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The 8 Craziest Apple Prototypes and Unreleased Products
Mar 11, 2025
Article on Cult of Mac: https://www.cultofmac.com/860876/apple-prototypes/ More Apple news: http://www.cultofmac.com Produced by Extra Ordinary for Cult of Mac Music composed by Will Davenport, arranged by D. Griffin Jones Chapters: 0:00 Intro 0:22 Apple Jonathan 1:57 Apple Paladin 2:46 Apple Newton Bic 4:08 iPad 035 5:56 Mac mini + iPod nano 7:12 iPod Phone 9:10 iPhone Prototypes 10:23 Apple Car Follow us! Twitter: https://twitter.com/cultofmac Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cultofmac
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0:00
Apple only shows off its finished
0:02
products which makes the early Concepts
0:04
and abandoned designs all the more
0:07
fascinating details about these products
0:09
that never came to be don't come out for
0:12
years after the fact so today I'm going
0:14
to walk through 40 Years of the eight
0:17
craziest unreleased Apple
0:21
products after the first couple models
0:23
of the Macintosh shipped by the end of
0:26
1984 Apple Executives started to make a
0:28
plan for what would come to replace the
0:31
Macintosh wait what that's crazy right
0:34
well in the 70s and ' 80s it was
0:36
actually pretty common for a company to
0:38
put out a few different models of
0:39
similar machines and then replace it
0:42
with something entirely different that
0:44
would break compatibility so it actually
0:46
wasn't out of the question that a few
0:48
years after the Macintosh even after all
0:50
that research and development Apple
0:52
would sell a completely different
0:55
computer the Macintosh was approachable
0:56
and easy to use but it wasn't as
0:58
expandable as the Apple 2 and it wasn't
1:01
as powerful as some of the high-end
1:02
machines from Sun Amiga and deck Apple's
1:07
idea to bring the best of these all
1:08
together was a concept called the Apple
1:11
Jonathan with these modules that were
1:13
about the size of a hard cover book you
1:15
could easily configure a machine within
1:17
your budget to your taste and in the
1:19
future you could upgrade it or add more
1:21
modules with a hard drive better
1:23
graphics upgraded storage or even
1:26
third-party accessories and of course
1:29
because it was a Prof professional
1:30
computer it was black such a machine
1:33
would have been highly ambitious to
1:35
engineer especially in the 1980s Apple
1:38
would never make anything like it nor
1:40
would any other computer manufacturer in
1:43
reality the Macintosh won out after all
1:46
although Apple expanded the lineup to
1:48
start at the low-range Macintosh Plus
1:50
the mid-range Macintosh SE and the
1:53
gigantic top-of-the-line Macintosh 2
1:56
another experiment in the Macintosh form
1:58
factor came in the mid 90s with the
2:01
Apple Paladin which takes the idea of an
2:04
all-in-one computer to the next level
2:07
this Mac comes with a built-in phone
2:09
scanner and fax machine it's Peak 90s
2:14
you'd be able to switch between all
2:15
these functions using the buttons right
2:18
there on the face of the machine this
2:19
would be targeted at small businesses
2:21
who want all these features but on a
2:23
tighter budget with just one purchase it
2:27
also could have been targeted at people
2:28
who would find the process of buying a
2:30
PC Tower monitor keyboard mouse fax
2:33
machine printer scanner phone a little
2:36
too intimidating the Mind races
2:38
imagining just how fast Steve Jobs would
2:41
have destroyed it with a baseball bat if
2:44
he ever saw one the smartphone before
2:46
the smartphone was the PDA or personal
2:50
digital assistant the Palm Pilot was the
2:52
most famous example Apple's offering was
2:55
called the Newton message pad it was the
2:58
personal passion project of then CEO
3:01
John Skully who is trying to make his
3:03
own mark on the company the Apple Newton
3:05
was roughly the size of an iPad Mini or
3:08
in other words just slightly too big to
3:11
fit in a normal pocket but the original
3:14
prototypes included a much bigger
3:16
version too the screen is about the size
3:19
of a letter sheet of paper with even
3:21
bigger black bezels expanding it into a
3:24
sprawling tablet this isn't a PDA you
3:27
whip out to jot down a few notes this is
3:29
a tablet you set up on a disc early
3:32
versions of the Apple Newton famously
3:34
failed to live up to the promise of
3:36
truly seamless handwriting recognition
