For years, an unassuming Microsoft Research scientist named Bill Buxton has been collecting gadgets that have informed today’s landscape of technology. Now his collection is on display at the the Computer-Human Interaction conference in Vancouver, and what do you know? A large number of them seem to have directly inspired many of Apple’s most iconic products and innovations. If only they’d done the same for Microsoft.
For example, consider the Dieter Rahms-design transistor radio above, which inspired the first four generations of the venerable iPod, upon the success of which Apple built almost all of its modern fortunes.
But there’s more example besides. For example, this is the Phantom Chess set, a chess computer with a twist.
Each piece came equipped with a magnet: when a move was made, a computer inside the Phantom Chess set would automatically make its countermove by magnetically shifting the appropriate piece to its correct position. Buxton thinks it shows how “disappearing” a computer part through magnetism can lead to heightened human-computer interaction… a lesson Apple seems to have learned with its own use of magnets in everything to the iPad 2’s Smart Cover to the MacBook’s lid catch and MagSafe connectors.
Or check this out.
It’s a Casio watch from 1984 with a touchscreen on which you could actually write digits to do calculations. “It’s a calculator watch with no buttons,” says Buxton… and the similarities to Apple’s own touchscreen devices, including the latest iPod nano, can’t go unmissed.
Buxton’s collection is a great look into the mindset of Apple… ironic given that Buxton is a Microsoft employee. It can be easy to forget, given the way Apple’s products seem to miraculously leapfrog the tech of the competition, that Cupertino isn’t just looking into the future: they are inspired on a daily basis by the products of the past that tried something daring and new, and were still forgotten.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
14 responses to “These Are The Incredible Vintage Gadgets That Inspired Apple’s Most Magical Products”
What’s wrong with that guy’s finger on the Casio watch ad pic? OMG nubby!
That is one creepy-looking finger!
It is a normal finger being moved left and right,
OMG! It’s plain to see that the Apple mini is just a knock-off of the powdered jelly donut! The shape, the color, even all the good stuff crammed inside!!
The good news is that Buxton isn’t wasting his grasp of obvious coincidence on UFOs or JFK conspiracies.
A rectangle with a circle! Must never have been put together before that radio in his collection, and Apple must have used it for inspiration! A magnet in a chess computer (also in his collection)! Must be inspiration for smart cover! Nobody ever used a magnet to hold something closed, right?
After reading some rather critical posts about Brownlee’s writing recently I have to say that I am starting to agree. I am a lecturer in product design and have been using content in lectures such as the comparison on the website below between the work of Rams and Ives for YEARs, often to the shock of Mac fans in the cohort of 200 students. Just do a google image search for ‘rams ives’ to find more examples.
http://thepiratesdilemma.com/w…
And yet Brownlee puts this across as something new.
All I can say is this is weak, poorly researched work. (52%) try harder.
These articles are really disappointing. Â This article from Gizmodo ( http://gizmodo.com/343641/1960… ) is from 2008, and does a much better job showcasing the works that some same inspired Ive. Â I really am not trying to just outright bash this author, but a little more digging around should have led to more products being showcased, even if they weren’t from the mentioned conference.
The Casio ad looks like it shows another part of the male anatomy, other than a finger, pressing on that watch. Â Hopefully a scaled down version tho.