The original Newton - the MessagePad - was released in 1993. Heck, The Steve *cancelled* Newton more than 10 years ago. Really.

As IoErr said, Firewire is a way to gauge the age of a machine. And I'm all for quick, grandmother-friendly ways of of doing this. And I'm also ok (though sad) about Apple dropping support for machines that are now near seven years old. They were pretty sluggish with 10.3 (though still acceptable to many), and I have a feeling that the days of each iteration of OS X working *faster* on old hardware are now gone. What I'm curious about are the exceptions to the 'no Firewire means old hardware' rule. Sure the slot-load iMac 350 isn't new, but it's much more modern and peppy than the original iMac. I suppose time, and possible install hacks, will reveal the fate of these grey-area machines.