Apple Newton in the House, Unboxing Video

[Brandon Miniman]

If it were 1997, I would have just paid $1,000 to buy the Apple Newton MessagePad 2100. That's more than an HTC Touch Pro sells for today, a device that is possibly the most feature-packed phone ever of any platform, let alone Windows Mobile. The Newton's prohibitively high price is one of the reasons why it didn't gain wide market acceptance.

Let's talk specs. The Newton MessagePad 2100 uses an Intel StrongARM processer running at 162MHz, a large 6.1" 16-scale 480x320 monochrome touchscreen display (which comes out to 95PPI), 8MB ROM, 4MB RAM, and 4MB extra storage via the expansion slot. It has two PCMCIA card slots and infrared IrDA for wireless file transfer. To interface with your computer, it uses the trusty serial interface which is now just about extinct.

Why are we covering an 11 year old vintage handheld device? Shouldn't this be in a museum somewhere? As mentioned in the video, I thought it would be interesting - and possibly fascinating - to understand the user experience that Apple wanted to create with their first attempt at a handheld device. We are looking at the MessagePad 2100 in particular because it was the last of the MessagePad series of devices before the line was axed by Apple, so presumably, this model is the most refined and evolved of the previous MessagePad devices.

In this series, we're going to cover the history, hardware, software, and experience that the MessagePad 2100 brings us. It'll be fun.

See also:
Detailed specs on the Newton MessagePad 2100

[Pony99CA]

Can we also look forward to unboxings of a Windows CE 1.0 device (I might still have the box for mine) and the original Palm Pilot?

Steve

[kanzlr]

it is worth noting that at the time it was released i used a rather powerful 60 Mhz Pentium computer with 8MBytes of RAM...the Message Pad was more than impressive back then. I had the previous MessagePad 120 Model at the time.

btw there are still people using these late message pads. there are usergroups, even new software and Wifi card drivers

[Brandon Miniman]

Steve - Haha, maybe.

kanzlr - I figured....do you know of any good usergroups?

[JwY]

A very interesting look into the past Brandon. I look forward to seeing where you're going to go with this.

It's OS "Ten," not OS "ex." "X" being the Roman numeral "10."

Calling it OS "ex" makes you sound almost as ignorant as calling that HTC mess "possibly the most feature-packed phone ever of any platform."

[Jaime Rivera]

Hey Brandon,

All we need now is an iPAQ h3630 with a couple of sleeves to show the first WinMo device with a colored screen!! (I could be mistaken though, was there any before that?)

If not, then it would still be one of the first HTC made devices to debut.

[Jaime Rivera]

Originally Posted by Michael2112

It's OS "Ten," not OS "ex." "X" being the Roman numeral "10."

Calling it OS "ex" makes you sound almost as ignorant as calling that HTC mess "possibly the most feature-packed phone ever of any platform."

Hehe.. it makes you want to wonder why call it Ten and use an X, doesn't it . If I see an X, I say an X.

To which device would you compare current HTC devices to? Please do not say the iPhone. It makes you want to ask them where did they leave elemental things like wireless stereo headset profiles for their Bluetooth stack.

[Brandon Miniman]

Michael2112 - do you have in mind a phone that packs more features than does the HTC Touch Pro? What phone do you use?

I enjoy reading Pocketnow columns and reviews but I think that you've shortchanged the Apple Newton MessagePad. The unboxing was and is really as exciting experience as any of my other devices. [You missed out on several pieces of accessories and manuals as well as having been given the wrong stylus.] The Newton MP2100 is a class piece of electronics.

Modern connectivity to OS X with serial/USB, WiFi and bluetooth is successful including synchonizing with contacts, etc. Using Graffiti, handwriting recognition is as good as the Palm ever was. There are many of we retro-nerds who still love and use the Newton on a regular basis.

For those who are interested, check out these links:

www.newtontalk.net -- listserv for all things Newton
www.unna.org -- repository for new software and mirrors to old sites

Regards,

Rob
surgeon__AT__mindspring.com

Owner & operator of these handhelds:
MP120, MP2000, MP2100, emate 300, Palm III, Casio E-110/115, Palm Vx, Ipaq 3670, Palm Tungsten T3, Axim 51v, Verizon 6700, Treo 700p, Sprint Mogul

[Pony99CA]

Originally Posted by Jaime Rivera

All we need now is an iPAQ h3630 with a couple of sleeves to show the first WinMo device with a colored screen!! (I could be mistaken though, was there any before that?)

Technically, the iPAQ h3630 ran the Pocket PC OS (retroactively called Pocket PC 2000 after Pocket PC 2002 was released); Windows Mobile didn't really exist until WM 2003 (sometimes called Pocket PC 2003).

I have an iPAQ 3650 that still works (at least when cradled), a dual PC Card sleeve (with a dead battery, I think; you can see the sleeve below on my iPAQ 3870 with an SMC WiFi card in it) and a Nexian dual CF card sleeve. (I also have a Navman GPS sleeve with a big fat antenna somewhere that no longer works.)



There were Pocket PCs with color screens before the iPAQs, though. HP had the Jornada 520/525s, I believe.

The cool iPAQs were released later and people were paying higher than list price to get them. (I think Compaq released a stop-gap iPAQ using their old Palm-size PC hardware to meet the Pocket PC release date.)

Steve

[Brandon Miniman]

Originally Posted by rcecchino

I enjoy reading Pocketnow columns and reviews but I think that you've shortchanged the Apple Newton MessagePad. The unboxing was and is really as exciting experience as any of my other devices. [You missed out on several pieces of accessories and manuals as well as having been given the wrong stylus.] The Newton MP2100 is a class piece of electronics.

Modern connectivity to OS X with serial/USB, WiFi and bluetooth is successful including synchonizing with contacts, etc. Using Graffiti, handwriting recognition is as good as the Palm ever was. There are many of we retro-nerds who still love and use the Newton on a regular basis.

For those who are interested, check out these links:

www.newtontalk.net -- listserv for all things Newton
www.unna.org -- repository for new software and mirrors to old sites

Regards,

Rob
surgeon__AT__mindspring.com

Owner & operator of these handhelds:
MP120, MP2000, MP2100, emate 300, Palm III, Casio E-110/115, Palm Vx, Ipaq 3670, Palm Tungsten T3, Axim 51v, Verizon 6700, Treo 700p, Sprint Mogul

Heh, yeah, I too wish that we could do a "real" unboxing, but funding an unopened Newton or one with all the accessories included was hard to come by.

You say you still use a Newton - what do you use it for?

As of this evening, there were over 25 replies to that same question posted on the Newtontalk listserver starting August 8, 2008.

Here is the link for "How do you use your Newton"

http://www.newtontalk.net/archive/ne...8-08/0141.html

Be prepared to have your eyes opened wider.

Regards,

Rob