Original Apple Newton from 1994 Repair and Review - Is it actually as bad as they say?

[@tropicalretro]

I’m one of those ppl who really used them! I loved it. After you got used to it the handwriting recognition was almost flawless. I dare to say that was the best handwriting recognition I ever used. I got my 1st in 1996 and used Newtons up to 2001! I then surrendered to Palm. Great video!

[@TheBasementChannel]

I was really surprised how good the handwriting recognition was. Especially on v1.3 of the OS, there’s no way I thought it would figure out my scrawl. Martin better watch out!

[@mac27collection]

Thanks for leaving in the mistakes and bodgery that can sometimes happen with these devices - we've all been there before, and it's sometimes best to concede defeat and learn from our mistakes. Glad you wound up with a working unit. Great vid!

[@TheBasementChannel]

Thanks for your encouragement. I’m not going to lie, I did toy with the idea of “pretending” the second one was the repaired first one so I didn’t look like an inept idiot, but then decided to embrace my ineptitude. Unfortunately I didn’t have any footage of the stuff up, reflecting my mental state at the time 😆

[@polymatt]

Ahhh the Newton. Definitely ahead of its time. Awesome to see you’re getting use out of the 2300 - and thanks for the shoutout!

[@TheBasementChannel]

You’re welcome Matt! The 2400 is such a great little machine, you did a great job on setting it up too with all the different OS on there.

[@HandheldComputing]

Great video as always! Nice to see someone with a Psion II 😃 The Newton was soooooo far ahead of its time!

[@TheBasementChannel]

I plan to do a video about the Psion at some stage. Your videos have been very helpful!

[@HandheldComputing]

@@TheBasementChannel Happy to help, the Psion II isn't exactly intuitive....

[@JanusCycle]

If you can work out why the resistance level is changing on the horizontal touch screen pinout, then you might be able find a way to stabilize it. But there's nothing wrong with buying another one. Why have just one, when you can have two!

[@TheBasementChannel]

My theory is the carbon traces have a specific resistance value and the copper has a vastly lower value which throws the resistance out of whack on that line. There’s one feed for each side of the screen, and the copper one goes to the left. The lower resistance shows up as drifting the point to the right. It’s also quite a noisy signal, so the resistance must be jumping around a bit given the state of the lines I was drawing. Perhaps a single copper thread would have higher resistance and be more accurate, but I don’t have the eyes, hands or dexterity to attempt it 😅

[@CarolynCerecke]

Carl and I enjoying your video!! Plenty of laughs too ..😂

[@BigBadBench]

Fun machine and nice work getting it running again!

[@TheBasementChannel]

Thanks! Only took me 2 tries 😅

[@RetrogradeScene]

I'm still to get a newton. Haven't managed to find one for a price i'm willing to pay. Shame about your first, we've all done something like that, Glad you managed to get one working in the end!

[@TheBasementChannel]

I found the replacement for only $45 on eBay, from the US though. Chances are all the inoperative ones for sale just need those 2 caps done.

[@RetrogradeScene]

@@TheBasementChannel Always the caps!! I’ve found a similar thing with some Palm devices that once the supercap goes there just dead. So a nice simple fix

[@dave4shmups]

Great video on the Newton!

[@TheBasementChannel]

Thanks Dave!

[@willcheyney]

Awesome as always ❤ I have the same H1000 but am missing the AA battery tray. Don’t support you know how to use CAD to make a 3D printable copy of one? 😅

[@TheBasementChannel]

No sorry, I’ve never dabbled in the 3D printing world. Is there some sort of app where I can 3D scan it with my phone?

[@willcheyney]

There are a few apps that allow you to use the LiDAR Scanner to create 3d models but they’re usually pretty messy unfortunately. Don’t suppose you have a spare battery tray? 😎

[@pierreinthavong181]

Pretty nice video!😁

[@LetsPlayKeldeo]

Just as an FYI when I look for "The Basement" or "The Basement channel" or "The basement repair" I cant seem to find your channel :(

[@TheBasementChannel]

Yeah I know. In hindsight it’s a terrible name. 😆

[@LetsPlayKeldeo]

@@TheBasementChannel Yeah its sadly not the first channel called this I litterally needed to look you up on twitter to get to your channel again lol

[@TheBasementChannel]

Thanks for making the effort! ❤️

[@Henderson101]

ARM didn’t start with the Newton. I was using ARM based computing in school since 1988/9 because Acorn used it in the Archimedes line of computers (Acorn RISC Machine is what ARM originally stood for). Acorn and Archimedes was really big in schools in the UK because BBC Computers also made by Acorn were the definitive school computer and the Archie was the next generation.

[@TheBasementChannel]

Correct. But it was the power efficiency of the arm chip that allowed something like the Newton to exist at the time.

[@rainiergruber9022]

Growing up with such slow UIs on everything digital, I always laugh when I see people complaining about games dropping to 119FPS or the like (although the criticism is of course justified for todays prices).

[@TheBasementChannel]

Yes I was so used to click-wait-click-wait

[@bdwdreamweaver]

wow that is a very very old handphone