Take yourself back to 2001. Digital audio players were nothing more than nichey gadgets bopping around the periphery of the consumer-electronics market. Then came the dynamo we now simply call “the classic,” and in a flash, both digital music and Apple’s repute as a hardware company achieved something close to metacultural transcendence.

 

The iPod gave its owners a fashion statement, a design icon, a mark of cultural literacy. It became a synonym for all portable music players and turned even the most clueless consumers into knowing technophiles. Even the iPod’s essential design—soft, white, and devoid of busy interface elements—made a powerful new statement about consumer-electronic aesthetics. The follow-up to the iPod would have to be equally magnificent. The world expected nothing less than another category-creating piece of lifestyle gear.

 

Apple didn’t let us down. Last year the company gave us the iPhone, and within a single news cycle, the definitions of smartphones, cell phones, audio players, video players, and even GUIs were rewritten. Rewritten, combined, pushed, pulled, exploded, congealed, and totally turned on end.

 

But what comes next? Apple now finds itself in the enviable position of trying to top its latest mass-market phenomenon. We don’t know what Steve Jobs is preparing to pull from his jeans pocket at the next Mac Expo, but we must assume his R&D teams are working on something very, very cool.

 

Just for fun, we challenged ourselves to conceive four new product directions for Apple Almighty. Our parameters were twofold: First, our imaginary products would have to be technically feasible (kinda, sorta), and, second, they would have to represent a trip into uncharted territory—either a new product category or consumer demographic. On the following pages you’ll find the fruits of our fanciful, fictitious, faux R&D. Our prototypes, we hope, will leave you thoroughly delighted.

 

See related design contest.

 

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Squidget

 

It’s addictive, inexpensive, and blingfully customizable. Meet Apple’s flamboyant first foray into the tweenager market.

 

Just like the widgets that populate our Dashboards, the Squidget is compact, lightweight, and imminently useful for very specific tasks. It’s also got all the visual energy of a Skittles party on happy dust, making it an extension of Apple’s move toward wilder colors and ever-more-canny form factors. Aimed squarely at the iChat demographic, the chameleonlike Squidget includes a select menu of iPhone apps and costs just $129, making it a communication/entertainment gadget that 8- to 14-year-olds could plausibly afford.

 

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1. Expect to see Apple partner up with the elite fashion houses. The plaid stripes of this special-edition Burberry model flow seamlessly from the video wallpaper to the glossy shell. Even the perimeter lighting displays the Burberry palette.

 

2. Apple revamps its Squidget shells in new colors, patterns, and finishes twice a year, creating a style line that evolves as quickly as teen couture.

 

3. On Squidget-optimized MySpace home pages, your friends can check out your playlists and uploaded photos, and even install your customized identity theme, which kicks into action whenever you initiate a chat session. Like a “push ringer” on steroids, your photo pops up on your pal’s screen, and his spaz lighting begins blinking out your name in Morse code.

 

4. The three function buttons on the inside can be assigned various contextual tasks, but one must always be your Home button, lest navigation become wonky. Squidget games, optimized by developers just for Apple, make liberal use of these three physical keys.

 

5. With a diameter of 2.2 inches, the Squidget is a tad narrower than the iPhone. You can stuff it in your pocket, wear it like a wristwatch, or rock it around your neck, Flavor Flav style.

 

Squidget communication is firmly rooted in the world of alphanumerics—instant messaging over Wi-Fi and text messaging over a cell network. Swivel the outer disc and you’ll find an inexpensive monochrome LCD displaying a touch keyboard. Once you’ve finished getting your dish on, you can surf the Web, or download music and Squidget-exclusive games directly from iTunes. With just 1GB of solid-state memory, there’s no room for a large iTunes collection, but the $12.99 all-you-can-text monthly service plan includes “pushed” songs in your favorite genres. The tracks appear magically in a bucket of dedicated memory, and you can listen to them for free for 72 hours before they disappear. Should you decide to transfer a song to permanent memory, you pay just 75 cents per track (a nifty price break for the Squidget Nation).

