Notion: The Newton List Manager User Manual
Notion was one of the original list managers for the Apple Newton MessagePad. This original user manual was included with the Newton MessagePad 120.
Developed by Bend, Oregon-based Eidetic, Inc. in 1994, this user manual was printed and published by Apple Computer, Inc.
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Artifact Details
Eidetic, Inc.
Taiwan
English
1994
Black and white (with red spot color) saddled-stitched printed document.
4" x 7" (30 pages)
030-6476-A
ffe79cfa393e94f5
1994
Included with Apple Newton MessagePad 120 (purchased)
2022-05-14
Organizations
People
History
This user manual shipped in the box with the Apple Newton MessagePad 120 in early 1995, alongside the software Notion: The Newton List Manager. Notion was developed by Eidetic, Inc., a developer based in Bend, Oregon, and Apple printed and bound the documentation as part of the in-box materials.
By 1994, Apple had set up a software publishing and distribution group inside its Personal Interactive Electronics division called StarCore. StarCore published and distributed software for the Newton on PCMCIA cards and floppy disks. Notion was among the early titles in StarCore’s catalog, which had grown to almost 45 titles by the middle of 1994, alongside applications such as ExpensePlus, TapWorks, and the Newton Solutions packages.1
In the fall of 1994, anyone buying a Newton MessagePad 100 or 110 between October 1 and December 31 could receive the Newton Power Organizer Pack free at authorized resellers — a $250 promotional bundle that included Notion, ExpensePlus, an external fax modem, and a limited-edition travel bag. Apple’s description of Notion in that promotion: it gave MessagePad owners more than 100 ready-to-use list templates for tracking tasks and itineraries, with built-in ways to organize, prioritize, and send the resulting lists to other people.2
When Apple launched the MessagePad 120 in early 1995 — the third version of the Newton hardware after the original 1993 MessagePad and the 110 — Notion was one of the applications Apple bundled with the device. Both the 1 MB and 2 MB configurations of the MessagePad 120 came with Notion in the box, alongside Apple’s NewtonMail electronic-mail client.3 This manual is the in-box documentation that came with that bundle.
When Apple shipped the Newton 2.0 operating system in late 1995, the built-in Notes, Names, and Dates applications were substantially improved, and the third-party software Apple chose to preload in RAM on every new MessagePad 120 was Intuit’s Pocket Quicken rather than Notion.4
AI generated using primary sources referenced in the footnotes
Footnotes
- Apple Computer, New Starcore Applications for Newton Extend Mobile Professionals’ Business and Personal Use of MessagePad, July 26, 1994
- Apple Computer, Apple Offers the Newton Power Organizer Pack Free to New MessagePad Purchasers, October 3, 1994
- Apple Computer, Apple Launches Newton MessagePad 120 Features GSM Solution for Wireless Communications, February 17, 1995
- Intuit, Intuit Announces Pocket Quicken for Newton 2.0, November 13, 1995
Oral History
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