My Dad has this knack for getting himself into trouble with his computer equipment. iPhones. Macs. iPads. You name it. He can find some crazy edge case that will send you searching for answers.
To be fair, this past Friday’s problem wasn’t really something that he did wrong. He sent me a text and followed up with a call to tell me that he could’t use his iPhone 12 Pro Max. It wasn’t registering any touch input.
Here’s the problem, he knew to reboot his iPhone by holding down the hardware Volume Up and Power buttons, but had no way to use the Slide to Power Off option.
On ‘old style’ iPhones, like the iPhone 6/7/8-series, you can force a reboot by pressing and holding the Home button and the Power button together for a few seconds.
That doesn’t work on an iPhone with Face ID.
After several attempts at searching the Internet, I finally found the Apple manual page for performing a forced restart on an iPhone. The procedure varies by model depending on whether or not a Home button is present. To force restart an iPhone that has Face ID, you need to the the following:
Press and quickly release the volume up button, press and quickly release the volume down button, then press and hold the side button. When the Apple logo appears, release the button.
Source: Apple, Inc.
I had to try this a few times to get the timing right, but, as ‘They’ say, the third time was the charm. Just make sure you aren’t on a phone call when you try it.
I recently picked up an as-is Apple Newton MessagePad on eBay. I mostly wanted it for the accessories: a pair of third-party game PC cards, a 9W AC adapter, and the original Apple Mac OS (Classic) and Windows 3.5-inch floppy disks.
When I got the Newton, I realized that it powered on, but there was no sound and the display was on but not displaying an image. As it turns out, this is a common problem with vintage Newtons and can be fixed with just a couple of new capacitors.
To fix the original Newton MessagePad (OMP), also known as the H1000, you need a PH00 Philips head screwdriver, a spudger, a soldering iron and a small amount of solder, 1x 100µF 16V capacitor, and 1x 3.3µF 50V capacitor. I used the capacitors from the OCR 24Value 500pcs Electrolytic Capacitor Assortment Box Kit I purchased from Amazon.
Newton Connection Utilities v1.0 for Classic Mac OS 9
This post in one of a series of posts that I am writing for retro tech and vintage Apple enthusiasts on how to use your Apple Newton MessasgePad or eMate in 2021. The collected information from these posts can be found on the SPF Newton page.
One of the things that I have been wanting to do with my Newton OS devices, and my newfound interest in them was connect them to a vintage Macintosh using the software that shipped with them. For me, that meant getting my Newton MessagePad 2000, 2100, and eMate 300 connected to a Power Macintosh G4 Quicksilver using an Apple mini DIN 8 serial cable. Here’s what I used to my Newton OS 2.1 devices talking to my Classic Mac OS 9.2.1 Mac.
The first thing I needed to do was get my G4 back into working condition. That was no easy task. But the Quicksilver lacks mini DIN 8 serial ports. My next task would be to track down one of USB-to-Serial adapters that were popular accessories for Mac owners who upgraded from a beige Mac with two built in mini DIN 8 serial ports to the colorful iMac G3 or later Macintosh that only had USB-A ports.
I ended up picking up a beige Keyspan USA-28 Twin Serial to USB-A Adapter on eBay. Keyspan was later acquired by Tripp-Lite. The adapter I purchased didn’t come with the packaging, manual, or software driver. It turned out that the Keyspan USA28-GX adapter was the far more popular model, and its drivers were much easier to find. I tried using the USA28-GX Mac OS 9 driver with my USA28 adapter and I was disappointed to find out that the USA28-GX driver installer was not backwards compatible with the USA28. Thankfully, I eventually found a copy of the Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X Keyspan USA28 drivers on the archive website MacintoshGarden.com.
With the adapter and driver situation sorted out, I needed to get the original Newton synchronization software called Newton Connection Utilities (NCU). It is important to take a moment here and call out a difference in Newton synchronization software.
If you have a Newton OS 2.0 or 2.1 device, like I do, you need NCU. Apple-branded Newton OS 2.x devices include the MessagePad 2000, the MessagePad 2100, and the eMate 300. If you are trying to connect the original Newton MessagePad, or any of the other Apple-branded MessagePad 100-series devices, you need to use Newton Connect Kit (NCK), which all run Newton OS 1.x.
Normally, NCU or NCK come bundled with the MessagePad or eMate on 3.5″ floppy disks or a CD. Since my second hand MessagePad 2000 didn’t come with its software or manuals, I needed to turn to Internet archives to find the installers I needed for Mac OS 9. Both NCU and NCK, as well as the Newton Package Installer and Newton Backup utilities, can be found on the United Network of Newton Archives (UNNA) repository since Apple removed the downloads from their website a long time ago.
Once you have your adapter driver and connection software sorted, the last thing you will need is a mini DIN 8 Male to mini DIN 8 Male cable and a Newton Interconnect Adapter if you are using a MessagePad 2000 or 2100.
