The fanbase for the Apple Newton is still alive and well, and working to keep the platform alive with or without Apple's help.
At the first WorldWide Newton Conference in Paris, fans of the Apple Newton handheld are gathering to not only share their enthusiasm for Apple's long-discontinued handheld but to discuss plans for extending the platform and even running it on new hardware.
The main event of the conference will be the first public showing of Einstein, a project to develop a Newton emulator for alternate hardware platforms so that the Newton OS can run on more up to date hardware. Target hardware under consideration ranges from Pocket PCs to the GNU/Linux-based Sharp Zaurus. Einstein is only the latest in a string of community-based initiatives for the Newton that have produced Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support, support for modern removable flash cards, and synchronization support for Mac OS X and even iTunes.
Of course, such efforts are legally hazy. Apple terminated the Newton line in 1998 shortly after the return of Steve Jobs to the company, but the operating system and application software for it remain proprietary and closed-source. Although under fair use doctrine the development of an emulator and the reverse engineering necessary are legal, only current Newton owners would be legally permitted to run their own ROM images on an emulator. Additionally, some software licenses specifically prohibit porting software to alternate hardware. The Einstein developers specifically hope to get their emulator working on a Free operating system such as GNU/Linux or FreeBSD for maximum portability, and to allow it to run on the Sharp Zaurus hardware.
The Apple Newton was the first modern handheld to be released back in 1993. It met with only very limited success, as did the Casio Z-7000 Zoomer, released shortly thereafter and developed by small startup Palm Computing. The Newton went through several revisions before the product line was terminated in 1998, while Palm Computing used the Newton and Zoomer as test beds and went on to develop the Pilot 1000 and Pilot 5000, the beginnings of the modern Palm OS marketplace that sparked the handheld revolution. Despite being discontinued, the Newton has always enjoyed an extremely devoted following, which is unusual for most electronics with the exception of products from Apple.
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