![]() ![]() With a push of a button, users could call up an integrated office suite that included word processing, spreadsheet, and drawing capabilities.Īpple also offered NetHopper, a Newton-based Web browser, and a Eudora email client on CD-ROM (installable through a Mac connection) as a nod to its Internet capabilities. One of the eMate’s biggest strengths as a portable learning machine was its set of built-in applications included in 8MB of ROM. It could run any software written for Newton OS 2.0, which also powered Apple’s handheld MessagePad PDA devices. Interestingly, the eMate 300 did not gain significant traction in the educational sector, but the very features that Apple designed to appeal to school administrators-low cost, ease of use, ruggedness, and long battery life among them-ended up appealing to the government market in ways that Apple did not expect.Ī Newton PDA at heart Ralf Pfeifer Apple Newton MessagePad 2000Īs a member of the Newton family, the eMate allowed users to draw or write (via handwriting recognition) with an included stylus on its 480-by-320 backlit grayscale LCD. One Laptop Per Child initiative that produced the rugged, portable Those are all features that would be replicated a decade later in the highly publicized Sound familiar? One Laptop per Child XO-1 And it wanted the eMate to be network friendly-both peer-to-peer (via IrDA transfers) and peer-to-Internet. It wanted to make the device easy to use and interoperable in a world full of both Windows and Mac machines. It’s slathered in marketing lingo (they called it a “Distributed Learning Environment”), but it’s there.Įssentially, Apple wanted to put a cheap, portable, rugged computer in the hands of every child. First product spec sheet is a brief tract that lays out the basics of a bold educational ideology. ![]()
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