Re: [NTLK] Newton can receive a page?

From: Ed Kummel (tech_ed_at_yahoo.com)
Date: Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:44:19 EDT


Yes. The Newton could receive pages using one of the
many (now defunct) paging services that existed in the
mid to late '90s.
One of the devices was the Socket pager card. I played
around with this thing for years and grew to love the
device! What was nice was that it integrated smoothly
with the Newt and it even received pages without being
attached to anything. The only problem is that it hung
out the side of the Newt by about 1/2 an inch so it
sometimes got in the way. Also, the batteries for this
thing were very difficult to get and very very
expensive!
Another device was the Motorola pager card. This was
just like the Socket except it didn't have a display.
It too could receive pages while not connected, but
you had to plug it into a PDA to get it to download
it's messages so you could see them. Again, this
device hung out the side of the newt to be somewhat
bothersome.
You could also get paging services through one of the
Packet data services that were available at the time.
I spent quite a number of years with a 3Com
(megahertz) AllPoints card using the DTS services
(bought by Go America and promptly discontinued).
There was also limited conenctivity using the Motorola
100D CDPD card (I even had a limited Sierra Wireless
card to play with for a while but had a difficult time
getting it to connect...)
Unfortunatly, all of these devices and services have
no other purpose than to fill the shelves of
collectors. The software and the services themselves
have been l-o-n-g ago disbanded and are just usefull
as topics of conversation.

Ed
web/gadget guru
--- Chris Searles <csearles_at_netcologne.de> wrote:
>
> A guy on another site posted a website address for
> vintage Apple
> commercials
>
(http://www.cupertino.de/pages/filme/mov_09/index_09.html)
>
> and a couple of them ("What is Newton?",
> "Restaurant") refer to the fact
> that the original Newton could receive a page. What
> was this feature
> exactly and why have I never heard of it in
> real-life before like I have
> about the faxing and beaming functions?
>
> Chris Searles
>
> --
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> http://www.newtontalk.net
>

=====
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
- Arthur C. Clarke -

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