Are These worth any to you all

[Maestro64]

Not that what I am going to describe here are for sale, it more of a curiosity, not like I can got to the antique road show to find out what this is all worth.

What I have is a number of Apple Prototypes in Clear Plastic Cases. Some of the very first prototypes Apple use to do would be done in clear plastics verses the platinum and tan colors of the final products. Here is what I have

Clear Plastic SE
Clear Plastic LC
Clear Plastic Duo and Duo Dock.

These all are fully functional units and you can see all the electronics inside. In the Duo Dock you can see the mechanism that pulls the Duo into the Dock.

Also, I have prototype of a product which never seen the light of day out of Apple, it was so preliminary in the design that rumors of it never got out before they killed the project.

This was a tablet based Mac, it was based on the Duo product line which used all the same plastic but permanently attached the touch screen display where the keyboard and track ball were. It had hand writing recognition software in it based on Newton.

So what do you think this might be worth to people who collect Apple stuff.

 

[dsharits]

Wow, that's an impressive collection. They're probably worth a ton. Where on earth did you get all of them, especially the unreleased product?

 

[PlaceofDis]

nice collection, have any pictures??

they are probably worth a lot to the right person

 

[mkjj]

Should get a nice holiday from this sale, or if you are lucky a new car!

 

[Maestro64]

I have them since these are one of several projects I worked on while at Apple. I presently do not have pictures of them, I'll have to dig them out of storage and take some pictures. I know the table i can get to pretty easily.

 

[dsharits]

I have them since these are one of several projects I worked on while at Apple. I presently do not have pictures of them, I'll have to dig them out of storage and take some pictures. I know the table i can get to pretty easily.

Please do. I would love to see these things.

 

[Maestro64]

Ok guys you wanted to see it, here is the tablet base Mac which never became a real product for Apple

 

[PlaceofDis]

wow, im sure it would have been a hit too

wonder if apple will ever come out with a tablet mac, i know i would like one

 

[mkrishnan]

Wow...and I had just gotten over my heartbrokenness that there's no Apple tablet computer....

Thanks for the picture!!! Any anecdotes about how it works, etc? It sounds really interesting.

 

[Maestro64]

Here is the Clear Duo 270, hope you enjoy.

 

[PlaceofDis]

again very nice, its cool to see theses computers in clear cases, would be weird to work on one

 

[Maestro64]

Wow...and I had just gotten over my heartbrokenness that there's no Apple tablet computer....

Thanks for the picture!!! Any anecdotes about how it works, etc? It sounds really interesting.

Well the handwriting recognition was based on the Newton, it was actually a little better since it did not have the memory limitations that existed on the Newton. If you remember how the Newton work, it would not recognized letter but words, it compared what was written to database of words, the newton database was about 80K words, the this was about 150K words. Plus it i believe it was an 040 so it was much faster then the Newton. The pen had battery in it, which was used to created an electronic field that the table would sense the position of the pen. You did not really have to press to have it recognize what you were writing.

It ran OS 7 and all the standard applications at the time. It had extra applications for note taking and drawings. It worked pretty well for the first prototype.

The product was originally targeted for companies with traveling sales or service. It was not going to be for the general public at the time.

 

[Sly]

Nice.... VERY nice.

If you want to find out what the current market value is for these, you could try sticking them on ebay with a stupidly high reserve, so you do not have to sell them and a low start. See how high the bidding goes, just for interests sake?

 

[IDANNY]

Please do. I would love to see these things.

edit Wow thats cool.

 

[Howismydriving]

The limited edition Mac powerbook 170 in white (50 total) go for 7-10 thousand dollars, so I am guessing in the low thousands for each. The tablet computer might pull five figures. I hope you have the software backed up, because you will never find it again if the HD crashes.

 

[Demon Hunter]

Simply amazing. I've never seen pictures of such a thing. You have an incredible treasure on your hands my friend! This is the kind of stuff the Smithsonian takes an interest in.

EDIT: I can't even imagine using a pen that big...

 

[Platform]

WOW

Amazing collection you have.
I wonder how a new tablet Mac would look like

 

[applekid]

Wow, those we would be so sweet to own, especially the tablet. But unfortunately, even though I would like to buy them off of you, I'm just a student with no cash.

 

[revenuee]

How do you put a price things like these

don't you feel like you are loosing part of yourself when you part with something like that ... i mean this is part of your history, part of your life

i wouldn't sell them unless i had like 1 week to live and was about to live it up, and needed the extra cash

It's like the Beatles selling off the rights to their music <-- i never understood that.

 

[philipwing]

How do you put a price things like these

don't you feel like you are loosing part of yourself when you part with something like that ... i mean this is part of your history, part of your life

i wouldn't sell them unless i had like 1 week to live and was about to live it up, and needed the extra cash

It's like the Beatles selling off the rights to their music <-- i never understood that.

The other reason would be if they are just taking up space in your house and either you or someone else, e.g., your spouse, wants them out. Mine is trying to shove various things of mine out of the house, possibly including my Apple shirt collection, including my Apple //GS Programmer's Workshop shirt.

Oh, FYI, the Beatles didn't sell the rights to their music to Michael Jackson - someone else owned them and sold them. They own the rights (through Apple Music Company) to their recordings, though.

One alternative would be to put them on loan to a museum or something if they're just taking up space. Somewhere on my To Do list is loaning my color cards (those cards fans in special sections at college football games hold up) from the 1982 Cal vs. Stanford Big Game, infamous for "The Play", to Joe Knapp's restaurant for display. I don't want to give them up, but they're just sitting on a shelf in my house.

 

[HiRez]

One alternative would be to put them on loan to a museum or something if they're just taking up space.

That's not a bad idea. Try The Computer History Museum, The San Diego Computer Museum, The American Computer Museum, or any number of others. Pick someplace you trust and get insurance because I think those will definitely be worth some money, but the great thing is the longer you take to sell them, the more they may be worth. One thing to bear in mind if you try to sell them is you may face legal challenges from Apple if you acquired these items while working there. Not sure what the policy would be for something that old. Anyway, those are very cool!

 

[Baumi]

Some info about the clear plastic sytems

Here's a page of someone who's got a clear plastic SE:

http://www.regnirps.com/SEF/seitem.htm

How do you make sure all the parts fit correctly in a new design? You test "shoot" the mold with clear plastic before the mold is textured.

At Apple, some of these test shots were built until finished and given to key team members as awards for a job well done.

After much research I have learned that no more than 10 of these clear Macs were ever built.

Baumi

 

[revenuee]

Oh, FYI, the Beatles didn't sell the rights to their music to Michael Jackson - someone else owned them and sold them. They own the rights (through Apple Music Company) to their recordings, though.

That makes a lot more sense acctually

 

[cubist]

Thanks for sharing the beautiful photos. I'd love to see these in person someday. They are definitely worth a lot of money.

 

[jjlange]

Does the tablet have a color screen?