Apple PenLite: The iPad Before the iPad!

Many regard Apple’s Newton PDA from 1993 as the company’s first foray into touchscreen computing. It turns out that the company had even greater ambitions -- but the project met an unfortunate fate just at the last minute. Sources: Cupertino aerial footage by The Bureau ().“Apple Delivers a True Mac With Its Pricey Portable,“ InfoWorld, October 23, office photos courtesy Tom Gilley and Tom Erickson.“Apple, Toshiba plan multimedia PDAs,“ InfoWorld, June 29, LTE 286 photo: : J3100 photo: : of Toshiba laptops photo: : Shepherd with Mac Portable on Space Shuttle photo: Valley Green 6 photo: aerial footage courtesy Hosiden.“Getting to the point,“ Computerworld, October 28, Kay photo courtesy Viewpoints Research Institute.“A New Approach to Linear Filtering and Prediction Problems,“ R. E. Kalman, footage courtesy the United States Air Porat and John Sculley photo: “PDA Players Partner Up,“ PC Magazine, March 30, Newton “Cadillac“ prototype photos: “Iconic“ by Jonathan Zufi and “Apple drops into electronics field with nebulous Newton,“ InfoWorld, June 1, 1992.“Apple makes moves to squash Newton’s bugs,“ Computerworld, September 13, 1993.“Newton: A Step toward the Future,“ Macworld, August 1992.“The Macintosh Computer,“ Computer Chronicles, season 2, episode Tesler photo: :“The Future of the PC,“ Fortune, August 26, 1991.“Price wars will hurt Apple’s ’94 revenue,“ InfoWorld, June 14, 1993.“Restless Sculley steps down as CEO of Apple,“ InfoWorld, June 21, 1993.“Apple cuts could sidetrack focus,“ Computerworld, July 12, 1993.“MacWorld San Francisco,“ Computer Chronicles, season 11, episode 19.“Apple stock plunge prompts lawsuits,“ The Wisconsin State Journal, July 29, 1993.“Apple cuts jobs, rethinks Enterprise Systems division,“ Network World, July 12, from World PC Expo 1996: Watch Japan article about PenLite prototype at World PC Expo in 1996: ://“Apple upgrades Newton OS, MessagePad,“ InfoWorld, January 23, 1995.“Would you know my name?,“ Computerworld, November 1, 1993. 00:00 - Introduction 02:04 - A Mac in your pocket 04:10 - A new user interface paradigm 12:24 - Touchscreen development 16:48 - A cool idea not fit for sale 20:36 - The birth of PenLite 25:36 - Chasing bugs 28:30 - Reading your writing 30:54 - Competition from colleagues 33:36 - Ready to launch until it wasn’t 38:03 - A lasting legacy ----------------------------------------­------------------------------------- Please consider supporting my work on Patreon: Follow me on social media! @thisdoesnotcomp ----------------------------------------­------------------------------------- Music by Epidemic Sound () and Lakey Inspired (). Intro music by BoxCat Games ().