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Apple's 1993 W.A.L.T. Combined Telephone and Fax Machine Prototype Seen in Action in New Video

Jimmy Bubbles said:
that was awesome! The abilities of tech were much more farther along than many probably think or remember.
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I remember the first time I saw NeXTstep on a NeXTstation back in the 1990s - and "lip service". I also remember my first encounter with OS/2 Warp 4 and its built-in voice recognition.

Those were seriously advanced software platforms, way ahead of their time. Today, neither macOS nor Windows come close to the "wow" effect that those systems had back then. It almost feels like all true innovation stopped in the IT industry after the 1990s and everybody's just rehashing the old ideas from back then.

Also, it's 2019, and as Ron "Monkey Island" Gilbert wrote so nicely in his "Grumpy Gamer" blog:
Of course the real April Fool's joke is that it's the year 2019 and we don't have moonbases, flying cars and giant pneumatic tubes that whisk us around the city. As a young child of the 70s, I was promised these things. Oh sure, I can now carry a super computer in my pocket and talk to anyone in the world via a planet wide connection of billions of computers... but come on... moonbase!
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GadgetBen said:
"Who wants a stylus? You have to get em', put em' away. You lose them. Yuck. Nobody wants a stylus"
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Which is exactly what happened a week ago to my colleague's Apple Pencil. A hundred bucks out of the window.
 
This looks very similar to the device that was created by AT&T around the same time called "Personal Link". The devices were made by Sony, Motorola, and Matsushita and used the AT&T network and software designed by General Magic. The device cost about $1500. and the service )which later became AT&T WorldNet was approx. $15/month. Didn't really take off.
 
Man that embossed rainbow apple still brings a tear of nostalgia to my eye......oh how I miss my old LC 475 sometimes :oops:
 
TVreporter said:
Can’t wait until 2045 to get a demo of AirPower!
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Unless you're waiting to post it later, I would have just included "courage" meme here as well.
[doublepost=1554911149][/doublepost]One thing that's clear is that this is pre Jony Ive design era. Even if software/hardware wasn't so clunky, no one would have wanted to have that on their desk.
 
Macalway said:
You can see the Newton there. Newton was very cool.
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The Newton was pretty amazing. I picked one up in August 1993 and used it daily on the job. I never really used it after that job but it was worth the price when I had it. I'll have to find it one of these days and see if it still boots up. :)
 
Epcot's World of Tomorrow had WALT (or something similar) on display as late as February '99. I spotted the Apple logo a mile away and snapped these pics with my Sony Mavica (LOL!)

netwon1.jpeg newton2.jpeg
 
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DaMacGuy said:
Epcot's World of Tomorrow had WALT (or something similar) on display as late as February '99. I spotted the Apple logo a mile away and snapped these pics with my Sony Mavica (LOL!)
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Good spot! That wasn't W.A.L.T, though. Disney World had an ongoing deal with Apple to use Newtons for surveying customers from the mid 90s - I'd also seen them on visits to Disney Florida. So what you saw was a Newton OS device.

From what I recall, Disney initially used standard Newton models (MessagePad 100s/110), but then Apple did some bespoke bodies for the later devices, which is what this appears to be - probably with larger batteries for longer up-time between charges as these were in constant use throughout the day.
 
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MacRumors said:
running Mac System 6
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Looks like System 7 to me (I think System 6's boot looked different?), and that would also make more sense, given that it had been released for two years at that point.

Also… the app looks a lot like a HyperCard stack. Could just be the aesthetic? Or could be that Apple did indeed build the system on top of HyperCard (with native extensions for stuff like modem connection). Odd choice but not impossible.

Are we sure this isn't a hoax?
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DaMacGuy said:
Epcot's World of Tomorrow had WALT (or something similar) on display as late as February '99. I spotted the Apple logo a mile away and snapped these pics with my Sony Mavica (LOL!)

View attachment 831494 View attachment 831493
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Given the bottom toolbar, that's almost certainly a Newton-derived device. Three icon buttons on each side; a bunch of arrows in the center.

controlpanel.png
 
Looks about as useful as a HomePod!

*BA-DUM PSSHHH*

Ladies and gentlemen, I'll be here all night.
 
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