Early-'90s techies who used a Newton MessagePad can break out the champagne; though that device was killed in 1998, Apple plans to give the PDA a 21st-century go. AppleInsider reports that the company has spent the past 18 months chipping away at a brand-new device, built on Apple's signature multi-touch technology—albeit with plenty of iPhone-related interruptions.
With the iPhone out the door, it's reportedly full steam ahead for the PDA, running the embedded version of Apple's Mac OS X Leopard operating system. Described as an ultra-thin "slate" akin to the iPhone, it would be 1.5 times the size, with a surface mainly comprised of a 720x480 high-resolution display. A release could come in the first half of 2008. (More Apple stories.)