Prototype Original iPad with Dual Dock Connectors Surfaces

G-Force said:
How is it not Apple when it's clearly made by Apple? :confused:
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Well, this comment turns it into a semantic discussion.

From a legal standpoint, yes, it is Apple's property.

From a sales and marketing standpoint, it is not really "Apple" as in a real Apple product that the company stands behind from an engineering, marketing, sales, and support perspective. Of the hundreds of prototypes that may exist at any given time in Apple's labs, only a few are given the approval to be sold.

It's Apple property, but it's not Apple enough to have its own web page at www.apple.com and come in a nice box with the Apple logo.
 
Mars478 said:
Wow interesting. Judging by these photos it seems that the connector where the second dock connector is connected to is STILL present on 1st gen iPad motherboards. So it seems Apple got lazy and didn't remove the connector on the motherboard. Feasibly, if you were to get the 2nd dock connector ribbon cable you could hook it up to your first gen iPad. The connector is the bottom left one 2nd from bottom. As you can see in iFixit's teardown, nothing is connected to it when they tore it down.
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how does that make them "lazy"? when you design a circuit board you want to cover all options
 
While I would love to have a landscape dock option, it is really only needed to watch movies. I have the keyboard dock and rarely use it, as it is.
 
superman23 said:
how does that make them "lazy"? when you design a circuit board you want to cover all options
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If you think about all the cost savings of each little connector and the amount of copper shipped with each iPad that has been unused, it seems a bit wasteful to me. Apple never had any intentions of re adding the connector so to me that they left it is strange to say the least.
 
blow45 said:
Good that they didn't release it with the dual dock, it looks like crap. Glad Steve was there to exercise judgement. Sadly he is no longer with us and I wonder who ll exercise good judgement for apple these days, because neither lion nor the apple tv ui show there's someone there capable of doing so. :(
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If you've read the Steve Jobs BIO, it's pretty clear that Jony Ive may be a bigger fanatic of clear and fancy designs than Steve itself was. :) And all the cool looking Apple products (from the first iMac) were designed mostly by Jony. And there are a lot more really talented people at Apple (take a look at Randy Ubillos for example, the guy does unbelievably cool job with iMovie for Mac and iPhoto for iPad). I'm not worried about the future of Apple, with these gifted guys it should be only good.
 
blow45 said:
Good that they didn't release it with the dual dock, it looks like crap. Glad Steve was there to exercise judgement. Sadly he is no longer with us and I wonder who ll exercise good judgement for apple these days, because neither lion nor the apple tv ui show there's someone there capable of doing so. :(
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I agree with you on one point out of three. I think two docks would be handy, there are times I'd like to dock it in landscape. Although the smart cover sort of covers that requirement I suppose... I like Lion though, definitely. I miss proper Expose, but apart from that I don't see what's wrong with it.

I agree about the Apple TV interface though. I'd say it's an improvement over the previous one, but it's kinda ugly, basically because of the icon shapes.

edit: Oh, and it also annoys me when they bundle a bunch of apps I will never ever use (such as American Football apps).
 
DollaTwentyFive said:
I'm glad they opted for the single connector.
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It really does seem to unnecessarily complicate the device. Two ports and a camera makes more sense, or if there were a good way to convert 30 pin to USB this would work. But, considering the original iPad functionality, I feel like the first generation iPad had no need for two 30 pin connectors.
 
What I would like to know is,

What happens if you plug a charger into both docks? Does it charge twice as fast? Does one deactivate?
 
cmonapple said:
:apple:Can't wait for Tim "Commu-apple-" Cookster to send police to get this down. Only Apple would do this, in fear of losing potential buyers of their current devices. Not Samsung, not Asus, no one would do this but the Communist-Manifesto Freaks known as Apple. Sorry this is just a vent, angers me how this collective group of abusers can get away with this :mad::confused:
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You're actually getting angry about something Apple hasn't even done yet? Take a Klonopin and calm down. Or go away, either is cool.
 