To initiate the connection between the Newton and the Mac:
Plug in the USB-A to mini DIN 8 seral adapter
Plug in one end of the mini DIN 8 serial cable into the port 1 on the adapter
Launch NCU (Newton OS 2.x) or NCK (Newton OS 1.x)
In the NCU Preferences box, I checked all of the connection types
Plug in the serial cable (and Newton Interconnect adapter for MessagePad 2×00)
On the MessagePad or eMate, tap the Dock icon, select Serial, and tap Connect
Success! The Newton has connected to the Mac!
After a few seconds, if everything is in order, the Newton OS device will connect to your Mac and display the sync tools slip on the Netwon and show a Connected status in NCU/NCK.
During July 2001’s MacWorld Expo, then Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the next entrant into the fruit company’s line of professional desktop computers: the Power Mac G4 “Quicksilver”.
The 2001 Power Mac G4 came in three configurations using the PowerPC G4 processor: 733 MHz ($1,699), 867 MHz ($2,499), and a high-end dual 800 MHz configuration ($3,499).
Steve Jobs introduces the all-new Power Macintosh G4 Quicksilver in July 2001 at MacWorld Expo. Source: Pinterest
“These are the fastest Macs ever, with 867 MHz and dual 800 MHz PowerPC G4 processors,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “With the 867 MHz processor and our revolutionary SuperDrive together in a system costing just $2,499, more users can now afford to create professional quality DVDs.”
As an IT pro, working on the Power Mac G4 tower was really nice. You knew going in that you would be able to make quick work of installing more RAM, expansion cards, or disk drives. Lift the release latch on the right side of the Mac, and you had access to all of the major components of the system. Other Macs, including the IIci, a favorite of mine, and Power Macintosh 7600, made it easy to get inside and work on, but the G4 towers were my favorite to maintain because it was so easy to get at internals.
All of the Power Mac G4 towers kept the same exact shape and size. On the outside, the first generation mid-1999 Power Mac G4 featured darker graphite front and rear panels with lighter grey side, top, and bottom panels – borrowing a similar color scheme from the gumdrop iMac G3 special edition computers from that same time period. For 2001’s G4 Quicksilver tower, the front and rear panels were also grey, but they were a darker grey than the other panels keeping the same two-tone aesthetic as the 1999 model. The third, and final generation of G4 towers, was 2002’s Power Mac G4 Mirrored Drive Doors. As the name implies, the front panel of the 2002 G4 received a makeover, shifting the built-in speaker to the top of the chassis, sliding the new mirrored drive bay doors to the middle to make room for the four new air intake openings near the front bottom foot.
The grey color pallet of the G4 series towers were a marked departure from the playful color schemes of the compact gumdrop iMac G3 series and 1999’s blue and white Power Mac G3 tower. The use of color would be part of Apple’s strategy to delineate personal computing appliances, like the all-in-one iMac, from the more expensive professional series of modular tower computers. This dark color scheme philosophy would carry on to the current day with Apple’s Pro products being available in muted colors including Graphite, Grey, Space Grey, Jet Black, Midnight Green, and Pacific Blue. Blue, Purple, Green, White, Yellow, Rose Gold, Coral, (PRODUCT)RED, and Silver would all be reserved for consumer products.
In June of 2003, Apple released a spec bumped version of the Power Mac G4 Mirrored Drive Doors tower. The time of the Power Macintosh G4 line of computers was coming to a close. The 2003 G4 tower would be the last Mac capable of running Classic MacOS for business customers who needed extra time transitioning their workflows to Mac OS X. That same month, Apple introduced the all-new aluminum Power Mac G5 featuring the straight lines and flat sides that would come to dominate product designs for years to come.
Fittingly, the Power Mac G4 would be the last Mac I would use professionally on a day-to-day basis.
In March 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic started closing down the northeast section of the United States. With the lockdown in place, I started looking around for something to work on. Way in the back of my junk closet, I remembered that there was a G4 Quicksilver that I had rescued from the dumpster that I never got around to repairing. Making my old Power Mac run again became my lockdown project.
Easy access to the insides of the G3 and later desktop Power Macintosh computers was a tentpole feature. I have years of experience supporting and upgrading Macs from this era. Surely, I could get inside my G4 and replace the components that were bad, right?
When I plugged in the G4 and tried to turn it on, the computer would not boot. The fan inside the power supply would start to spin, the power button LED would come on and stay on. Inside the computer, a small red LED light lit up telling me that the system board was getting power. I figured I would start the repair with the easy fixes first. The obvious fixes of using a different power cord and different wall outlets didn’t work. Reseating RAM and PCI cards came next. Still, the result was exactly the same. Power would come on, but the Mac would not boot.
Searching Internet support forms and old Power Mac G4 service documents suggested that the PRAM battery likely needed to be replaced. This Mac was certainly old enough to need a new battery. Compatible PRAM batteries for my Power Mac are still available online from specialty Apple parts resellers and on Amazon. The first replacement battery came, and I swapped it in. For good measure, I plugged in the power cable and let the Mac sit for 30 minutes. And, again, the Mac still would not power up and boot. Attempts to reset the PRAM on the Mac as well as performing a system board reset by pressing the CUDA switch, as suggested on the iFixit forums, didn’t work either.
Power Mac G4’s CUDA Switch
An Apple discussion board thread listed the same tests that I did. An astute reader commented that the replacement PRAM battery wasn’t tested before installing it. And that was true, I hadn’t tested my replacement battery. I didn’t have the knowledge or tools to test it. Further, I had no idea how long my replacement battery had been sitting on a shelf. I found a second compatible battery on Amazon from a vendor who was selling new batteries. I bought a two pack. The batteries came and still the same result. I crossed PRAM batteries off my list.
Next, I turned my attention to the power supply. I started to think that it was possible that one or more internal power supply components had failed. With no electrical engineering training at all, I started looking for sources of replacement power supplies. There are several people who sell rebuild services on the Internet. You purchase a repair service, ship them your power supply, and they will replace the internals to get it working again, and ship it back to you. I wasn’t 100% convinced that the power supply would be the root cause of my power issues, so I found a parts reseller that claimed that they sold working replacement parts.
Getting access to the inside of G4 is easy as long as you want to access the system board. The hard drive bays aren’t too hard to get to either. Getting to the SuperDrive and the power supply are a bit more difficult.
The upper drive chassis is right up against the power supply.
It took some elbow grease, but I was finally able to remove the upper drive chassis and disconnect the power and data cables. It was a tight fit! As I was disconnecting the cables, I was reminded that I was not the first person to work inside this particular Mac. There was a tear in the SuperDrive cable pull tab. Not a great sign.
The SuperDrive pull tab has been torn. Someone’s been in here before.
I was eventually able to get the original power supply pulled out, but not before nicking one of the wires on the cutout that divides the upper and lower sections of the Mac chassis. There was no going back now, I was committed to making my replacement power supply work. Before installing the new power supply, I put some blue painters’ tape on the inside of the chassis to protect the wires from another nick while threading in the cable bundle.
With the drive chassis removed, the power supply can be accessed.
Blue tape helps keep from nicking the cables on the replacement power supply.
A replacement Power Mac G4 power supply.
Power Mac G4 waiting to have the new power supply installed.
The new power supply, blue tape included, finally installed and ready.
With the replacement power supply and upper drive chassis installed, I was ready to hear the Power Mac G4 start up chime. After all that, the Mac still refused to boot, but this time, the result was different. Previously, after pressing the power button, the LED light would stay lit, the fan would run, and the system board’s red LED would come on. Now, those things would only happen while I was holding the power button down. The minute I pulled my finger away, everything would stop working.
More researching on the Internet and I found a MacRumors discussion forum thread that discussed my exact problem. Naturally, I was disheartened to think that I had another bad power supply on my hands. Reading further into the thread, commenters suggested that it could be any number of failed parts. With nothing but time on my hands in the coming months, I would set out on a journey to buy many replacement parts, including a replacement system board, a replacement processor board, and the power button control board that hides behind the face plate. I started a systematic parts swap of the components, including removing individual component parts like the SuperDrive, the hard disk, modem, RAM, and PCI cards. I figured that once the system was stripped down to the power supply, speaker, and PRAM battery, that I would at least get a sad Mac icon or a screeching tires and broken glass sound effect. Nothing worked.
A replacement button and power LED control board that goes behind the front plate.
I also went to the effort to scrubbing both system boards down and soaking them in 70% isopropyl alcohol. After their bath, both boards looked great, but the Mac was still refusing the boot up.
Eventually, the repair effort got pushed to the back burner. I wasn’t able to isolate the cause of the power up issue and I started to think that I was fighting against two failed components, such as a bad power supply and a bad PowerPC CPU processor card. Spring rolled into summer and summer into fall. The Power Mac G4 could be seen out of the corner of my eye, taunting me, while working at my desk.
In January, after the holidays had passed and things started to settle down into a pandemic normal, I found an eBay auction for an as-is Power Mac G4 Quicksilver just like mine. It was being auctioned off as part of an estate sale. The previous owner or owner’s family had removed the disk drive and RAM from the machine. It was being sold as untested. If I could win the auction at a reasonable price the shipping wasn’t going to be too expensive. I won the auction, and about a week later, my second Quicksilver arrived.
Yes, there is another ‘as-is’ G4 in the box. No, seriously.
