Apple PenLite: The iPad Before the iPad!

Рет қаралды 70,915

Күн бұрын

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 (www.thebureau.co)."Apple Delivers a True Mac With Its Pricey Portable," InfoWorld, October 23, 1989.Apple office photos courtesy Tom Gilley and Tom Erickson."Apple, Toshiba plan multimedia PDAs," InfoWorld, June 29, 1992.Compaq LTE 286 photo: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:La... J3100 photo: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... of Toshiba laptops photo: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Shepherd with Mac Portable on Space Shuttle photo: images.nasa.gov/details/s41-0... Valley Green 6 photo: pwaec.com/commercial/apple-co... aerial footage courtesy Hosiden."Getting to the point," Computerworld, October 28, 1991.Alan Kay photo courtesy Viewpoints Research Institute."A New Approach to Linear Filtering and Prediction Problems," R. E. Kalman, courses.cs.duke.edu/compsci52... footage courtesy the United States Air Force.Marc Porat and John Sculley photo: commoncog.com/c/cases/general..."PDA Players Partner Up," PC Magazine, March 30, 1993.Apple Newton "Cadillac" prototype photos: "Iconic" by Jonathan Zufi and www.flickr.com/photos/abeles/..."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 10.Larry Tesler photo: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi..."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, 1993.Photos from World PC Expo 1996: nerd.jp/events/19xx/E960907/in... Watch Japan article about PenLite prototype at World PC Expo in 1996: web.archive.org/web/199908221..."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
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Music by Epidemic Sound (www.epidemicsound.com) and Lakey Inspired ( / lakeyinspired .
Intro music by BoxCat Games (freemusicarchive.org/music/Bo....

Пікірлер: 344

@robsquared2 10 күн бұрын

Nice, a full blown device documentary. This is TV quality to be honest.

@6o0p5s 7 күн бұрын

tv today ? no i think it's much better

@TommyCrosby 7 күн бұрын

Forget TV, you need to make money on TV to greenlit a documentary and hope that someone doesn't distort some facts to make it "more sensationalism." KZfaq allows true enthusiasts to make genuine documentaries that cater to the enthusiasts and historians community first.

@hrr597 7 күн бұрын

Better than TV tbh

@julhizantwo2277 7 күн бұрын

Just watch this on tv. Not cable tv

@videosmaremare 5 күн бұрын

¡Muchas gracias por el vídeo! Un trabajo excelente donde deja claro que había proyectos muy interesantes y avanzados en la época donde no estaba Jobs. / Thank you very much for the video! An excellent job that clearly shows there were very interesting and advanced projects during the time when Jobs was not there.

@marcoafonso7084 7 күн бұрын

I though that 42 minutes would be too long. It felt too short actually. This is one of the best videos about tech history I've seem so far.

@Kafj302 7 күн бұрын

i agree, and i just came from the spiff brits video about longer form videos as well. sometime i feel that topics like this should get longer videos.

@RedVRCC 7 күн бұрын

Same! I started watching and thought it was gonna be too long but before I knew it, it was ending.

@marcoafonso7084 6 күн бұрын

@@Kafj302 I actually felt asleep watching spiff brits talking about the sleeping viewers.

@Gatitasecsii 4 күн бұрын

Tbh I was halfway through the video and I thought it was coming to an end, so I was like "aww really?" but turns out I still had 20 minutes to go.

@ArnoGourdol 7 күн бұрын

This was the first project I worked on at Apple for what was supposed to be a summer internship. It turned into a career. It was magical to be part of a team of so incredibly talented people. Still, we were all gutted when the project was canceled. It would have been a great device. I still have mine!

@EVOTech1 7 күн бұрын

didnt expect to click on a 42 min documentary this morning but here we are. absolute peak content!

@PotatoFi 8 күн бұрын

Wow. That was an amazing story, with amazing storytelling. As a product guy, I found this to be nothing short of moving. Congratulations on the release, and great job!

