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Original iPhone Prototype With iPod Click Wheel Surfaces Online (macrumors.com)
Famed Apple leaker Sonny Dickson has shared an early prototype of the original iPhone, with a collection of images and a video that provides a glimpse into one version of the iPhone that Apple created and tested before ending up with the first iteration of the device. Mac Rumors reports: The prototype includes some similar features to the first generation iPhone, like an aluminum chassis, multi-touch compatible screen, 2G connectivity and Wi-Fi, but its entire user interface is taken directly from the click wheel system of Apple's original iPod line. Called "Acorn OS," the prototype software includes an on-screen click wheel on the bottom half of the screen and a menu system on the top half, and the two are bisected by a bar with rewind, menu, play/pause, and fast-forward buttons. On the menu are options such as "Favorites," "SMS," "Music," "Settings," and "Recents," and it's navigated by circling around the click wheel to go up and down, with a center press confirming an action, just like on the iPod. Dickson references Apple's patent for a "multi-functional hand-held device," filed and published in 2006, as proof that such a prototype did exist at one point and could potentially have been an alternate version of the iPhone. In one of the patent's drawings, a click wheel can be seen as a possible input method for the proposed device. The patent's abstract describes a product with "at most only a few physical buttons, keys, or switches so that its display size can be substantially increased."
This looks like something Tim Cook would have released.
It's really fascinating to see that they really didn't invent the modern, big touch screen smart phone. They were going to release something that likely would have been consigned to the annals of history as a failed idea and eventually been forced to go the touch screen route like everyone else.
Jobs was famously honest about stealing good ideas. The iPhone might be the highest value theft ever.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
I am waiting for the MacBook wheel!
http://saveie6.com/
I've seen the patent for this prior to this release. I was pretty confident it was disinformation so competitors wouldn't know what they were actually doing. I still believe that's case, and what this protype is.
It may have been George Lucas style revisionism, but it's been said the iPhone was a stepping stone to get to Jobs' goal of the iPad. The click wheel wouldn't fly. And I doubt AT&T would have redesigned their network and voicemail system for this either.
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Hippie Logger Jock
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They were going to release something that likely would have been consigned to the annals of history as a failed idea and eventually been forced to go the touch screen route like everyone else.
First off, this prototype is a giant touchscreen -- the click wheel in the video is entirely virtual, and not physical.
Secondly, there is no evidence that Apple ever had any intentions of releasing this device. I know it's hard to believe, but some companies out there do actual R&D work where they build and design a whole lot of experimental products that are not intended for release.
This was presumably the work of one such R&D team that put together a prototype based on the idea of making a virtual iPod, which was evaluated, found seriously wanting, and then scrapped, which is why it's taken this long for one to even be made public.
Yaz