Behold: the elusive orange Newton eMate
February 18th, 2010
Jim Abeles posted a few photos of the prototype (and highly elusive) orange eMate 300.
According to Abeles, who is chief executive officer at Pre1 Software,
This came from a GUI designer for the eMate who said it was shown to developers at the 1996 MacWorld. Apparently it was the first time Apple used “stereo lithography” to prototype a product. Jonathan Ives saw it in use in Amsterdam and was inspired to try it. Three pieces were made; the top, bottom and pen.
Apple was toying around with other eMate colors – and business-grade models. It could be that the translucent plastic and candy coating inspired the iMac and iBook G3 varieties.
He’s got a bunch of other great classic Apple hardware shots, with some more Newton prototypes like the Lizzy, at his Flickr gallery. I remember him getting some buzz for his prototype iPhone pics a while back.
[Via Morgan Aldridge.]