Re: [NTLK] Dear Steve Jobs... (your help is needed)

Let me just fix a few things.

    Steve Jobs
    Apple Inc.
    1 Infinite Loop
    Cupertino
    CA, USA

                  ______ your city, country, date_______

    *Urgent request for support*

    Dear Steve Jobs,

    As you may be aware, there is still a large and faithful community
    using the Apple Newton series of PDAs on a regular basis. Most of us
    own a full line of Apple products — inspired by what was once the first,
    true PDA on the market, from the most innovative computer company in the
    world. For us, the Newton is the machine that made the iPod and the
    iPhone possible.

    Unfortunately, a bug in the system software will render all Newtons
    unusable in January of 2010. The "seconds" counter will wrap around
    its 30 bit boundary, creating a disastrous Y2K effect for all our
    machines.

    We certainly do not expect Apple to fix the issue ten years after the
    product was discontinued. However, we respectfully ask for enough
    information on the NewtonOS so we can fix this error ourselves in an
    otherwise fantastic piece of software.

    We would need:
    - information on how to write ROM patches (this exists, but under NDA
    AFAIK)
    - documentation of time and date related "C" and "C++" functions in
    NewtonOS
    - every crumb of ROM source code with regard to time management

    We would like to suggest two additional actions that would not only
    make the Newton community happy, but also support the image of Apple
    as a company that stands behind their products.

    First, just like you made System 6.0.8 - System 7.5.5 available for download and
    use in emulators, please consider allowing the use of NewtonOS in
    emulators.

    Second, the Newton Toolkit (NTK) — the only development platform for
    the Newton — no longer works on Intel machines. Would it be possible to
    make the source code available for us to rewrite an OS X version of NTK?

    Sincerely,

        ______ your signature

        ______ your full name

        ______ your full address

On 2/12/09 3:58 PM, matthiasm wrote:
> Our Newtons will die in January 2010 thanks to a wrapping second
> counter.
>
> I would like to suggest writing a letter to Steve Jobs and ask him to
> help us keeping the Newton alive after 2010.
>
> …
>
>
>

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Received on Thu Feb 12 19:22:49 2009