I was looking at this image of Jony Ive in the Apple R&D lab from the upcoming film about tech design, Objectified, and I spied something odd. Back in the corner there was some sort of weird device and, now, after doing a little digging, it seems that Apple is far more advanced than we originally assumed.
While I can’t quite make out what this guy does it’s clear that Ive owns a very early prototype of one of the on-board helper bots that assist the humans in the movie. Is Apple’s decision to go green because they know something we don’t? Is that why Wall-E starts up with the Apple sound? Can Apple staff travel in time? Perhaps we’ll never know.
Or perhaps we’ll know all to soon as we’re herded into space cruisers and shot into hyperdrive while hordes of Mac Minis clean up the Earth.
UPDATE – For Sky:
I’ve watched this damn movie about ten times now with my son. I assure you it’s the Apple sound.
I don’t think Wall-E started up with the Apple sound in the movie. I believe it was only Eve. (The white one)
This is not a robot in the picture. It’s a viewing head attached to a mount and has a input keyboard down in the lower front. Look a little closer. It’s not a free standing piece.
clearly you are not programmed to recognize irony, stevebot.
Those large machines on the left look kind of like much larger versions of what we have in classes in our school that are pretty much 3D printers.
We take a CAD drawing done on a computer and print to these machines, and a 3D physical prototype emerges from a wax-like goo. Pretty nifty.
And yes, that’s the technical explanation of how it works. :-D
I don’t get it. Of course, it’s the Mac sound. Jobs is the founder of Pixar and Ive even helped design Eve:
http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/09/technology/siklos_walle.fortune/index.htm?source=yahoo_quote
I’m not surprised by designs, ideas, and even prototypes crossing over between the two worlds. Both ways.
The startup sound of the Macintosh comes from Wall-E himself when he finishes recharging his solar batteries and boots up. Watch the film again, guys.