Controlling your Mac mini from your Newton

When we joked a few weeks ago in the part about VNC in our tutorial on turning your Mac mini into a media center that we'd give "300 bonus points to anybody who sends us a shot of their Newton controlling their Mac mini," we never thought we'd actually have to pay up. Alright, Kyle Fiducia, will you take a third-party bad check?
 

[Fabian @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Dammit! That's pretty cool!

I've been trying to do the same thing with my old trusty Palm m105, an infrared-link and my laptop (proof-of-concept for some cooler appliances involving a several meters of usb-cable and an usb-IR port for my main computer).

At least I've got inspiration to continue my quest now!

[ian @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

please sort out the url under the pic. too many "http"'s apparently.
strangly, it currently takes me to microsofts homepage. arrrgh, my eyes!!

[Peter Rojas @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

All the URLs work fine for me, could be more specific about which one you're talking about?

[David Stennett @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Haw, haw .... Pay up suckers!

[TC @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

The link to enlarge the actual picture shows as http//vaguelyaware.com/upload/newtonVNC.jpg - looks like you've missed the colon out :)

[Mark @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Dammit, he beat me to it. I was meaning to play around with VNC on my Newton myself, but hadn't gotten around to it yet.

[Jon Wise @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Ya, that's fantastic... except, you can do that with any computer running VNC Server, and we've been able to do it for years.

[Mark H @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Managed to the same thing with my Tungsten T over Bluetooth. The connection keeps dropping but I've had it work for about ten minutes at a time. Some how Apple's implementation of Bluetooth just isn't well suited to access points.

[Peter Rojas @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Weird, when I click the link, the colon is there. Not sure why anyone else is seeing it without the colon, but I'll bug our web dude.

[Mark H @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Of course what would be really cool would be if I could pull it off while running KDE on my mac. I think I might get around to trying that.

[Jonathan Greene @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

#7 - the point is the Newton running VNC, not the server

[Dan Kuehling @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

#11- Technically, they're both running VNC- the Newton is running the VNC client, and the Mac is running the VNC server.

[HardwareLust @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Slightly OT, but I wonder what the PDA market would look like today if Jobs hadn't killed off the Newton. I still think it was a huge mistake. It was just so far ahead of it's time.

[motech @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

where can i read about how he did this?!

[mollyhackit @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

I always wanted to use my zaurus as a thin client. Maybe if openzaurus worked out of the box with packages that worked I would be more willing to try.

[russdogg @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

my brother-in-law wanted the newton really bad, so he ordered it off eBay... he was all hyping it's stable OS, yadda yadda. When he got it, it was the size of a freakin shoe. My sister felt so bad she bought him an ipaq.

[Rob @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Was the fact that the Newton is the size of a freakin shoe a *surprise* to your brother-in-law?

The core Newton OS still blows Palm away, even all these years later. I'd love to see the Newton functionality in a smaller, faster, color form factor.

[Jonathan Wise @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

#11 and #12... my point is that VNC on the Newt is an OLD trick. Hardly worth all this excitement...

[Jeff Tupholme @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

You should ask to see an animation of this. I've done it and whilst it's cool, it's very very slow...

[Danny @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Ya know, Apple still has the Newton OS. I remember reading rumors of a company trying to license it from Apple, but that was a few years ago. I guess Apple missed an opportunity to make some more money from the Newton.

[Marko @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

I am about to take my eMate on my holidays for simple typing and stuff. Nothing beats the efficient size of the eMate, I am convinced it is the design archetype that formed the modern era of Apple (at least in the 1990's)

[jodyh @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

#15, try the openzaurus build at

http://www.hentges.net/misc/openzaurus/index.shtml

It is for the SL-5500 with SD card only, but it has several working packages pre-installed, including the VNC viewer.

