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I still have a working eMate 300. Every now and then I start it up and play around a bit. It's neat to see how someone of it still lives on in iPad OS with the

by pgib 4y ago

I still have a working eMate 300. Every now and then I start it up and play around a bit. It's neat to see how someone of it still lives on in iPad OS with the Apple Pencil.

musicale 4y ago
Say what you will about Jony Ive but the eMate 300 is a beautiful design that also looks pretty functional. It also seems to have a high-contrast reflective screen that you could use in broad daylight, something that challenges even my rather bright MacBook Pro. As you note the iPad is something of a successor to the Newton both in hardware (e.g. ARM CPU, Apple Pencil) and interface (e.g. shape recognition/drawing, long press.) Apple apparently prototyped larger Newton tablets (VideoPad) as well as pen-based Mac OS devices (PenLite) but never brought them to market. Though macOS does work as a pen based system if you plug in a Cintiq, or an iPad with Sidecar.
- CharlesW 4y ago
  > Say what you will about Jony Ive but the eMate 300 is a beautiful design that also looks pretty functional. Thomas Meyerhoffer designed the eMate 300. Jony designed the second-generation Newton MessagePad, the Newton MessagePad 110.
  - musicale 4y ago
    Good to know - this is why HN is so great. Did Jony Ive head up Apple's design group at the time or did that come later after the iMac, etc.? (If HN didn't have its stupid edit locks I could edit it to read "say what you will about 1990s Apple.") In any case, the eMate looks like an amazing design and now I want to see more Meyerhoffer designs!
    - mrpippy 4y ago
      Jony was ID director by WWDC 97 https://bslabs.net/2018/05/28/wwdc-1997-videos/#500 https://bslabs.net/2018/05/28/wwdc-1997-videos/#500
      - musicale 4y ago
        Ah, so that would place the eMate 300 during the Jony Ive era, making my edit unnecessary. I'd still like to hear more about Thomas Meyerhoffer though.
mattkevan 4y ago
I bought an eMate on a whim about 20 years ago and absolutely love it. I do a similar thing and have a play once in a while. Occasionally I’ll use it as a distraction-free writing device, but the batteries need replacing for it to be truly useful. Will get round to it one of these days. I can’t help but think it would make a really good Raspberry Pi casemod, but it feels like sacrilege to gut a working device. Incidentally, if anyone has any broken eMates I’d be interested…

by pgib 4y ago

I still have a working eMate 300. Every now and then I start it up and play around a bit. It's neat to see how someone of it still lives on in iPad OS with the Apple Pencil.

musicale 4y ago

Say what you will about Jony Ive but the eMate 300 is a beautiful design that also looks pretty functional. It also seems to have a high-contrast reflective screen that you could use in broad daylight, something that challenges even my rather bright MacBook Pro. As you note the iPad is something of a successor to the Newton both in hardware (e.g. ARM CPU, Apple Pencil) and interface (e.g. shape recognition/drawing, long press.) Apple apparently prototyped larger Newton tablets (VideoPad) as well as pen-based Mac OS devices (PenLite) but never brought them to market. Though macOS does work as a pen based system if you plug in a Cintiq, or an iPad with Sidecar.

CharlesW 4y ago
> Say what you will about Jony Ive but the eMate 300 is a beautiful design that also looks pretty functional. Thomas Meyerhoffer designed the eMate 300. Jony designed the second-generation Newton MessagePad, the Newton MessagePad 110.
- musicale 4y ago
  Good to know - this is why HN is so great. Did Jony Ive head up Apple's design group at the time or did that come later after the iMac, etc.? (If HN didn't have its stupid edit locks I could edit it to read "say what you will about 1990s Apple.") In any case, the eMate looks like an amazing design and now I want to see more Meyerhoffer designs!
  - mrpippy 4y ago
    Jony was ID director by WWDC 97 https://bslabs.net/2018/05/28/wwdc-1997-videos/#500 https://bslabs.net/2018/05/28/wwdc-1997-videos/#500
    - musicale 4y ago
      Ah, so that would place the eMate 300 during the Jony Ive era, making my edit unnecessary. I'd still like to hear more about Thomas Meyerhoffer though.

mattkevan 4y ago

I bought an eMate on a whim about 20 years ago and absolutely love it. I do a similar thing and have a play once in a while. Occasionally I’ll use it as a distraction-free writing device, but the batteries need replacing for it to be truly useful. Will get round to it one of these days. I can’t help but think it would make a really good Raspberry Pi casemod, but it feels like sacrilege to gut a working device. Incidentally, if anyone has any broken eMates I’d be interested…