Introducing.. NewtonOS Personal Data Sharing

Release Date: April 20, 1999

What is NewtonOS Personal Data Sharing?

NPDS is as much a concept as anything else. When the Newton was conceived and then sold a fundamental tenet of its design was its portability. Yet, never during the course of its short and brilliant lifetime was it actually PORTABLE.

You could connect to any desktop.. as long as NCU or NBU or Xport was installed.

You could print out information.. if you had a compatible printer.

You could let others see your schedule.. if they had a fax to send it to.. or a Newton of their own.

Etcetera, Ad Nauseum, Ad infinitum...

NPDS LogoNPDS was designed to address some of these shortcomings and also as a proof of concept that PDAs should have HTTP servers embedded in them as a means of communicating with the outside world.

So, to answer the original question: "What is Newton Personal Data Sharing?"

NewtonOS Personal Data Sharing is a suite of software for the Newton that allows you to transparently share Notes, Calendar Entries, and Cardfile entries with clients on the WWW. It's a battery powered webserver that sports features often reserved for "big iron" servers.. scriptability, security, dymamic content generation, instant messenging, etc..

Why Do I Want To Use It?

What Do I Need To Run It?

  1. NewtonOS 2.x on a MP130 or better (MP2x00 recommended), running NIE 1.1 or later.
  2. Up to 32K Heap if you're running it hard.
  3. A static IP is suggested but not at all required since the advent of the NPDS Tracker.
  4. Approximately 256 K of either* Internal or Card RAM for all the NPDS Components and Soups.
    *Keep all components of NPDS on the same store if possible.