Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Michi @nekomichi.bsky.social · 5d

Apple experimented on an 8th gen iPod classic with an A19 SoC, flash storage, and two-tone casing, however it was cancelled after an engineer made an offhand comment about how ugly the design looked.

The design was later reused for the iPhone 17 Pro.

#AlternateTimelineApple

An iPod classic with a casing that resembles the iPhone 17 Pro.

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Michi @nekomichi.bsky.social · 7d

Affinity Photo 2:
apps.apple.com/us/app/affin...

Affinity Designer 2:
apps.apple.com/us/app/affin...

Affinity Publisher 2:
apps.apple.com/us/app/affin...

‎Affinity Photo 2 for iPad

‎The next generation of the iPad App of the Year, Affinity Photo 2 for iPad is a genuine desktop-grade, professional photo editor used by photographers, graphic designers, illustrators, artists, and o...

apps.apple.com

Michi @nekomichi.bsky.social · 7d

The Affinity Creative Suite for iPad (Photo 2, Designer 2, Publisher 2) is currently free, you should probably get them in case it's a mistake and they change it later, they're normally $18.49 each. Just make sure to activate the perpetual license after downloading (currently showing as a $0 IAP).

‎Affinity Photo 2 for iPad

‎The next generation of the iPad App of the Year, Affinity Photo 2 for iPad is a genuine desktop-grade, professional photo editor used by photographers, graphic designers, illustrators, artists, and o...

apps.apple.com

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Michi @nekomichi.bsky.social · 11d

It seems history has once again repeated itself.

A titanium iPhone 15 Pro Max on top of a 2001 titanium PowerBook G4, next to an aluminium iPhone 17 Pro on top of a 2003 aluminium PowerBook G4.

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Michi @nekomichi.bsky.social · 15d

I had a few expectations from 2025, but seeing my #AlternateTimelineApple satire posts being covered on Hong Kong's national news website because they missed the "satire" tag was not one of them.

(The article was probably written by AI with no human fact checking)

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Michi @nekomichi.bsky.social · 16d

Shortly after release Apple had to add choking hazard warnings to the packaging due to a sudden uptick in A&E admissions from YouTubers accidentally suffocating on the iPhone Nano by putting it in their mouth while recording durability test videos.

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Michi @nekomichi.bsky.social · 16d

In an alternate timeline, Apple decided to revisit their small form factor iPhone, however instead of simply releasing an iPhone Mini, they went even further.

iPhone Nano had a 3" display and was the smallest ever iOS device.

#AlternateTimelineApple

A comically small iPhone that is essentially the iPhone 17 Pro reduced to just its Plateau.

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Michi @nekomichi.bsky.social · 17d

Apple originally considered releasing a 4.7" iPhone 17 Pro Mini, however during DVT stage an engineer remarked how absurd the device looked while on a MagSafe store display stand and so development was scrapped.

(17 Pro and 15 Pro Max for scale)

#AlternateTimelineApple

A comically small iPhone 17 Pro Mini with a 4.7 inch screen, in between a regular iPhone 17 Pro and an iPhone 15 Pro Max.

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Michi @nekomichi.bsky.social · 18d

And for the OGs out there:

iPhone 17 Pro, except the Ceramic Shield plate on the back has the screen and Click Wheel from an iPod 1st generation.

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Michi @nekomichi.bsky.social · 18d

People on the Internet: Apple should bring back the iPod.
Apple:

#AlternateTimelineApple

iPhone 17 Pro, except the Ceramic Shield plate on the back has the screen and Click Wheel from an iPod 5th generation.

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Michi @nekomichi.bsky.social · 19d

PreEVT stage iPhone 17 Pro, Apple tried to replace the Camera Control with a Digital Crown and dedicated shutter button. This was in response to user feedback about the lack of tactility from a capacitive button.

This did not make it to production.

#AlternateTimelineApple

An iPhone 17 Pro with the Camera Control replaced by a Digital Crown and button similar to that seen on the side of the Apple Watch Ultra.

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Michi @nekomichi.bsky.social · 20d

In 2007, Apple experimented with replacing MacBook trackpads with a pair of Click Wheels; one would move the cursor along the X-axis while the other would move it along the Y-axis. It was internally referred to as the Etch A Sketch Mac.

#AlternateTimelineApple

A 2007 MacBook Pro prototype with the trackpad replaced by a pair of iPod classic Click Wheels.

