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Historic Apple Prototypes: Apple Mouse, Cube, Mac Tablet

I actually bought a Newton Keyboard off eBay some years ago... Turned out to be (and the seller didn't know) a prototype keyboard, complete with "Property of Lexmark" (who manufactured the keyboard for Apple) on the bottom. I've still got it, too. I'll try to find it and take photos...
 
Here's an even older tablet from 1983.

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Here's the Keyboard. The only differences I can discern from a production unit are a "¢" symbol on the 6 key, where a "^" would be, and the logo on the bottom shows just the Newton Bulb, the production units had the logo and said "Newton" next to it. This was property of Lexmark, who built the Newton keyboards for Apple back then.

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SeaFox said:
Uh. Wasn't that mouse clear in final production form, too? Has everyone here forgotten that Apple Keyboards were translucent black for a period of time before Jobs got obsessed with white?

Edit: Okay so the circuit board wasn't exposed. But really, if you want a clear Apple mouse that's not white go get one.
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Do i really need to spell it out, NOT THE SAME.

And now its just a collectors, but that mouse would have really looked good back when the keyboards where see through. But now its just for collections. :rolleyes:
 
Wayhey.. I tested those mice & the prototype Cubes when in Apple, think I may have one of the mice at home.

The Cube was funny, I thought it was a really weird shape (it's quite tall when on your desk) until I had to plug in a cable and saw how massive the box is. It wouldn't surprise me if they deliberately make the EVT/DVT cases as different to the shipping case as possible, in order to not give any clues about its size. Of course, that led to QA issues, since the shipping cases don't receive the same level of testing.

I remember the prototype TiBooks were very cool too (clear plastic like the mice) - but a bit too big to be practical. :)
 
Blue Tooh with Mac Pros

macduke said:
One of the mac labs at my school keeps running out of mice (hmmm wonder why) and they keep replacing them with their stockpile of the old, clear, black Apple ones. As a graphic designer, I can't stand not being able to right click. Sure, I can use the keyboard combo, but that is lame and not what I'm accustomed to. At least if we had these mice they would look cool. Now I have to show up to class early and switch out the mice. For whatever reason the Mac Pros don't even have bluetooth, so I can't hookup my Magic Mouse.

Speaking of which, I won a design contest the other day and was rewarded with a gift card to my school's bookstore. So one of the things I picked up was the Magic Mouse. This thing is amazing with MagicPrefs. Amazing to see how far they've come with freaking mouse tech, much less everything else. I never would have bought this thing otherwise, but if I had known how truly useful it was I would have.
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Current models of the Mac Pro have Blue Tooth built-in standard. My 1st gen Mac Pro it was an option. Those that cut corners or were very shot sighted save their $50 & skipped Blue Tooth. Since Apple has not made internal Blue Tooth cards to be added later they finally did the correct thing & making Blue Tooth standard.

I have a MacAlly Blue Tooth keyboard that i use for customers to key in user names & passwords. That's so much easier than passing a wired keyboard or keying in information that should be kept to one selves.

Just try a new Mac Pro or a used one that did not have corners cut to make it cheaper.
 
Why was grey the color for computers back in the day? So ugly....
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But that the time, we all saw it as a huge step up from beige, which was the universal color for the ten years before then.

And I still miss my G4 Cube -- it was just so gorgeous sitting on a desk, and the pneumatic operation of the handle that popped up when you needed to open the machine was satisfying on some deep geek emotional level.
 
The cube

They need to put the mac mini into the cube form factor. I believe the cube is bigger, so at worst it runs cooler and at best its more room for parts/etc. I think the cube is the best looking computer they ever made...looked like an art piece, and they should keep that look going. Imagine it in all brushed aluminum, with a vent in the back.
 
Mouse info

That mouse belong to the iMac desktop that looked like a bubble had all kinds of colors purple, green, white, clear...etc circa '99 to '02. My school's had them for years the froze all the time a different era for sure. Oh the mouse also was one of first to get rid of the ball and go laser.:apple:
 
I've acquired (through a friend who formerly worked for Intel) a prototype ADC equipped Geforce 3

It even says "FCC and CE Pend." on it!

It lives in a G4 cube with 1.5GB of ram, and the cpu card out of a "Mythic" PowerMac G4 (dual 500Mhz 7410's) :)
 
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