<p>EVER HAD a Midnight in Paris moment? In the movie, actor Owen Wilson takes a drunken walk on the streets of Paris. At midnight he suddenly finds himself in the 1920s. He meets Hemingway, the Fitzgeralds, Gertrude Steinthe whole movable feast of expat and Parisian writers, painters, poets and musicians.</p><p>On the first Saturday in August my wife, son and I were walking out of a restaurant next to the Apple Apple campus. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a former Apple publicist. She waved us over to a private room and said, "Come on in. It's the party for the 20th anniversary of the launch of the Apple Newton." We stepped insideto 1993. In the corner was former Apple CEO John Sculley, talking to legendary Macintosh and Newton software designer Steve Capps. Some 200 others, each of whose IQ could boil water, were in the room. "They came from all over the country," said Sculley.</p><p>The Apple Newton was a noble flop, ahead of its time. The pioneering personal digital assistant was the size of today's iPad mini, only thicker. The Newton had a stylus for writing directly on the screen, just as you do with today's Samsung Note. But the Newton's handwriting-recognition software wasn't good. Garry Trudeau ridiculed it in a Doonesbury cartoon strip: "I am writing a test sentenceSiam fighting atomic sentry." "I am writing a test sentenceIan is riding a taste sensation."</p><p>The Newton sold a few hundred thousand units, not bad for a revolutionary product. But Apple had hoped for millions. Sculley left Apple in 1993. Steve Jobs killed the Newton shortly after he returned in 1997.</p><p><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/richkarlgaard/2013/08/14/ahead-of-their-time-noble-flops/">Keep reading...</a></p>