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Caturday: Pippin's iMac house
Some cats just hang out on the furniture provided by their owners, others have nice and cozy pet beds. Pippin, however, has one of the best cat domiciles we've seen so far -- a strawberry slot-loading iMac G3 that's been outfitted with some nice cushions. Pippin's owner, Ian Cobb, named his feline companion after Apple's ill-fated gaming console. There's a box for a non-feline Pippin in this photo as well; see that box marked "Atmark"? Ian also has a nice Mac Portable, what appears to be a PowerBook 170, a Newton MessagePad 2000 (or 2100), and an eMate. So this week, you're not only getting treated to a really cute feline, but also one of the best Apple collections I've seen in a long time. We'd love to see photos of your favorite feline soaking up the warmth of an Apple product, chasing a Magic Mouse, or just being a general nuisance while you're attempting to work on your Mac, iPad, or iPhone. Please let us know via our feedback page and please remember that your cat photo has to have some sort of connection to Apple or its products. For security reasons we can't accept inbound attachments, so you should host the photo (Dropbox, Flickr, iPhoto Journals, etc.) and send us the link. Many thanks to Ian Cobb for sharing this photo with us.
HEX debuts Cross Body bag for Apple Newton (and gives away 3 Newtons)
It started as an April Fools' joke, but ended up being a really fun giveaway. Yesterday, HEX announced a limited edition Cross Body bag for Apple Newton (see video below) with a front pocket "perfectly sized for storing accessories, including the fax modem or extra AA batteries." The company announced a giveaway that ends tonight in which they're giving away three gift packages made up of a Cross Body bag and an Apple Newton with fax modem. To enter, all you need to do is follow @ShopHEX on Instagram and post a photo of yourself with your favorite tech device. Hmmmm, should I take my picture with my Newton 2100 or my QuickTake 100? Three runners-up will get $100 credit in the ShopHEX.com store.
Daily Update for January 3, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
John Sculley discusses ARM and the Newton
One of the products often pointed out as the sterling example of an Apple failure is the Newton MessagePad. The product, which launched in 1993 only to be axed in 1998 by the newly returned Steve Jobs, was ahead of its time in many ways. The man who took the project under his tutelage in the early 1990s was then-CEO John Sculley, who recently spoke at a South Florida Technology Alliance event about the Newton and the ARM processor that powered it. According to Sculley, the handwriting recognition capabilities of the Newton were never meant to define the device. Instead, "It was really much more about the fact that you could hold this thing in your hand and it would do a lot of the graphics that you would see on the Macintosh." There was no microprocessor available at the time that would let Apple do graphics-based software, so Newton project lead Larry Tesler came up with the idea of having Apple design its own microprocessor. The result was the ARM processor, a joint venture between Apple, VLSI, and Acorn Computers. The processor not only provided the functionality required for Newton, but was also power efficient. Without the ARM processor, the iPhone might never have taken off -- every iPhone uses a derivative of the ARM core used in the Newton. Sculley's talk is included in the video embedded below. Especially interesting is his comment about foreseeing mobile computing as a multi-billion dollar business -- something he was ridiculed for in the early 1990's.
Rare Newton-based Siemens NotePhone up for grabs on eBay
Anyone with a museum of rare Apple antiquities should head over to eBay, where an extremely rare Siemens NotePhone is on sale. As noted by the seller "yennyman," the NotePhone was sold in Europe in 1994 for a very short time. The NotePhone was essentially a modular speakerphone for office use that contained a fax modem and a Newton MessagePad 100 for taking notes, entering appointments and prepping faxed notes for sending. The Newton has the Siemens brand on it, not the familiar Apple logo. At the time the NotePhone was introduced, the price tag was around DM2,400 -- about US$1,000. There was apparently a prototype based on the MessagePad 2000/2100 that appeared a few years later, but there's no sign that the newer model ever made it to market. If you're interested in acquiring this awesome device for your museum, you'd better hurry. The last time one of these showed up on eBay was apparently in 2004. It will also be important for you to speak German, as the Newton is localized for the German language. At the time of publication, there were two bids, with the top price so far at $202.50. Thanks to Jens for the tip!