As it turned out, this second Quicksilver was free from whatever was ailing my original G4. The second Quicksilver powered up, but, without a disk drive, couldn’t boot. Encouraged, I took stock of the components that I had between the two Macs. One was booting but had some body damage. The other, wouldn’t boot and was cosmetically in better shape. I was able to collect three 512MB RAM modules for a maximum RAM size of 1.5GB. I removed the VGA AGP card from the booting G4 and installed the DVI AGP card from the original Mac. I also transplanted a Belkin USB 2.0 card from the original.
An Adaptec 2930U for Mac SCSI card has been installed to read my old SCSI disks.
I had some old Seagate SCSI disks that I had used in a white box Windows 2000 PC that I built. Wanting to see what was on them, I purchased an Adaptec 2930U Mac card, and a new internal SCSI cable. I installed the SCSI controller and drives.
The OWC SATA SSD to IDE upgrade kit installed and ready for Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X.
Finally, the rebuild was coming along nicely. I pulled out a set of Power Mac G4 Quicksilver discs, which included both a Mac OS 9.2 disc and Mac OS X factory install disc set. I used the Mac OS X install disc to boot off of the SuperDrive. I discovered that previous owner of the original G4 had never wiped the disk drive. I used the Mac OS X installer disc to securely wipe the drive. I didn’t want to know anything about what might have been on that hard disk. I purchased an OWC SATA SSD to IDE conversion kit that included a new SATA SSD and accessory adapter board that is SATA on one side and IDE on the other. I booted the Mac up using the Mac OS 9.2 disc, formatted the drive, and installed the OS. Once Mac OS 9 was installed, I pulled out the Mac OS X installer disc and installed Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar. Then 10.3 Panther. And finally, 10.4 Tiger – the latest version of Mac OS X that a PowerPC G4 Quicksilver can run. I was pretty surprised at how quickly an SSD equipped Quicksilver could boot up. Back in their hay day, the boot time was a constant complaint about these machines. My recollection was that my work G4 took forever and day to get booted up and ready for work. Clearly the IDE chain and disk drives originally used in the G4 at the time where a bottleneck.
Testing the reassembled Power Mac G4 with the factory restore DVDs.
With the Power Mac reassembled and buttoned up, I pressed the power button and braced for more disappointment. I was surprised to finally, after many months of work, hear the Power Mac G4 startup chime! I was up well after midnight that day getting my working Quicksilver reassembled, the hardware tuned, and software installed. It was a good thing that I was working from home the next day, as I needed to take a nap a lunchtime.
Classic Mac OS 9.2 and Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar install discs.
The Power Macintosh G4 Quicksilver restoration project ended up taking much longer and costing much more than I was expecting at the outset. In the end, I am glad that I was able to see the project through. I have been learning about and exploring other vintage Apple hardware from the Newton MessagePad and eMate product lines. The dual-booting Quicksilver is an excellent bridge computer that runs Classic Mac OS and Mac OS X allowing me to work with modern .iso and disk image files .dmg and run Mac OS 9 compatible applications in the ’emulated’ Classic environment at the same time.
This restoration was anything but simple. At least it was a fun project in the end.
Over the last few months, the Quicksilver has been the computer I have been using to tinker with Apple’s Newton Connection Utilities, the software that is used to manage and synchronize data with a Newton MessagePad or eMate 300. And while my friends and family may not understand my obsession with computer technology that is over 20 years old, it is fun to rediscover, upgrade, and enhance yesteryear’s technology.
On this Memorial Day 2021, let us set aside politics and be thankful for those women and men who service in the United States Armed Forces and, really, all those who protect the citizens of our country. Especially keep in mind those who have given the ultimate sacrifice to protect our way of life.
iPad Pro 10.5-inch batteries, Source: PowerBookMedic.com
I recently requested battery service on a Dell Latitude 7490 laptop and a 10.5-inch iPad Pro. One battery was serviced for free. I couldn’t get the other one serviced. This story does not end the way you might expect.
The Dell Latitude 7490, released in 2018, is a business class notebook computer. Similarly, the 2017 10.5-inch iPad Pro can be considered, by way of features, a “prosumer” tablet. Recently, I had reason to call Dell and Apple for replacement battery service.
The Latitude was purchased with a multi-year ProSupport Plus service plan for multiple years. Oddly, the optional battery replacement service only ran for years one and two. The iPad Pro on the other hand, was purchased by me without an AppleCare service plan. Why would I need one? I baby my hardware and my iPad Pro looks to be in out of the box condition except for a small scratch in the glass from a small grain of sand or table salt. (And yes, I’m still salty about it.)
When I called in for service on the Latitude 7490 to take advantage of the battery replacement coverage, the Dell support staff kindly told me that this particular Latitude was out of its battery coverage range by about four months. I apologized for my mistake and offered to call my Dell sales representative to order a replacement battery. At this, the Dell support staff offered to replace the battery for me as if the battery service coverage had not expired. I was surprised by this and thanked the support staff. The service request was processed and a few days later I received the replacement battery. Twelve screws later, the Latitude had a new battery and was ready to go again. All-in-all, a delighted customer will continue to use Dell products in the future.
