 The original Newton
MessagePad was the result of the Newton team, comprising of Steve
Capps, Walter Smith, Michael Tchao, Gaston Bastiaens, John Sculley,
and several others. It was released at the Macworld Expo in Boston
on August 3, 1993. It would be the first in a new line of Personal
Digital Assistants (PDAs). The MessagePad was a welcome addition
to Apple's Personal Interactive Electronics Division (PIE), as
the first pen-based system using the Newton Intelligence OS.
The main capabilities of the device was its communications and
organizational features. The MP could fax messages and send e-mail,
had applications to organize names, dates, phone numbers, etc.,
and could supposedly read and recognize handwritten words on
the screen. Apple touted that one could write "Lunch with
Bob tomorrow" on the screen, the MP would fill out a meeting
form with the last-accessed person named Bob, tomorrow's date,
and the lunch hour. This impressed several people...at first.
Unfortunately, the "kinks" had not been worked out
of the handwriting recognition engine, which gave often peculiar
interpretations of the words that were written down. This defect
made headlines, and the MP became yet another ungraceful flop
for Apple. It was an extraordinary machine though, like all of
Apple's flops, that was released just too early (again like all
Apple flops). The MP had many features; an infrared port that
could relay information between MPs, ability to print to serial
and parallel printers, receive and store wireless paging messages
with the optional Newton Messaging Card, share files with both
Wintel and Mac computers, and use fax, e-mail, and online services
with optional 9600 baud fax modem. It was about half the size
of a regular sheet of paper (7.25 in. x 4.5 inches) and weighed
less than a pound (0.9 lbs). |
Specifications: