Newton FAQ

1. Discussion
   1. Where can I find Newton newsgroups?
      1. International Newsgroups
      2. German Newsgroups
   2. Where can I find Newton mailing lists?
   3. Where can I find Newton user groups?
   4. Where can I find Newton discussion forums?
2. News & Information
   1. Where can I find a list of Newton sites?
   2. Is there a Newton equivalent of Version Tracker?
   3. Where can I find current news about the Newton?
3. Social Media
   1. Twitter
   2. Instagram
   3. Facebook
   4. Elsewhere
4. Miscellaneous
   1. Are there any Newton April Fools’ Day jokes?
   2. Can I view “Bad Apple” on a Newton?
   3. Where can I find more Newtons?

A. Discussion

1. Where can I find Newton newsgroups?

While there’s still quite a bit of useful (and historical) information buried in the Usenet archives, many groups devolved into spam accumulators over the years. Keep this in mind when searching through the archives.

a. International Newsgroups

• comp.sys.newton
• comp.sys.newton.announce
• comp.sys.newton.marketplace
• comp.sys.newton.programmer
• comp.sys.newton.misc

b. German Newsgroups

• de.comp.sys.handhelds
• de.comp.sys.handhelds.newton

2. Where can I find Newton mailing lists?

There are currently three active mailing lists:

• NewtonTalk

  Arguably the grandaddy of all Newton mailing lists. They maintain an extensive archive of posts going back to June 2001, with older archives to be available soon.

• NPDS

  A very low traffic list, specifically targeted at users and developers of the Newton Personal Data Sharing web server suite.

• Newton-FR

  This French mailing list is also active, but very low traffic.

Retired mailing lists:

• NewtonGebruikers

  A Dutch mailing list that existed between January 1996 and September 2002. Partial archives exist, but are not currently available online.

• NewtonTalk 2

  This was an emergency mailing list maintained by Rich Lindsay during the dark days when an earlier iteration of the NewtonTalk list operated by Planet Newton would go down on a regular basis. Archives for this list do exist, but are not currently available online.

• Newts

  A German mailing list run by the Clausthal University of Technology between September 1995 and August 2005. A search for the list archives is ongoing.

• eMate Talk

  An eMate specific list once run by the Insanely Great Mac site. Pretty much all traces of this list and its archives seem to have disappeared.

3. Where can I find Newton user groups?

Active user groups are a rarity these days, but there are still a couple of them kicking around.

• Arizona Macintosh Users Group (AMUG)
• Michigan State Palmtop User Group (MSPUG)
• Regroupement des Amis du Newton Dévoués Ostensiblement à leurs Machines (RANDOM)
• Stanford Newton Users Group (SNUG)

Lists of previous user groups are available through these archived sites:

• Info-Newt’s Newton User Groups (2001)
• James Elliott’s Newton User Group Directory (2005)
• Paul Filmer’s Active Newton User Group Meetings (2003)

4. Where can I find Newton discussion forums?

Over the past few years, a plethora of Newton related discussion forums and platforms have sprung up, proving that there is still plenty to chat about.

• The 68k Macintosh Liberation Army (68kMLA) maintains a Newton Forum.
• TinkerDifferent hosts both MessagePad and eMate 300 subforums.
• Newton City provides both a forum and a BBS for discussions.
• Although not specific to the Newton, Apple’s Support Community has an Older Hardware section.
• The Other Computers forum on Applefritter is another place where Newton topics pop up.
• Join the Apple Newton server on Discord.
• There are a couple of Slack workspaces which focus on the Newton:
  • AppleNewton — Request an invite
  • NewtonScript — Request an invite
• Feeling old school? Check out the #newtonscript IRC channel.
• There’s also the AppleNewton subreddit, if you’re into that sort of thing.

B. News & Information

1. Where can I find a list of Newton sites?

A significant number of the links on these sites have undoubtedly succumbed to linkrot over the years. Wherever possible, we’ve pointed at versions of the sites saved in the Internet Archive.

