word wrap
, could be formatted to be bold, italic, etc.). At any time a user could also direct their Newton device to recognize selected "ink text" and turn it into recognized text (deferred recognition). A Newton note (or the notes attached to each contact in Names and each Dates calendar or to-do event) could contain any mix of interleaved text, Ink Text, Shapes, and Sketches.
s—round Mini-DIN 8 connectors
. The MessagePad 2000/2100 models (as well as the eMate 300) have a small, proprietary Newton InterConnect port. However, the development of the Newton hardware/software platform
was canceled by Steve Jobs
on February 27, 1998, so the InterConnect port, while itself very advanced, can only be used to connect a serial dongle. A prototype multi-purpose InterConnect device containing serial, audio in, audio out, and other ports was also discovered. In addition, all Newton devices have infrared
connectivity, initially only the Sharp ASK
protocol, but later also IrDA
, though the Sharp ASK protocol was kept in for compatibility reasons. Unlike the Palm Pilot, all Newton devices are equipped with a standard PC Card
expansion slot (two on the 2000/2100). This allows native modem and even Ethernet
connectivity; Newton users have also written drivers
for 802.11b wireless networking cards and ATA-type flash memory
cards (including the popular CompactFlash
format), as well as for Bluetooth
cards. Newton can also dial a phone number through the built-in speaker of the Newton device by simply holding a telephone handset up to the speaker and transmitting the appropriate tones. Fax and printing support is also built in at the operating system level, although it requires peripherals such as parallel adapters, PCMCIA cards, or serial modems, the most notable of which is the lightweight Newton Fax Modem released by Apple in 1993. It is powered by 2 AA batteries, and can also be used with a power adapter. It provides data transfer at 2400 bit/s, and can also send and receive fax messages at 9600 and 4800 bit/s respectively.
. They were eventually replaced by AA batteries with the release of the Apple MessagePad 110.
The use of 4 AA
NiCd (MessagePad 110, 120 and 130) and 4x AA NiMH
cells (MP2x00 series, eMate 300
) give a runtime of up to 30 hours (MP2100 with two 20 MB Linear Flash
memory PC Card
s, no backlight usage) and up to 24 hours with backlight on. While adding more weight to the handheld Newton devices than AAA batteries or custom battery packs, the choice of an easily replaceable/rechargeable cell format gives the user a still unsurpassed runtime and flexibility of power supply. This, together with the flash memory
used as internal storage starting with the Apple MessagePad 120 (if all cells lost their power, no data was lost due to the non-volatility of this storage), gave birth to the slogan "Newton never dies, it only gets new batteries".
SA-110 RISC processor, Newton OS 2.1, and a better, clearer, backlit screen, attracted critical plaudits.
Critics also panned the handwriting recognition
that was available in the debut models, which had been trumpeted in the Newton's marketing campaign. It was this problem that was skewered in the Doonesbury
comic strips and the animated television series The Simpsons
. Not even the word 'freckles' was in the dictionary, though the user could add it themselves. The real case was that the advanced Calligrapher handwriting recognition software needed to adjust to the user's handwriting; this process could take anywhere from two weeks to two months.
Another factor which limited the early Newton devices' appeal was that desktop connectivity was not included in the basic retail package, a problem that was later solved with 2.x Newton devices - these were bundled with a serial cable and the appropriate Newton Connection Utilities software.
Later versions of Newton OS offered improved handwriting recognition, quite possibly a leading reason for the continued popularity of the devices among Newton users. Even given the age of the hardware and software, Newtons still demand a sale price on the used market far greater than that of comparatively aged PDAs produced by other companies. In 2006 CNET
compared an Apple MessagePad 2000 to a Samsung Q1
, and the Newton was declared better. In 2009, CNET
compared an Apple MessagePad 2000 to an iPhone
, and the Newton was still declared better.
A dedicated Newton store existed in the mid-1990's in Westwood Village, California, near U.C.L.A. It featured the trademark red and yellow lightbulb Newton logo in the form of an internally lit plastic sign on the storefront facade. This store sold Newton hardware, accessories, and third-party software such as games.
Notes: The eMate 300 actually has ROM chips silked screened with 2.2 on them. Stephanie Mak on her website http://www.felesmagus.com/newton/otheremate.html discusses this:
If one removes all patches to the eMate 300 (by replacing the ROM chip, and then putting in the original one again, as the eMate and the MessagePad 2000/2100 devices erase their memory completely after replacing the chip), the result will be the Newton OS saying that this is version 2.2.00. Also, the Original MessagePad and the MessagePad 100 share the same model number, as they only differ in the ROM chip version. (The OMP has OS versions 1.0 to 1.05, or 1.10 to 1.11, while the MP100 has 1.3 that can be upgraded with various patches.)
There were a number of projects that used the Newton as a portable information device in cultural settings such as museums. For example, Visible Interactive created a walking tour in San Francisco's Chinatown but the most significant effort took place in Malaysia at the Petronas
Discovery Center, known as Petrosains.
In 1995, an exhibit design firm, DMCD Inc., was awarded the contract to design a new 100000 square feet (9,290.3 m²) science museum in the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. A major factor in the award was the concept that visitors would use a Newton device to access additional information, find out where they were in the museum, listen to audio, see animations, control robots and other media, and to bookmark information for printout at the end of the exhibit.
The device became known as the ARIF, a Malay word for "wise man" or "seer" and it was also an acronym for A Resourceful Informative Friend. Some 400 ARIFS were installed and over 300 are still in use today. The development of the ARIF system was extremely complex and required a team of hardware and software engineers, designers, and writers. ARIF is an ancestor of the PDA systems used in museums today and it boasted features that have not been attempted since.
Personal digital assistant
A personal digital assistant , also known as a palmtop computer, or personal data assistant, is a mobile device that functions as a personal information manager. Current PDAs often have the ability to connect to the Internet...
devices developed by Apple for the Newton platform
Newton (platform)
The Newton platform was an early personal digital assistant and the first tablet platform developed by Apple, the second platform being iOS, used in the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Development of the Newton platform started in 1987 and officially ended on February 27, 1998. Some electronic...
in 1993. Some electronic engineering and the manufacture of Apple's MessagePad devices was done in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
by the Sharp Corporation
Sharp Corporation
is a Japanese multinational corporation that designs and manufactures electronic products. Headquartered in Abeno-ku, Osaka, Japan, Sharp employs more than 55,580 people worldwide as of June 2011. The company was founded in September 1912 and takes its name from one of its founder's first...
. The devices were based on the ARM
ARM architecture
ARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced...
610 RISC processor and all featured handwriting recognition
Handwriting recognition
Handwriting recognition is the ability of a computer to receive and interpret intelligible handwritten input from sources such as paper documents, photographs, touch-screens and other devices. The image of the written text may be sensed "off line" from a piece of paper by optical scanning or...
software and were developed and marketed by Apple. The devices ran the Newton OS
Newton OS
Newton OS was the operating system for the Apple Newton PDAs produced by Apple from 1993-1997. Newton OS was written entirely in C++ and trimmed to be low power consuming and use the available memory efficiently...
.
Screen and input
With the MessagePad 120 with Newton OSNewton OS
Newton OS was the operating system for the Apple Newton PDAs produced by Apple from 1993-1997. Newton OS was written entirely in C++ and trimmed to be low power consuming and use the available memory efficiently...
2.0, the Newton Keyboard by Apple became available, which can also be used via the dongle on Newton devices with a Newton InterConnect port, most notably the Apple MessagePad 2000/2100 series, as well as the Apple eMate 300
EMate 300
The eMate 300 was a personal digital assistant designed, manufactured and sold by Apple to the education market as a low-cost laptop running the Newton operating system...
.
Newton devices featuring Newton OS 2.1 or higher can be used with the screen turned horizontally ("landscape") as well as vertically ("portrait"). A change of a setting rotates the contents of the display by 90, 180 or 270 degrees. Handwriting recognition still works properly with the display rotated, although display calibration is needed when rotation in any direction is used for the first time or when the Newton device is reset.
Handwriting recognition
In initial versions (Newton OS 1.x) the handwriting recognition gave extremely mixed results for users and was sometimes inaccurate. The original handwriting recognition engine was called Calligrapher, and was licensed from a Russian company called Paragraph International. Calligrapher's design was quite sophisticated; it attempted to learn the user's natural handwriting, using a database of known words to make guesses as to what the user was writing, and could interpret writing anywhere on the screen, whether hand-printed, in cursiveCursive
Cursive, also known as joined-up writing, joint writing, or running writing, is any style of handwriting in which the symbols of the language are written in a simplified and/or flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing easier or faster...
, or a mix of the two. By contrast, Palm Pilot's Graffiti had a less sophisticated design than Calligrapher, but was sometimes found to be more accurate and precise due to its reliance on a fixed, predefined stroke alphabet. The stroke alphabet used letter shapes which resembled standard handwriting, but which were modified to be both simple and very easy to differentiate. Palm Computing
Palm, Inc.
Palm, Inc., was a smartphone manufacturer headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, that was responsible for products such as the Pre and Pixi as well as the Treo and Centro smartphones. Previous product lines include the PalmPilot, Palm III, Palm V, Palm VII, Zire and Tungsten. While their older...
also released two versions of Graffiti for Newton devices. Ironically, the Newton version sometimes performed better and could also show strokes as they were being written as input was done on the display itself, rather than on a silkscreen area.
For editing text, Newton had a very intuitive system for handwritten editing, such as scratching out words to be deleted, circling text to be selected, or using written caret
Caret
Caret usually refers to the spacing symbol ^ in ASCII and other character sets. In Unicode, however, the corresponding character is , whereas the Unicode character named caret is actually a similar but lowered symbol: ....
s to mark inserts.
Later releases of the Newton operating system
Newton OS
Newton OS was the operating system for the Apple Newton PDAs produced by Apple from 1993-1997. Newton OS was written entirely in C++ and trimmed to be low power consuming and use the available memory efficiently...
retained the original recognizer for compatibility, but added a hand-printed-text-only (not cursive
Cursive
Cursive, also known as joined-up writing, joint writing, or running writing, is any style of handwriting in which the symbols of the language are written in a simplified and/or flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing easier or faster...
