It's been reported that Sharp will not be making or marketing future Newton products, preferring to develop its own PT9000 PDA. There were differences of opinion on Newton's design, and Sharp was upset that they couldn't use the Newton name in advertising its ExpertPad. [Nigel Ballard (nigel@dataman.demon.co.uk), comp.sys.newton.misc. Bill Park, 11/3/93.]

If you have an early Newton, make sure the handwriting recognition works as well on the adaptor as on batteries. Some units were shipped without a capacitor. [Tim (tim@harlequin.com), comp.sys.newton.misc. Bill Park, 11/3/93.] (If you have a Sharp ExpertPad, be sure you get the upgraded stylus design for Western writing angles.)

Apple expects more than 400 Newton applications to appear next year. They are particularly interested in telecommunications and in applications that don't depend on handwriting. [Barbara Kantrowitz, Newsweek, 11/15/93.]

Apple is raising the price of their Partner program from $600 to $1500/year, with a [Newton] PIE Partners Program for $2850/year. [MacWeek, 9/20/93, p. 115. Jeffrey S. Shulman (kilroy@netcom.com). Bill Park.] (Apple originally supported small developers, but that time is long past. Large developers focus on mass-market products, which is where Apple profits most.)

NewtonScript is based on David Unger's Self language, developed at Stanford. Randall B. Smith of PARC (rsmith @parc.xerox.com) was a co-developer. PostScript-format papers about Self may be FTP'd from self.stanford.edu. [Walter Smith (wrs@apple.com), comp.sys.newton.programmer. Bill Park.]

Saturday Night Live did a "commercial" for a Newton follow-on: Macintosh Post-It Notes. You write a note, stick it up somewhere, and buy another one. [David Myers (dem@meaddata.com), comp.sys.newton.misc, 11/6/93.] Apple's 800 number was busy the next day with callers wanting to know about the product! [Andy Stadler (stadler@apple.com).] The idea isn't so far out: Mark Weiser's lab at Xerox PARC has been building intelligent "tabs" that are similar. [Bill "Licensed Newtwhacker" Park (park@netcom.com).]