Flickr Find: Unusual Apple designs from the early 90s

By Steve Sande

TUAW reader Mike turned us on to a Flickr photo set and a related post on Aussie Mac site MacTalk.

MacTalk forum regular Donnie Darko was visiting a used book store in the Sydney suburb of Newtown when he came upon a rare find — a 1991 copy of a Japanese design magazine called Axis featuring concepts that Apple was working on at the time.

In this jewel are a number of concept computers:

  • The bike computer on the front cover (see photo at right)
  • A wrist-mounted Mac called the TimeBand
  • A device called the Exchanger that shows an American dollar being inserted and another currency coming out of a slot
  • Several server concepts that look similar to Apple servers of the early 90s
  • A very cool flat-panel TV that looks cutting-edge even in 2009
  • Several tablet Macs
  • A device that looks like a hybrid Mac / digitizer tablet

A sidebar in the article shows stills from Apple's classic Knowledge Navigator concept video. It's a fascinating look at what products might have come out of Cupertino in an alternate universe.

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