

A look at the Apple ‘Skankphone’, built before the original iPhone release - striking
http://thenextweb.com/apple/2014/10/05/apple-skankphone-built-original-iphone-release/

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possibilistic
I think it's incredibly interesting that Apple is one of but a handful of
companies that seems to enjoy a steady proliferation and preservation of its
past company lore, both in the popular media and amongst technologists. People
take a great deal of interest in the historical artifacts this company
produces; for an outsider, it really stands out as unusual.

I can only think of a few other companies that manage this feat. Nintendo's
history seems to be rather frequently circulated (and I don't follow video
gaming blogs, though I do occasionally play their games). Intel, Compaq, and
IBM also see historical items published, but it's mostly concerning events
that predate the 90's, a time when these companies were either much more
visible or had a more prominent role. I've not seen much published about the
past two decades of history for any other tech company at the same level as
Apple.

The histories of other companies seem to be given a much more technical
treatment: hardware schematics, design constraints, sourcing problems, blow-
by-blow accounts, etc. That might just be because many of the Apple anecdotes
are published as "fluff" for non-technologists; Apple also sees its share of
technical history published, too.

Maybe I'm just blind to everything else or I'm biased in a particular way, but
it certainly feels like we're telling a particular narrative here. If I were a
future historian looking back, this might cloud my perspective. Everything
seems to be about Apple. Am I wrong?

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tonylemesmer
You're right. Other companies are doing the same thing as Apple: prototyping,
testing, iterating. Just not at the scale or speed that Apple does it. The
media interest in Apple justifies the approach - with the curtains and the
smoke and mirrors, other companies don't have to bother with all that. Apple
has the scale, diligence and is being held up as the blueprint of how to do
things the right way. There's no harm in it being a story about Apple, as long
as historians realise that Apple didn't invent or make the only smartphones.

Perhaps for reasons of cost, the prototypes of the phones from non-Apple
companies were "re-purposed" e.g. for destructive testing and therefore no
longer exist.

edit: perhaps if other companies had the mindset Apple has (no limits, not
even scale) then they would have to start introducing smoke and mirrors.

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davb
Another thing I see is that Apple, unlike the vast majority of competitors,
have very limited product ranges.

This means that as a new iteration is developed, every Apple fan is focussed
on that team's output. More so when the company decides to venture into a new
area altogether (smartphones).

When Samsung produces a new flagship phone (let's say a new Galaxy
smartphone), there's a good chance that a Samsung fan will actually have their
eyes on another of the companies lines - the Ace, the Note, etc.

This very narrow product focus has helped them direct the attention of users
and the media.

Ask any loyal Apple smartphone user worldwide which smartphone they're looking
forward to most, it'll be the next iPhone. Ask the same of any loyal
Samsung/Sony/LG user and there's a good chance it won't be the global flagship
device they mention.

(FWIW, I say this as someone who isn't very fond of Apple or their products,
but I appreciate their design and marketing prowess, in most cases)

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jawr
Haven't they moved away from this trend with the watch? I feel like it's way
too customisable to be an Apple product.

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arrrg
It’s still only one product. The innards and the software are exactly the
same, no matter which watch you buy. Functionally they are all identical.

The customisability of the exterior is something new, sure.

~~~
Retric
Don't forget, the iMac G3 had five plastic color cases for some reason. Apple
also sells a range of iPhone/iPad cases. Also, a major early selling point on
the iPad was the magnates to better integrate with a case.

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autism_hurts
"for some reason"

Yeah, cars should only come in one color, right?

~~~
jawr
The MacBook Air comes in one colour, as do nearly all of their current
products. Sure you can put it in a case, or put another sticker on it.

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buro9
> It’s likely ‘skank’ in the name is a variation of ‘skunkworks’ which was the
> team working on the device.

Right, sure it is.

Urban Dictionary is nowhere near the mark then, with widely accepted
definitions of the slang term from circa 2004:
[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Skank](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Skank)

Edit: To be clear I read it as being "trashy", "tacky", "ugly". There are
numerous definitions, I wouldn't have attributed (nor imagine anyone else
attributing) the most unsavoury definitions to anything.

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derefr
When was that brief period in the 2000s where ska got really popular and
"skanking" re-entered the public consciousness as a dance style? Because I
could imagine that inside Apple people thought of the "silhouettes dancing
with iPods" ads as "skankPod" ads. That would make "Skankphone" a pretty
obvious nickname for a phone project.