@Hafk 7 күн бұрын

absolutely love that you got to talk to the engineers behind this, there's so many fascinating stories out there about projects that died on the vine and I love hearing them

@DaveChurchill 7 күн бұрын

What an incredible episode. Thank you so much for bringing this story back from the dead

@virtuserable 7 күн бұрын

We need more creators highlighting the great engineers that built the computing foundations that many of us take for granted

@lindenhoch8396 7 күн бұрын

Nice, let me just put in a note of that: "Eat up Martha"

@jonathankleinow2073 7 күн бұрын

Egg freckles?

@handsomerob1223 Күн бұрын

Was this in the video somewhere?

@btarg1 7 күн бұрын

Neural network handwriting recognition in the early 90s?? This was wayyy ahead of its time. They were geniuses!

@Prophes0r 7 күн бұрын

neural networks have been around since before we had transistor based computers. All this AI hype in the last decade is just that, hype. It's not new. It not even useful in most cases. It just happens that we have powerful enough computers that it no longer SEEMS quite as wasteful to make the toys with AI than it used to.

@gasun1274 6 күн бұрын

@@Prophes0r Autograd is new though

@Prophes0r 5 күн бұрын

@@gasun1274 What is your point? We have made very little progress on neural networks in half a century. It's hype. GANs are interesting, and can actually be made now, but even those aren't "new". LLMs literally don't do what people think they do. They are a whole different problem. The bottom line is that for all this "AI" hype, it isn't really useful. Almost all of it is a toy to play with, not a tool to do a job. We HAVE massively increased available processing power. That certainly makes it look like we are progressing. In reality we are just obfuscating the hardware and electricity costs of these toys.

@TeraunceFoaloke 7 күн бұрын

I wasn't expecting that restoration video to lead into a documentary on the Ipad 0. Good job.

@Pressbutan 7 күн бұрын

Crazy to think how many of these “ahead of their time” ideas were eventually added into Mac, iOS, and now Apple intelligence. Great video Colin!

@Pressbutan 7 күн бұрын

35:07 wow, that’s one hell of a story. Imagine being 20 years ahead of iPad and flubbing the corpo demo. Good self reflection

@ActionRetro 7 күн бұрын

This video gave me feels

@ukmk3supra 7 күн бұрын

Thoroughly enjoyed that - it's amazing how bone-headed C-suite execs can be, they had a killer product in their lap with years of legacy software available for it, ready to go, already starting to ship - they could have done another production run of say 5000 units and see how they sold, then decided instead which way to go...but no, they put everything into Newton...

@JamesR624 7 күн бұрын

Huh. This video is how I learned that QuickTime is one of the VERY FEW products that survived Steve's return and even sticks around to this day. It exists as the default video player in macOS and process for video playback in iOS and iPadOS even in the 2020's.

@litjellyfish 7 күн бұрын

Quick time was so much more than that. It was a wrapper for video encoding. That was used on almost all platforms and almost all video software supporting it. What I think you are talking about is the QuickTime Player app right?

@pynchon9 7 күн бұрын

The modern QuickTime app is related only in name to the 1990s product. It's now derived from the iPhone video player, not the old media engine. The QuickTime MOV file format has lasted a little better, being the basis of MP4, now.

@Mainyehc 7 күн бұрын

Inkwell, the text recognition software from Newton, still survives to this day in macOS and, I suspect, in iPadOS and iOS.

@litjellyfish 6 күн бұрын

@@Mainyehc sorry inkwell had been gone for almost five years and most likely replaced with same stuff used in ipadOS scribble. From what I know iOS don’t have text recognition

@pseudotasuki 6 күн бұрын

@@MainyehcWhich started out from this project as Rosetta. The text recognition engine from Newton OS 1 was completely replaced in version 2.

@simplyhexagon 7 күн бұрын

This is actually insane how the PenLite is basically an iPad before the iPad And it even ran proper Mac OS, just with a few drivers and other software to fully utilise the pen What's even crazier to me is that they had the "hover" gesture already in the 90s It's a shame that it got cancelled, maybe it would've had some market for enterprise settings at tech companies for some sort of a carriable device for employees, so they could jot down notes in a meeting, attach it to a dock and get to use their notes while doing the work.

@papasivir4241 6 күн бұрын

That is literally what we need on the m series iPads right now lol

@papasivir4241 6 күн бұрын

Someone at Apple needs to look at the archives and have a huzzah moment with this idea lol

@ignorance72 4 күн бұрын

It's really more like the Microsoft Surface.

@TheAnthonyMarlowe 7 күн бұрын

I watch hundreds of hours of KZfaq a week and have loved Apple my whole life and didn’t know any of this. Well done.

@doobybrother21 6 күн бұрын

Hundreds of hours per week ?

@TheAnthonyMarlowe 5 күн бұрын

@@doobybrother21 yes

@doobybrother21 5 күн бұрын

@@TheAnthonyMarlowe then you must be Sherlock Holmes

@TheAnthonyMarlowe 5 күн бұрын

@@doobybrother21 definitely between 85-140 hours lol.

@coreybabcock2023 7 күн бұрын

We need to make this video a world wide tv documentary Collin and the people who made it all need to be recognized by the world

@babyboomertwerkteam5662 6 күн бұрын

Long form, impeccably researched *and* with interviews from the engineers who actually worked on this?! Heck yeah. More of this please!

@SarahKchannel 7 күн бұрын

A trip down memory lane. I think I owned pretty much every device shown, with exception of the the PenLite. I was a huge Newton fan and user. Funny to look back at a time that I mostly forgot.

@qwertyuiopqwertyuiop1464 7 күн бұрын

Videos like this are why you're one of my favorite channels on KZfaq. So much interesting information presented so well.

@Jaxermd 7 күн бұрын

This is your most important work! Really nicely researched, restored and presented.

@tsalikaki 7 күн бұрын

this was top notch tech journalism and a true historical treasure in video fornat. congrats!

@zaclaramay 7 күн бұрын

Thanks for taking the time to put this together. This belongs on TV.

@darwiniandude 7 күн бұрын

Too good for TV.

@veitjacob9764 7 күн бұрын

You have outdone yourself with this one! 😮 Incredibly good and worth a much broader audience! 👏

@ernstoud 7 күн бұрын

Excellent documentary. It hurts to see that even now Apple refuses to have a touchscreen on a notebook. It was all there in the 90’s.

@gmcnewlook 7 күн бұрын

I just find it funny jobs mocked the surface pro and yet they do similar things with the iPad with detachable keyboard cases 😂

@startedtech 7 күн бұрын

@@gmcnewlook Jobs didn't come back to Apple until 1997 to be fair.

@darwiniandude 7 күн бұрын

@@gmcnewlook The first Surface, and the Surface Pro, shipped years are Jobs' died. So he most certainly did not mocked the surface. He mocked the stylus, but if we extrapolate on that a little since he was no stranger to art and graphics tablets, I would venture he mocked the stylus because (to extend and paraphrase) "if you see a (user interface designed around and requiring) a stylus, they blew it." - like this penlite concept. You're using an on screen keyboard or handwriting recognition. It's not too dissimilar from Windows for Pen Computing from the 1990's as well. With iPhone (where the the stylus comment came from) you can actually type really fast, not just peck away at letters with a stylus. Same with iPad. iPad launched under Job's with a fixed desk oriented portrait style iPad Keyboard dock, nothing like Surface. Apple didn't ship Surface style magnetically attached iPad keyboards until many years after Jobs' death.

@gmcnewlook 7 күн бұрын

@@darwiniandude yeah I got him confused with cook I realized that afterwards

@Mainyehc 7 күн бұрын

@@darwiniandudethe first Surface, i.e. the big ass projection-based tabletop computer, did ship way before Steve died, and he may very well have mocked it.