If I have learned nothing over the last year, it is that my go to Apple product is my personal 10.5-inch iPad Pro. And while I love my Mac and use it for “real” work, my iPad Pro is the device I use most often. More than my iMac and more that my iPhone. I love reading the newspaper, watching TV and movies, and surfing the web on my iPad.
Late last year, I started getting the feeling that my 2017 iPad Pro just was not holding a charge like it used to. I felt, without any hard evidence, that I was having to charge the iPad more frequently. Since Apple does not offer the Battery Health tool (Settings > Battery > Battery Health) on iPadOS, I was left to wonder if I was just imagining worse battery life or if I was actually getting worse battery life. During the pandemic I was using my iPad Pro more, do doubt, but I has been working at the office most days for the past 10 months.
I downloaded and installed iMazing, a general-purpose Apple device management and IT supervision tool from a company called DigiDNA SARL based in Geneva, Switzerland. One of the claims that DigiDNA makes is that they can show you the relative battery health on an iPad. What I saw when I plugged in my iPad Pro to my iMac was not good and supported my assumption that the battery had degraded and was no longer holding a charge as well as I did when it was only a couple of years old.
Not wanting to spend about $1,000 on a new 11-inch iPad Pro, I decided to stick it out with my current iPad Pro for another year. More recently, I decided to setup a Genius Bar appointment to have my iPad Pro’s battery swapped by Apple and continue using it for another two years before thinking about upgrading. A five-year service life for an iPad Pro feels about right to me. I backed up my device to iCloud and again with an encrypted backup using the Finder in macOS Big Sur, turned off Find My tracking, signed out of iCloud, and hard reset my iPad Pro. Then, I set up the iPad taking the generic options just to get it up to Springboard without configuring any of my settings. I made the Genius Bar appointment, and then visited my local Apple Store. So far, so good.
When I got to the appointment, the Genius Bar person I worked with was very polite and connected their iPad to mine to run a diagnostics suite. I reiterated the comments that I put in the notes for the appointment that I was looking to do and out of warrantee battery replacement because I felt that the iPad Pro wasn’t holding a charge and it was, in my opinion, impacting the usefulness of the device. After a few minutes, the results of the diagnostics test came back – the battery was fine. What?! In November, iMazing was reporting the battery at about 78% capacity and the Apple tool was reporting the battery capacity at 89%. With the battery rating from the Apple support tool above 80%, Apple would not send the iPad out for battery service unless I paid the $449 swap fee. No, thank you!
All of this to say that I ended up getting the exact opposite of what I was expecting. I was expecting Dell to hassle me about the out of coverage battery swap and I was expecting Apple to honor a service request to swap out the battery on my iPad that I was willing to pay the advertised price for.
Would things have turned out differently with my experience with Apple had the ideas discussed in the recent FTC report The Fix: An FTC Report to Congress on Repair Restrictions had been implemented? I have to say, I am weary of most mall kiosk repair shops. But, had there been a repair center that offered first party authorized parts by Apple trained repair technicians, I think that in this case, I would have gladly paid $200 to have my iPad Pro serviced. Now, I use an iPad which I feel that I have to constantly charge in between every couple of uses.
The Apple Newton is a family of products known as personal digital assistants, or PDAs. Later, the term grew to define a category of products that included devices such as the Palm Pilot, the Handspring Visor, the Sony Clie, and the Compaq iPaq.
This page will talk about the hardware and software that I have assembled to get my little green assistant working with my 2015 iMac and 2020 M1 MacBook Pro. The Newton friendly version of this post can be found on the Newton page.
The Newton Family
Apple’s Newton family of products is made up of three types of devices: the first generation Newton MessagePad 100-series devices, or which the original Newton MessagePad is a member of; the second generation MessagePad 2000-series, and the eMate laptop specifically designed for the educational market. Digital Ocean, Harris, Motorola, Sharp, and Siemens also made licensed Newton OS devices during the Apple Newton era.
The Newton family of products was launched in 1993 while John Scully was serving as Apple’s CEO. Scully is credited with coining the term “personal digital assistant”. The Newton family includes the following devices:
1993 – MessagePad (aka Original MessagePad, or OMP)
During its five-year product run, Apple released two major versions of the Newton operating system, Newton OS 1.0 and 2.0.
Official support for the Newton ended in 1998 when co-founder Steve Jobs returned to Apple as part of the NeXT acquisition and cancelled the product line so that resources could be reallocated to the Macintosh. Even without support from Apple, a bright and vibrant community of Newton fans are keeping the platform alive. To learn more about the creation of the Newton and fans that still use them today, I recommend that you watch Love Notes to Newton.
Learning About Newton
But what does it take to actually get started with using a Newton MessagePad in 2021? The answer largely depends on what you want to do with it. Assuming that you want to do more than put it on display, you are going to need manuals to help learn how to use your MessagePad or eMate.
