Remember my brother getting one for his 18th Birthday. Great bit of kit, I still have a MP2100 and a e300. Also this a good example of why "sealed" vintage electronics should not be worth the insane money they are sometimes. Keeping something sealed is NOT preservation. Opening it up and ensuring the caps/batteries aren't destroying it is preservation ;) Great job guys.
That reminds me the story of a guy over at TapeHeads (a tape deck audiophile forum) who bought a reel to reel deck brand new (sealed) for him to use. He went on the forum because it wouldn't turn on. Turns out these need caps, potentiometers and some other parts replaced and also calibrated approximately every 10 years... So yeah, old tech brand new is not a great deal. You better off buying one that has been serviced (or at least running for a while).
@@lululock I'm pretty sure either John Cusack or Tim Robbins could easily pay for repairs, after all they are the #1 Birthday Party for Senators documentarians
I love old tech like this. This was the most advanced thing ever and we thought we reached the age of star trek TNG but watching this shows we were so very VERY wrong.
@@cujoedaman A researcher at AT&T actually worked out much of the details of (analog) cell service in the 1950s -- likely intended as a better version of the car radiophone systems that already existed in the late '40s. But the tech for the phones themselves was not cheap, and computers were not yet up to the task of handing phones off from one cell to another as people moved them around. It wasn't until the '80s that the needed tech really got ready.
@@cujoedaman the lead cell phone designer for Motorola was heavily inspired by TOS, up to the point that the Motorola logo turned into 2 Federation Icons side-by-side
I bought one of these back in the late 90s and the Getting Started PCMCIA Card has a writing practice app which was great for getting a handle on the writing. The later Newton OSs had much improved hand-writing features and you could train and tune it as well. I remember training my Newton 2000 to understand C++ code so I could handwrite my code for my University assignments on the train.
we used to take totes with it, client meetings, social office! NO NEEDING A PC! small talk, notes, enough, more friendly for clients. We did all the coding our selfs, Your just not smart enough, why post it?
I got an award for penmanship in elementary school and my dad's friend had one of these and figured if I couldn't get the handwriting recognition to work it was a lost cause.... Yeah, it really was just that bad.
I've always been so disappointed that this wasn't as successful as other Apple products. Although if it was it might have made middle school even more unpleasant. It would be like having iPhone as a last name, so maybe it's a good thing in the end!
Haha... Good one. Well, portable consumer tech from the 1980s/early '90s (the Clapper, PDA, GM EV1) wasn't as successful as the ones from the 2000s (ahem, iPod, iPhone, DVD Players). Just think, this Apple Newton is probably the same age as my '90s 2nd hand leather jacket that I bought from a coworker 2.7 years ago.
PDAs didn’t offer anything over a pencil and a notepad or a voice recorder. They were a solution looking for a problem. Too complex to be affordable, too compromised to be useful.
I remember the first PDA I ever saw. A friend attended a gig from my heavy metal band, The Uninvited (I was lead guitarist, lead vocalist and songwriter), and he wrote up a detailed review on his brand new Psion 2. I thought it was the coolest tech I had ever seen at the time.
My dad was the IT purchasing manager for a large company in the '90s. Apple sent him an original Newton for free to convince him to buy a bunch for his company. The very original Newton OS *ONLY* recognized cursive. It didn't recognize "block text" at all. My dad didn't care for the Newton, so he gave it to me (I was in high school,) and I loved it - other than the fact that I had never learned cursive. I used the on-screen keyboard almost exclusively. I did later buy a MessagePad 130 on my own, (the first model with a backlight,) and the newer Newton OSes are definitely better.
Like my (engineer) dad, I much prefer writing in small caps rather than cursive. I _did_ learn cursive in school (early 90s) -- but I suspect the Newton _still_ would've been a learning curve for me, especially with the earlier models. I think I tried out a tethered demo model a few times in store/show displays back then. I forget if my technophile uncle had one or not.
@@adamnichols476 It wasn’t taught when I was in school in the late 70s/early 80s. Apparently my school district thought they were being “modern” and stopped teaching it early. My sister (4 years older than me) learned it, but I didn’t.
Rather fortunate apple made sure to pack the batteries not just in a thin layer of clingwrap, but a dedicated box. Gives a layer of protection in case of leakage.
If I remember correctly, the Newton was supposed to "learn" your writing over time. There may also have been a handwriting training app. I lived in the Bay Area at the time and went to a free session on the old Apple Campus at 1 Infinite Loop where they were demonstrating the Newton. Very cool building. I remember that all the room signs were done in the original Mac fonts and that there was a Mac Cafe.
I picked up a few of these on the flea market 10 years ago, one of them was the backlit version of the one you got, and the other one was an absolutely PRISTINE Newton Messagepad 2100 (rare as nuts), with the external keyboard, and leather pouches to them both, charger, regular battery insert and chargeable battery, cd for PC + PC hookup cable and whatnot.
Ah, the Newton. Had a MP130 for a while around 2001, me and some colleagues from work found a box with about 40 of them on a tech junkyard, discarded from a local bank. From those, we were able to get 12 units working by mixing and matching parts. It was a delight to use, but was REALLY bulky. The only pocket where it would fit was on one of my winter coats, and that was a stretch. Later I replaced it with a Palm M100, even more capable (thanks to the huge amount of apps and games) and MUCH more portable.