Kindle Fire transforms into a Mac Plus and Newton MessagePad
Last year when the Amazon Kindle Fire first hit the market, I bought one for US$199 to do research for a book. Since the book was published, I haven't touched the Fire at all -- until now. Based on a story I posted the other day about running an old version of the Mac OS on a Nook Simple Touch, I decided I just had to try getting Mac OS running on the Kindle Fire. I'm happy to say that the experiment was a success, and that I now have a 14 ounce equivalent of a Mac Plus running old-school apps like HyperCard and MacWrite. Later on in this post I'll also talk about how my cohort Erica Sadun found a way to turn the Kindle Fire into a Newton MessagePad. Loading the Emulator The experiment I'm about to describe uses the Mini vMac emulator for Android, a free and easily available app. You will not need to root your Kindle Fire to get this to work! If you want to emulate a color Mac, you'll want to root the Kindle Fire, get the Google Play app store running on it, and then purchase Mini vMac II ($1.99). You also need a Mac ROM image and disk images of old Mac System Software. Mini vMac isn't available in the Amazon App Store, so you'll need to download it from the link above, and then sideload it onto the Kindle Fire. How do you sideload an app? Easy. Once you've downloaded the .apk file, plug your Kindle Fire into your Mac with the USB to micro-USB cable and wait for it to mount. When it's visible on your desktop, you can double-click the Kindle to see what's in there. I created a folder on the Kindle named "Apps" and did a drag and drop of the Mini vMac application file into it. Next, I ran AndroXPlorer (free) to find the app file and install it onto the Kindle. There are more hints about sideloading of apps in Erica Sadun's Kindle Fire Sparks: Adding Third-Party Content to your Kindle Fire. Loading the ROM and System Files At this point, nothing much will happen if you try to run Mini vMac. You need a system ROM image, and in this case I was able to search around and find one. Since Apple still owns the ROMs, you must legally own the computer that you're trying to emulate (koff). Sure, I just happen to have a Mac Plus sitting next to my desk... I'm sure that there's an old Mac archive (hint) that might have the droids that you're looking for. Once you've legally acquired that ROM image, you're one step closer to booting your Kindle Mac. The file needs to be named vMac.ROM and placed into a folder named minivmac, and that folder needs to be dropped onto your Kindle Fire as well. If you launch Mini vMac at this point, you'll be welcomed with the familiar "ding" startup tone of the earliest Macs and what you used to see on those Macs when there was no startup disk -- a floppy disk icon with a flashing question mark on it. The next step is load a version of the Mac operating system onto the device. The trick here is to find disk images of any System Software up to version 7.5.5 that is in .img or .dsk format. Unfortunately, a lot of the images out there are in .toast format, and although it's easy in OS X to open those .toast files and see what's inside, I can't figure out a way to save them onto a .dsk or .img file. Looking around, I was able to find a copy of System 7.0.1 that was in the proper format, so I loaded the .dsk files into my minivmac folder and then started up Mini vMac. When running, a tap on the Kindle menu button brings up a few other buttons, one of which is Insert Disk. I used the Insert Disk button to create a new disk onto which I wanted to save the operating system and other files. By default, a 20 MB disk is created. Next, I had to go through the 21st-Century equivalent of swapping floppies. I "inserted" the Install 1 "floppy" and was rewarded with the familiar "Welcome to Macintosh" start screen as the emulated machine booted. The installer loaded, and to install the operating system, I ended up doing a lot of "floppy swaps" as the installer asked for one disk, read information from it, then wrote to the 20 MB disk I had created. At one point, I thought the installation had failed when I repeatedly had to swap disks as the Symbol font was being loaded, but perseverance paid off and the installation was successfully completed. Operating the emulated Mac At this point, I had the equivalent of a Mac Plus with no software. What's great about the emulator is that it uses the screen taps as mouse clicks and there's also a virtual Mac keyboard that appears when needed or called up. You can reset the device or interrupt it; my suggestion for shutting down the Mac is to use the Finder's Shut Down menu item to put everything away neatly. When the system prompt asks if you wish to restart the Mac, you can safely return to the Kindle Fire's home screen. Now it was time to search around for some software. Fortunately, there are some good archives available online that have plenty of old Mac apps. As I hinted about earlier, there's the Old Mac Archive or you can go to the Macintosh Garden or System 6 Hell for your retro software fix. Apple is even in on the act, with an Older Software List that includes everything from drivers, old Claris apps, and tons of drivers. The emulated Mac Plus is speedy! I am amazed at how quickly it loads everything, and it works quite well with most of the old apps. The only negative I can find right now is that there's no easy