My Newton arrived without any manuals and only some of the in the box accessories. To get started, I found it very helpful to download .pdf copies of the manuals.
The Newted Community has a large collection of Newton family documentation in Adobe Acrobat format. While reading the manuals, I suggest that you have your Newton device right there with you. You learn by reading, but you retain by doing. The Internet Archive website also has a number of materials that can help you learn about your Newton device.
Still have questions? Check out the Newton FAQ. It is a fantastic resource that is broken into sections about hardware, Newton OS, software packages, and more.
If you want to discuss all things Newton with other enthusiasts, consider joining the NewtonTalk mailing list.
I have used all of these resources to learn about my little MessagePad 2000 PDA.
Hardware and Accessories
You are going to need some additional cables and adaptors to connect your vintage Newton device to a modern Macintosh. The type of Newton you have will prescribe the type of cables and adapters you will need. Below is a list of commonly used cables to connect a Newton an eMate to your computer. Keep in mind that I have not received any promotional or financial incentives/compensation for the websites linked to below. I am providing these links in the hope that you will have an easier time finding what you need than I did.
Newton InterConnect Adapter 590-0756
Mini DIN 8 Male to DB9 Female Serial Cable 590-0964
The type of computer you are connecting to (classic Macintosh, modern Macintosh, Windows PC, or Linux) and the ports available on that computer will dictate the exact cable ‘recipe’ that is needed to attach a Newton. The following sections give an overview of the types of cables you will need to connect to a modern Macintosh (iMac, MacBook/Pro, or Mac mini).
NewtonSales.com has Newton InterConnect adapters and serial cables available for sale. They also have an assortment of other accessories, if needed, such as storage cards, communication cards, and replacement parts.
eBay, local online auction sites, and computer recycling businesses in your area are also sources of used Newtons with accessories.
Connecting to a MessagePad 2000 / 2100
The Newton MessagePad 2×000-series devices have one data cable port, known as the Newton InterConnect Port. You will need a Newton Serial Adapter and either an Apple Serial Cable (Mini DIN 8 Male to Male) or an Apple Serial Cable (Mini DIN 8 Male to DB9), also referred to as a Windows PC sync cable. Finally, you will need to adapt the serial cable into a USB port on your Macintosh. The type of USB adapter will depend on the type of Mac that you have. The ‘standard’ USB cable used on Macintosh has a rectangular USB-A port. On MacBooks made after 2016, or the 2015 MacBook, you will need to additionally convert USB-A to USB-C, the new small rounded end cable.
Here is the cable recipe that I use to connect my Newton MessagePad to my Macs.
M1 MacBook Pro 13-inch (2020) > #7 > #4 > #2 > #1 > Newton MessagePad 2000
Connecting to an Original MessagePad (OMP) / 100-series
The Newton MessagePad OMP and 100-series devices have one data cable port, and you will need an Apple Serial Cable (Mini DIN 8 Male to Male). In addition to the serial cable, you will also need a Mini DIN 8 Male to USB-A adapter to connect the Newton to a modern Macintosh. Again, depending on which Macintosh you have, you may also need a USB-A to USB-C dongle.
Connecting to an eMate 300
The eMate is the only Apple Newton device, without hardware modifications, to support both the Mini DIN 8 serial cable and the Newton InterConnect port. This gives eMate owners some flexibility in which cables and adapters work best for them. The cables, adapters, and dongles used by the other Apple Newton devices will also work with the eMate 300.
Software
The original Newton MessagePad software is called Newton Connection Utilities written for Classic Mac OS 7.1 – 9.2 and Windows 3.1, Windows 95, and Windows NT 3.5. In 2021, you will need operating system emulation software, which is outside the scope of this primer, or replacement tools for modern macOS, Windows, and Linux operating systems.
There are two tools modern Mac users will want to try out. The first is Newton Research Newton Connect 3.0. Newton Connection, also referred to as NCX 3, is a replacement for Apple’s Newton Connection Utilities (NCU). NCX is compatible with macOS Sierra through macOS 11 Big Sur running both Intel and Apple Silicon M1 CPUs.
The second is NewTen, a Newton package installer written by Steven Frank. NewTen was originally written for Mac OS X 10.3 and has been tested to work on macOS 11 Big Sur running on an Apple Silicon M1 MacBook Pro (2020). NewTen can be used to install Newton software packages over serial connections. Developer Pablomarx has forked the NewTen project and can be downloaded from GitHub. The forked version of NewTen is compatible with Mac OS X 10.6 and later.
There are likely other software tools and Newton packages that new MessagePad users will want to install, NCX 3 and NewTen 1.5.1 will be necessary to get started.
If you are looking for additional software packages for your Newton device, the United Network of Newton Archives (UNNA) links to many websites to get new users started on their Newton OS journey.