Yeah, when the message didn’t save, I had immediate suspicions that your “backup” battery (the coin battery) was dead. That’s what will cause something like that to happen. I have owned a couple of MP130’s, that’s how I know this. Like your friend I had more luck on getting my newton to recognize cursive handwriting, and I have like the world’s worst dysgraphic handwriting. After about 4 years of training it I got it to recognize my handwriting fairly well. Occasionally I would see it give me a weird interpretation, especially if memory is running low on it, and the “I am thinking” lightbulb was there for an extended period of time I knew the interpretation would be comical. The reason the erase feature didn’t work as well for you is that your squiggles have to be completely vertical and joined up for it to not think something is a letter. I hope that helps.
I remember using one of these before, it belonged to a teacher who, eventually, mentored me into building computers... I just remember using it and it really didn't do much outside of Palm PDAs of the same era; The screen size was just a selling point, because there wasn't any real software development for it, it wasn't as good as Palm.
It seems like Apple was in contact with Cyberdyne Systems to be able to be that far ahead of any other manufacturer in the 90s (!). That handwriting recognition and scribble feature are unbelievable.
The handwriting recognition didn't get good until the MP 2000. A lot of that had to do with the ROM size. But user handwriting is also an issue. If the MP2000 can't read your handwriting, probably no one else can either
It amazes me that the Newton Mail Button shares the same UI Idea as iOS, which is to have elements in the “Share Button” than do more than Share, like printing, saving a file, copy, cut, delete, and in the case of the Files App, being able to open content in other Apps. It’s pretty interesting plus the drag and move of the “Floating” Window elements from the bottom is kinda familiar with iPadOS Slide Over function and the “Gestures” Navigation. That’s really amazing
I made a cursory search for the “Owners Instructional Video” tape. I didn’t find the one for this model, but I did find the one for the 110 model. (Unless Apple used the same video for several models.) ruclips.net/video/UpNwfDSw5Tg/видео.html
I picked up a used one and tried it for notes and reference material in med school back in the day. The drug reference guide was awesome but the handwriting translation was pretty crazy bad. Still better than my actual handwriting tho.
In 1994 I purchased a Newton Message Pad 110. After watching this video I dug it out of a drawer, put new batteries in it and it powered right up! All of my notes and such were still in it, stored on the memory card I suppose. The outside of it got a little weird but did not go sticky.
Online 'collectors' are feinting at this obvious desecration!!! lmao :) Great video and I love this content. The Newton was ahead of its time even if ill-fated. Kudos to you for showcasing a new/old stock model so thoroughly.
They had one on display at my University's book store. I have messy handwriting anyway, so it was fun to see how the Newton dealt with my chicken scratches. Later Palm Pilot had their Graffiti system which worked much better. Instead of standard letters, Graffiti asked you to use modified letters that were easier for the computer to recognize. Still didn't always work for me, but it was a lot better than the Newton's method.
I found a Compaq Ipaq in a desk drawer at work several years ago. A model I used to own back in the day, so I booted it up and to my surprise it worked. Back in the day, I used the IrDA interface on my Nokia 7110, or a Compact Flash modem so I could dial into work and send and receive emails on the go. Things have moved on quite a bit : -)
you should call apple support and ask for replacement batteries, tell them you only now had time to unbox the device you bought 28 years ago and you're disappointed to not be able to use it due to faulty batteries.
Usually, if I want to really preserve the cellophane, I either cut it along the box flap seams or the pinch point of the cellophane. Instead of ripping it like you would new stuff. Also a long, flat, and rounded bit of metal the size of the flap to open it helps avoid the crease you get from opening a box flap with your fingers.
I didn't have a Newton, but a Palm Piolet. I went to Office Depot 3 or 4 times staring at the display and deciding which one to buy. I went with the little guy, only $99. I loved it! My daughter played the flower game all the time. It was so convenient to have addresses, phone numbers, shopping lists, notes, and my calendar all in one little PDA.
I remember when this came out, I was at Uni at the time. I picked up a brochure about it and saw the advertised demographic; Students, Business professionals, and Seniors. Got quite excited about getting one. And then the price was announced, and the enthusiasm dropped like a lead balloon. $1500 was *way* out of most people's reach for that class of device, and was ⅓ of the price of an Apple ][e at the that time…
I was a little kid in 97, my Uncle brought an apple Newton when he was visiting us in China, I was completely blown away by the functionality, user interface capabilities and the quality of the device. I remembered that, I never seen anything like that at all back in 97
A little later than this we had the palm pilot. I owned 3 generations of them and two of them still work! I don't use them for much beyond playing music but they are a fun novelty. I also have an early Archos color media player which works and several dolby walkman players. As an old person I also kept the very first computer I ever constructed or owned... a Sinclair ZX81 with an 16K static cmos memory upgrade that plugs into the back (heady stuff). The oldest solid state stuff I own is a Radionette Kurer Auto FM radio (with 9 germanium transistors). That needed new capacitors but surprisingly the transistors still worked (I've subsequently bought a bunch of replacement transistor then cherry picked the best based on gain etc.. Net result is that the radio will likely outlast me. Then again, the average dragonfly would probably outlast me. I remember the Newton. It was way too expensive for me to afford but I gazed on in admiration. Which was mostly true of all the Apple stuff so I made-do with an Amiga 500 and a Compaq. There was something so cool about the 80's and 90's. Mercifully we didn't have social media and tech was all starry-eyed 'the shape of things to come'. Of course we had dial-up modems, and Usenet (instead of internet), games that loaded from cassettes. You young whippersnappers have it way too easy in my opinion! I will say one thing though. Word 2.0 was far, far superior for writing books when compared to the current iteration of Word on 365 which is truly sad.
