[Mallrat]

I didn't get into apple until 1997 or so... and didn't know much about the history until 2000 or so.

I understand that Steve Jobs bascially canceled the Newton out of spite because it was developed with the old regime before him. Is that it?

Whatever the reason, with blackberries and PDA becoming so standard, and apple being an innovator, wouldn't the Newton be perfect?

I just don't get it. I think the eMate was a great idea.

Some of their best ideas, they just let go off.

I hope it comes back in some form one day.

[Athens]

PDA's are not doing very well for one, second with Cell Phones taking away much of the PDA market I can't see it being super popular. Now myself I would love to have a Apple based PDA that synced up with Mail, iCal with a PDA version of Safari with bookmark syncing and song support. But the iPod already does this minute the Safari bit. I think the best thing would be to add bluetooth support to the ipod and a notch on the back for a stand and with a bluetooth mini keyboard and a mini stand that can stand the ipod on its side (when attached screen rotates) the iPod could fill the gap of a PDA as it is only missing input support that PDAs have.

[- - e r i k - -]

PDAs never really took off. It's the filofax-fad all over again.

[baw]

No.

Look how well the PDA market is doing.

[m a d r a]

what athens said - they'll stick a keyboard on the ipod eventually.

The Newton returned to Apple's lineup in the form of handwriting recognition in MacOS X.

As for the Newton OS in a handheld product? Sadly, I doubt it.

[Millennium]

It may be nice, but probably not. True PDAs as a concept are all but dead anyway, being replaced by cell phones on one end and PocketPCs, Tablet-PCs, and similar devices which try to do everything a PC does but in a smaller form factor. Palm was getting uncomfortably close to a small-PC concept before it died, anyway.

What killed the PDA was the idea that PDAs had to do everything, rather than being the productivity tools they were envisioned as. This led not only to bloat, which would have been bad enough by itself, but also distraction. The distractions all but eliminated the productivity gains which PDAs had been famous for, and so the market began to shrink. Larger devices like Tablet-PCs did "everything" better (though still not as well as laptops), while cell phones have generally taken over the useful-device markets.

Damn Microsoft anyway, for their mentality that every app and device must do everything. The idea that a small tool that does only a couple of things but does them very well and integrates with similar tools to combine functionality is infinitely more useful than their bloated concepts, and yet Microsoft's vision is so deceptively attractive that it kills many devices and concepts before their time. There are very few companies -perhaps only one- which I would ever dare use the metaphor of rape to describe what they've done to their industry, but Microsoft fits the bill.

[m a d r a]

Originally Posted by hayesk

The Newton returned to Apple's lineup in the form of handwriting recognition in MacOS X.

As for the Newton OS in a handheld product? Sadly, I doubt it.

what OS does the ipod run on? - is t a stripped down, faceless OSX, or something different?

shouldn't apple be working on some kind of "OSX lite" to compete with windoze CE anyway? i mean once you convert all these drones over to OSX from the dark side, then shouldnae you be offering them the same interface across all their gadgets, the way micro$oft tries to.

[Eriamjh]

Was the Newton a Jobs product (developed under Jobs)? If not, you'll never see it or anythign like it come back...

[shunt]

wow, a newton thread...

[Leia's Left Bun]

The newton was too big, expensive, had a bad rep and didn't sell that well.

Best OS on the planet though.

[demibob]

it might but it wont be called a Newton

Id like to see an apple made gps system with a apple os built in and a 60 gb hard drive so you can store film and music
iv got a navman and its good but could be much better.

[Bandit240]

I dont see any Newton type device coming back under Steve Jobs. It was around wile he was gone from Apple and like others have said he killed it because of that. Ive got a Newton MP120 that i use everyday. Only bad part is ive got to keep my old Powerbook 1400 around in order to upgrade it.

[Leia's Left Bun]

If Apple did come back with any sort of PDA no way in hell would it be called the Newton.

[wdlove]

I would like to see the iPod offer additional functions. Now we have pictures and TV.

[Bandit240]

I dont see any Newton type device coming back under Steve Jobs. It was around wile he was gone from Apple and like others have said he killed it because of that. Ive got a Newton MP120 that i use everyday. Only bad part is ive got to keep my old Powerbook 1400 around in order to upgrade it.

[Eriamjh]

Asking for the Newton to come back is like asking to bring back the Cube or the eMate.