way to transfer files directly from my iMac to the Mini vMac folder on the Kindle Fire, since Mini vMac really only wants to see .dsk or .img formatted files. If the files aren't in either format, they won't load. My solution to the latter error is quite simple; I'm installing the Basilisk II classic Mac emulator on my iMac simply for the reason of running apps that can be used to create the .dsk and .img files that Mini vMac desires. I found that my fingers are a bit too big to use the emulators very well, so I've taken to using a Adonit Jot Pro stylus (US$29.99) as a way to get more accuracy. Was this entire exercise worth the effort? Hell, yeah! It's fun to boot up the old Mac on the Kindle Fire and play with some of those old apps that I remember from the mid-80s. The speed of the emulator makes it a joy to work with, and at least I'm not flipping floppy disks in and out of the drive to load software. As I was playing with the Kindle Fire Mac emulation, my publishing partner Erica Sadun started looking around and found another emulator that's in the works -- Einstein, an emulation of the Apple Newton MessagePad. Einstein on the Kindle Fire Erica found out that there was an Android 2.2 version of Einstein available for download, so she quickly got it up and running. Running Einstein on the Kindle Fire requires the Einstein .apk file (the actual Android application), a Newton ROM image, and the Einstein.rex ROM extension file. While I was writing up this post, Erica got the Newton emulator running and then sent me the necessary files over Dropbox. To me, the fact that the emulator runs so slowly on modern devices is a testament to the Newton MessagePad design team. They were able to get the Newton OS and pretty darned good handwriting recognition (at least later devices) running on quite antique equipment 20 years ago, and it was very responsive. Having a vintage working Newton MessagePad 2100 means that I really don't need to run Einstein, but it's good to see that someone appreciates the history of this groundbreaking device and operating system enough to create this incredible emulator. I did install the Lion version of the emulator, which works much faster on my iMac. If you've ever wondered why Newton owners were so upset when Apple killed the product in 1998, I suggest that you load Einstein onto your Mac and give the emulator a try. When you consider the state of PDAs and personal computers at the time, you'll appreciate just how far ahead of its time the Newton MessagePad was. So, what's the point, Steve? While some of you might see the attraction in setting up a new device to emulate some equipment and software that is now a piece of history, others are probably shaking their heads and asking "why?". For an older guy like me, part of it is just the sheer fun of being able to re-live the days of 20 to 28 years ago when the monochrome screen and startup beep of the old Macs were something new and state-of-the-art. It's the fun of seeing applications that you loved (or hated) again, and seeing just how crude those applications were compared to what we have now. I'd love to hear from others who have successfully used apps like Mini vMac, Einstein, Basilisk II, and Sheep Shaver to emulate an old Apple device on a new piece of equipment. Leave your comments below.
A hands-on reconsideration of the Newton
Harry McCracken over at TIME Techland has written a beautiful piece about a 20-year-old piece of technology that was ahead of its time -- Apple's Newton MessagePad. As he notes, it was twenty years ago this week that Apple CEO John Sculley introduced the Newton to the public at a CES show in Chicago. The device wouldn't actually ship until August of 1993 and would fly for only five years before being axed by Steve Jobs upon his triumphant return to Apple, but it made its mark on the world and on Harry McCracken. He never had an opportunity to write a review of the Newton, so he purchased a "new in box" first-generation Newton MessagePad H1000 off of eBay and set to work giving this piece of nostalgic technology a fair review. McCracken found a number of things interesting about his time with the Newton. First, most people ignored the device when he pulled it out in a meeting or on an airplane, dismissing it as just another tablet. Next, he points out that the screen on the original Newton MessagePad was "terrible". Apple did improve it somewhat with a backlight later, but it remained pretty crappy by today's standards. When it came to battery life, McCracken was impressed. As he notes, "Back in the 1990s, people squawked that the MessagePad H1000 drained its four AAA batteries too quickly. I found, however, that I could go for a couple of weeks on a set. In an age of smartphones that conk out after less than one day, that was more than enough to keep me happy." I won't spoil the day for you by reiterating all of McCracken's post, but instead invite you to read his well-written words on the subject. The post was enough to make me dig out my still-working MessagePad 2100, plug it in (the battery pack no longer holds a charge), and take the title shot above comparing my vastly more powerful iPhone 4S to the last of the Newtons. If you have a little bit of time and want a nice trip down memory lane, I also suggest watching the video below, which is from a video that shipped (on a VHS tape) with the original device.
