Old Hardware Emulated :Einstein emulating the Apple Newton (Part 1)
The Apple Falls From The Tree, With Unintended Results
Apple Newton MessagePad 2000 (Wikipedia)
The Apple Newton In Context
As the 90's
continued, the pace of technology allowed hardware companies to put
ever-more-powerful processors until smaller form factors. These powerful
processors (for there time) allowed operating systems that were a lot
more sophisticated that those that ran the portable 8-bit computers.
At this time, portable computers weren't something that was in the hands of everyone. Some occupations greatly benefited from such devices. Insurances adjusters could carry there Sharp Pocket Computers on the go. So would those scientist and mathematicians performing field work. Journalist would have there Tandy 100 or Z88 next to them to compose reports and transcripts. Managers working at Fortune 500 companies would keep appointments and contacts on there Psion devices. However, these machines tend to be very expensive from a typical buyer.
Despite there contributions to the advancement of personal computing, they weren't mainstream devices. One knew maybe one or two people who owned one, but that was about it. Now, Apple was going to release there own portable computer. Would it become the devices for the masses or relegated to niche use?
It's important at this point to remind Melinnials that the iPhone wasn't Apple's first handheld device. Apple tried to enter the market with the Apple Newton devices in 1993. They even coined the term PDA! However, these devices are often regarded as failures by many industry pundits. I do think this is a bit unfair. One could compare this to the IBM PS/2 Family of Computers (Another series of articles I'm currently working on). Did they sell in fair number? Yes they did. As a result, to regard them as a market failure is a bit sensationalist. However, the technology was regarded as a failure in that it failed to take over the world. In that regard, that statement would be much more accurate. Especially when the company in question had really high expectations. This is Apple where talking about.
Many of the defining attributes that defines Apple today are still there though. You still had the die-hard fans that worship the company at almost at a cult-ish manner, viewing Apple more as a religious entity than a for-profit corporation. Even then, in many ways, the Apple of the 90's is a different company than what most youths know of today. The company didn't command the same amount of brand loyalty that it does now. This was one of the few times in history where Apple's announcement of a product didn't result in long lines of fans waiting multiple hours waiting to get one. Everybody was instead storming the stores for Windows 95, a Microsoft product of all things! During the 90's, Microsoft were regarded as the high innovative, cool kids on the block, while Apple was the once awesome company that was still making expensive crap for spoiled rich kids (some things never change), but minus the perceived coolness value. Things were very different back then!
It's also noted that while Apple coined the acronym PDA, another device quickly became associated with the term in the mold of the the Palm Pilots, which would go on and take portable computing by storm and dominate for many years to come. For handheld computers, the Palm Pilots became what Newton tried to be, the device for the common man.
The products that would eventually become the Apple Newton had been in development since the 1980's. It was originally intended to be a complete portable system that would have the processing capabilities of a full desktop computer. However, due to project cost and hardware constraints, the resulting product would have costed several thousand dollars, well beyond the cost that any typical consumer was will to spend for a specialty computer.
The platform was re-imagined as a handheld computer. According to Apple's CEO at the time, John Sculley, the Newton projected costed around $100 million in R&D. Upon release, it was considered a technological marvel though. It shipped with a 32-bit ARM processor running at 20MHz. This device would have been a powerhouse compared to various other devices that shipped with the 8 or 16-bit processors. The original Newton MessagePad also shipped with 4MB's of RAM, which was also a lot for a portable computer. It also came with (at the time) high resolution LCD display with a resolution of 336 by 240 pixels. The Newton also had a PCMCIA slot that could be used for various expansion devices. These peripheral devices included memory/storage expansion cards and Ethernet adapters. Infrared support was there was well for connectivity.
The Newton made very innovative use of the stylus. Users could quickly take notes, draw diagrams and taking quick sketches which could be saved. This made the Newton a very valuable tool for many who need to take quick notes while doing various task or field work. This also made the device very popular for architects who could do diagrams on the go. The Newton also enjoyed a brief moment of popularity in the medical field where doctors found the device very useful for there work. For the time, the Newton also had very advance hand-recognition software that learned the person's hand-writing style. The sketching features were state-of-the-art.
Despite these advances, the Newton would eventually fail to take the world by storm. The powerful features of the Newton MessagePad came at a price. The original devices came with a $900 price tag. This was a lot of money to ask for, especially for a device that was only intended to be a complementary device for your computer, not a replacement. Even now, many, including me, could argue that tablets and smartphones are inadequate replacements for your computer. Sure, their awesome for content consumption in the form of social media, YouTube, and jamming to music, but horrible for anything that involves anything more complicated, like content creation.
Can such devices be used for content creation? Sure. Are they awesome platforms for content creation though? Hardly, as the interfaces for such programs tend to be very awkward and limited to say the least. The modern tablet and smartphone platforms, regardless of whether running iOS or Android, general fail in the areas of content creation, and that's now in 2019! Compare this to 1993 where a lot of the modern, defining technology was still in its infancy, it becomes a very different story.
For that price, one wanted something that would replace the PC, not just complement it. $900 was a lot to ask for, and that's now! At the time, one could by a complete Packard Bell Multimedia Desktop computer with a 486 Processor for that much! High resolution SVGA video with a powerful Intel 486 bringing Doom to the fore-front, along with the Creative Labs SoundBlaster audio adapter with a CD-ROM drive for audio playback. I can play Creep on my Computer! Can your Newton play Radiohead! For $900, people had very insane expectations. Expectations that the Newton devices just couldn't live up too. Not the fault of the Newton, which was very landmark, but those asking that much for a device was still limited by what such hardware could do, even with much more powerful specs.
Also, there were issues with the early devices. The hand-writing recognition software had issues at launch which quickly gave the devices a soured reputation. Even though these software issues were fixed early on, it couldn't shake off the perceived reputation of the Newton handhelds. The software was lampooned on the Doonesbury comic strip where the main character, Mike Doonesbury encountered various issues with it's software as he was trying to learn it. The phrase "Egg Freckles" would become embraced by Newton users who had issues with the hand-recognition software.
The original MessagePad used 4 AAA batteries. Later devices ditched the AAA for AA batteries. It was common for users to use rechargeable batteries, as the device average about 30 hours or 24 hours with the back-lite on. Given it's reputation, the phrase "Newton never dies, it only gets new batteries", became spoken among its users.
At this time, portable computers weren't something that was in the hands of everyone. Some occupations greatly benefited from such devices. Insurances adjusters could carry there Sharp Pocket Computers on the go. So would those scientist and mathematicians performing field work. Journalist would have there Tandy 100 or Z88 next to them to compose reports and transcripts. Managers working at Fortune 500 companies would keep appointments and contacts on there Psion devices. However, these machines tend to be very expensive from a typical buyer.
Despite there contributions to the advancement of personal computing, they weren't mainstream devices. One knew maybe one or two people who owned one, but that was about it. Now, Apple was going to release there own portable computer. Would it become the devices for the masses or relegated to niche use?
It's important at this point to remind Melinnials that the iPhone wasn't Apple's first handheld device. Apple tried to enter the market with the Apple Newton devices in 1993. They even coined the term PDA! However, these devices are often regarded as failures by many industry pundits. I do think this is a bit unfair. One could compare this to the IBM PS/2 Family of Computers (Another series of articles I'm currently working on). Did they sell in fair number? Yes they did. As a result, to regard them as a market failure is a bit sensationalist. However, the technology was regarded as a failure in that it failed to take over the world. In that regard, that statement would be much more accurate. Especially when the company in question had really high expectations. This is Apple where talking about.
Many of the defining attributes that defines Apple today are still there though. You still had the die-hard fans that worship the company at almost at a cult-ish manner, viewing Apple more as a religious entity than a for-profit corporation. Even then, in many ways, the Apple of the 90's is a different company than what most youths know of today. The company didn't command the same amount of brand loyalty that it does now. This was one of the few times in history where Apple's announcement of a product didn't result in long lines of fans waiting multiple hours waiting to get one. Everybody was instead storming the stores for Windows 95, a Microsoft product of all things! During the 90's, Microsoft were regarded as the high innovative, cool kids on the block, while Apple was the once awesome company that was still making expensive crap for spoiled rich kids (some things never change), but minus the perceived coolness value. Things were very different back then!
It's also noted that while Apple coined the acronym PDA, another device quickly became associated with the term in the mold of the the Palm Pilots, which would go on and take portable computing by storm and dominate for many years to come. For handheld computers, the Palm Pilots became what Newton tried to be, the device for the common man.
The products that would eventually become the Apple Newton had been in development since the 1980's. It was originally intended to be a complete portable system that would have the processing capabilities of a full desktop computer. However, due to project cost and hardware constraints, the resulting product would have costed several thousand dollars, well beyond the cost that any typical consumer was will to spend for a specialty computer.
The platform was re-imagined as a handheld computer. According to Apple's CEO at the time, John Sculley, the Newton projected costed around $100 million in R&D. Upon release, it was considered a technological marvel though. It shipped with a 32-bit ARM processor running at 20MHz. This device would have been a powerhouse compared to various other devices that shipped with the 8 or 16-bit processors. The original Newton MessagePad also shipped with 4MB's of RAM, which was also a lot for a portable computer. It also came with (at the time) high resolution LCD display with a resolution of 336 by 240 pixels. The Newton also had a PCMCIA slot that could be used for various expansion devices. These peripheral devices included memory/storage expansion cards and Ethernet adapters. Infrared support was there was well for connectivity.
The Newton made very innovative use of the stylus. Users could quickly take notes, draw diagrams and taking quick sketches which could be saved. This made the Newton a very valuable tool for many who need to take quick notes while doing various task or field work. This also made the device very popular for architects who could do diagrams on the go. The Newton also enjoyed a brief moment of popularity in the medical field where doctors found the device very useful for there work. For the time, the Newton also had very advance hand-recognition software that learned the person's hand-writing style. The sketching features were state-of-the-art.
Despite these advances, the Newton would eventually fail to take the world by storm. The powerful features of the Newton MessagePad came at a price. The original devices came with a $900 price tag. This was a lot of money to ask for, especially for a device that was only intended to be a complementary device for your computer, not a replacement. Even now, many, including me, could argue that tablets and smartphones are inadequate replacements for your computer. Sure, their awesome for content consumption in the form of social media, YouTube, and jamming to music, but horrible for anything that involves anything more complicated, like content creation.
Can such devices be used for content creation? Sure. Are they awesome platforms for content creation though? Hardly, as the interfaces for such programs tend to be very awkward and limited to say the least. The modern tablet and smartphone platforms, regardless of whether running iOS or Android, general fail in the areas of content creation, and that's now in 2019! Compare this to 1993 where a lot of the modern, defining technology was still in its infancy, it becomes a very different story.
For that price, one wanted something that would replace the PC, not just complement it. $900 was a lot to ask for, and that's now! At the time, one could by a complete Packard Bell Multimedia Desktop computer with a 486 Processor for that much! High resolution SVGA video with a powerful Intel 486 bringing Doom to the fore-front, along with the Creative Labs SoundBlaster audio adapter with a CD-ROM drive for audio playback. I can play Creep on my Computer! Can your Newton play Radiohead! For $900, people had very insane expectations. Expectations that the Newton devices just couldn't live up too. Not the fault of the Newton, which was very landmark, but those asking that much for a device was still limited by what such hardware could do, even with much more powerful specs.
Also, there were issues with the early devices. The hand-writing recognition software had issues at launch which quickly gave the devices a soured reputation. Even though these software issues were fixed early on, it couldn't shake off the perceived reputation of the Newton handhelds. The software was lampooned on the Doonesbury comic strip where the main character, Mike Doonesbury encountered various issues with it's software as he was trying to learn it. The phrase "Egg Freckles" would become embraced by Newton users who had issues with the hand-recognition software.
The original MessagePad used 4 AAA batteries. Later devices ditched the AAA for AA batteries. It was common for users to use rechargeable batteries, as the device average about 30 hours or 24 hours with the back-lite on. Given it's reputation, the phrase "Newton never dies, it only gets new batteries", became spoken among its users.
