Remembering Apple’s Newton, 30 years on
arstechnica.comA couple of weeks ago, 181 comments
> Other features would have been amazing, if only the wireless infrastructure had existed to use them. The first 802.11 WiFi standard for computers would not appear until 1997, and cellular phones were still using analog signals.
The article only mentions Palm once, as author of the bestselling software on the Newton:
>Graffiti, a simplified handwriting system written by the company Palm, which would go on to make its own PDAs.
It doesn't mention GO Corp at all, which also made a handwriting recognition system, also not very successful.
People actually bought Palms and carried them around. It fit in your shirt pocket, in case you didn't routinely wear a jacket like John Sculley. You did have to learn Graffiti, but it was very simple with instructions that fit on a sticker on the back of the device.
Hello, author here! You’re right that I didn’t mention many other products in the broader PDA market. The article was about the Newton, and believe it or not, there are still word count limits for online articles. Discussing other products would have taken away from the central story. The hint about Palm was meant to get people interested in finding out more about similar devices.
OK.
Handwriting recognition was still a rathole that multiple smart people fell down. Palm figured out a compromise that humans would tolerate.
I developed NewtFTP because wireless cards were just starting to appear, the PM100D cellular cards and the early 802.11 WiFi. FTP was the most popular way at that time to distribute application packages and files.
It felt like living in the future walking down the street in ‘96 with my newton and accessing the internet!
Graffiti was so intuitive that I still have it memorized over 15 years after the iPhone came around and instantly obliterated my usage of a Palm device.
My last Palm, the Tungsten T5, still works.
Love this!
I have my original Apple Newton stores in my closet. This was from when I was 13-15-ish years old??
Yet I have always believed that the iPhone was "corporate karma" for Apple. The Newton did not make a splash, yet they homeruned with the iPhone. Of course, their hardwork and culture was the reason... yet still like calling it karma.
Would have loved a Newton back in the day, but it was too expensive for a young adult salary. By the time it could have gotten cheaper it was killed.
The interface graphics are simple but quite nice to look at. A good example of constraints aiding design.