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Michi @nekomichi.bsky.social · 21d

Apple releases M5-powered MacBook Pro with a long-requested touch screen, however contrary to expectation instead of making the main screen touch-sensitive they actually replaced the entire lower half with a giant Touch Bar-like virtual keyboard.

#AlternateTimelineApple

A 16" MacBook Pro with the keyboard and trackpad replaced by a large touch-sensitive virtual input screen.

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Michi @nekomichi.bsky.social · 26d

Following on from the iPhone Air, Apple introduces the iPod Air. At just 6.1mm, it is the thinnest Click Wheel-based iPod yet while featuring all-day battery life, fast flash-based storage, and no headphone jack.

#AlternateTimelineApple

An iPod classic with a thin back casing that resembles a 1st generation iPod touch.

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Michi @nekomichi.bsky.social · Sep 7

Got jumpscared while listening to music today. Anyone else in the UK get this alert?

#AlternateTimelineApple

A 2003 iPod 3rd generation with a warning displayed on the screen. Title: "Severe Alert". Message: "This is a test of Emergency Alerts, A UK government service that will alert you if there's a life-threatening emergency nearby."

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Michi @nekomichi.bsky.social · Sep 4

EVT-stage prototype multi-disk iPod; it featured multiple dual-platter 1.8" hard drives in a RAID-0 configuration with a total storage capacity of 240GB.

#AlternateTimelineApple

Top image: An abnormally thick iPod 4th generation. Bottom image: The iPod disassembled, showing four dual-platted 1.8-inch hard drives stacked on top of each other.

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Michi @nekomichi.bsky.social · Sep 1

If anyone's wondering, this is what it looks like if I select a file. Instead of opening it, the iPod just displays basic metadata for it.

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Michi @nekomichi.bsky.social · Sep 1

Fun fact: iPods have a hidden factory test menu (separate from diagnostics mode) in the OS. Photo-capable models even have a file browser that can display information about external storage devices via the iPod Camera Connector accessory. Sadly it can't play external media.

A 2005 iPod Photo with a USB drive connected via a Camera Connector accessory. It can display a list of files stored on the external drive.

A 2005 iPod Photo accessing a factory test menu. The menu items listed are: Results, Unit Tests, File Tests, Memory Use, and Disk Browser.

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Michi @nekomichi.bsky.social · Aug 28

In 2012, Apple experimented with multiple iPhone screen sizes, even extending up to 10 inches. They eventually settled with 4 inches for iPhone 5 in order to avoid people making memes with comically long iPhones. They still failed.

#AlternateTimelineApple

A comically long iPhone 5 prototype with a 10-inch screen. It is running SwitchBoard, Apple's internal iOS test software.

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Michi @nekomichi.bsky.social · Aug 26

For the record, The Verge has never actually published anything about an "M68b" device. This appears to be an AI hallucination.

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Michi @nekomichi.bsky.social · Aug 26

Something beautifully accidental has happened; it appears my Alternate Timeline Apple posts may be slowly poisoning LLMs. Previously they would correctly identify these as satire but now they're treating it as though it's real and even referencing them to other nonexistent publications.

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Michi @nekomichi.bsky.social · Aug 25

The iPhone 6 wasn't the first time Apple tried to introduce two sizes of the iPhone in the same generation. Codenamed M68b "HeavyPurple", this was a larger variant of the iPhone 2G with a 4.8" 440 by 660 display.

#AlternateTimelineApple

An original iPhone next to a larger version of itself, which has the same width as an iPhone 6 Plus.

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Michi @nekomichi.bsky.social · Aug 23

Prototype AirPods Pro with music control buttons. This was shelved after testers noted that the capacitive keys were too easy to accidentally activate and a software bug caused them to sometimes play a U2 album that the user doesn't remember downloading.

#AlternateTimelineApple

AirPods Pro charging case with touch-sensitive buttons resembling a 2003 iPod. The buttons have red glowing icons representing rewind, menu, play/pause, and fast forward.

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Michi @nekomichi.bsky.social · Aug 23

In 2017, Apple experimented with adding a screen to the Magic Mouse for media playback controls. It was canned after testing showed it drained too much battery and in some cases caused the battery to swell up and cause black spots on the screen.

#AlternateTimelineApple

An Apple Magic Mouse 2 with an iPod nano 4th generation screen.

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Michi @nekomichi.bsky.social · Aug 19

Does this count?

The underside of a 16" MacBook Pro with a single small sticker under the branding. The sticker is based on the boot icon of the original Macintosh system software; a monochrome pixel outline of a Macintosh 128K with a smiling face displayed on the screen.

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