In a recent article posted on ArsTechnica.com titled “TikTok wants to keep tracking iPhone users with state-backed workaround”, I got the feeling that we tech nerds are going to be in for another Apple vs Developer showdown.
Last summer, you may recall that things got a little dicey for the iPhone maker with the Hey blow up just before last year’s WWDC developers conference. The situation between Apple and Basecamp, the developer of the subscription-based Hey email service, generated backlash from the iOS developer community as well as attracting unwanted attention from U.S. law makers.
The Ars Technica piece reports on the China Advertising Association’s efforts to develop a method for working around Apple’s new iOS and iPadOS 14 feature that requires developers to ask permission before tracking users across third-party developer apps and third-party websites with trackers built in. According to Apple, the App Tracking Transparency framework is mandatory “if your app collects data about end users and shares it with other companies for purposes of tracking across apps and web sites”.
That’s it. That’s the whole thing. Apple wants app developers to ask for iPhone and iPad user’s permission before slurping up as much user data as possible. The sad reality is that many people will simply allow the tracking just to dismiss the message and get to their social media apps. The path of least resistance often wins.
The one passage that caused me to raise an eyebrow was the quote from an Apple spokesperson:
“The App Store terms and guidelines apply equally to all developers around the world, including Apple,” the company said. “We believe strongly that users should be asked for their permission before being tracked. Apps that are found to disregard the user’s choice will be rejected.”
During last year’s congressional hearings about the power held by “big tech”, I recall Apple CEO Tim Cook saying that all developers are held to the same App Store standards. Apple included. Most of the time that is true, but we all know, in business, there is plenty of wiggle room for deals between large companies. In my opinion, the App Store Small Business Program and the reduction of the commission rate to 15% is a direct result of Apple trying to appease developers, law makers, and other state and local officials. So, a statement from Apple saying App Store guidelines apply equally to all developers seems to be true, from a certain point of view.
The App Tracking Transparency framework will become enforced later this spring with the release of iOS and iPadOS 14.5, which is currently in beta testing.
Personally, I am looking forward to having the additional controls that come with the App Tracking Transparency framework. It will be interesting to see how conflicts with large platform developers like Facebook, ByteDance and Tencent is resolved.
A lot has already been said about Apple’s new M1-powered Apple Silicon Macs. After two months of use, I wanted to share my thoughts on my new 13-inch MacBook Pro laptop with the M1 Apple Silicon chip.
The M1 CPU is the first processor in the new Apple Silicon line of processors. The Apple Silicon M1 processor takes over for Intel Core i-series processors that are commonly used in today’s PCs. After having announced the Intel to Apple Silicon transition at last summer’s WWDC developer conference, the first Macs running M1 have appeared: the 2020 MacBook Air, the 2020 13-inch MacBook Pro, and the new 2020 silver Mac mini.
The selection of the MacBook Air to receive the new M1 CPU caused me to raise an eyebrow. I was expecting Apple to add the new CPU to a Mac with lower sales volume. the MacBook Air, because of its low cost, is by far the most popular Mac that Apple sells. In my opinion, this speaks volumes to Apple’s confidence that the M1 is ready for prime time. In a November 2020 interview with The Independent’s Andrew Griff, Craig Federighi, Senior Vice President Software Engineering, said:
“We overshot,” said the exec. “You have these projects where, sometimes you have a goal and you’re like, ‘Well, we got close, that was fine.’ This one, part of what has us all just bouncing off the walls here — just smiling — is that as we brought the pieces together, we’re like, ‘This is working better than we even thought it would.’”
The move from Intel CPUs to in-house designed M-series CPUs is driven by three key business points. The first is that Apple wants to be in complete control of all of the key technologies that are used in their products. In Macs, this means the CPU. The second key driver has to do with the pace at which Intel has been able to make their CPUs smaller and more power efficient. (My apologies for the CPU nerds for the oversimplification here.) The final driver is Apple’s belief that the features on the Macintosh roadmap are simply are not possible with off commodity parts. Apple is able to ship the features that they do by designing hardware and software together.
Hardware
From the outside the 2020 13-inch MacBook Pro looks like the last several models of MacBook Pro. Without close inspection, the 2019 Intel and 2020 M1 13-inch MacBook Pro look identical when placed on a table next to each other. Anyone hoping for a chassis makeover or the addition of new features like a touch screen, will have to wait for a future model.
On the inside, however, replacing the Intel CPU with the M1 has three major advantages. The first is that the entire computer feels zippy. In the two months that I have been using my MacBook Pro, never once have I yelled out, “Oh, come on!” like I am apt to do with my 2015 27-inch iMac when tasks take longer than I expected. The second is that the battery just lasts. Normally, we should roll our eyes at over-the-top vendor claims about battery life, but in this case, Apple’s claim is warranted. With average usage for personal and business tasks, the battery life is amazing. In my testing, the biggest battery drain on the battery was a non-optimized version of Microsoft Teams. In a one-hour meeting, where I had the 720p FaceTime HD camera (Apple, what year is it?) and a hot mic using a wired connection to a pair of Beats Studio headphones, the battery took a 10% hit. (Shortly after my Teams testing, an M1 optimized version of Teams was released and the battery performance did improve.)