) recognizer, called "Rosetta", which was developed by Apple, included in version 2.0 of the Newton operating system
Newton OS
Newton OS was the operating system for the Apple Newton PDAs produced by Apple from 1993-1997. Newton OS was written entirely in C++ and trimmed to be low power consuming and use the available memory efficiently...
, and refined in Newton 2.1. Rosetta is generally considered a significant improvement and many reviewers, testers, and most users consider the Newton 2.1 handwriting recognition software better than any of the alternatives even 10 years after it was introduced. Recognition and computation of handwritten horizontal and vertical formulas such as "1 + 2 =" was also under development but never released. However, users wrote similar programs which could evaluate mathematical formulas using the Newton OS Intelligent Assistant, a unique part of every Newton device.
The handwriting recognition and parts of the user interface for the Newton are best understood in the context of the broad history of Pen computing
Pen computing
Pen computing refers to a computer user-interface using a pen and tablet, rather than devices such as a keyboard, joysticks or a mouse....
, which is quite extensive.
A vital feature of the Newton handwriting recognition system is the modeless error correction
Error detection and correction
In information theory and coding theory with applications in computer science and telecommunication, error detection and correction or error control are techniques that enable reliable delivery of digital data over unreliable communication channels...
. That is, correction done in situ
In situ
In situ is a Latin phrase which translated literally as 'In position'. It is used in many different contexts.-Aerospace:In the aerospace industry, equipment on board aircraft must be tested in situ, or in place, to confirm everything functions properly as a system. Individually, each piece may...
without using a separate window or widget, using a minimum of gestures. If a word is recognized improperly, the user could double-tap the word and a list of alternatives would pop up in a menu under the stylus. Most of the time, the correct word will be in the list. If not, a button at the bottom of the list allows the user to edit individual characters in that word. Other pen gestures could do such things as transpose letters (also in situ
In situ
In situ is a Latin phrase which translated literally as 'In position'. It is used in many different contexts.-Aerospace:In the aerospace industry, equipment on board aircraft must be tested in situ, or in place, to confirm everything functions properly as a system. Individually, each piece may...
). The correction popup also allowed the user to revert to the original, un-recognized letter shapes - this would be useful in note-taking scenarios if there was insufficient time to make corrections immediately. To conserve memory and storage space, alternative recognition hypotheses would not be saved indefinitely. If the user returned to a note a week later, for example, they would only see the best match. Error correction in many current handwriting systems provides such functionality but adds more steps to the process, greatly increasing the interruption to a user's workflow that a given correction requires.
User interface
Text could also be entered by tapping with the stylus on a small on-screen pop-up QWERTYQWERTY
QWERTY is the most common modern-day keyboard layout. The name comes from the first six letters appearing in the topleft letter row of the keyboard, read left to right: Q-W-E-R-T-Y. The QWERTY design is based on a layout created for the Sholes and Glidden typewriter and sold to Remington in the...
virtual keyboard
Virtual keyboard
A virtual keyboard is a software component that allows a user to enter characters. A virtual keyboard can usually be operated with multiple input devices, which may include a touchscreen, an actual keyboard and a computer mouse.- Types :...
, although more layouts were developed by users. Newton devices could also accept free-hand "Sketches", "Shapes", and "Ink Text", much like a desktop computer graphics tablet
Graphics tablet
A graphics tablet is a computer input device that enables a user to hand-draw images and graphics, similar to the way a person draws images with a pencil and paper. These tablets may also be used to capture data or handwritten signatures...
. With "Shapes", Newton could recognize that the user was attempting to draw a circle, a line, a polygon
Polygon
In geometry a polygon is a flat shape consisting of straight lines that are joined to form a closed chain orcircuit.A polygon is traditionally a plane figure that is bounded by a closed path, composed of a finite sequence of straight line segments...
, etc., and it would clean them up into perfect vector
Vector graphics
Vector graphics is the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygon, which are all based on mathematical expressions, to represent images in computer graphics...
representations (with modifiable control points and defined vertices) of what the user was attempting to draw. "Shapes" and "Sketches" could be scaled
Image scaling
In computer graphics, image scaling is the process of resizing a digital image. Scaling is a non-trivial process that involves a trade-off between efficiency, smoothness and sharpness. As the size of an image is increased, so the pixels which comprise the image become increasingly visible, making...
or deformed once drawn. "Ink text" captured the user's free-hand writing but allowed it to be treated somewhat like recognized text when manipulating for later editing purposes ("ink text" supported word wrap
Word wrap
In text display, line wrap is the feature of continuing on a new line when a line is full, such that each line fits in the viewable window, allowing text to be read from top to bottom without any horizontal scrolling....
, could be formatted to be bold, italic, etc.). At any time a user could also direct their Newton device to recognize selected "ink text" and turn it into recognized text (deferred recognition). A Newton note (or the notes attached to each contact in Names and each Dates calendar or to-do event) could contain any mix of interleaved text, Ink Text, Shapes, and Sketches.
Connectivity
The MessagePad 100 series of devices used the Macintosh-standard serial portSerial port
In computing, a serial port is a serial communication physical interface through which information transfers in or out one bit at a time...
s—round Mini-DIN 8 connectors
Mini-DIN connector
The mini-DIN connectors are a family of multi-pin electrical connectors used in a variety of applications. Mini-DIN is similar to the larger, older DIN connector...