 

Using a next-gen version of Toshiba’s just-announced circular LCD technology, the Squidget can display custom wallpapers—either static images or video screen savers—that cover nearly the entire surface of the upper lid. But the truly killer personalization feature is Squidget Public Alert System Lighting (aka “spaz lighting”): The entire perimeter of the device is ringed with a light strip that can be programmed to blink out codes in different colors, locations, and durations. Magenta lights chasing each other around the perimeter might mean your girlfriend wants to chat. Yellow lights rapidly blinking on and off could signal that your mom wants you home for dinner.

 

And dark blue lights that just pulse slowly, on and off? That’s your signal to the world that you’re in the depths of teen angst, and disturbing you now would be a very bad idea.

 

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iEye

 

Seriously—how long did you think Apple would wait before launching the ultimate camera?

 

What Apple did for music via the iPod, and smartphones via the iPhone, it now does for photography and video. The iEye is the ultimate mobile device for capturing, editing, and distributing all of your iLife memories. In a slim, sleek, easy-to-use package, the iEye records stills and video, all in high definition. Just shoot a bunch of content and then use the multi-touch interface to explore your creative chakras anytime, anywhere.

 

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1. A camera just wouldn’t be a camera if it didn’t have a shutter button. The iEye’s single button also serves as a Home button, easing navigation regardless of which menu you’re in.

 

2. The physical dimensions of the iEye are pretty much identical to those of the iPhone, give or take a few smidgens. Notice, however, the larger swath of screen real estate. The extra room is appreciated during content editing. When you’re in recording mode, the display orientation corrects itself as you transition from landscape to portrait shooting. Oh, but of course.

 

3. The iEye product line offers optics, resolutions, and capacities for every price range. The sweet spot of the line, however, represents a bounty of features for just $499: 720p HD video, 5.1-megapixel stills, 12GB of flash memory, and a large-capacity lithium-ion battery hardwired inside. Optical zoom is limited to 3x because Apple wanted a lens that would be flush with the iEye’s surface when fully extended. Lens cap, you ask? Third-party developers will be creating all-encompassing “iEye Tents” by the dozens!

 

4. The 30-pin connector makes a comeback. Dock your iEye to transfer files or just power up the battery.

 

Our little doble ojo (which we suspect will be nicknamed “ai-yai-yai!”) includes lite versions of iPhoto and iMovie. By pinching and tapping the camera’s touchscreen, you can mash all your memories together with the simple editing software you’ve come to know so well. You can also grab titles, transitions, borders, and music from built-in theme libraries, creating slideshows and movies that are almost disarming in their polish and finesse. And don’t worry about growing tired of the built-in themes, because iEye users can create their own custom template material and share it online.

 

Your iEye projects can be packaged and transferred to your Mac for final editing—but that’s only necessary if you want to go full-tilt Ken Burns or Jim Jarmusch on what you’ve created. We think most users will tap into the onboard wireless protocols (Wi-Fi and 3G) to send their masterpieces to friends or to post them to a .Mac account.

 

Besides adding legitimate, no-excuses content editing to a dual-purpose handheld camera, the iEye simplifies—perfects, actually—the onscreen UIs that leave most digital camera users crying for help from more tech-savvy friends (or people who actually read the manuals). The iEye control menus are easy to access and even easier to understand. It’s inevitable that Apple would try its hand in the digital camera/camcorder space, especially when so many competing products have been screaming for the new multi-touch UI. Throw in mobile versions of iPhoto and iMovie, and you have a handheld wonder that epitomizes Apple’s “create, share, enjoy” mantra.

 

 

 

 

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iProtection

 

 

A postmodern response to the existential threats of urban living.

 

Sure, you chuckle now. But in 10 years’ time—when the polar caps have melted and wild dogs are roaming the streets—you’ll be glad Apple had the foresight to develop iProtection. This pocket-sized mobile security system is the world’s first hip and mainstream personal safety device. Who says your descent into full-tilt paranoia need not be fun? Music might be your boyfriend, but the arc of an 800,000-volt stun gun is your biker-looking uncle who lets you shoot guns in the backyard.

 

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1. A perfectly cylindrical iProtection baton might roll away if dropped. That’s why our design includes a single flat face.

 

2. Releasing the stun gun button resets the biometric safety, ensuring that your iProtection can’t easily be used against you (should, God forbid, the worst occur)

 

3. You’ll be interested to know that iProtection doesn’t carry any version of iTunes and can’t play any type of media downloaded from the Internet. (The soundtrack of postmodern paranoia can be heard in the wind.)

 

Identification, illumination, and electrification are the cornerstones of iProtection safety. If you sense an assault is imminent, you can activate a piercing, 120-decibel alarm siren that immediately identifies the locus of your trouble. A built-in GPS tracker further identifies your whereabouts—as soon as you hit the alarm (which also includes a silent mode), a distress signal sends your coordinates to local law enforcement. The GPS also includes a real-time display, which is perfect for calling in updates of your exact location should you ever find yourself stuffed in the trunk of a moving car, your iPhone conveniently within reach.

 

Naturally, the iProtection system includes a high-intensity LED flashlight. Your acts of urban payback will be nothing if not well lit. All of which leads us to the baton’s offensive component, an 800,000-volt stun gun with a three-stage safety trigger. Press the trigger once, and a biometric sensor immediately recognizes the thumbprint as yours, unlocking the safety toggle. Press the button a second time to arm the stun gun; the electrodes will rise from the baton’s surface. Press the button a third time and iProtection issues a nasty electrical discharge. Your assailant would not want to be mocking your choice of iPod colors right about now.

 

 

 

 

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iCar

 

Sleek on the outside, clever on the inside, the Audi-Apple iCar is TT-terrific.

 

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You knew it had to happen. In a world where Apple’s industriousness compels us to envision an “i” preceding everything of material value, we cannot move forward without first considering an iCar. In late August, bloggers began reporting that Apple and Volkswagen were working on a partnership, so we fast-tracked our iCar concept for a grand unveiling in this month’s issue. You were expecting an Apple-fied VW Beetle or Jetta? Sorry, we don’t see it happening. The Beetle is too femme, and the Jetta, well... We look deep into its headlights and find no soul.

 

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So Volkswagen must turn to its Audi brand to launch the iCar, tapping the TT Coupe, which made an almost Apple-like design statement of its own when it launched in 1998. The iCar concept retains all the lines of the latest TT, but adds some coy exterior features that leave no ambiguity about Audi’s gene-splicing experiments with Apple DNA. The body, wheels, and brake calipers are painted iPod white, while the side skirts and front splitter are clad in iPod chrome. The TT’s side mirrors are simplified into half-spheres, giving this one-off design study an extra touch of round-edged-ness and symmetry. And because we’ve always wanted to see the G5 grille protecting a car’s radiator, we did exactly what you’ve been thinking about doing since 2003.

 

Form always follows function in the world of iDesign, so when folks pay the extra $3,800 for the iCar option package, they also get cockpit controls that broadcast “I am the car of the future!” to anyone lucky enough to slide into the leather front seat.

 

iCar. This is it. We can now move forward in the growing world of iDesign with closure, confidence, and peace of mind.

 

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The iCar cockpit redefines how we interface with traditional automotive controls. The tach/speedo cluster is an LCD that can be customized using the center console’s Settings menu. Whether you want numerical readouts or a traditional analog look and feel, the choice is yours, with skins and color options galore. The speedo here is set to display a large number for whatever 10 mph speed threshold you’ve just passed. The orange line is a visual of your current speed, while the red line is your own user-defined nanny marker—when orange passes red, you know you’ve surpassed your comfort limit.

 

The steering wheel features two scrollwheels so you can thumb through menu choices without using the touchscreen in the center console. There’s also an iSight located in the steering wheel hub, so that your iChat AV buddies can see you during calls on the road. (Wireless data networks of the future will make all this happen!) To help eliminate accidents caused by iChat AV convos, your friends can see what you see when you’re driving (notice the inset of your road view on the center display). This way, when you’re trying make a left-hand turn in rush-hour traffic, they’ll see what you’re doing and shut the heck up.

 

Controls for music, driving directions, communication, and climate are all accessed via the center touchscreen. iPhones and iPods nestle snugly in their very own dock. Once you experience this state-of-the-art UI, you’ll never be able to drive old-school again.