12 Prototypes Of Iconic Technology

Early versions of the gadgets we are all familiar with today.

By JewDispriest

Published 11 years ago

Early versions of the gadgets we are all familiar with today.

1
iPhone Prototype, 1983. It lacked the portability of a mobile phone, but showed that Apple was looking to take the initiative in touchscreen technology long before the iPhone was even a glimmer in Steve Jobs' imagination.

2
iPad Prototype, 1983. Complete with attachable keyboard, the tablet was named 'Bashful' a reference to the Snow White industrial-design language Apple used between 1984 and 1990.

3
Nintendo Playstation, 1998. Nintendo and Sony once formed an unlikely alliance. The console was designed to play CD-ROMS as well as cartridges, but licensing disagreements caused the relationship to fall apart.

4
Xbox, 2001. This is what the first Xbox looked like before it was slimmed down to something that might fit better in the customer's home.

5
Nintendo Wii U GamePad, 2012. Made from a monitor and two WiiMote controllers attached to either side of the screen, it is this design that most closely resembles the final product.

6
Push-Button Telephone, 1948. Rotary phones were the standard model in the 1940s, Bell Labs engineers were the first to design the push-button handset. Each button had a corresponding 3-inch reed, which was plucked when pressed - its own version of the modern day key tone. A yearlong trial saw 35 test units sent to phone company employees, but the project ended up as a flop. Push-button phones resurfaced in 1963, replacing the idea of reeds with solid electronics.

7
Super Soaker. 1989. Lonnie Johnson was trying to build a better refrigerator, but when one of his custom-machined brass nozzles blasted a stream of water across his bathroom, johnson realized he had the makings of something way more fun.

8
Atari Video Computer System, 1976. This prototype, put together in just three months with less than 500 in parts, generated video on the fly and could run multiple games. Atari would use this as the brains for the Video Computer Systemeventually rebranded as the 2600.

9
Moog Modulator, 1964. Bob Moog attached a keyboard from an old electric organ to a tangle of breadboards and circuitry. Adding two oscillators allowed voltage and, therefore, frequencies to be modulated. Moogs analog synth was a hit, adopted by pop artists from the 70's to today's biggest stars.

10
Apple 1, 1975. Steve Wozniak built a new 8-bit microprocessor called the MOS 6502. Wozniak and his high school friend Steve Jobs, sold pre-assempled boards which they dubbed the Apple 1.

11
Motorola DynaTAC, 1973. Martin Cooper built the world's first cell phone is just 90 days. Without large-scale integrated circuits, engineers had to stuff thousands of resistors, capacitors, inductors, and ceramic filters into a 4.4-pound package.

12
Game Boy Color, 1995. The prototype successor to the Game Boy Color was first built on a 32-bit ARM RISC processor. Developed between 1995 and 1996, its expected this never-launched product was the mysterious "Atlantis" project rumored at the time.