@EmielRoumen 4 күн бұрын

All these features and functionality, almost made it to a wider audience more than 30 years ago.. Well done documentary, great stuff!

@daveatlantix 7 күн бұрын

Absolutely fantastic video, Colin. I love your "normal" content, but this - this is a step above. Thanks!

@CF542 2 күн бұрын

Really love the long form interview style. It's always great to see the evolution of the industry to what we enjoy today.

@garita3690 Күн бұрын

What an amazing video! These designers and engineers were definitely ahead of their time, just insane creativity and problem solving skills. Thanks for showcasing these prototypes and their creators!

@Archived_Rem 7 күн бұрын

Awesome story ! Thanks for having the guys who are the reason we have so much of this beloved tech on!

@AdamJRichardson 7 күн бұрын

Great video, and amazing job pulling all this hidden stuff out into view again! That WWDC demo makes me think of Doug Englebart's "Mother of all demos" 20+ years earlier - Laurie had a similar low-key, conversational presentation style as Englebart as well.

@TommyCrosby 7 күн бұрын

I'm so glad to see documentaries like this that include interviews with the original team of engineers.

@joeconti2396 7 күн бұрын

This is your best video. Ever. What an excellent documentary.

@DanielGilbert86 7 күн бұрын

I didn't expect for the engineers to show up - that is really, really cool!

@kazinwho Күн бұрын

"It was a rite of passage at Apple - if you make your own product, you get to make your own connector" - thanks for making things a pain in the ass for decades

@EGOS42 7 сағат бұрын

In the 90s I worked helpdesk at Earthlink the ISP. I was on Mac support even though I was fundamentally a PC user with a small amount of Mac knowledge. The highlight of the entire job was one day a user called in to get POP and SMTP server addresses for his Apple Newton. I was stunned that there was a modem adapter and this person was going to be walking around with a copy of email on a pocketable device. Seems quaint today but it was nearly unheard of back then.

@nekomasteryoutube3232 7 күн бұрын

Honestly, I dunno if Colin will do more longer form stuff int he future, but I wouldn't mind Colins own adventures into looking into retro computer stuff, its always nice to see how people cover a topic (even one that I might know about) and also what they might find that I didn't know :) Anyways, great video buds! I

@KayvonJavid 7 күн бұрын

Att had multi touch touch screen with stylus support in the early 90’s???? That was insanely ahead of its time

@insanelydigitalvids 3 күн бұрын

You have outdone yourself, Colin, with this incredible video! What an absolute gem of Apple Computer history (and such a sad story for PenLite). Thanks to everyone involved in creating this masterpiece. 🙂

@Dr.Dawson 7 күн бұрын

Watched during this AM's coffee and all and missed some. Normally I re watch something later and move on but NOT today. THat gets re watched right now! Well done Colin, that was brilliant.

6 күн бұрын

Even if this was not the video I was expecting, this is such a nice story with top notch production. Hats off!!!

@MatthewZachary 7 күн бұрын

I was in college at this time interning at a local mom-and-pop Apple Store in Binghamton, NY. The owner kept talking about this device and when we'd receive inventory. But only the Newtons showed up. Amazing video. Thank you.

@BaMb1N079 6 күн бұрын

Back in the days when they really cared about their work and product. Today's just about the shareholder value. Very nice video! Keep 'em coming. Ditched my usual lunch-break Star Trek episode for this...and I usually do not do that at all.

@chrisbaldwin8222 7 күн бұрын

I would love to see more of these types of vids! Alongside repair vids of course.

@marklechman2225 6 күн бұрын

Such an exciting time in tech. I miss those days.

@MatthewFry 3 күн бұрын

Truly fantastic. I wish that Apple had stuck around in the edge of innovation space instead of sitting around and waiting for others to make the cool stuff for them.