• My Apple Newton maintains a large repository of links and resources, along with current Newton news. Lovingly compiled and published by Tony Kan.
• Newton City also has a decent Newton Directory compiled by Marisa Giancarla.
• The Japanese Club Newton Supporters’ Links (2002)
• Son of Ultimate Newton compiled by This Old Newt (2003)
• Newton Links compiled by Grant Hutchinson (2004)
• Newton Links compiled by Michael J. Hußmann (2012)
• Newton Sites compiled by Dave Lawrence (2008)
• Newted Community Links (2005)

2. Is there a Newton equivalent of Version Tracker?

Unfortunately, not any more. At one time, there was a searchable database called Newton Versions created by Jakob Peterhänsel and published by the Danish Newton User Group (DNUG).

Unfortunately, the database (including a copy hosted by Christian Fiutak) seems to have disappeared.

See also: Newton Software

3. Where can I find current news about the Newton?

There aren’t many sites that still regularly post news or stories about the Newton, but they do exist.

• Pawel Piotrowski’s Apple Newton
• Sylvain Pilet’s Message-Pad.net
• Tony Kan’s My Apple Newton
• Christoph Schröder’s Newtonhonk
• Dave Lawrence’s Newton Poetry

See also: Social Media

Archived news sites:

• Daniel Padilla’s Newton Dose (2002–2004)
• Newton Lifestyle was “Das Online-Magazin von und für Newton Freaks” (1998-2009)
• Rich Lindsay’s This Old Newt (1997-2003)
• Paul Lynch’s Real World Computing column in PC Pro Magazine covered the Newton along other PDA platforms. (1997–1998)

C. Social Media

1. Twitter

• @applenewtonfan
• @newted
• @newtoncity2
• @newtonglossary
• @newtonlife
• @newtonscript
• @newtontalk
• @npds
• @unna

2. Instagram

• @applenewtonfan
• @newton_messagepad

3. Facebook

• NPDS Newton Personal Data Sharing

  Public group for users of the infamous Newton web server suite.

• Apple Newton Fan

  Fan page maintained by Pawel Piotrowski.

• Apple Newton Fans

  Fan page maintained by Marisa Giancarla of Newton City.

• Apple Newton Users Group

  Very active public group maintained by Jayson Elliot.

• Apple Newton MessagePad, Fans & News

  Another active public group maintained by French Newton users Sylvain Pilet and Cédric Sartout.

• This Old Newton

  Private group operated by the folks at Low End Mac.

4. Elsewhere

• Pawel Piotrowski’s AppleNewtonFan channel on YouTube features recordings from recent events such as the Worldwide Newton Conference and Global Newton Users Meetups.
• Relay FM featured The Newton in the inaugural outing of the Flashback podcast.
• Green Light Go was a short-lived, Newton-themed podcast produced David Abramowitz between 2004 and 2005.

D. Miscellaneous

1. Are there any Newton April Fools’ Day jokes?

There have been several infamous April Fools’ Day jokes among the Newton community, including:

• 1999
  • NewtonQuake
• 2000
  • Sean Luke’s Apple Preannounces the “iPad”
  • Rich Lindsay’s A Chat with Steve Jobs
• 2001
  • Sean Luke’s MP3 Player for Waba for the Newton
  • Paul Guyot’s mention of the Color Splash 100 in the Newton FAQ
  • Carsten Lemmen’s method to release hidden memory in Newton compatible Flash RAM cards
• 2002
  • An Apology — “Steve Jobs” posts to NewtonTalk

2. Can I view “Bad Apple” on a Newton?

Believe it or not, yes.

If you’re not familiar with the whole “Bad Apple” phenomenon, it’s a Japanese pop song that spawned a multitude of remixes, videos, and memes. One of the memes was to show the video playing on as many different hardware platforms as possible. In March 2013, Vladislav Korotnev ported the video to the Newton and posted the results on YouTube.

The video can be downloaded as a Newton package from UNNA.

3. Where can I find more Newtons?

• The Worldwide Apple Newton Users Map created by Pawel Piotrowski.
• The Newton group on Flickr.
• Newtons Around The World was a gallery hosted by the Newted Community.