The My Apple Newton blog:
The real-time clock that runs the Newton runs from 1993 through 2010. This is due to the fact that NewtonScript integers are 30 bits, and signed. 229 seconds after 1993 is 2010–the end of the Seconds world. The time system, however, is based on minutes from 1904. That won’t run out until 2920. Then we’ll really be screwed.
That means that the clock has a 17-year life. After that, the clock will have to be made to repeat some Seconds values.
Jon Glass reported that he set his Newton to 2010 to see what happened. He had to perform a hard reset or “brainwipe” to bring his Newton back into operation.
The Newton community is working on a fix, but it seems to be a ways off yet; the current build made it impossible for Newton to roll over to 2009. If they don’t figure it out, the little green machines may be like the brown ones- but permanently.