. The MessagePad 2000/2100 models (as well as the eMate 300) have a small, proprietary Newton InterConnect port. However, the development of the Newton hardware/software platform
Newton (platform)
The Newton platform was an early personal digital assistant and the first tablet platform developed by Apple, the second platform being iOS, used in the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Development of the Newton platform started in 1987 and officially ended on February 27, 1998. Some electronic...
was canceled by Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs was an American businessman and inventor widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc...
on February 27, 1998, so the InterConnect port, while itself very advanced, can only be used to connect a serial dongle. A prototype multi-purpose InterConnect device containing serial, audio in, audio out, and other ports was also discovered. In addition, all Newton devices have infrared
Infrared
Infrared light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength longer than that of visible light, measured from the nominal edge of visible red light at 0.74 micrometres , and extending conventionally to 300 µm...
connectivity, initially only the Sharp ASK
Amplitude-shift keying
Amplitude-shift keying is a form of modulation that represents digital data as variations in the amplitude of a carrier wave.Any digital modulation scheme uses a finite number of distinct signals to represent digital data. ASK uses a finite number of amplitudes, each assigned a unique pattern of...
protocol, but later also IrDA
IRDA
IRDA may refer to:* Infrared Data Association, in information and communications technology , a standard for communication between devices over short distances using infrared signals...
, though the Sharp ASK protocol was kept in for compatibility reasons. Unlike the Palm Pilot, all Newton devices are equipped with a standard PC Card
PC Card
In computing, PC Card is the form factor of a peripheral interface designed for laptop computers. The PC Card standard was defined and developed by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association which itself was created by a number of computer industry companies in the United States...
expansion slot (two on the 2000/2100). This allows native modem and even Ethernet
Ethernet
Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....
connectivity; Newton users have also written drivers
Device driver
In computing, a device driver or software driver is a computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a hardware device....
for 802.11b wireless networking cards and ATA-type flash memory
Flash memory
Flash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data...
cards (including the popular CompactFlash
CompactFlash
CompactFlash is a mass storage device format used in portable electronic devices. Most CompactFlash devices contain flash memory in a standardized enclosure. The format was first specified and produced by SanDisk in 1994...
format), as well as for Bluetooth
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks with high levels of security...
cards. Newton can also dial a phone number through the built-in speaker of the Newton device by simply holding a telephone handset up to the speaker and transmitting the appropriate tones. Fax and printing support is also built in at the operating system level, although it requires peripherals such as parallel adapters, PCMCIA cards, or serial modems, the most notable of which is the lightweight Newton Fax Modem released by Apple in 1993. It is powered by 2 AA batteries, and can also be used with a power adapter. It provides data transfer at 2400 bit/s, and can also send and receive fax messages at 9600 and 4800 bit/s respectively.
Power options
The original Apple MessagePad and MessagePad 100 used four AAA batteriesAAA battery
A triple A or AAA battery is a standard size of dry cell battery commonly used in portable electronic devices. A carbon-zinc battery in this size is designated by IEC as "R03", by ANSI C18.1 as "24", by old JIS standard as "UM 4", and by other manufacturer and national standard designations that...
. They were eventually replaced by AA batteries with the release of the Apple MessagePad 110.
The use of 4 AA
AA battery
An AA battery is a standard size of battery. Batteries of this size are the most commonly used type of in portable electronic devices. An AA battery is composed of a single electrochemical cell...
NiCd (MessagePad 110, 120 and 130) and 4x AA NiMH
NIMH
NIMH or NiMH may refer to:*Nickel-metal hydride battery, a type of rechargeable battery*National Institute of Mental Health, a part of the United States National Institutes of Health...
cells (MP2x00 series, eMate 300
EMate 300
The eMate 300 was a personal digital assistant designed, manufactured and sold by Apple to the education market as a low-cost laptop running the Newton operating system...
) give a runtime of up to 30 hours (MP2100 with two 20 MB Linear Flash
Linear Flash
Linear Flash is a PC card flash memory format. Linear Flash requires no battery support, unlike somewhat faster SRAM, and features read/write speeds much faster than similar, less expensive ATA-type cards, which include CompactFlash and Memory Stick...
memory PC Card
PC Card
In computing, PC Card is the form factor of a peripheral interface designed for laptop computers. The PC Card standard was defined and developed by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association which itself was created by a number of computer industry companies in the United States...
s, no backlight usage) and up to 24 hours with backlight on. While adding more weight to the handheld Newton devices than AAA batteries or custom battery packs, the choice of an easily replaceable/rechargeable cell format gives the user a still unsurpassed runtime and flexibility of power supply. This, together with the flash memory
Flash memory
Flash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data...
used as internal storage starting with the Apple MessagePad 120 (if all cells lost their power, no data was lost due to the non-volatility of this storage), gave birth to the slogan "Newton never dies, it only gets new batteries".