I bought the first "electroluminescent" model for like $800. I also bought a 2mb PCMCIA card. PCMCIA stood for "people can't memorize computer industry acronyms." That was always good for a laugh until they changed the acronym to PC-CARD. God how I LOVED the tech industry in the 90's!!! There were probably 50 companies that made computer mice and their alternatives! THAT was what REAL COMPETITION gives you. CHOICES!!!!!!!
5:06 omigosh! I didn't knew Apple gave stickers with their devices since almos 3 decades ago, I thought it was something new that came only with mid 2000's iPods but that's becuase those are the only new Apple devices I got to see in my lifetime, even old iPod unboxing videos here are from used or refurbished packages, pretty neat.
A tip for scrubbing out words: Do it as though you are writing two letter Ws. Put in the Getting Started PCMCIA card, there's a cool handwriting recognition game in there called Calligrapher. It will help the Newton to recognise your writing and it's actually quite fun.
I just sold my MessagePad 130, which I had bought second-hand at a Macintosh Users Group while living in the US in 1999. I feel a bit sentimental about it, but to be fair I never used it much in all these years and my plans of programming for it never materialized. I think a MessagePad 2100 would be great though. I always found the user interface design of the Newton exemplary, and as a fan of Gill Sans I loved the marketing materials too.
There are so many sponors for youtuber. I wonder if youtubers are honestly doing objective reviews of their sponsors. The tone you talk about Ifixit is considerably nicer than with other producs.
I had a Message Pad back in the day and I loved it, but honestly it was almost useless until a company called Hand spring introduced a software add-on called "Graffiti" which actually worked perfectly, enabling accurate text entry as fast as you could write. But then they came out with their own hardware based on Graffiti called "Palm Pilot", which was small enough to fit in a pocket, so it was "bye bye Newton, hello Palm Pilot!" A couple years later I got a Palm Treo, which was a PDA with a phone built in, and the era of the smartphone kicked off. They seem primitive now, but the software was actually amazingly useable, could even browse the web. The iPhone was still years off.
The 120 was probably the first really properly usable model, but by then it had a lot of reputational damage from earlier-model issues. I had one of these later ones when I was at Uni, and was apparently one of the few people in the world who's natural handwriting was a good match for what it was expecting.
I just found mine sitting in a box and no it does work. This thing went to Russia with me and kept me entertained the whole trip. I was amazed with how the hand writing recognition worked (for me). Now it will not power up. Where's my solder gun?
I was worried if the outside would be a sticky mess that they coated some of those things so it would have a soft rubber grip able outside which starts degrading overtime into a sticky like glue. Some of the amstrads did that I seen a video of Ashens looking at one he had to scrape all.of it off then used fingernail polish remover to get as much of the residue off of it and he still.jad to wear gloves. Maybe this newton product learned from amstrads mistake or knew that the coating degrades rots and turns sticky over time. Ashens did an unboxing too and was new also never been used in a shrink wrap.
Great video, and it shows how far we’ve come…. By the way, the handwriting recognition on my Apple Watch sacks, but not as bad as on this Newton. Interesting video
I remember meeting a customer who had just got one of these, he always had the latest and greatest and brought this in. He was showing it off and tried to write an appointment or note, lets say "see Joe about system X" or something serious like that and the handwriting came up with something ludicrous, maybe say "banana avocado pavement" . I was screaming with laughter. (we had a good relationship he didn't mind) Next time i saw him he'd got rid of it. Probably got a Palm Pilot. I loved my Palm V if my memory serves on the name.
Have a few of them, even made it sync with iCal over serial/USB and made a buggy wifi driver (to use with a Orinoco PCMCIA card). A shitload of time ago I used them for the last time
Nostalgia :-) I had its succesor in the nineties (on rebate, for obvious reasons). The handwriting recognition was really as bad as you noticed. Sometimes it was OK, but most of the time it was awful. It was supposed to learn your handwriting, but never really did.... So I used the floating keyboard, with the pencil (imho it took until the Palm Pilot to get usable). My next step in PDA's (Personal Digital Assistants) was the Psion Series 3a (and later mx and 5mx). Now those where really useful (but keyboard based). Great to see it working again: with the delete and garbage animation and sounds. Easily my most used function on the Newton ;-)))) Thank you!!
I got a chance to play with a Newton at the most unlikely place...while i was working at Microsoft in the late 1990's we had six (hint even number) of these...i am not allowed to talk about what we were working on at the time..yes as i remember the handwriting was not great and very very finicky..Being the first PDA you could definitely see the future of what would become a huge market for PDA's at the time ....although i never thought about the tech (PDA) being combined with a phone..the Motorola TAC phone was most popular when the first Newton was released ..by the time i was playing with the Newton the Nokia 3390 was the hot phone.. ...
I saw the Newton at the first launch at the London Expo. No-one was allowed to hold them and Apple staff swarmed around demonstrating them. I remember commenting to the lady that I thought it looked a little slow in its response, at which point she gave me a very sour look, turned her back and walked away; I genuinely thought she was about to fetch security and have me escorted out.
