Newton MessagePad

A pen-based handheld

The Newton MessagePad was the first product built on Apple's Newton technology, and Apple's 1993 announcement said it would reach the market on 2 August 1993 ^[1]. It was a handheld computer operated with a pen rather than a keyboard. The Centre for Computing History describes a 336 by 240 pressure-sensitive monochrome display, with a pen-based interface that relied on handwriting recognition to turn what the user wrote on the screen into text ^[2].

Hardware and price

The same account lists a 20 MHz ARM 610 processor, 4 MB of ROM and 640k of SRAM, at a price of $699 ^[2]. ROM is the fixed memory that holds software built into a machine, while SRAM is the working memory used while programs run — so most of what the device could do was fixed at the factory rather than loaded into working memory by the user.

Newton Intelligence

Apple's release singled out what it called Newton Intelligence, software that let the device learn a user's work habits and adapt to their preferences over time ^[1]. Instead of behaving the same way for everyone, the assistant was meant to change as it was used. On 7 June 1993, Apple said the Newton family's handwriting recognition would include cursive recognition technology licensed from ParaGraph International ^[3]. Cursive writing is harder to read by machine than separated printed letters, because letters join and the boundaries between them are ambiguous; licensing the technology was a way of covering that case without building it entirely in-house.

Features and communications

Among the built-in features were an address book, a calendar, notes, fax and email ^[2]. Apple also described a modular communications architecture supporting faxing, wireless messaging, electronic mail, infrared beaming and printing ^[1]. Modular here means the communications functions were designed as separable pieces rather than one fixed bundle, so the device could be paired with different ways of sending and receiving information. Infrared beaming is a short-range, line-of-sight link between two devices placed near each other, and it let a MessagePad exchange information with another unit without a cable or a network.

A platform, not just a product

On 7 June 1993, Apple also said it had signed licensing agreements for Newton Intelligence with Sharp, Motorola and Kyushu Matsushita Electric ^[3]. The arrangements point to an ambition beyond a single device: Newton technology was offered to established hardware makers as something they could build into their own products, the way a software platform is licensed rather than sold once.

Place in development

The MessagePad sits at the point where a pocket-sized computer was sold on the idea of personal assistance — a calendar, an address book, notes and messages kept together and operated by hand — rather than on raw computing power ^[1][2]. Its combination of pen input, recognition software and communications modules is what the product was, and it is why the name became attached to a whole line of Newton-based devices.