How one Newton owner uses his device every day
The Apple Newton is ancient history, right? The short-lived device made its debut in 1993 at Macworld Boston, going through seven design iterations before being cancelled by Apple in early 1998. For a hardy group of souls, the Newton is still in daily use. New Zealand-based blogger "Genghis7777" is an investment banker who loves him some Newton. He has a few of them, along with a pile of necessary and useful peripherals -- four MessagePad 2000s, two MessagePad 2100s, and a pair of eMate 300s. To show how he's still using the devices (presumably one at a time) in his everyday life, Genghis7777 listed a typical day with a Newton. His day starts with Adam Tow's Alarm Clock app waking him up at 6:00 AM, he uses the MoreInfo app (see screenshot) as a personal information manager to see how his appointments for the day are looking, and does some reading from several Newton ebooks before heading off to work. In the office, he uses the built-in Notepad app to take notes and adds new tasks to MoreInfo. On the way home from work, there's a stop at the supermarket where he uses the ShopList app to check his grocery list. Later, he writes up a journal entry in NotePad and looks at MoreInfo to see what's coming up in the next few days. It's great to see that there are still people who find the Newton platform to be a useful and productive part of their lives. If you're curious about the Newton, be sure to visit the My Apple Newton blog and some of the other sites listed on the rather impressive blogroll.
PhatPad: a Newton-like note-taking app for iPad
There are so many good note-taking apps out for the iPad that it's hard to believe that someone just came out with one that will probably take the place of the ones we've already installed. That's the case, though, with PhatPad (US$4.99). From PhatWare, a long-time developer of apps for handhelds and smartphones, PhatPad brings the best of Newton MessagePad note-taking to the iPad. That's right -- I just compared the ahead-of-its-time Apple Newton MessagePad of the 90s with the sleek and powerful iPad. Two things that the later models of the Newton did very well were to convert handwriting to editable text, and to provide a way to sketch diagrams freehand and have them "cleaned up." By that, I mean that the built-in Newton software was able to take a scrawled circular shape and turn it magically into a perfect circle. It did the same for squares, rectangles and triangles. PhatPad provides the same capabilities, and then it adds in the sharing capabilities that weren't available even in 1998 when the Newton product line was canceled by Apple. You can take handwritten notes and convert them to text later on, enter text via handwriting into text boxes placed in specific places on a blank page and annotate photos or other images with text or drawings. PhatWare's long experience in the handheld arena definitely shows in PhatPad. The app has many features that haven't been added in other note-taking apps.
Pen input faces off against hardware and software QWERTY keyboards: there can be only one (maybe)
It's completely anecdotal and lacking in what some might call "scientific rigor," but we're digging the, ahem, relevance of Phil Gyford's little text input faceoff he performed for his blog recently. The piece pits an Apple Newton, Palm Vx, Treo 650, and Apple iPhone up against each other, with regular pen and paper and a laptop's full QWERTY keyboard thrown in for reference. The results may or may not surprise you, but (spoiler alert) after the MacBook Pro took top honors in blazing through a 221 word passage twice, the iPhone beat out the rest of the competition, with the three pen-related inputs (pen and paper, Newton MessagePad and Palm Graffiti) all taking up dead last. The iPhone, Treo and pen and paper all were relatively close in speed, and naturally your mileage may vary. That said, where do you think you fall? Drop in your results in comments (the full text he used can be found at the source link) or hit up the poll below with your best guestimate. We're dying to know! %Poll-40521%
