Hey old friend, how ya been…

I was in the process of cleaning p some old electronic stuff (junk according to my wife) the other day and I came across an old treasure, my original Apple Newton Message Pad 100.

I remember when the Newton first came out, there was such a buzz in the industry. people couldn’t wait for it to get here, all the cool things it could do, what a revolutionary concept and all from the mind of Steve Jobs. This man has got to be a genius!

I had the good fortune to be working for Apple support through a different company at the time and got to be one of the level one support people for the Newton, one of the best gigs I ever had. Getting to play with cutting edge technology and talking with people who also shared this love. It was great.

My Newton still works and fired up without any issues and was there, warmly looking at me like a long lost friend. Needless to say I didn’t get much cleaning done as my old friend and I spent a few hours re-aquatinting ourselves. While we were playing I realized how powerful and useful this thing was for its time. A personal Information Manager, notepad, communications (although very antiquated now), entertainment and more. The thing I think I loved most about the Newton was the handwriting recognition. It was so fluid and good, I never had much of an issue getting it to recognize my handwriting.

Recently Apple unveiled the next generation of the iPad. Although Apple completely disassociates the I series (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad) from the Newton, I like to think that if it wasn’t for the Newton we may not even have the I series. I also like to think that if Apple just incorporated the handwriting recognition into the I series, the Newton would be reborn. If you think about it the I series has pretty much everything the Newton had and more.

I have an iPod Touch and adore it. I thought about getting an iPhone when my contract with Verizon reached it upgrade point but I didn’t. I went with an Android (the R2-D2 model. Hey, I’m a nerd!) and actually kind of glad I did. the biggest reason I went with the Droid was the Wi-Fi hotspot ability which as far as I could tell the iPhone doesn’t offer. (I did a lot of research and never could get a yes or no, just a lot of useless info around the hotspot ability.)

I had tried several other PIM type devices over the years but always came back to my Newton. There's just something about it whether it’s the ease of use or the cool retro geek factor, my Newton is still there. I’ve thought about selling it and maybe another person would enjoy what I see in it but then again, it’s like cutting off your pinky, you don’t really need it but you will miss it. So for now my Newton is packed away safely in a box and will again return when I get frustrated with my latest gadget.