As part of my larger efforts to clear out my Office and reduce clutter (which is turning more like shuffling clutter to other parts of the house) I came across a couple of Newton
Message Pads from the mid-90s including the fabulous Newton 2100.
Message Pads from the mid-90s including the fabulous Newton 2100.
On a whim, I popped in 4 AA batteries and hit the power switch… Brrrring, she came to life with the familiar Newton trill and even more amazing woke up with all her data intact. Yep; everything. All my calendar entries from 1997, my contacts, every application installed and working just fine and all my scribbled notes. All exactly the way I left it so many years. What a stunning example of elegant technology and engineering. Newton was flawed in many ways but in many others, no product on the market has ever matched her elegance, style and techno-wizardry.
Historical note; Newton shortly after its release was lampooned in a famous series of
Doonesbury cartoons which led to Steve Capps wife conspiring with Gary Trudeau to create the famous egg freckles Easter egg.
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Yes, looking back at it, Newton now seems like one of the archaic alternate branches of evolution, a similar, not less-evolved, but differently evolved form of the phylum of which Palm, iPhone and Blackberry are surviving species. Why Palm “succeeded” and Newton “failed” is one of the most nuanced and still relevant questions in technology.