[Athens]

Originally Posted by wdlove

I would like to see the iPod offer additional functions. Now we have pictures and TV.

as Millennium said, simple devices that do there job and do it well are better. The ipod is so popular because it fits into that. Everything Apple does is about that. Look at ilife. Great Music App, Great Movie App, Great DVD app all different apps yet work together so dam well. As with everything Apple does this is the concept the use. Can I see a apple Personal assistant you bet. Something like a PocketPC or current PDA's no. I think it will be something simple and easy to use that will integrate with all the other apple products. And I think the ipod does everything its ment to do and I doubt more features will be put into it. Gotta ask why is it so popular and yet those other mp3 players that do it all are not. Because the ipod is KISS, keep it simple stupid. And that is what I like. I am debating my next cell phone if I am going to look for a full feature everything phone or find a phone that has a great speaker phone and reception and say hell to the fancy stuff. I would really like to see Apple produce a phone as nice as the ipod. Non of this stupid itunes built in and stuff. but sy a Phone with bluetooth and ipod with blue tooth so when a calls comes in the ipod announces it and pauses automatically. its that kind of integration I like to see.

[Judge_Fire]

Originally Posted by Eriamjh

Asking for the Newton to come back is like asking to bring back the Cube or the eMate.

The frequency of Steve Jobs producing cubes is a sort of half-time thing. The NeXT cube was in 1988, the PowerMac Cube was in 2000 and now the GM building in 2006.

J

[Bandit240]

The eMate falls right into the Newton line up since it was a Newton. As for the cube, if Apple made a new one with more power then the mini i would be in. I love the look of the cube.

[:XI:]

Originally Posted by m a d r a

what OS does the ipod run on? - is t a stripped down, faceless OSX, or something different?

shouldn't apple be working on some kind of "OSX lite" to compete with windoze CE anyway? i mean once you convert all these drones over to OSX from the dark side, then shouldnae you be offering them the same interface across all their gadgets, the way micro$oft tries to.

The iPod runs an OS from pixo which oddly, now seems to be a part of Sun.

From what I can remember, Apple licensed the OS to run on two devices. (iPod/photo/colour & iPod mini/nano? or is there a mystery device waiting in the wings?)

edit: after a little digging I found this.

Since the original iPod, Pixo was acquired by Sun, though not before Apple bought the rights to the iPod's operating system.

hmm?

[qnc]

I would like to see a newton type device again.

I guess the real question is what could you reasonably do on the fly. You can take notes to sync back with main computer for finnished version of file. but writing war and peace is not advisable.

As far as I know that was the newton's original concept take a few scetches with some accomaning notes whilst out in the feild and then do the full project when you get back to the full computer. concepts and notes on the fly. Add some modern day functioanality like music and video and a decent phone for internet/email access and communications and why not.

Add some apple sex appeal and market it as a concept/note taker not a mobile novel writing device and it could sell buckets loads. the ipod video is not the vpod but the ipod 5th generation an ipod that does video not a video platform designed from the ground up. Why not the same with this device.

The amount of people I see with their laptops out on a train or plane and they are looking at a speradsheet/word doc and doing very little work due to self consciousness limited space to move their arms holding the screen as people pass by etc... the actual work time is very limited on a daily commute. The blackberry on the other hand is a good example people do use it alot. They read and send emails and it has a keyboard (although I would prefer hand writting recoginition) What I want is a little think device to look at thoses attachments make some adjustments and notes, take a few salient points at a meeting not a legal stenograph version of it. could be cool. Take a small note book and make it electronic that would be cool.

Looking at the nano and flash hard drives and combining the hand writing recognition in a approximate credit card/small notebook sized note taker that could do video/music has a spreadsheet/calculator, new xml datasoup database, safari with phone (detachable bluetooth ear peice) could be really cool.

Most of the technology is already there it is just market confidence/share that is preventing it coming out

credit card sized phone + nano (video) + real hand writing recognition pda = new newton?

Who ever said "doing a few things right vs putting everything in" was right and a great portable aid has not been done right IMO (even the newton was too big, the blackberry to much scroll/fiddle and pda phones battery access data entry the list is too long!!).

bring me a 21st centuray newton.

[JoshuaZ]

I had really hoped the Apple Cell Phone would become the PDA of the future, instead it was a lame mp3 player that had no real ties to Apple except iTunes. The vast majority of people can use their cell phone for most everything, a large chunk of the remaining people will just bring their laptop with them if they want to use apps, and that really leaves a very small chunk of the market that would buy something (especially from apple) that would fall into the PDA area.