Newton OS running on iPhone, iPad via Einstein emulator

Forget iOS 4.2, what you really want is Newton, Apple's original handheld OS, running on your iPhone and iPad, right? Well, if you're one of the many uber-passionate Newton faithful, you probably do and there's a project underway to make it a reality.

Einstein is an open-source project to run (via emulation) the Newton OS on modern hardware. It was written and released by Paul Guyot several years ago. It’s quite an amazing piece of work.The project got a shot in the arm earlier this month when Matthias Melcher got it up and running on iOS and posted a video of himself running it on his iPhone. Being a Newton fan since my original MessagePad in 1993, it was quite a sight to see.Matthias mentioned he didn’t have an iPad yet, so I grabbed the source and built it for my iPad so I could take a little movie and share

Right now it's slow and required a Newton ROM that can't be legally distributed outside Apple, but there's seldom a obstacle smart, dedicated developers can't hurdle to get cool stuff done.

If you've wanted your Newton to live on beyond the original hardware, check out the video after the break.

[Steven Frank/Panic, TUAW]

Rene Ritchie is one of the most respected Apple analysts in the business, reaching a combined audience of over 40 million readers a month. His YouTube channel, Vector, has over 90 thousand subscribers and 14 million views and his podcasts, including Debug, have been downloaded over 20 million times. He also regularly co-hosts MacBreak Weekly for the TWiT network and co-hosted CES Live! and Talk Mobile. Based in Montreal, Rene is a former director of product marketing, web developer, and graphic designer. He's authored several books and appeared on numerous television and radio segments to discuss Apple and the technology industry. When not working, he likes to cook, grapple, and spend time with his friends and family.