3:39
as they were mercilessly mocked for
3:42
later versions of the Apple noon like
3:43
the message pad 2000 that were more
3:45
powerful were actually pretty good
3:47
devices that did everything they were
3:49
set out to do but of course the one
3:51
feature that would have been a killer
3:53
app for these PD hadn't been invented in
3:56
the mid99s and that would have been WiFi
4:00
maybe if the Newton had a little more
4:02
time a larger more powerful tablet sized
4:05
version could have been feasible as a
4:07
product now little did people know that
4:09
just a few years after the Newton was
4:11
discontinued Apple once again started
4:13
working on touchscreen tablets as early
4:16
as 2002 and this prototype looks very
4:20
much like a member of the Apple family
4:22
of the era you can imagine it fitting in
4:25
perfectly next to the classic white iPod
4:28
iMac G4 and iBook it's about as thick as
4:31
a laptop from the early 2000s but
4:34
without a giant array of ports and Slots
4:37
the Sleek white case looks incredibly
4:40
modern and that thin black border around
4:43
the all screen design looks uncannily
4:46
similar to today's iPad Pro older
4:49
resistive touch screens used in the
4:51
Apple Newton Nintendo DS and higher-end
4:54
cars before the Advent of the modern
4:56
smartphone required a stylus for smaller
5:00
screens and couldn't support
5:02
multi-finger gestures screens that you
5:04
could just tap instead of poke were
5:07
actually a very exciting technological
5:09
development according to Scott forall
5:12
the former Apple executive in an
5:14
interview given on the 10th anniversary
5:16
of the iPhone the very first tech demo
5:18
of this involved a ceiling mounted
5:21
projector pointed down at a table-sized
5:25
capacitive surface running an early
5:27
version of Mac OS 10 to try out
5:30
interactions like swiping to scroll or
5:33
dragging a window to move it around it's
5:35
unknown to this day just how developed
5:37
this prototype was there are no pictures
5:39
of it running so it's safe to assume it
5:42
wasn't functional at all it wouldn't be
5:44
until years later that the idea came
5:47
around to shrink down the tablet into a
5:49
phone-sized device and another 3 years
5:52
later that the tablet as originally
5:54
envisioned would ship in the 2000s
5:57
apples bread and butter was the IP OD
6:00
and apple Executives were aggressively
6:02
trying to turn that enthusiasm into
6:05
sales for the Mec to gain back some PC
6:08
market share the thinking was that as
6:10
people go into the Apple Store to check
6:12
out the iPod to try and sell them on the
6:14
Mac as well the face of this campaign
6:17
was the Mac Mini for just
6:20
$4.99 Apple's cheapest Mac ever you
6:23
could literally unplug your PC and plug
6:26
in a Mac instead with the same display
6:29
keyboard board and mouse and what better
6:31
way to show off that the Mac Mini is the
6:33
iPod computer than to build an iPod Nano
6:37
dock into the Mac Mini you can just
6:40
imagine how these would be perfectly
6:42
lined up in the Apple Store Right
6:44
Between the table with the iPods and all
6:46
the other Macs but it does beg the
6:48
question what happens if you have a
6:50
fullsize iPod and not an iPod Nano what
6:54
if Apple changes the design of the iPod
6:56
Nano as they would just a few years
6:59
later
7:00
but Above All Else what probably killed
7:02
it is that when you don't have an iPod
7:04
plugged into it you just have a weird
7:06
hole in the top of your Mac Mini and
7:09
Steve Jobs would have found that
7:11
unacceptable once Steve Jobs and Scott
7:13
forall decided that Apple should make a
7:15
phone there were two obvious paths
7:18
forward either they could take that
7:20
tablet concept from earlier and shrink
7:22
it down into a handheld device or they
7:25
could take the existing iPod and add a
7:28
phone onto it they weren't sure which
7:30
would be the better approach so they set
7:32
up two teams in parallel to try both
7:36
ideas the iPod team had a head start
7:39
because the iPod was already a fully
7:41
developed product and it was proven to
7:43
be popular among consumers all they
7:46
really had to do was add a cellular
7:48
radio and add a new interface for it but
7:52
according to former vice president Tony
7:54
Fidel that's where the problems
7:57
immediately became apparent because
7:59
because while the iPod's click wheel
8:00
interface is great for scrolling through
8:02
