The Apple FlatMac was one of those 1980s concepts by designer [Hartmut Esslingers] that remained just a concept with no more than some physical prototypes created. That is, until [Kevin Noki] came across it in an Apple design book and contacted [Hartmut] to ask whether he would be okay with providing detailed measurements so that he could create his own.
Inside the 3D printed enclosure is a Raspberry Pi 4 running an appropriately emulated Macintosh, with a few modern features on the I/O side, including HDMI and USB. Ironically, the screen is from a 3rd generation iPad, which [Kevin] bought broken on EBay. There’s also an internal floppy drive that’s had its eject mechanism cleverly motorized, along with a modified USB battery bank that should keep the whole show running for about an hour. The enclosure itself is carefully glued, painted and sculpted to make it look as close to the original design as possible, which includes custom keycaps for the mechanical switches.
As far as DIY projects go, this one is definitely not for the faint of heart, but it’s fascinating to contrast this kind of project that’s possible for any determined hobbyist with the effort it would have taken forty years ago. The only question that’s left is whether or not the FlatMac would have actually been a practical system if it had made it to production. Although the keyboard seems decent, the ergonomics feel somewhat questionable compared to something more laptop-like.
Thanks to [Daniel Doran] for the tip.
“The only question that’s left is whether or not the FlatMac would have actually been a practical system if it had made it to production.”
It’s fine unless you’re holding it wrong.
On that note, that hand grip doesn’t look very ambidextrous.
Looks like a Yeno Mister X learning computer.
https://harzretro.de/mister-x-von-yeno/
How did they know what to 3D design and print before they modified the diskdrive?
I have a hunch building this was a little more involved than what is shown in the video. And it probably took longer than 48 minutes and 18 seconds as well. Only speculating, of course.
Definitely I like this concept. good mechanic keyboard like OQO or Vaio Sony Pocket P with wide screen.
and still I dream about free open source system 7.1 and opened old Pascal bios
Looks like a Xerox PARC dynabook. Of course, that’s where jobs got the idea for the macintosh too.
They were all little copycats back then. ;)
Apple paid to get a look at AMD copy all the Xerox tech
I’ve seen the pseudo-documentary “Pirates of Silicon Valley”. ;)
If I remember the story correctly, then the Xerox PARC people knew what they had, but the Xerox bosses didn’t understand the potential.
Funnily, the computer mouse did pre-date both Xerox Alto and the Apple Lisa and Macintosh.
Here in Ger.., err, Europe there was the “Rollkugelsteuerung” (loosely translates to “roll ball control”) in the 1960s.
https://www.e-basteln.de/computing/rollkugel/rollkugel/
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainer_Mallebrein
Anyway, I don’t mean to brag here about us being first.
I simply think it’s satisfying that Apple can’t claim to have invented everything all alone every time.
Because, like so often, there had been many inventors in the past who had similar ideas, but hadn’t gotten the recongition they deserved.
Learning about them and their take on a certain solution or invention is really fascinating! 😃
I’d be positively surprised to hear if there was an even older model of the mouse, maybe from an Inventor from another country/nation. Would be cool! 😎
Did you read the article you linked to?
Disappointed! I was hoping for Machintosh post it notes (although it’s a 90’s thing):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Q-BH8j06pM
(too bad there’s no better quality video around)
This looks like it started life as an Apple IIc+.
Yeah it took a lot of painstaking work to replicate the look of that era of Apple, crazy impressive work
I second this! It looks like an actual product! Very well done! Kudos to the constructor! 🙂👍
almost perfect, case, keyboard, decals… but internals oh my G.
hot glue should be banned,
instead of using protoboard and modules you should try to build your own PCB for everything except RPi ofc. you had battery in old iPad you could use. These cables everywhere. Do it again, please.
This is my humble opinion ;)
seriously, again an Apple mashup? give us a break,dammit.
youtube and its rigged algo is a plague.