My buddy Thomas Brand has put together a nice set of links to celebrate the 18th birthday of the Newton MessagePad 2000.
I owned a 2000 for several years in college, complete with Wi-Fi card, keyboard and carrying case. It synced contacts, calendars and more with my PowerBook G4 via an ADB/USB adaptor. I could send and receive email, take class notes and more all on the little green machine.
While some of my classmates would use laptops, no one was using anything like the Newton. This was around 2005 — two years before the iPhone would be announced. Needless to say, I got some looks, but I didn’t care. The Newton was fast, easy to use and offered a lot of things that just weren’t possible at the time without a laptop.
I ended up selling my MessagePad to pay off my wife’s engagement ring, but every once in a while, I cruise eBay looking for a replacement. One of these days, I’ll pull the trigger.