Thirteen years ago
CUPERTINO, California – Feb. 27, 1998 – Apple Computer, Inc. today announced it will discontinue further development of the Newton® operating system and Newton OS-based products, including the MessagePad® 2100 and eMate® 300.
“This decision is consistent with our strategy to focus all of our software development resources on extending the Macintosh operating system,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s interim CEO. “To realize our ambitious plans we must focus all of our efforts in one direction.”
Apple is committed to affordable mobile computing, pioneered by the eMate, and will be serving this market with Mac OS-based products beginning in 1999.
Apple will continue to market and sell its current inventory of MessagePad 2100 and eMate 300 computers, as well as to provide support for their installed base of users. The Company is committed to working with its customers and developers to ensure a smooth transition to Mac OS-based products.
[Source]
Today
As you can see in this recent photo, a detail of my setup, the Newton MessagePad is still an essential part of my workflow. So, despite its (untimely) cancellation, the Newton is still very useful to me, and to all the Newton users out there, and to those who are curious enough to purchase a used one and give it a try, my message is:
System Folder 
Have you patched your Newton to “fix” its real-time clock and calendar? People have patched their Newton OS devices to accommodate for system real-time clock related failures that started last year (January, 2010), but I’m not confident in patching my gadgets! And thanks to 2000 being a Leap Year, I am not able to find an alternative year to substitute for the year 2012, meaning that at least for one year, my MessagePads are going to be not-so-useful!
In the last two years, I have been setting my Newtons’ system clock to dates in other years, and using their calendars instead. Unfortunately, this trick doesn’t work for all apps, especially those that need to talk to any other device in the outside world, so this has reduced the usefulness of my Newton devices.
I think that some time this year, I may end up biting the bullet and patch my MessagePads after all!
—tonza
Tony, I apologise for the delay in responding. Yes, I have patched my Newton MP2100 to the latest patch (see this post). I wouldn’t worry too much about installing the patch. In my experience it’s been a matter of downloading the patch and installing the package on the Newton. Since I trust Eckhart Köppen, the developer, I didn’t even do a backup (!) before patching, but if you’re more cautious you could back up your data, download and install. The whole operation is a matter of a few minutes.
Cheers,
Rick