Sorry to jump onto another video on your channel but I have a 2010 Mac with Yosemite that I tried to install Sierra. When it goes to load it says cannot install. When I try to reload Yosemite it will not load, the recovery start up to safe mode won’t load and it days disks are locked. I have absolutely no idea what I can do or how I can recover data on the drive. Unfortunately I have no time machine back ups. I am in the `uK but I must admit I do not understand macs at all or the operating system.
Great episode. I am guessing the note wasn’t there because of the backup battery? And am glad at least that the scribble feature works - somewhat on the iPad now 😅
Is their ever going to be a point in time where modern electrolytic components will be better manufactured and much longer lasting so as to prevent further cap-turnovers? Maybe even brand new capacitor designs that emulate the older style, as a niche market themselves I'm pretty sure they could persist at least long enough for preservationist purposes
I want one of these just so I can use it as my grocery list. It just sucks that even NOS examples like this can't even work directly out of the box without some much needed attention.
I work in computer repair and there's an old iMac G4 here that's at risk of being recycled. I can't remember what's wrong with it, but I know the boom arm isn't working properly. Anyone know if it is worth rescuing it?
1st of all, do a high resolution scan on these stickers and preserve them and have them made into more stickers. 2nd of all, it kind of looked like that had been opened before and reshrink wrapped.
Man Newton OS is a joyful nostalgia trip....you can tell the system was designed by people who had FUN with computers. I really miss that from modern day Apple. Its like Apples products are positioned more as tools and beautiful objects, and less like fun toys (and I don't mean toys in a negative sense). I really hope Apple gets some of their "fun product" persona back. Let a small team inside Apple just go wild and have fun developing a new product. These days they're probably too focused on just keeping up with the yearly schedule, fixing bugs, adding features, that there just isn't enough time for people to just play around and develop something with a fun vibe. I'm not saying Apples "whimsy" is entirely gone, because they certainly still have that whimsical flair and occasionally NAIL the charm. Most recent example I can think of is the cursor/trackpad implementation in iPadOS. Universal Control also has some fun touches to the design. But seeing the Newton just makes me appreciate how much fun Apple used to have.
The Newton's hand writing recognition is about on par with what I've experienced with the modern counterparts of the past few years, be it Android, iOS, or Windows flavored. Welp, it's as they say, consistency is key.
Haha... The very latest video I happened to watch before this one was Mac84's newest one. Although this is not the first collab, I wasn't expecting to see Steve again after just 10 minutes!
Remember my brother getting one for his 18th Birthday. Great bit of kit, I still have a MP2100 and a e300. Also this a good example of why "sealed" vintage electronics should not be worth the insane money they are sometimes. Keeping something sealed is NOT preservation. Opening it up and ensuring the caps/batteries aren't destroying it is preservation ;) Great job guys.
That reminds me the story of a guy over at TapeHeads (a tape deck audiophile forum) who bought a reel to reel deck brand new (sealed) for him to use. He went on the forum because it wouldn't turn on. Turns out these need caps, potentiometers and some other parts replaced and also calibrated approximately every 10 years... So yeah, old tech brand new is not a great deal. You better off buying one that has been serviced (or at least running for a while).
great machine it was, why weirdo people need that now, post it on RUclips?
@@lululock I'm pretty sure either John Cusack or Tim Robbins could easily pay for repairs,
after all they are the #1 Birthday Party for Senators documentarians
Well said, I much prefer heritage anything, cars, trains, tech, whatever, being used and functional as opposed to being unused but looking good.
Judging by the dark spot forming in the middle of the screen, the polarizer also looks like it needs to be replaced.
It’s driving me insane! Looks great otherwise
i didn’t even notice the dark spot
Looks like the burned game boy screen.
Polarizer got pulverized
Could be effects from the camera or your mom.😮
I love old tech like this. This was the most advanced thing ever and we thought we reached the age of star trek TNG but watching this shows we were so very VERY wrong.
Yup, cutting edge tech that wasn't _quite_ all there yet.
Just think, Star Trek TOS predicted the cell phone and flash drives :D
@@cujoedaman A researcher at AT&T actually worked out much of the details of (analog) cell service in the 1950s -- likely intended as a better version of the car radiophone systems that already existed in the late '40s. But the tech for the phones themselves was not cheap, and computers were not yet up to the task of handing phones off from one cell to another as people moved them around.
It wasn't until the '80s that the needed tech really got ready.
@@AaronOfMpls Sounds a lot like tech from a Bond movie!
@@cujoedaman the lead cell phone designer for Motorola was heavily inspired by TOS, up to the point that the Motorola logo turned into 2 Federation Icons side-by-side
I bought one of these back in the late 90s and the Getting Started PCMCIA Card has a writing practice app which was great for getting a handle on the writing. The later Newton OSs had much improved hand-writing features and you could train and tune it as well. I remember training my Newton 2000 to understand C++ code so I could handwrite my code for my University assignments on the train.
we used to take totes with it, client meetings, social office!
NO NEEDING A PC! small talk, notes, enough, more friendly for clients.
We did all the coding our selfs,
Your just not smart enough, why post it?
@@lucasrem1870He's just sharing his experiences. Chill out mate
I got an award for penmanship in elementary school and my dad's friend had one of these and figured if I couldn't get the handwriting recognition to work it was a lost cause.... Yeah, it really was just that bad.
crying freakie guy, battery leak, it's boxed freak!
why he keeps crying?
@@lucasrem1870 what?
@@EleetCanoe You don't understand it? but what you don't understand?
Needs ADS? RUclips job?
@@lucasrem1870 he wasn’t crying
Are you off your meds?
@@EleetCanoe he, what, meth you do?
I've always been so disappointed that this wasn't as successful as other Apple products. Although if it was it might have made middle school even more unpleasant. It would be like having iPhone as a last name, so maybe it's a good thing in the end!
I will have to ask my cousin Siri (born a decade _before_ the iPhone) about that...
@@AaronOfMpls “hey siri!”
Haha... Good one. Well, portable consumer tech from the 1980s/early '90s (the Clapper, PDA, GM EV1) wasn't as successful as the ones from the 2000s (ahem, iPod, iPhone, DVD Players). Just think, this Apple Newton is probably the same age as my '90s 2nd hand leather jacket that I bought from a coworker 2.7 years ago.
PDAs didn’t offer anything over a pencil and a notepad or a voice recorder. They were a solution looking for a problem. Too complex to be affordable, too compromised to be useful.
Does anyone know of an iPhone “note” app that approaches the functionality of the Newton’s MessagePad?
I remember the first PDA I ever saw. A friend attended a gig from my heavy metal band, The Uninvited (I was lead guitarist, lead vocalist and songwriter), and he wrote up a detailed review on his brand new Psion 2. I thought it was the coolest tech I had ever seen at the time.
cool story bro
My dad was the IT purchasing manager for a large company in the '90s. Apple sent him an original Newton for free to convince him to buy a bunch for his company.
The very original Newton OS *ONLY* recognized cursive. It didn't recognize "block text" at all. My dad didn't care for the Newton, so he gave it to me (I was in high school,) and I loved it - other than the fact that I had never learned cursive. I used the on-screen keyboard almost exclusively.
I did later buy a MessagePad 130 on my own, (the first model with a backlight,) and the newer Newton OSes are definitely better.
Like my (engineer) dad, I much prefer writing in small caps rather than cursive. I _did_ learn cursive in school (early 90s) -- but I suspect the Newton _still_ would've been a learning curve for me, especially with the earlier models.
I think I tried out a tethered demo model a few times in store/show displays back then. I forget if my technophile uncle had one or not.
so you are technicaly illiterate? proud of being part of illiteracy statistics in 21st century?
Cursive was a 2nd grade subject. How didnt you learn it?
@@adamnichols476 It wasn’t taught when I was in school in the late 70s/early 80s. Apparently my school district thought they were being “modern” and stopped teaching it early. My sister (4 years older than me) learned it, but I didn’t.
Rather fortunate apple made sure to pack the batteries not just in a thin layer of clingwrap, but a dedicated box. Gives a layer of protection in case of leakage.
Or like some electronics inside the battery compartment merely disconnected with a piece of plastic.
If I remember correctly, the Newton was supposed to "learn" your writing over time. There may also have been a handwriting training app. I lived in the Bay Area at the time and went to a free session on the old Apple Campus at 1 Infinite Loop where they were demonstrating the Newton. Very cool building. I remember that all the room signs were done in the original Mac fonts and that there was a Mac Cafe.
I picked up a few of these on the flea market 10 years ago, one of them was the backlit version of the one you got, and the other one was an absolutely PRISTINE Newton Messagepad 2100 (rare as nuts), with the external keyboard, and leather pouches to them both, charger, regular battery insert and chargeable battery, cd for PC + PC hookup cable and whatnot.
*I have been using mine for over 30 years to sketch my ideas , still works great* 😊👍
Ah, the Newton. Had a MP130 for a while around 2001, me and some colleagues from work found a box with about 40 of them on a tech junkyard, discarded from a local bank. From those, we were able to get 12 units working by mixing and matching parts.
It was a delight to use, but was REALLY bulky. The only pocket where it would fit was on one of my winter coats, and that was a stretch. Later I replaced it with a Palm M100, even more capable (thanks to the huge amount of apps and games) and MUCH more portable.
Yeah, when the message didn’t save, I had immediate suspicions that your “backup” battery (the coin battery) was dead. That’s what will cause something like that to happen. I have owned a couple of MP130’s, that’s how I know this.
Like your friend I had more luck on getting my newton to recognize cursive handwriting, and I have like the world’s worst dysgraphic handwriting. After about 4 years of training it I got it to recognize my handwriting fairly well. Occasionally I would see it give me a weird interpretation, especially if memory is running low on it, and the “I am thinking” lightbulb was there for an extended period of time I knew the interpretation would be comical.
The reason the erase feature didn’t work as well for you is that your squiggles have to be completely vertical and joined up for it to not think something is a letter. I hope that helps.
That's classic and was my experience using the Newton way back then. Which is the reason why I bought a Palm Pilot.
i had a palm pilot, was the writing software called "girafe" and you had to learn it in a game, or was that a fever dream?
Mac84 colab AND Simpsons references? Nailed it.
15:18 that happens on iPadOS with my Apple Pencil when I try to use the scribble feature to erase the words
I remember using one of these before, it belonged to a teacher who, eventually, mentored me into building computers... I just remember using it and it really didn't do much outside of Palm PDAs of the same era; The screen size was just a selling point, because there wasn't any real software development for it, it wasn't as good as Palm.
It seems like Apple was in contact with Cyberdyne Systems to be able to be that far ahead of any other manufacturer in the 90s (!). That handwriting recognition and scribble feature are unbelievable.
Lot of imitators did the same for less money.
The handwriting recognition didn't get good until the MP 2000. A lot of that had to do with the ROM size. But user handwriting is also an issue. If the MP2000 can't read your handwriting, probably no one else can either
It amazes me that the Newton Mail Button shares the same UI Idea as iOS, which is to have elements in the “Share Button” than do more than Share, like printing, saving a file, copy, cut, delete, and in the case of the Files App, being able to open content in other Apps. It’s pretty interesting plus the drag and move of the “Floating” Window elements from the bottom is kinda familiar with iPadOS Slide Over function and the “Gestures” Navigation. That’s really amazing
Wow! I love it! 😍 Another vintage product released into the atmosphere. Also RIP to those batteries 😂
I made a cursory search for the “Owners Instructional Video” tape.
I didn’t find the one for this model, but I did find the one for the 110 model.
(Unless Apple used the same video for several models.) ruclips.net/video/UpNwfDSw5Tg/видео.html
The original video gets scrubbed off the internet because it was primarily as screen test for Steve Jobs aspirations to enter the adult film industry
I picked up a used one and tried it for notes and reference material in med school back in the day. The drug reference guide was awesome but the handwriting translation was pretty crazy bad. Still better than my actual handwriting tho.
At 19:18 - Cursive script IS normal handwriting; what you refer to as 'normal' is printing.
In 1994 I purchased a Newton Message Pad 110. After watching this video I dug it out of a drawer, put new batteries in it and it powered right up! All of my notes and such were still in it, stored on the memory card I suppose. The outside of it got a little weird but did not go sticky.
Online 'collectors' are feinting at this obvious desecration!!! lmao :) Great video and I love this content. The Newton was ahead of its time even if ill-fated. Kudos to you for showcasing a new/old stock model so thoroughly.
They had one on display at my University's book store. I have messy handwriting anyway, so it was fun to see how the Newton dealt with my chicken scratches. Later Palm Pilot had their Graffiti system which worked much better. Instead of standard letters, Graffiti asked you to use modified letters that were easier for the computer to recognize. Still didn't always work for me, but it was a lot better than the Newton's method.
I found a Compaq Ipaq in a desk drawer at work several years ago. A model I used to own back in the day, so I booted it up and to my surprise it worked. Back in the day, I used the IrDA interface on my Nokia 7110, or a Compact Flash modem so I could dial into work and send and receive emails on the go. Things have moved on quite a bit : -)
you should call apple support and ask for replacement batteries, tell them you only now had time to unbox the device you bought 28 years ago and you're disappointed to not be able to use it due to faulty batteries.
Incidentally, the number on the box in the video apparently is now a scam number.
Usually, if I want to really preserve the cellophane, I either cut it along the box flap seams or the pinch point of the cellophane. Instead of ripping it like you would new stuff. Also a long, flat, and rounded bit of metal the size of the flap to open it helps avoid the crease you get from opening a box flap with your fingers.
I didn't have a Newton, but a Palm Piolet. I went to Office Depot 3 or 4 times staring at the display and deciding which one to buy. I went with the little guy, only $99. I loved it! My daughter played the flower game all the time. It was so convenient to have addresses, phone numbers, shopping lists, notes, and my calendar all in one little PDA.
I remember when this came out, I was at Uni at the time. I picked up a brochure about it and saw the advertised demographic; Students, Business professionals, and Seniors. Got quite excited about getting one.
And then the price was announced, and the enthusiasm dropped like a lead balloon. $1500 was *way* out of most people's reach for that class of device, and was ⅓ of the price of an Apple ][e at the that time…
I had every Newton model. Loved them. Way ahead of their time. Handwriting recognition got really good in the last model.
I was a little kid in 97, my
Uncle brought an apple Newton when he was visiting us in China, I was completely blown away by the functionality, user interface capabilities and the quality of the device. I remembered that, I never seen anything like that at all back in 97
Good stuff! Nice callback to the WOW! computer return video as well at the end, lol
Gotta give Old-Man Ken that screen time.
A little later than this we had the palm pilot. I owned 3 generations of them and two of them still work! I don't use them for much beyond playing music but they are a fun novelty.
I also have an early Archos color media player which works and several dolby walkman players.
As an old person I also kept the very first computer I ever constructed or owned... a Sinclair ZX81 with an 16K static cmos memory upgrade that plugs into the back (heady stuff).
The oldest solid state stuff I own is a Radionette Kurer Auto FM radio (with 9 germanium transistors). That needed new capacitors but surprisingly the transistors still worked (I've subsequently bought a bunch of replacement transistor then cherry picked the best based on gain etc.. Net result is that the radio will likely outlast me. Then again, the average dragonfly would probably outlast me.
I remember the Newton. It was way too expensive for me to afford but I gazed on in admiration. Which was mostly true of all the Apple stuff so I made-do with an Amiga 500 and a Compaq.
There was something so cool about the 80's and 90's. Mercifully we didn't have social media and tech was all starry-eyed 'the shape of things to come'. Of course we had dial-up modems, and Usenet (instead of internet), games that loaded from cassettes. You young whippersnappers have it way too easy in my opinion!
I will say one thing though. Word 2.0 was far, far superior for writing books when compared to the current iteration of Word on 365 which is truly sad.
I prefer the way DankPods opens old stuff. He doesn't give two shits about collector's value or neatness.