Using Safari, Microsoft Office, Tweetbot, BBEdit, and several other common apps, do not appear to have an enormous impact on the battery like they did on my 2016 15-inch MacBook Pro with an Intel Core i7 CPU. And while I know that the 13-inch MacBook Pro has a fan in it, I have never once heard it. Maybe it’s my old ears. Or, maybe, I just can’t push the MacBook Pro hard enough to get the fan to kick on. This is true even when I am running the pre-release version of Parallels Desktop with the Microsoft Insider build of Windows 10 for ARM CPUs. Running a Windows 10 Pro virtual machine on my 15-inch MacBook Pro made the fans spin shortly after booting Windows. I just wanted to run Visio, not launch a Saturn V rocket.
Software
Macs with the M1 processor run on the pre-installed macOS 11.0 Big Sur operating system. Big Sur has been written specifically to run on the M1 hardware. An Intel version of Big Sur also exists for Macs that have Intel CPUs. Big Sur has two software modules that help the M1 work so well. They are Universal Binaries, programs that are able to run on both Intel and M1 Macs, and Rosetta 2, a translation module that converts instructions from Intel-only programs into their M1 equivalent instructions. I unboxed my M1 MacBook Pro and started using it. It wasn’t until a few days later did I think to see if any of the apps I was using had been updated for the M1. In the early days of using M1, many were Intel versions. Over time, more apps have been updated as Universal apps. The only indication that I was running an Intel application under Rosetta 2 was a one-time message indicating that I needed to install the Rosetta module. Requesting users download the Rosetta module is likely due to the complexities of getting new hardware and software out the door – an already complex logistics problem further complicated by a global pandemic. I would expect that new M1 Macs purchased and delivered in 2021 will ship with this module already installed.
Rosetta first run module install prompt
There are two other software modules that allow M1 Macs learn new tricks. The first is support for iOS and iPadOS apps. I installed UsTwo Game’s Monument Valley as a test. iOS and iPadOS games and apps are installed from a special tab in the Mac App Store. The install worked just like any other app. The app launched and ran just like the Intel version of Monument Valley that I have installed on my iMac. The input for Monument Valley is straight forward tap and swipe when the game is running on an iOS device. On a M1 Mac, that translates into mouse clicks and click and drag mechanics. Your mileage will vary based on the apps you want to run. Some iOS app developers have opted their apps out of automatically being made available for M1 Macs. (I’m looking specifically at you, Netflix and Disney+.)
The fourth and final new module in Big Sur for M1 Macs is the Virtualization module. This module is specifically designed to allow users to run alternate operating systems. At the time of this writing, virtualization on M1 is still premature. I have been able to use the pre-release beta version of Parallels Desktop to install and run the ARM versions of Microsoft Windows 10 ARM Edition, via the Microsoft Windows Insider program, and Debian ARM64 edition for PCs. Both work well, however, as with all pre-release beta software, there are some bumps in the road. Again, your milage will vary depending on the hypervisor software and guest operating system software you want to run. Overtime, support for running guest operating systems will get better.
If the Parallels Desktop software is a leading indicator, be prepared to have to reinstall your guest OS and application software in your virtual machine. It is not possible, today, to copy over or convert an existing Intel-based OS to run on the M1. I have to perform fresh installs of Windows 10 Pro and Debian Linux and reinstall my apps. For me, this a deal breaker if you need to use Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion to run business apps on your Mac. For the time being, I will need to continue running Windows 10 Pro x64 in VMware Fusion on my Intel iMac to be able to continue to use Microsoft Project and Visio when working from home.
Conclusion
Overall, I like the new 2020 13-inch MacBook Pro with the Apple Silicon M1 CPU. The Mac boots up quickly and Touch ID is amazingly fast. macOS Big Sur has been running trouble free, but I do have a few software nits to pick, none of which are serious. The PC is responsive, and the Mac is waiting for me and not the other way around. I do prefer the extra Thunderbolt / USB-C ports on the 15-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros, but I wanted the new shiny toy, and giving up two ports was worth it for me. I also miss the larger screen and higher resolution of the larger MacBook Pros. This particular issue is addressed by connecting the MacBook Pro to a Dell WD19TB dock, which is connected to an old 27-inch Dell UltraSharp monitor.
Looking forward, I plan on using this MacBook Pro for a couple of years until the second-generation hardware comes out. In all likelihood, a 2020 Mac with an M1 processor will easily run for many years to come. Knowing myself, by the time late 2022 rolls around, I’m be looking to upgrade to larger MacBook Pro with a M2 processor in it with four Thunderbolt ports.