[John Skinner @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

You can get the free VPN software for your Newton at
http://home.comcast.net/~saweyer/newton/vnc.htm
Newton developers keep new technology coming too!
You can play and sync MP3's to your Newton from iTunes (v. 2 for classic).
Many Newtons are now acting as live web servers, serving PIM info, forums, movies & pictures to the internet!
Some even without wires!
To see which Newtons servers are up right now, head on over to
http://npds-tracker.continuity.cx:3680/
To learn more about the Newton, check out the Newton FAQ at
http://www.splorp.com/newton/faq/

[Sterling @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

There'd be no sense in Apple launching a PDA - it's not like the portable music player space where the company could rush in early and take over. But the iPod already contains numerous PDA-like pre-packaged applications, including address book and calendar, so it's possible it will simply become more PDAish as time goes by.

So might have to be satisfied with the myPDA effort, which is a Linux/X11 project to replicate OS X feel, functionality and interoperability on the Zaurus.

I haven't tried it myself - I've messed up my Zaurus too many times to count, already. My enthusiasm for experimentation has waned significantly.

[Mike @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

What some of you are forgetting is that he's doing it on 6 year old handheld technology. This is a true testament to the Newton's versatility and the fact that it was and, in some cases, is way ahead of current handheld technology.

Side note: the reason why jobs killed the Newton was because it was one of Sculley's pet projects. I know. I was there (figuratively speaking).

[Frank @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Marko mentioned that he is using an eMate. I would like to use this opportunity to draw people's attention to the fact that virtually all eMates will eventually commit suicide unless the infamous hinge spring problem is taken care of. Have a look here if you don't know what I mean:

http://www.pda-soft.de/emate_disassemble.html
http://www.inventors-emporium.co.uk/pages/newton-emate-hinge.html

The up side is that even unusable eMates are a pretty damn sexy paperweight ;-)

Frank

[sprocket999 @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Just a note. Looking at the photo, I see the Newton used is a MessagePad 2000. I have one of these, often using it for this sort of purpose. VNC can be a lifesaver. Anyhow, I also have the MessagePad 2100, the LAST Newton before the axe in 1998. It has more memory (heap) and runs VNC much better. In fact EVERYTHING runs much better on the 2100. Last fall I bought a T3 (Palm) to replace my aging 2100. I have to admit, size, screen, virtual graffiti, and rotating screen at first seemed Newton-like. Cosmetically, it IS very sexy. I sold it after 4 months and went right back to the Newton. Consider a simple thing like power management. USER replaceable 4 AA alkelines are available anywhere on the planet. And it will run for weeks on those AAs. I have a stockpile of the original rechargeables that I use too. Palm, for instance, can't offer that. Palm has finally(!) offered flash memory in the T5. About time, too. Previously, if you lost total power, you lost everything (short of what may be on a card). I had my Newton in the drawer for those 4 months without batteries in it and when I put them back in it sprang to life just where I left off. Nothing was missing. For history info and such on the various forms and END of Newton, a great site is Pen Computing. There you will find David McNeil's columns. He presents this advanced technology in quite the objective light. OK, I've babbled enough.

[Glen Warner @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Greetings.

Slightly (barely) off topic, but have you all seen this?

http://www.kallisys.com/newton/einstein

I could say more, but the page says it all for me.

--gdw

[usbcd36 @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

What do you use for a connection between the mini and Newton? At first I thought USB, but realized that you would need some way to adapt it to connect it to the Newton (which I'm sure has no USB ports), and now I'm thinking something akin to the adapters released by just about everyone when the original iMac came out (USB->3 serial ports).

[Kyle @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

wireless (802.11b) network card. more specifically the orinoco classic gold.

[Peter Franken @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Hello there!

I remember that I did something like this with my mp130 and on the mac side a powerbook 190 using the programm ToDoList ( it had a feature for linking into the newton). Suddenly I had the complete contol over tthe powerbook (every direrctory and subdirectory were listed on the newton) - obviosly I started the proramm from the wrong side but I cannot remember what was wrong or wright - as a matter of fact it worked and I manipulated some data on the powerbook with the result that I had to install a safety copy.
Nevertheless - it means that You can controll every apple computer from a newton - via apple talk - I just do not remember what I actually did....

In the meantime I own an apple ibookG3, a powerbook 190, a powerbook 1400, a newton 2100 ( all wireless) and a newton 130 ( still searchingg for ethernet or wireless)

Greetings from Belgium
peter franken