😬
I bought the first "electroluminescent" model for like $800. I also bought a 2mb PCMCIA card. PCMCIA stood for "people can't memorize computer industry acronyms." That was always good for a laugh until they changed the acronym to PC-CARD. God how I LOVED the tech industry in the 90's!!! There were probably 50 companies that made computer mice and their alternatives! THAT was what REAL COMPETITION gives you. CHOICES!!!!!!!
5:06 omigosh! I didn't knew Apple gave stickers with their devices since almos 3 decades ago, I thought it was something new that came only with mid 2000's iPods but that's becuase those are the only new Apple devices I got to see in my lifetime, even old iPod unboxing videos here are from used or refurbished packages, pretty neat.
4:21 "Welcome, I hope you're prepared for an unforgettable Newton."
Love seeing Mac84 in the spotlight. I hope his channel takes off now.
And that's why they're called duraleak batteries, at least they weren't inside the device
I tried writing “Hello” loads of times and it never got it 🤦🏻♂️ it’s terrible but extremely cool! I love my Newton
A tip for scrubbing out words: Do it as though you are writing two letter Ws.
Put in the Getting Started PCMCIA card, there's a cool handwriting recognition game in there called Calligrapher. It will help the Newton to recognise your writing and it's actually quite fun.
I just sold my MessagePad 130, which I had bought second-hand at a Macintosh Users Group while living in the US in 1999. I feel a bit sentimental about it, but to be fair I never used it much in all these years and my plans of programming for it never materialized. I think a MessagePad 2100 would be great though. I always found the user interface design of the Newton exemplary, and as a fan of Gill Sans I loved the marketing materials too.
Can you please use it to send a fax from a train payphone to a restaurant to relay a message to the secretary of defense?
3:28 Duracell: "No other battery looks like it. No other battery lasts like it." NOT!
There are so many sponors for youtuber. I wonder if youtubers are honestly doing objective reviews of their sponsors. The tone you talk about Ifixit is considerably nicer than with other producs.
Predating my ownership of Palm Pilot devices, I had a MessagePad 120 and and later a 130. It was am amazing device - well ahead of it's time.
I had a Message Pad back in the day and I loved it, but honestly it was almost useless until a company called Hand spring introduced a software add-on called "Graffiti" which actually worked perfectly, enabling accurate text entry as fast as you could write.
But then they came out with their own hardware based on Graffiti called "Palm Pilot", which was small enough to fit in a pocket, so it was "bye bye Newton, hello Palm Pilot!"
A couple years later I got a Palm Treo, which was a PDA with a phone built in, and the era of the smartphone kicked off.
They seem primitive now, but the software was actually amazingly useable, could even browse the web.
The iPhone was still years off.
The 120 was probably the first really properly usable model, but by then it had a lot of reputational damage from earlier-model issues. I had one of these later ones when I was at Uni, and was apparently one of the few people in the world who's natural handwriting was a good match for what it was expecting.
I just found mine sitting in a box and no it does work. This thing went to Russia with me and kept me entertained the whole trip. I was amazed with how the hand writing recognition worked (for me). Now it will not power up. Where's my solder gun?
Oh yessss I was so excited for this. I wanna get one of these but they are soooo rare and expensive where I live
I was worried if the outside would be a sticky mess that they coated some of those things so it would have a soft rubber grip able outside which starts degrading overtime into a sticky like glue. Some of the amstrads did that I seen a video of Ashens looking at one he had to scrape all.of it off then used fingernail polish remover to get as much of the residue off of it and he still.jad to wear gloves. Maybe this newton product learned from amstrads mistake or knew that the coating degrades rots and turns sticky over time. Ashens did an unboxing too and was new also never been used in a shrink wrap.
Great video, and it shows how far we’ve come….
By the way, the handwriting recognition on my Apple Watch sacks, but not as bad as on this Newton.
Interesting video
I remember meeting a customer who had just got one of these, he always had the latest and greatest and brought this in. He was showing it off and tried to write an appointment or note, lets say "see Joe about system X" or something serious like that and the handwriting came up with something ludicrous, maybe say "banana avocado pavement" . I was screaming with laughter. (we had a good relationship he didn't mind) Next time i saw him he'd got rid of it. Probably got a Palm Pilot. I loved my Palm V if my memory serves on the name.
Have a few of them, even made it sync with iCal over serial/USB and made a buggy wifi driver (to use with a Orinoco PCMCIA card). A shitload of time ago I used them for the last time
Nostalgia :-) I had its succesor in the nineties (on rebate, for obvious reasons). The handwriting recognition was really as bad as you noticed. Sometimes it was OK, but most of the time it was awful. It was supposed to learn your handwriting, but never really did.... So I used the floating keyboard, with the pencil (imho it took until the Palm Pilot to get usable). My next step in PDA's (Personal Digital Assistants) was the Psion Series 3a (and later mx and 5mx). Now those where really useful (but keyboard based). Great to see it working again: with the delete and garbage animation and sounds. Easily my most used function on the Newton ;-)))) Thank you!!
I got a chance to play with a Newton at the most unlikely place...while i was working at Microsoft in the late 1990's we had six (hint even number) of these...i am not allowed to talk about what we were working on at the time..yes as i remember the handwriting was not great and very very finicky..Being the first PDA you could definitely see the future of what would become a huge market for PDA's at the time ....although i never thought about the tech (PDA) being combined with a phone..the Motorola TAC phone was most popular when the first Newton was released ..by the time i was playing with the Newton the Nokia 3390 was the hot phone.. ...
"Does it work? Sponsored by, iFixit"
Me: "Well..."
Love the "eat up Martha" references, but you really should have tried writing "beat up Martin" to see if it would change it like in The Simpsons.
My dad has one of these! The same exact model (if I remember correctly but it looks the same).
I saw the Newton at the first launch at the London Expo. No-one was allowed to hold them and Apple staff swarmed around demonstrating them. I remember commenting to the lady that I thought it looked a little slow in its response, at which point she gave me a very sour look, turned her back and walked away; I genuinely thought she was about to fetch security and have me escorted out.
So, wait, the people that will win a tool kit ment to fix tech will be people who already can fix tech??
Oh my god that grey with the classic Rainbow apple logo is just magnificent. I love it.
4:24 Y’know I thought I was the only one who still cared about that meme in 2022
I had one of those with a card reader attached. It was originally used for event access.
Sorry to jump onto another video on your channel but I have a 2010 Mac with Yosemite that I tried to install Sierra. When it goes to load it says cannot install. When I try to reload Yosemite it will not load, the recovery start up to safe mode won’t load and it days disks are locked. I have absolutely no idea what I can do or how I can recover data on the drive. Unfortunately I have no time machine back ups. I am in the `uK but I must admit I do not understand macs at all or the operating system.
Great episode. I am guessing the note wasn’t there because of the backup battery? And am glad at least that the scribble feature works - somewhat on the iPad now 😅
Is their ever going to be a point in time where modern electrolytic components will be better manufactured and much longer lasting so as to prevent further cap-turnovers?
Maybe even brand new capacitor designs that emulate the older style, as a niche market themselves I'm pretty sure they could persist at least long enough for preservationist purposes
That picture of magic trackpad reminded me that I should glue up my laptop rubber feet.
Thanks !
I used to sell those, the Motorola Marco and Motorola Envoy. Fun times.
I wish i could actually enter that ifixit contest, but my laptop that needs work needs a smaller bit than i have.. Thats WHY i need the toolkit xD
LCD started to degrade. The middle has a darker spot similar to my Sony Mavica cameras.
I'd guess that's a polariser issue rather than the LCD it's self. I bet it can be fixed.
I want one of these just so I can use it as my grocery list. It just sucks that even NOS examples like this can't even work directly out of the box without some much needed attention.
I work in computer repair and there's an old iMac G4 here that's at risk of being recycled. I can't remember what's wrong with it, but I know the boom arm isn't working properly. Anyone know if it is worth rescuing it?
1st of all, do a high resolution scan on these stickers and preserve them and have them made into more stickers. 2nd of all, it kind of looked like that had been opened before and reshrink wrapped.
Man Newton OS is a joyful nostalgia trip....you can tell the system was designed by people who had FUN with computers. I really miss that from modern day Apple. Its like Apples products are positioned more as tools and beautiful objects, and less like fun toys (and I don't mean toys in a negative sense). I really hope Apple gets some of their "fun product" persona back. Let a small team inside Apple just go wild and have fun developing a new product. These days they're probably too focused on just keeping up with the yearly schedule, fixing bugs, adding features, that there just isn't enough time for people to just play around and develop something with a fun vibe.
I'm not saying Apples "whimsy" is entirely gone, because they certainly still have that whimsical flair and occasionally NAIL the charm. Most recent example I can think of is the cursor/trackpad implementation in iPadOS. Universal Control also has some fun touches to the design. But seeing the Newton just makes me appreciate how much fun Apple used to have.
8:20 Ooh, an ARM610 - those were also used on the Acorn RiscPC 600 models.
Any more luck with the G3 prototype???
What is that darker spot in the middle of the display - did it come standard like that?
I figured that was a polarization thing with his camera. Maybe it wasn't there in person for him. 🤷♂️
The Newton's hand writing recognition is about on par with what I've experienced with the modern counterparts of the past few years, be it Android, iOS, or Windows flavored. Welp, it's as they say, consistency is key.
The cool thing about the really old devices, they can work just fine like they used to. Good luck with like an old android phone or iPhone...
Hahahahahaha That Please Stand By Is Funny Krazy Ken is Looking Somewhere With A Big Eye
The first time i Heard of the Apple newton was when Ashens reviewed it. A very interesting device.
16:59 Mill: (Snake for Nokia 105). Arms: (Grand Theft Auto: Vice City). cheese: (no handwriting)
I wonder how much of these still exist sealed these days
Haha... The very latest video I happened to watch before this one was Mac84's newest one. Although this is not the first collab, I wasn't expecting to see Steve again after just 10 minutes!
Few people know one of the same engineers @ Apple from the original Mac OS 6.0.8 also worked on the Newton - Steve Capps.
Did you finally get the sponsorship with ifixit
You should contact Apple support and ask if there are any patches for it. I wonder what their response would be.
Why didn't you link to either Mac84 or 8-bit Guy's channels?
Interesting vid idea! Just take those sealed iPhone unboxings into the past!
1:02 - Crash Bandicoot
I remember using one of these back in the days…wasn’t impressed. But it was cool as heck, until i could get my hands on a psion…
Bet this guy won't mind at all when bees go exstinct!
iFixit sponsorship, wow!!! Congrats man!!!
Good old Duracells… 28 years and still leak to this day.
Sealed for 28 years, reminds me of my wife when we first got together