@75slaine 6 күн бұрын

Was not expecting a full on documentary Colin, this was fantastic. Congratulations and thank you !! Thoroughly enjoyed it. Glad I saved it for my Saturday morning coffee ☕

@MDBenson 7 күн бұрын

An incredible video, Colin, genuinely fascinating insight into the wild years of cutting-edge development and innovation at Apple.

@slembcke 5 күн бұрын

Excellent! I had nearly forgotten that this had existed. So cool you were able to find original people to talk to about it.

@CodyWalton1979 7 күн бұрын

This is fantastic! Would love to see more computer history documentaries. 🍎

@JamesR624 7 күн бұрын

Interestingly, now with "Apple Intelligence" and the new Siri, both coming to iPadOS 18. We'll finally actually get the "Knowledge Navigator" as capable as we've seen in this video.

@lemagreengreen 7 күн бұрын

Nice to see some longer content from you!

@gerald5344 7 күн бұрын

I think I still have my Duo 230 and full-size Duo Dock down in my basement. A Duo-ish tablet that could run Mac apps would have been so cool. A great documentary on Apple at a turning point.

@Bluestreak589 5 күн бұрын

This video deserves to go viral.

@3rdalbum 4 күн бұрын

16:45 In this part of the 1990s it felt like futuristic computer technology was just around the corner. Any computer design we saw in sci-fi movies was not only possible, but Apple was already building it. It was continually exciting! The feeling didn't last, but it was a wonderful shared experience of technological optimism.

@98of99 5 күн бұрын

This was awesome storytelling, thank you! I loved how you integrated the interviews from the designers! Bravo!

@iiidiy 6 күн бұрын

I'd imagine that you spent a lot of time putting this piece together, and wow, it was worth it! You've done justice to a really interesting story, especially with the first hand-accounts of the people involved. Great balance of context, technical, emotion, and "what could have been" wonderings that we've come to expect from TDNC. Excellent video, I hope you're proud of the end result!

@ResskCSF 6 күн бұрын

This is one of the finest documentaries on old tech out there. Thank you so much for finding the original guys who worked on it and getting us their stories!

@bradkane 7 күн бұрын

An absolutely amazing documentary made by Colin👍. This is the first ever in-depth revelation into a heart-felt creation (and cancelation)of a project far ahead of its time at Apple in the 90s.

@namakudamono Күн бұрын

Wow, I really appreciate the amount of work that must have gone on researching and creating this video. Very much appreciated!

@kipboyle 7 күн бұрын

I enjoy all your videos, but this one is the best I've seen so far. Loved the interviews with the engineers and that you let them tell so much of the story. Congratulations of publishing such a high quality documentary!

@MrKelaher 7 күн бұрын

Excellent, I was a developer of applications on the Newton, loved them.

@HouseNuova500 7 күн бұрын

A big, big part of Apple’s history told here. Some unsung heroes, some great products that never see the light of day… until, something like 20 years later, the creators of this incredibly advanced product can think « Hey, that’s my work ! It finally made it to the sunlight ! ». There’s a lot of human feelings through this video. A lot of love and hopes. That’s why we’re humans, and that’s why we always go beyond the limits.

@tubularmonkeymaniac 6 күн бұрын

This channels production is getting so sophisticated so quickly. Mind boggling. I take my hat off.

@DatBlueHusky 7 күн бұрын

a actual good video on these devices! Like no other video came close to this even LGR. Its crazy how far tech has come now and where we are at because of these beginning foot steps. Developments like these def aint like how it used to be where everything was being done from scratch compared to today.

@trekrich28 6 күн бұрын

This is first class. This is better than what Discovery is making.

@markdermer 6 күн бұрын

Colin! Thank you for this amazing production. You have a wonderful style that really recreates the magic I used to feel about technology. I always look forward to your videos, but this was truly unexpected.

@cypherian2 7 күн бұрын

I'm sitting here watching this on an iPad getting misty eyed... It feels like I'm telling one of my kids about their grandparents... Thanks Collin, for sharing this with us!

@wayne0220 7 күн бұрын

Great job on this video, probably your best work to-date!

@SteampunkFiend 7 күн бұрын

Was not expecting a documentary level piece of work for this tablet, but I loved every minute. Thanks for all the work you put into your content.

@MrBaskins2010 6 күн бұрын

thank you for preserving this history

@elliottsee5324 7 күн бұрын

Absolutely wonderful. Thank you for putting this together. The quality easily matches the best documentaries from the 90s that I grew up with. It was really cool to see more models and learn more of the history behind Apple's pen computing era.

@thomasfuchs78 7 күн бұрын

Love love love this format. Hope you can find the time to do more of these!

@RikerJoe 7 күн бұрын

Wow Colin, here I am watching this on my iPad and seeing a history I had no idea existed. Thank you for bringing this to light!

@jugstery 7 күн бұрын

I really like this video format, gives a better understanding of the machine shown.

@dannygonzalez0861 6 күн бұрын

Beautiful, just beautiful. Thank you for this amazing view into apple history. You are incredible 🎉🎉

@anumeon 7 күн бұрын

This is seriously interesting. A facet of Apple trivia that i had never heard about before... Thank you for this amazing video. :)

@thatmrlanphear 7 күн бұрын

Incredible work, Colin! Thank you for this.

@janusu 7 күн бұрын

That was awesome, Colin! Nice work! So cool that you were able to get in touch with the PenLite engineers and interview them. This presentation was great!

@ashleysharkey6406 7 күн бұрын

That was an incredible film. Inspiring, even. I wish there was more!

@user-cr1vd8ig8r 3 күн бұрын

Thanks for being there.

@CarlosStorms 6 күн бұрын

Wow, I am amazed at the production quality of this! I have been following for a couple years and you have outdone yourself!! Congratulations!!

@kylek6922 7 күн бұрын

Very cool Colin, thanks for sharing this history with us!

@mac27collection 7 күн бұрын

This might be my new favorite episode you've ever produced. Well done!

@pynchon9 7 күн бұрын

Wow, this was so good. I started the video thinking it would be a quick look at a gadget and was transfixed until the end. Amazing work!

@broimnotyourbro 7 күн бұрын

This is incredible. Ambitious and you totally pulled it off and honored the device and the people who made it. Bravo.

@pablofalcao1700 6 күн бұрын

Awesome format! Loved it

@paulrandles5249 7 күн бұрын

A superb documentation of an important time in the history of computing, thank you.

@WarningHPB 7 күн бұрын

Thanks for putting this amazing video together.

@abdelali9279 7 күн бұрын

Can't believe we almost got the Apple Pencil like 30 years ago!

@mooseblaster 7 күн бұрын

Brilliant video, one of the best (if not the best) you've done, and on such a fascinating and unknown topic! Well done!

@myheart4apen 7 күн бұрын

Fascinating! Great work on this! Thanks!

@greendblink182 7 күн бұрын

Amazing documentary Collin. You've really outdone yourself. This belongs on TV.

@mmcthrow 6 күн бұрын

What a fascinating video! I'm a very big fan of Apple history, especially it's "interregnum" years of 1985-1996 when Apple was an unfocused beacon of innovation. I know of many projects such as SK8, Copland, OpenDoc, and Dylan, but I didn't know about Apple's early tablet efforts, and I had no idea Apple was so close to releasing a tablet Mac way back in 1993. This is the Silicon Valley I dreamed of working for as a kid in the 90s and 2000s, and this is the Silicon Valley I wish still existed. Well done video!

@datassetteuser356 7 күн бұрын

Extraordinary video, thank you very much for this! Very well made, so many interviews from devs ... wow. Just wow.

@carlosbustamante7261 3 күн бұрын

Just Amazing doc. Thanks a lot.

@JamesHalfHorse 7 күн бұрын

The journalism in this is fantastic. I love stories like this... hate that it didn't work out though. Way ahead of it's time product that would have been a success until the suits got involved. But that is the way of it for engineers a lot of times.