Later efforts and improvements
The Apple MessagePad 2000/2100, with a vastly improved handwriting recognition system, 162 MHz StrongARMStrongARM
The StrongARM is a family of microprocessors that implemented the ARM V4 instruction set architecture . It was developed by Digital Equipment Corporation and later sold to Intel, who continued to manufacture it before replacing it with the XScale....
SA-110 RISC processor, Newton OS 2.1, and a better, clearer, backlit screen, attracted critical plaudits.
Cases
Apple and third parties marketed several "wallets" (cases) for the handheld Newton devices, which would hold them securely along with the owner's credit cards, driver's license, business cards, and cash. Most also protected the LCD screen.Market reception
The original Apple MessagePad and MessagePad 100 were limited by the very short lifetime of their inadequate AAA batteries.Handwriting recognition
Handwriting recognition is the ability of a computer to receive and interpret intelligible handwritten input from sources such as paper documents, photographs, touch-screens and other devices. The image of the written text may be sensed "off line" from a piece of paper by optical scanning or...
that was available in the debut models, which had been trumpeted in the Newton's marketing campaign. It was this problem that was skewered in the Doonesbury
Doonesbury
Doonesbury is a comic strip by American cartoonist Garry Trudeau, that chronicles the adventures and lives of an array of characters of various ages, professions, and backgrounds, from the President of the United States to the title character, Michael Doonesbury, who has progressed from a college...
comic strips and the animated television series The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
. Not even the word 'freckles' was in the dictionary, though the user could add it themselves. The real case was that the advanced Calligrapher handwriting recognition software needed to adjust to the user's handwriting; this process could take anywhere from two weeks to two months.
Another factor which limited the early Newton devices' appeal was that desktop connectivity was not included in the basic retail package, a problem that was later solved with 2.x Newton devices - these were bundled with a serial cable and the appropriate Newton Connection Utilities software.
Later versions of Newton OS offered improved handwriting recognition, quite possibly a leading reason for the continued popularity of the devices among Newton users. Even given the age of the hardware and software, Newtons still demand a sale price on the used market far greater than that of comparatively aged PDAs produced by other companies. In 2006 CNET
CNET
CNET is a tech media website that publishes news articles, blogs, and podcasts on technology and consumer electronics. Originally founded in 1994 by Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie, it was the flagship brand of CNET Networks and became a brand of CBS Interactive through CNET Networks' acquisition...
compared an Apple MessagePad 2000 to a Samsung Q1
Samsung Q1
Samsung Q1 is an Ultra-Mobile PC with a 7" LCD and exists in several different versions.- Samsung Q1 :*Intel Celeron M ULV 353 running at 900 MHz*40GB 1.8" Hard Drive*512MB DDR2 533*Max memory 2GB DDR2 533...
, and the Newton was declared better. In 2009, CNET
CNET
CNET is a tech media website that publishes news articles, blogs, and podcasts on technology and consumer electronics. Originally founded in 1994 by Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie, it was the flagship brand of CNET Networks and became a brand of CBS Interactive through CNET Networks' acquisition...
compared an Apple MessagePad 2000 to an iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
, and the Newton was still declared better.
A dedicated Newton store existed in the mid-1990's in Westwood Village, California, near U.C.L.A. It featured the trademark red and yellow lightbulb Newton logo in the form of an internally lit plastic sign on the storefront facade. This store sold Newton hardware, accessories, and third-party software such as games.
Newton device models
| Device | Model No. | Processor | Memory | Display | Newton OS Newton OS Newton OS was the operating system for the Apple Newton PDAs produced by Apple from 1993-1997. Newton OS was written entirely in C++ and trimmed to be low power consuming and use the available memory efficiently... Version |
Newton OS languages | Ports | PCMCIA | Power | Weight & Dimensions | Introduced | Discontinued | Code Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OMP (Original Newton MessagePad) | H1000 | ARM ARM architecture ARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced... 610 (20 MHz) |
4 MB ROM Read-only memory Read-only memory is a class of storage medium used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be modified, or can be modified only slowly or with difficulty, so it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM refers only... , 640kB RAM |
336 x 240 (B&W) | 1.0 to 1.05, or 1.10 to 1.11 | English or German | RS422, LocalTalk & SHARP ASK Infrared | 1 PCMCIA-slot PC card In computing, PC Card is the form factor of a peripheral interface designed for laptop computers. The PC Card standard was defined and developed by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association which itself was created by a number of computer industry companies in the United States... II, 5v or 12v |
4 AAA or NiCd rechargeable or external power supply | 0.41 kg, 18.42 cm H x 11.43 cm W x 1.91 cm D | August 3, 1993 in the US, December 1993 in Germany | March 1994 | Junior |
| Sharp ExpertPad PI-7000 | ? | ARM ARM architecture ARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced... 610 (20 MHz) |
4 MB ROM Read-only memory Read-only memory is a class of storage medium used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be modified, or can be modified only slowly or with difficulty, so it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM refers only... , 640kB RAM |
336 x 240 (B&W) | 1.0 to 1.05, or 1.10 to 1.11 | English or Japanese | RS422, LocalTalk & SHARP ASK Infrared | 1 PCMCIA-slot PC card In computing, PC Card is the form factor of a peripheral interface designed for laptop computers. The PC Card standard was defined and developed by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association which itself was created by a number of computer industry companies in the United States... II, 5v or 12v |
