Love Notes to Newton is a film about what a beloved (but short-lived) pen-based Personal Digital Assistant created by Apple Computer has meant for the people who used it, and the community who adore it.

The Apple Newton was beloved by almost everybody who had one. It came from an R&D group hidden deep within Apple Computer and was developed by people who believed it was the next big leap in computers. In one sense it was the legendary device which coined the term “PDA” in the early nineties, and in the other sense it was a devastating failure which arrived before its time. But something happened after the funeral, Newton lives on, and grassroots support sprang up. John Sculley, James Joaquin, Steve Capps and others talk about the inspiring vision and the difficulty of achieving it. Then there’ are the fans; Grant Hutchinson, who hosts the lively NewTontalk mailing list out of Calgary, Alberta. Theres Frank Gruendel in Germany, who repairs Newtons, including eMates (the Newton “MacBook”) and is actively involved in repairing and advising others on the maintenance of their Newts, Paul Guyot and Matthias Melcher and the Einstein emulator to allow Newton OS to run on modern machines, and many more.

Love Notes to Newton is a film about what a beloved (but short-lived) pen-based Personal Digital Assistant created by Apple Computer has meant for the people who used it, and the community who adore it.

The Apple Newton was beloved by almost everybody who had one. It came from an R&D group hidden deep within Apple Computer and was developed by people who believed it was the next big leap in computers. In one sense it was the legendary device which coined the term “PDA” in the early nineties, and in the other sense it was a devastating failure which arrived before its time. But something happened after the funeral, Newton lives on, and grassroots support sprang up. John Sculley, James Joaquin, Steve Capps and others talk about the inspiring vision and the difficulty of achieving it. Then there’ are the fans; Grant Hutchinson, who hosts the lively NewTontalk mailing list out of Calgary, Alberta. Theres Frank Gruendel in Germany, who repairs Newtons, including eMates (the Newton “MacBook”) and is actively involved in repairing and advising others on the maintenance of their Newts, Paul Guyot and Matthias Melcher and the Einstein emulator to allow Newton OS to run on modern machines, and many more.