4jasontv said:
What happens if you plug a charger into both docks? Does it charge twice as fast? Does one deactivate?
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You are joking right.;)


Edit : Just to point out to you, you can't charge Litium Ion twice as fast, they will explode, so yes, one will deactivate.
 
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Does make me laugh seeing people posting "I'm glad they did not keep the second connector"

I'm sure we can all imagine if there were 2 connectors how these exact same peope would be posting now, saying they were glad there are two connectors.

It's so funny and stereotypical :D
 
I wouldnt have minded the second one if it came with an official keyboard dock thingie, that would be a nice little laptop replacement. :D

Easy enough to do third party without the connection though.
 
I think it looks a bit weird to me only because I'm used to having only one. But I've often thought I'd have liked a second dock connector, as I tend to use my iPad in landscape most of the time.
 
Mars478 said:
Wow interesting. Judging by these photos it seems that the connector where the second dock connector is connected to is STILL present on 1st gen iPad motherboards. So it seems Apple got lazy and didn't remove the connector on the motherboard. Feasibly, if you were to get the 2nd dock connector ribbon cable you could hook it up to your first gen iPad. The connector is the bottom left one 2nd from bottom. As you can see in iFixit's teardown, nothing is connected to it when they tore it down.
6IEfaDSqIpiWPnLv.huge
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I forgot where I read it, but it also seems the original iPad also had a camera. In fact. They showed that at one point, looking at the video of Steve Jobs Presenting it, it might even be seen there. Opening the iPad, they discovered a holder for a webcam just above the screen. Trying the MacBook iSight in there and it fit perfectly!
 
I have have always felt like the dock connector was on the wrong side.

It makes sense for an iPod or an iPhone , but not something as big as an iPad
 
In what way is this guy not about to get a visit from the police regarding sale of stolen property?

I love how he has blurred the serial numbers etc. "for safety," but left the adjacent barcodes clear, enabling Apple to easily identify the device.
 
How do these people get their hands on these oddities... I can only imagine that they must pick the prototype's out of Apple's dumpster at the end of Infinite Loop (the irony...).
 
2 dock connectors could have helped Apple with its keyboard dock or any dock that is designed to hold the iPad is position to use. Because the iPad is designed to operate in either the landscape or portrait modes there needs to be a connector in the the position(s) that will be used. Because of the lack of a second connector these 1st generation docking devices died because of the lack of a second connector. This also means that when I have the iPad leaning on something for hands free use, the dock connector is either facing up or to the side.

The iPad works with 1, 2, 3 or more connectors. 1 connector is the cheapest but with the least choices. One or more additional connectors give more choices. Just because Apple made the decision to use only one connector does not means that one is the best choice. It only means that one was Apple's choice. You can say that one makes the iPad simpler. You could also say that one makes the iPad cheaper to build with a higher profit margin for Apple. And we all know that Apple is all about a very high profit margin. But with all of this discussion we still do not know the real reason that Apple chose 1 docking connector.
 
Mars478 said:
Wow interesting. Judging by these photos it seems that the connector where the second dock connector is connected to is STILL present on 1st gen iPad motherboards. So it seems Apple got lazy and didn't remove the connector on the motherboard. Feasibly, if you were to get the 2nd dock connector ribbon cable you could hook it up to your first gen iPad. The connector is the bottom left one 2nd from bottom. As you can see in iFixit's teardown, nothing is connected to it when they tore it down.
6IEfaDSqIpiWPnLv.huge
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If they were lazy the only thing you would see there would be some empty pads. Most likely they removed it at the last moment and some already manufactured boards already included the connector.
I don't think apple would waste money by shipping ipads with an unused connector.
 
blackburn said:
If they were lazy the only thing you would see there would be some empty pads. Most likely they removed it at the last moment and some already manufactured boards already included the connector.
I don't think apple would waste money by shipping ipads with an unused connector.
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This is probably true. The later first generation iPads probably don't have this connector.
 
They should have done this. An iPad laptop could be made by adding a keyboard under the revived name "iBook" :D
 
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