a giant list of music it was reportedly
8:06
terrible at dialing phone numbers the
8:08
iPod is a consumption device you
8:11
organize and manage your music on your
8:13
Mac you browse and listen to it on your
8:16
iPod the iPod doesn't have a keyboard
8:18
for dialing in phone numbers much less
8:21
texting or creating contacts from a
8:24
modern perspective an iPod phone sounds
8:28
absolutely ridiculous but bear in mind
8:30
that from 2004's perspective the iPhone
8:33
we ended up with wasn't guaranteed to
8:35
work either Mac OS 10 was barely running
8:39
on full-size desktop computers never
8:42
mind handheld battery powered devices
8:46
and Macos 10 was also in the middle of a
8:48
processor transition from Power PC to
8:50
Intel the arm chip that the iPhone ran
8:53
on would represent a third platform that
8:56
a lot of the same software would have to
8:58
be compiled for this the silly idea of
9:00
an iPod phone was immortalized in the
9:03
iPhone's actual introduction as a joke
9:06
by Steve Jobs before he unveiled the
9:09
real thing but how did we end up on that
9:11
original iPhone because once Apple
9:13
settled on a software stack the matter
9:15
of its physical shape became something
9:18
of a design playground some of these
9:20
early prototypes look a bit familiar
9:22
this Slick Black rounded design became
9:25
the iPhone 3G and 3GS this ice cream
9:28
sandwich sort design eventually became
9:30
the iPhone 4 and 4S and even this early
9:34
you can see Echoes of the iPhone 5 and
9:36
5s with these prototypes that have
9:38
taller skinnier displays a lot of these
9:41
early designs are clearly influenced by
9:43
the iPod with square corners that are
9:46
rounded along the edges an aluminum face
9:49
instead of a black plastic face a
9:52
sliding power switch instead of a
9:54
clicking button some of them even have
9:56
menu written on the home button instead
9:58
of the iconic rounded rectangle there
10:01
are some truly bizarre one-off designs
10:03
in there as well like this one that's
10:07
octagonal this one that has a giant
10:09
rounded hump on the back so while the
10:12
2007 iPhone might not have been the
10:15
prettiest it does go to show that in
10:17
Apple's own words there really are a
10:20
thousand NOS for every yes one of
10:22
Apple's worst kept secrets in recent
10:25
years is the Apple car project unlike
10:28
most of of their secret projects
10:30
building a car required the hiring of
10:33
hundreds of specialty Engineers outside
10:37
the demain of building iPhones and Macs
10:40
so from the outside it was really easy
10:42
to track the revolving door of managers
10:46
the project had over the years but what
10:48
did it look like how did it work what
10:50
were its quirks and features all of that
10:52
was a mystery until the project was shut
10:55
down and all of those employees were
10:57
fired and with nothing left to Liz the
11:00
world quickly found out the first design
11:03
known affectionately as the breadloaf
11:06
would have looked something like the
11:07
canoe EV according to Bloomberg reporter
11:10
Mark German it would have been something
11:12
of a minivan crossed with a Volkswagen
11:15
bus with sliding doors and a glass
11:18
canopy the cabin would have Club seating
11:21
like a private plane and passengers
11:23
would be able to turn some of the seats
11:25
into recliners and footrests going all
11:28
in on full autonomy it would have no
11:31
dashboard no steering wheel no pedals
11:35
whatsoever a second design under the
11:37
direction of Kevin Lynch was pod-shaped
11:40
with curved glass sides that would
11:43
double as Gullwing doors and ramps that
11:46
would automatically fold out for the
11:49
easy loading of cargo it was identical
11:52
in the front and the back and the
11:54
designers were still so confident in
11:57
full self-driving that it did didn't
11:59
have Windows in the front or the back
12:02
considering that to this day no one has
12:05
been able to deliver on full self
12:07
driving it's no wonder that Apple wasn't
12:09
able to make it work either but while
12:12
apple is no longer in the game other
12:14
automakers are still trying to work the
12:17
problem to varying degrees of success so
12:20
those are some of the craziest Apple
12:22
prototypes in history personally I still
12:26
really want an apple Jonathan remember
12:28
to like And subscribe
12:29
I'm dein Jones with Cult of Mac
12:33
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