ICS NewtCase 3.1

This ICS product by Dan Rowley and Tom Collins was commercially distributed through Power Media in a shrinkwrapped cardbord box with manual and everything, featuring Windows and Mac floppy disks. There's no manufacturer website up for 3.1, but for NewtCase 3.0, and the NewtCase 3.0 manual is here.

NewtCase 3.1 is a suite of apps that make life with your NOS 2.x-Newton better (NewtCase-suites for NOS 1.x available). There's whole bunch of packages that do wonderful things for you:


-- Adds Freeze/Thaw entry to Extras' action button menu. (Note: many tiny freeware freezers offer this, too.) -- Allows to freeze/thaw all packages -- Allows creating "sets" of packages to be frozen and thawed together -- Any package can be a member of several sets (I think) -- Allows creating icon for set (like an Alias in MacOS-speak) -- Configure icon to freeze/thaw/reverse set -- Directly tapping a frozen package (e.g. a book) automagically thaws (activates) it, close the package, and it'll be refrozen - this is really nice! -- Choose (frozen) key packages for sets that when started thaw other stuff, too, and will refreeze itself and the other packages again when closing. -- Create sets to be automatically started after reboot. -- Create sets to be automatically started after wakeup.

With this you could have an icon "Web Browser" which unfreezes your fave webbrowser plus all the communications packages and drivers required. After your done, another tap on the icon freezes the whole bundle again. - Nice e.g. for various communications packages that don't need to be running all the time, or your GPS app plus all installed maps, no need to waste heap on them as long as you don't need them.

You'll see the difference in the time a reboot and mounting all stores takes - after a reboot, NOS mounts (or whatevers) everything it can find. Inactive packages (aka frozen) aren't found, so no time spent on mounting (whatevering) them.

-- Adds a prefs window in which very detailed sleep settings can be configured (display/backlight, low power or batteries/AC power). Also provides a heap-info button (doesn't work in NOS 2.1???) and a SleepAid? menu. Tapping the heap button, you get the used and available heap displayed. The SleepAid? menu gives access to Prefs, toggles the backlight, reboots or sleeps the Newton WITHOUT using the power switch (reduces wear on the switches!).

-- It's something like EckhartKoeppen's SmallExtras but with different strenghts, e.g. the power to launch books and frozen packages... Also allows to switch menu to large + bold font and a wider menu display, and display the current content of folders (SmallExtras? displays folder contents faster but updates indizes only during reboot or needs to be manually refreshed).

-- Lists all installed packages and gives plenty information about them (install date, memory usage,...), allows deleting, freezing, thawing, controls which packages are included in backups, etc.


NewtCase - really a nice suite that makes a Newtonian's live easier. Thanks, Dan and Tom!


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