4 AAA or NiCd rechargeable or external power supply | 182mm x 112mm x 28mm (with screen lid open) | August 3, 1993 in the US, ? in Japan | March 1994 | ? |
| Apple MessagePad 100 | H1000 | ARM ARM architecture ARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced... 610 (20 MHz) |
4 MB ROM Read-only memory Read-only memory is a class of storage medium used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be modified, or can be modified only slowly or with difficulty, so it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM refers only... , 640kB RAM |
336 x 240 (B&W) | 1.3 | English, German or French | RS422, LocalTalk & SHARP ASK Infrared | 1 PCMCIA-slot PC card In computing, PC Card is the form factor of a peripheral interface designed for laptop computers. The PC Card standard was defined and developed by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association which itself was created by a number of computer industry companies in the United States... II, 5v or 12v |
4 AAA or NiCd rechargeable or external power supply | 0.41 kg, 18.42 cm H x 11.43 cm W x 1.91 cm D | March 1994 | April 1995 | ? |
| Apple MessagePad 110 | ? | ARM ARM architecture ARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced... 610 (20 MHz) |
4 MB ROM Read-only memory Read-only memory is a class of storage medium used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be modified, or can be modified only slowly or with difficulty, so it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM refers only... , 1 MB RAM |
320 x 240 (B&W) | 1.2 or 1.3 | English or French | RS422, LocalTalk & SHARP ASK Infrared | 1 PCMCIA-slot PC card In computing, PC Card is the form factor of a peripheral interface designed for laptop computers. The PC Card standard was defined and developed by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association which itself was created by a number of computer industry companies in the United States... II, 5v or 12v |
4 AA or NiCd rechargeable or external power supply | 0.45 kg, 20.32 cm H x 10.16 cm W x 3 cm D | March 1994 | April 1995 | Lindy |
| Sharp ExpertPad PI-7100 | ? | ARM ARM architecture ARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced... 610 (20 MHz) |
4 MB ROM Read-only memory Read-only memory is a class of storage medium used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be modified, or can be modified only slowly or with difficulty, so it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM refers only... , 640kB RAM |
336 x 240 (B&W) | 1.3 | English or Japanese | RS422, LocalTalk & SHARP ASK Infrared | 1 PCMCIA-slot PC card In computing, PC Card is the form factor of a peripheral interface designed for laptop computers. The PC Card standard was defined and developed by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association which itself was created by a number of computer industry companies in the United States... II, 5v or 12v |
4 AAA or NiCd rechargeable or external power supply | 182mm x 112mm x 28mm (with screen lid open) | April 1994 | late 1994 | ? |
| Apple MessagePad 120 | H0131 | ARM ARM architecture ARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced... 610 (20 MHz) |
4 MB (OS 1.3) or 8 MB (OS 2.0) ROM Read-only memory Read-only memory is a class of storage medium used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be modified, or can be modified only slowly or with difficulty, so it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM refers only... , 687kB RAM, 0.5 or 1.5 MB Flash memory Flash memory Flash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data... |
320 x 240 (B&W) | 1.3 or 2.0 | English, German or French | RS422, LocalTalk & SHARP ASK Infrared | 1 PCMCIA-slot PC card In computing, PC Card is the form factor of a peripheral interface designed for laptop computers. The PC Card standard was defined and developed by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association which itself was created by a number of computer industry companies in the United States... II, 5v or 12v |
4 AA or NiCd rechargeable or external power supply | 0.45 kg, 20.32 cm H x 10.16 cm W x 3 cm D | October 1994 in Germany, January 1995 in the US | June 1996 | Gelato |
| Digital Ocean Tarpon | ? | ARM ARM architecture ARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced... 610 (20 MHz) |
4 MB (OS 1.3) or 8 MB (OS 2.0) ROM Read-only memory Read-only memory is a class of storage medium used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be modified, or can be modified only slowly or with difficulty, so it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM refers only... , 687kB RAM, Flash memory Flash memory Flash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data... |
320 x 240 (B&W) | 1.3 or 2.0 | English | RS422, LocalTalk & SHARP ASK Infrared | 1 PCMCIA-slot PC card In computing, PC Card is the form factor of a peripheral interface designed for laptop computers. The PC Card standard was defined and developed by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association which itself was created by a number of computer industry companies in the United States... II, 5v or 12v |
4 AA or NiCd rechargeable or external power supply | 10" x 4.5" x 2.5" (3 lb. 3 oz.) | January 1995 in the US | ? | ? |
| Motorola Marco | ? | ARM ARM architecture ARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced... 610 (20 MHz) |
4 MB (OS 1.3) ROM Read-only memory Read-only memory is a class of storage medium used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be modified, or can be modified only slowly or with difficulty, so it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM refers only... , 687kB RAM, Flash memory Flash memory Flash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data... |
320 x 240 (B&W) | 1.3 | English | RS422, LocalTalk & SHARP ASK Infrared | 1 PCMCIA-slot PC card In computing, PC Card is the form factor of a peripheral interface designed for laptop computers. The PC Card standard was defined and developed by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association which itself was created by a number of computer industry companies in the United States... II, 5v or 12v |
4 AA or NiCd rechargeable or external power supply | ? | January 1995 in the US | ? | ? |
| Harris SuperTech 2000 | ? | ARM ARM architecture ARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced... 610 (20 MHz) |
4 MB (OS 1.3) ROM Read-only memory Read-only memory is a class of storage medium used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be modified, or can be modified only slowly or with difficulty, so it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM refers only... , 687kB RAM, Flash memory Flash memory Flash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data... |
320 x 240 (B&W) | 1.3 | English | RS422, LocalTalk & SHARP ASK Infrared | 1 PCMCIA-slot PC card In computing, PC Card is the form factor of a peripheral interface designed for laptop computers. The PC Card standard was defined and developed by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association which itself was created by a number of computer industry companies in the United States... II, 5v or 12v |
4 AA or NiCd rechargeable or external power supply | ? | August 1995 in the US | ? | ? |
| Digital Ocean Seahorse | ? | ARM ARM architecture ARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced... 610 (20 MHz) |
8 MB (OS 2.0) ROM Read-only memory Read-only memory is a class of storage medium used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be modified, or can be modified only slowly or with difficulty, so it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM refers only... , 687kB RAM, Flash memory Flash memory Flash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data... |
320 x 240 (B&W) | 2.0 | English | RS422, LocalTalk & SHARP ASK Infrared | 1 PCMCIA-slot PC card In computing, PC Card is the form factor of a peripheral interface designed for laptop computers. The PC Card standard was defined and developed by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association which itself was created by a number of computer industry companies in the United States... II, 5v or 12v |
4 AA or NiCd rechargeable or external power supply | 9.5" x 4.5" x 2.5" (48 oz.) | January 1996 in the US | ? | ? |
| Apple MessagePad 130 | H0196 | ARM ARM architecture ARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced... 610 (20 MHz) |
8 MB ROM Read-only memory Read-only memory is a class of storage medium used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be modified, or can be modified only slowly or with difficulty, so it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM refers only... , 1.2 MB RAM, 1.5 MB Flash memory Flash memory Flash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data... |
320 x 240 (B&W) w/ backlight | 2.0 | English or German | RS422, LocalTalk & SHARP ASK Infrared | 1 PCMCIA-slot PC card In computing, PC Card is the form factor of a peripheral interface designed for laptop computers. The PC Card standard was defined and developed by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association which itself was created by a number of computer industry companies in the United States... II, 5v or 12v |
4 AA or NiCd rechargeable or external power supply | 0.45 kg, 20.32 cm H x 10.16 cm W x 3 cm D | March 1996 | April 1997 | Dante |
| Apple eMate 300 EMate 300 The eMate 300 was a personal digital assistant designed, manufactured and sold by Apple to the education market as a low-cost laptop running the Newton operating system... |
H0208 | ARM ARM architecture ARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced... 710a (25 MHz) |
8 MB ROM Read-only memory Read-only memory is a class of storage medium used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be modified, or can be modified only slowly or with difficulty, so it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM refers only... , 1 MB RAM, 2 MB Flash Memory Flash memory Flash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data... , Expandable Internally to 2 MB Random Access Memory and 4 MB Flash Memory Flash memory Flash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data... |
480 x 320 greyscale (16 shades) w/ backlight | 2.1 (2.2) | English | IrDA IRDA IRDA may refer to:* Infrared Data Association, in information and communications technology , a standard for communication between devices over short distances using infrared signals... , headphone port, Interconnect port, LocalTalk, Audio I/O, Autodock |
1 PCMCIA-slot PC card In computing, PC Card is the form factor of a peripheral interface designed for laptop computers. The PC Card standard was defined and developed by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association which itself was created by a number of computer industry companies in the United States... I/II/III, 5v |
NiMH battery pack (built-in) or external power supply | 1.81 kg, 30.5 cm H x 29 cm W x 5.33 cm D | March 1997 | February 1998 | ? |
| Apple MessagePad 2000 | H0136 | StrongARM StrongARM The StrongARM is a family of microprocessors that implemented the ARM V4 instruction set architecture . It was developed by Digital Equipment Corporation and later sold to Intel, who continued to manufacture it before replacing it with the XScale.... SA-110 (162 MHz) |
8 MB ROM Read-only memory Read-only memory is a class of storage medium used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be modified, or can be modified only slowly or with difficulty, so it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM refers only... , 1 MB RAM, 4 MB Flash memory Flash memory Flash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data... |
480 x 320 greyscale (16 shades) w/ backlight | 2.1 | English | Dual-mode IR; IrDA IRDA IRDA may refer to:* Infrared Data Association, in information and communications technology , a standard for communication between devices over short distances using infrared signals... & SHARP ASK Infrared, LocalTalk, Audio I/O, Autodock, Phone I/O |
2 PCMCIA-slot PC card In computing, PC Card is the form factor of a peripheral interface designed for laptop computers. The PC Card standard was defined and developed by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association which itself was created by a number of computer industry companies in the United States... II, 5v or 12v |
