The Apple Newton Messaging Card is a type II PCMCIA (PC Card) wireless pager for Apple Inc.'s line of Newton MessagePads; the card was introduced October 1993 at a suggested retail price of $299 (US). The card, which is designed by Motorola, is a small receiver and flash memory storage device that operates using a single AAA battery, which receives numeric and text messages even when not inserted into a Newton MessagePad and stores them using 128 KB of onboard static RAM (SRAM) memory. Message size is limited only by the 128 KB of memory and any imposed single message size restrictions.

They made use of the Apple Wireless Messaging Service, which provided a 1-800 number for users to call and leave voicemail or numeric pages. The Messaging Card would then beep to indicate a new message is waiting. However, messages not received due to the card being powered off are not resent.

The hardware itself seems to be based around another Motorola product called the NewsCard (more info). By comparing the specifications of the cards, I conclude the two are more than likely identical aside from the case design and software.

The card itself was never very popular, although it appears in almost every Newton MessagePad advertisement. Being quite rare they usually fetch $100 (US) on the rare times they appear on eBay. I was lucky and got mine for 1/3 that price.