Apple/Newton Inc. Multifunction Interconnect Adapter

Ah.... the promise of the interconnect port.

In the MP2000, Apple departed from the previous Newtons by incorporating an Proprietary Interconnect Port instead of a standard Serial Port. Why? Well - the justification was that you could do so much cool stuff - audio in, audio out, use it for Docking, etc... The possibilities were great.

Unfortunately, much like many Apple technologies - they were perhaps a bit too idealistic. And due to the eventual demise of the Newton, few companies created Interconnect Adapters. A German company made a limited run of adapters. David Miller made his own Audio In/Out adapter.

And Apple/Newton Inc made this prototype. Would this have been an eventual function design? Perhaps...

This one escaped.

Thanks to Nick Marsh for taking pictures of this rare object: