Write About Newton and push Assist. This prints the names of the Newton development team and finishes with a dedication to a deceased team member who commited suicide. Random letters of programmers names are sometimes missing. In German systems type "√úber Newton". The MP100 (1.3x) supposedly doesn't have the dedication.
Easter Egg Graceland
1) Go to: Extras:Preferences:Personal
2) Change the country to "Graceland" (you will have to type it because it is not in the directory).
3) Power down the Newton
4) While watching the startup screen, Power Up Newton. (You will see a little Newt instead of the light bulb)
Note: Doing this will bring up something different in the U.S. on an American system then it will on a German upgraded (possibly 1.3) system. Be sure change the country back before dialing. It will not work on a 110.
The effect remains until you change the country to something else.
BTW: Liverpool has no effect.
Ô£øChange StartUp Screen
MP100: 1 Space: Cat on a chair playing with a Newton
2 spaces: Crow Holding a Newton stylus in his talons, and the Newton lightbulb logo. Harv R. Laser (Harv@cup.portal.com)
MP110: One Space: is the Cat on the chair
Two or more spaces: A Newt in a cage Blair MacIntyre (bm@age.cs.columbia.edu)
MP 120: Two or three spaces: Cat on chair
Does not work on the French version.
Debugging Thingy
Open the Extras drawer, then tap on the very upper-left corner of the rectangle that bounds it, then in the upper right. You'll see a dialog box asking you to select a connection for a built-in serial debugger (To see what is going on, connect your Newton to a terminal program). I have no idea what this is good for to an end-user, and it isn't documented for developers, either. (This still works in the MessagePad 110).
Elvis
He’s in plenty of random places!
Here’s one: Go to the Map, tap "Find", then write "Elvis". It will briefly say "The King was sighted in" and choose a city name at random before it catches itself and says "not found".
Tap the "Assist" button. In the area where you tell the Newton what to assist you with, write (or type) "Find Elvis". Watch closely. It happens quickly and doesn't stay on the screen long. (This still works in the 110, but it simply adds the location of the King to the list of found items).
Tap the "Assist" button. In the area were you tell the Newton what to assist you with, write (or type) “about Newton". It will do the same thing.
 
Messagepad 100 Temperature
On the original Messagepad (now called the Messagepad 100), tap the clock in the lower left-hand corner of the display, and hold down on it. The display will show you the current temperature! This will only work with a program called Screen Contrast.
 
It will not work on the 110 and 120 because there is a contrast dial on
the side.
Ô£øMemory
Click on the version number of the Memory Preference element to see the programmers.
Moon Landing... Maybe
Hit the reset button in the battery compartment, then turn Newton on (you may not have to restart depending on whether there is something to undo. Tap Undo, and an error message ("There is nothing to undo") will appear. Hit the Overview (Belly) button, and you'll see two error messages that say "Newton." Tap on the first one. It will say "Welcome to Newton." Now hit the information sign in that box. The date and time displayed are those of the first human landing on the moon! (7/29/69, 2:35 am). It now seems that this theory is incorrect, as a report, from the Apollo-11 Highlights, by Nasa says that the time of the first step was 10:56:15 pm eastern time.
On the german version the date is the date for the fall of the Berlin Wall 10/17/89 5:04pm.
10/17/89 5:04pm is the date you get for the MP120. That is the date and time of the Loma Prieta earthquake in San Francisco, which is right next to Cupertino and Silicon Valley where the Apple offices are. It also happened at the same time as the World Series.
The Moon
1. Open Dates.
2. Click the upper left-hand corner, above the first letter in the name of the day.
3. The phase of the moon should appear.
At least, I think it's the phase of the moon. It's different for every day, and it seems to match the real moon. Although now that I've got a Newton, who cares about going outside?
This seems to be moving with every release of the OS. The MP120, 1.3(44sthg) has the spot to the left of the week overview line (s m t w t f s).
Ô£øSystem Messages
If you get a Newton error message, you can click on the up-and down-
