10 ms·

A look at the Apple ‘Skankphone’, built before the original iPhone release

170 points by striking 12y ago

mytochar 12y ago
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.
userbinator 12y ago
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...)
- yzzxy 12y ago
  Add some padding, coordinate the colors, change the font to something more distinctive, and you've got yourself a design language.
  - andrewliebchen 12y ago
    Super flat. Digital native.
  - Joeri 12y ago
    Isn't that called 'Windows Phone'? ;)
- cmiller1 12y ago
  The spacing and all of the rounded rectangle buttons vaguely reminded me of a Hypercard stack from back in the day.
- bane 12y ago
  I kept thinking it was an attempt to emulate LCARS. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LCARS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LCARS
buro9 12y ago
> 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.
- derefr 12y ago
  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.
  - Doctor_Fegg 12y ago
    The term had been current for a while: Rockafeller Skank by Fatboy Slim was 1998.
    - henderson101 12y ago
      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.
    - jff 12y ago
      Or Red Dwarf's "Rastabilly Skank", 1988.
- Ollinson 12y ago
  I doubt it has anything to do with skunkworks or prostitutes. My first thought was Skank as a verb, which fits best with the idea of a handicapped/faux iphone.
Animats 12y ago
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.
techdragon 12y ago
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.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
BorisMelnik 12y ago
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?
- owenwil 12y ago
  It's back up now! http://www.ebay.com/itm/Very-Rare-iPhone-2G-Prototype-/331339000442?pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item4d2557ea7a http://www.ebay.com/itm/Very-Rare-iPhone-2G-Prototype-/33133...
  - 95015_refugee 12y ago
    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.
possibilistic 12y ago
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?
- tonylemesmer 12y ago
  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.
  - davb 12y ago
95015_refugee 12y ago
'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.
- grapecable 12y ago
  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.
efaref 12y ago
Am I allowed to admit that I secretly love that UI? So simple. So clean.
- zimbatm 12y ago
  And flat UI !
thomasfl 12y ago
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 12y ago
  That was my first reaction, too.
bane 12y ago
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 12y ago
  I think I'd almost be willing to use this interface if I got a terminal. Fortunately I have the option of jailbreaking.
- herge 12y ago
  You must be that one guy who enjoyed using an OpenMoko.
jevinskie 12y ago
More information from The iPhone Wiki: http://theiphonewiki.com/wiki/SkankPhone http://theiphonewiki.com/wiki/SkankPhone
glxybstr 12y ago
some of that UI reminds me of my first (and last) time with gridbag layout. ouh.
mvkel 12y ago
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.

170 points by striking 12y ago

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.

userbinator 12y ago

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...)

yzzxy 12y ago
Add some padding, coordinate the colors, change the font to something more distinctive, and you've got yourself a design language.
- andrewliebchen 12y ago
  Super flat. Digital native.
- Joeri 12y ago
  Isn't that called 'Windows Phone'? ;)
cmiller1 12y ago
The spacing and all of the rounded rectangle buttons vaguely reminded me of a Hypercard stack from back in the day.
bane 12y ago
I kept thinking it was an attempt to emulate LCARS. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LCARS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LCARS

buro9 12y ago

> 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.

derefr 12y ago
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.
- Doctor_Fegg 12y ago
  The term had been current for a while: Rockafeller Skank by Fatboy Slim was 1998.
  - henderson101 12y ago
    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.
  - jff 12y ago
    Or Red Dwarf's "Rastabilly Skank", 1988.
Ollinson 12y ago
I doubt it has anything to do with skunkworks or prostitutes. My first thought was Skank as a verb, which fits best with the idea of a handicapped/faux iphone.

Animats 12y ago

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.

techdragon 12y ago

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.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

BorisMelnik 12y ago

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?

owenwil 12y ago
It's back up now! http://www.ebay.com/itm/Very-Rare-iPhone-2G-Prototype-/331339000442?pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item4d2557ea7a http://www.ebay.com/itm/Very-Rare-iPhone-2G-Prototype-/33133...
- 95015_refugee 12y ago
  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.

possibilistic 12y ago

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?

tonylemesmer 12y ago
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.
- davb 12y ago

95015_refugee 12y ago

'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.

grapecable 12y ago
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.

efaref 12y ago

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

zimbatm 12y ago
And flat UI !

thomasfl 12y ago

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 12y ago
That was my first reaction, too.

bane 12y ago

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 12y ago
I think I'd almost be willing to use this interface if I got a terminal. Fortunately I have the option of jailbreaking.
herge 12y ago
You must be that one guy who enjoyed using an OpenMoko.

jevinskie 12y ago

More information from The iPhone Wiki: http://theiphonewiki.com/wiki/SkankPhone http://theiphonewiki.com/wiki/SkankPhone

glxybstr 12y ago

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

mvkel 12y ago

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.