Peter Cohen:
An anniversary of sorts quietly passed us this weekend: Saturday, August 3rd, marked the 20th year since Apple began selling the Newton MessagePad, its then-groundbreaking tablet device with handwriting recognition. While the device was never hugely commercially successful, its development, creation and sale inevitably, inexorably lead us to where we are today, a “Post PC world” dominated by touch-sensitive smartphones and cellphones. The Newton’s influence can even be felt in Apple’s Mac line, with products like the MacBook Air.
I still remember the first time I saw one of these.
Bought the original a few days before the official release from an Apple reseller that was selling them early. Brought it to a pre-MacWorld Expo event the next day and felt like a celebrity as folks surrounded me to try it out.
Fun memory.
Still have mine
How does the Newton timeline compre to Psion’s organisers? The series 3 had a lot of smart phone features (except no phone, in fact no wireless commas unless you count infra-red!). Apps could be installed, even written on the device. Most notably all the on screen dialogue boxes and buttons had rounded corners (something SJ pursued too).