The unique iPod ‘prototype’ was an Apple design to forestall leaks

0
95

[ad_1]

It’s onerous to consider that the prototype for the unique iPod is one thing you could’t even match into your pocket. Panic, a software program improvement group for macOS and iOS, dredged up the prototype for the unique iPod — one thing that Apple in all probability by no means needed to see once more — in honor of the iPod’s twentieth anniversary (through 9to5Mac).

Picture by Panic

As humorous as it will be if Apple was truly attempting to make the iPod appear to be a failed try at a pocket-sized DVD participant, that’s (sadly) not the case. A tweet from Tony Fadell, the inventor of the iPod, confirms that the prototype was designed to forestall the actual iPod design from getting leaked forward of its launch.

It is a P68/Dulcimer iPod prototype we (in a short time) made earlier than the true type issue design was prepared. Didn’t need it appear to be an iPod for confidentiality – the buttons placement, the dimensions – it was largely air inside – and the wheel labored (poorly) https://t.co/qeNMHMmVsc— Tony Fadell (@tfadell) October 23, 2021

The yellow, brick-like system is dated September third, 2001, nearly two months earlier than the iPod’s precise launch date on October twenty third. The prototype is a number of instances bigger than the iPod everyone knows and love and has a scroll wheel in its top-left nook, together with a tiny display screen within the top-right. Different clunky navigation buttons line the facet of the system.
Apple’s mission to hide its design can be the explanation behind the large quantity of house on the within of the system. The format of its internals is nearer to the dimensions of the official iPod, however Apple simply determined to offer it a clunky get-up to cover its design secrets and techniques, each on the in and out.
We’ve seen different Apple prototypes up to now, however nothing seems to be as foolish as this. A second-generation iPod popped up on eBay in 2017, and the vendor needed almost $100,000. Even the iPod Contact prototype seems to be near the completed product. Extra not too long ago, a prototype for the never-released VideoPad 2 popped up and is about to be auctioned off in November.
The unique iPod prototype, nonetheless, is certainly certainly one of a sort. It’s a testomony to Apple’s dedication to protecting its design labeled, which was particularly necessary for the launch of its very first iPod.

[ad_2]