The Newton was mocked on The Simpsons as well.
At this point,
you're probably feeling very amused. I'm very entertained myself
actually. At the same time, I can also make the very safe assumption
that one didn't come to this page to read Doonesbury
and watch a classic Simpsons
clip. One can also come to the conclusion that the portrayal of the
Newton in media didn't exactly do favors for its reputation.
Einstein
How does one try to
comprehend the Newton's software. Emulation of course. Newtons are a
bit pricey on eBay, and have been going up too as Apple Enthusiast that
have only known about the iPhone or iPad are looking at the products
released throughout Apple's history and discovering these old devices.
Emulation is a good avenue to trying out these old devices. There is a free, open-source emulator called Einstein that had been released. This program emulates the Newton MessagePad and the eMate, which was this low-cost laptop that also utilized NewtonOS. As with most emulators, it doesn't come with the file dumps of the system firmware, as the firmware is still intellectual property of Apple. However, the system ROMS can be dumped from a actual Newton using the appropriate software. The Einstein manual covers this aspect. Also, anyone who knows how to use Google and knows which file to look for can find it that way too. Just don't ask me!
The emulator officially supports MacOS, iOS, and Ubuntu Linux. It has been ported to Android and Windows though. The Windows build, from 2007 and seen from the Macintosh Garden, is quite old, and not very representative of the newer builds available for the newer platform. However, this is the build that I will try first. Like the Psion article, I will cover the the emulator running on my desktop computer and then my Android Tablet. With how long this blog-piece is getting, I will rap things up here, and cover the Windows emulator itself in part 2 and Android in part 3.
Emulation is a good avenue to trying out these old devices. There is a free, open-source emulator called Einstein that had been released. This program emulates the Newton MessagePad and the eMate, which was this low-cost laptop that also utilized NewtonOS. As with most emulators, it doesn't come with the file dumps of the system firmware, as the firmware is still intellectual property of Apple. However, the system ROMS can be dumped from a actual Newton using the appropriate software. The Einstein manual covers this aspect. Also, anyone who knows how to use Google and knows which file to look for can find it that way too. Just don't ask me!
The emulator officially supports MacOS, iOS, and Ubuntu Linux. It has been ported to Android and Windows though. The Windows build, from 2007 and seen from the Macintosh Garden, is quite old, and not very representative of the newer builds available for the newer platform. However, this is the build that I will try first. Like the Psion article, I will cover the the emulator running on my desktop computer and then my Android Tablet. With how long this blog-piece is getting, I will rap things up here, and cover the Windows emulator itself in part 2 and Android in part 3.
Final Thoughts
Apple gave birth to
the term PDA. A term that caught on unlike that stupid "Post-PC" crap
(Talk about absurd marketing terms at there worst. Seriously, what in
the Hell were they thinking!). However, while the term PDA would thrive,
the Newton eventually fall into the shadow of the Palm Pilots that took
the the concept of the PDA away from Apple and ran with it, finding
massive success in the process.
The Newton, despite it not having the best of luck in the marketplace, did help pave the way for future devices. The iPhone is essentially the spiritual successor of the Newton, thriving where the Newton failed. The Newton help contributed to the landscape that has given us our modern smartphones and tablets that we so enjoy today.
The Newton, despite it not having the best of luck in the marketplace, did help pave the way for future devices. The iPhone is essentially the spiritual successor of the Newton, thriving where the Newton failed. The Newton help contributed to the landscape that has given us our modern smartphones and tablets that we so enjoy today.
Articles of Interest
Apple Newton - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Newton
MessagePad - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MessagePad
Doonesbury sunk Newton : MacTalk Australia Forum - http://www.mactalk.com.au/showthread.php?t=24153
MessagePad - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MessagePad
Doonesbury sunk Newton : MacTalk Australia Forum - http://www.mactalk.com.au/showthread.php?t=24153
Einstein NewtonOS emulator- https://github.com/pguyot/Einstein
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