4 AA or NiMH NIMH NIMH or NiMH may refer to:*Nickel-metal hydride battery, a type of rechargeable battery*National Institute of Mental Health, a part of the United States National Institutes of Health... rechargeable or external power supply |
0.64 kg, 21.1 cm H x 11.94 cm W x 2.79 cm D | March 1997 | February 1998 | Q |
| Apple MessagePad 2100 | H0149 | StrongARM StrongARM The StrongARM is a family of microprocessors that implemented the ARM V4 instruction set architecture . It was developed by Digital Equipment Corporation and later sold to Intel, who continued to manufacture it before replacing it with the XScale.... SA-110 (162 MHz) |
8 MB ROM Read-only memory Read-only memory is a class of storage medium used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be modified, or can be modified only slowly or with difficulty, so it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM refers only... , 4 MB RAM, 4 MB Flash memory Flash memory Flash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data... |
480 x 320 greyscale (16 shades) w/ backlight | 2.1 | English or German | Dual-mode IR; IrDA IRDA IRDA may refer to:* Infrared Data Association, in information and communications technology , a standard for communication between devices over short distances using infrared signals... & SHARP ASK Infrared, LocalTalk, Audio I/O, Autodock |
2 PCMCIA-slot PC card In computing, PC Card is the form factor of a peripheral interface designed for laptop computers. The PC Card standard was defined and developed by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association which itself was created by a number of computer industry companies in the United States... II, 5v or 12v |
4 AA or NiMH NIMH NIMH or NiMH may refer to:*Nickel-metal hydride battery, a type of rechargeable battery*National Institute of Mental Health, a part of the United States National Institutes of Health... rechargeable or external power supply |
0.64 kg, 21.1 cm H x 11.94 cm W x 2.79 cm D | November 1997 | February 1998 | ? |
Notes: The eMate 300 actually has ROM chips silked screened with 2.2 on them. Stephanie Mak on her website http://www.felesmagus.com/newton/otheremate.html discusses this:
If one removes all patches to the eMate 300 (by replacing the ROM chip, and then putting in the original one again, as the eMate and the MessagePad 2000/2100 devices erase their memory completely after replacing the chip), the result will be the Newton OS saying that this is version 2.2.00. Also, the Original MessagePad and the MessagePad 100 share the same model number, as they only differ in the ROM chip version. (The OMP has OS versions 1.0 to 1.05, or 1.10 to 1.11, while the MP100 has 1.3 that can be upgraded with various patches.)
Other uses
Petronas
PETRONAS, short for Petroliam Nasional Berhad, is a Malaysian oil and gas company that was founded on August 17, 1974. Wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia, the corporation is vested with the entire oil and gas resources in Malaysia and is entrusted with the responsibility of developing and...
Discovery Center, known as Petrosains.
In 1995, an exhibit design firm, DMCD Inc., was awarded the contract to design a new 100000 square feet (9,290.3 m²) science museum in the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. A major factor in the award was the concept that visitors would use a Newton device to access additional information, find out where they were in the museum, listen to audio, see animations, control robots and other media, and to bookmark information for printout at the end of the exhibit.
The device became known as the ARIF, a Malay word for "wise man" or "seer" and it was also an acronym for A Resourceful Informative Friend. Some 400 ARIFS were installed and over 300 are still in use today. The development of the ARIF system was extremely complex and required a team of hardware and software engineers, designers, and writers. ARIF is an ancestor of the PDA systems used in museums today and it boasted features that have not been attempted since.
See also
- Newton (platform)Newton (platform)The Newton platform was an early personal digital assistant and the first tablet platform developed by Apple, the second platform being iOS, used in the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Development of the Newton platform started in 1987 and officially ended on February 27, 1998. Some electronic...
- Newton OSNewton OSNewton OS was the operating system for the Apple Newton PDAs produced by Apple from 1993-1997. Newton OS was written entirely in C++ and trimmed to be low power consuming and use the available memory efficiently...
- eMate 300EMate 300The eMate 300 was a personal digital assistant designed, manufactured and sold by Apple to the education market as a low-cost laptop running the Newton operating system...
- NewtonScriptNewtonScriptNewtonScript is a prototype based programming language created to write programs for the Newton platform. It is heavily influenced by the Self computer language, but modified to be more suited to needs of mobile and embedded devices.- History :...
- Orphaned technologyOrphaned TechnologyOrphaned technology is a descriptive term for computer products, programs, and platforms that have been abandoned by their original developers. Orphaned technology refers to software, such as abandonware and antique software, but also to hardware and practices...
- Pen computingPen computingPen computing refers to a computer user-interface using a pen and tablet, rather than devices such as a keyboard, joysticks or a mouse....
Additional Resources & Information
- Defying Gravity: The Making of Newton, by Kounalakis & Menuez (Hardcover)
- Hardcover: 192 pages
- Publisher: Beyond Words PublishingBeyond Words PublishingBeyond Words Publishing is a book publishing company located in Hillsboro, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1983, the company was unprofitable in its early years, though its works were award winning. The privately owned company focuses on non-fiction titles in the New Age genre, but began as a...
(October 1993) - ISBN 0941831949
- ISBN 978-0941831949
- Complete Developer's manual for the StrongARM SA-110
- Beginner's overview of the StrongARM SA-110 Microprocessor