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Doctor_Fegg
The term had been current for a while: Rockafeller Skank by Fatboy Slim was
1998.

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henderson101
I always though that was an ironic title, seeing as Skank and Skanky have
always had a pretty strongly negative connotation in the southern UK dialects.
Fatboy being a Brighton resident at the time, and pretty trendy, I assumed it
was along the same lines.

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95015_refugee
'Skank' as in 'awful'. More recently known as the 'Factory UI'.

If you see an iOS device running this software, it's almost always a factory
escape (something that got boxed up too soon), not a prototype.

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grapecable
Prototypes usually have red colored PCBs.

If I remember correctly, you can see the PCB color of the M68 prototypes
through the dock connector.

It is also conceivable that this was a prototype and it had a replacement case
retrofitted which would explain why it has an FCCid.

There was also a case of a skankphone being lost and sold after it was loaned
to a member of Cingular's senior management, that one wasn't a factory escape.

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userbinator
That phone interface has a very 80s retro-look to it, and I could imagine it
appearing as a "futuristic smartphone" device in a movie from that decade. I
honestly don't think it looks all that bad.

(Then again, I like artistically simple yet functional UIs and think gradients
are far too overused now...)

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yzzxy
Add some padding, coordinate the colors, change the font to something more
distinctive, and you've got yourself a design language.

~~~
Joeri
Isn't that called 'Windows Phone'? ;)

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techdragon
This (tangentially) reminds me of the cool stuff they have like the network
boot auto diagnostic image they have setup for the genius bar. Which from the
look of it the last time i saw it, may still using the old carbon toolkit
because. You can update definitions and config files for test routines a lot
with no need to change the UI over the top of it, so it makes sense the UI
could still be a Carbon 'results app' after all the tests run.

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efaref
Am I allowed to admit that I secretly love that UI? So simple. So clean.

~~~
zimbatm
And flat UI !

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mytochar
It's incredible how much that UI screams "testing ui" and "default buttons"
from some off-the-shelf ui toolkit. It's sufficiently functional, but not
pretty at all. It's kinda cool to me to think that even Apple engineers use
that style of UI when they don't have their own regular toolkit around.

Sufficiency for internal tools is the most important part of them.

One other thing of note is that the UI, especially the generic buttons,
already followed the finger-sized buttons paradigm pretty closely. It looks
like the only one that doesn't follow that is the list view for bookmarks;
but, list views are hard and very different on phones than they are on
computers, so it makes sense.

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mvkel
I'm not sure that I buy this is a "pre release" iPhone. The dead giveaway for
me: a valid serial and IMEI on the backplate. No prototype would have this.

It looks more like a production iPhone running the (leaked) internal testing
OS.

Lots of iPhone prototypes have surfaced with blank backplates, or IMEI
inscriptions as a bunch of Xs. There's nothing separating this hardware from a
production piece, which wouldn't be the case with the true prototype phones.

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bane
I'm pretty interested in that "Terminal" button on one of the screenshots.
Having a *nux terminal available on my Android phone has proven to be pretty
useful from time to time.

~~~
qzc4
I think I'd almost be willing to use this interface if I got a terminal.
Fortunately I have the option of jailbreaking.

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thomasfl
To me the so called hideous skankphone user interface looks a loot like the
new flat design of iOS 7 with it's flat buttons and strong colours.

~~~
Kerlix
That was my first reaction, too.

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BorisMelnik
Anyone know why it got yanked from eBay? are there more of these floating
around that might pop up if so what would they go for?

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owenwil
It's back up now! [http://www.ebay.com/itm/Very-Rare-
iPhone-2G-Prototype-/33133...](http://www.ebay.com/itm/Very-Rare-
iPhone-2G-Prototype-/331339000442?pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item4d2557ea7a)

~~~
95015_refugee
Looks like it has a real FCC ID (hard to see in the picture) etched into the
back. If so, it's not a "prototype" (Proto/EVT/DVT) unit.

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jevinskie
More information from The iPhone Wiki:
[http://theiphonewiki.com/wiki/SkankPhone](http://theiphonewiki.com/wiki/SkankPhone)

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glxybstr
some of that UI reminds me of my first (and last) time with gridbag layout.
ouh.

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Animats
It looks a lot like what Apple is pushing now, except that the buttons no
longer have rounded corners and have vague icons instead of text.

