The air is agitated by the news that Apple is close to closing a deal with Hyundai to manufacture an electric car from Apple! Excitement is pulsating across the technology world, and we can’t wait to see what Apple has in store for us. The innovative company never ceases to surprise us, we always find ourselves biting our nails and squirming with curiosity, whenever Apple announces the launch of a new product! Their ingenious and fascinating designs and design philosophy have inspired and influenced designers from around the world, resulting in some very unique concepts from Apple! These Apple-inspired designs are the best of the lot and a dream for all Apple lovers. We just hope that Apple will make them a reality soon!
Designed with designers in mind, this MacBook Pro 2018 concept explores the integration of a full-size touchpad in place of the traditional keyboard. It features Apple’s own Taptic Engine system to give the user the feel of physical buttons or even emulate a scroll wheel or sliders. It maintains the touch bar for shortcuts and function keys, but the entire surface is enabled for touch! Better yet, Apple Pencil is now compatible with the new MacBook Pro, helping creative professionals in their workflow and enabling new applications using the touchpad area. Software such as Adobe Photoshop or Autodesk Sketchbook will now be more powerful than ever!
With the news that the Apple car was making us all nervous, we decided to explore another Apple automotive concept! And I dare say, I like this Apple more than any post-Jobs release ?! Despite being an exploration in automotive design and not in technological devices, its minimalism and purity seem quintessentially Apple and it seems something out of the brand’s heyday. Designed by Alexander Imnadze, little is known about the conceptual specifications, except that it is electric (of course), but place our order! We think that Jobs can only approve this. This automotive design looks like Jaguar and Porsche have a loving son, but with a touch typical of Apple!
Ever wanted more than a phone camera, but less than an advanced camera? This Apple-style conceptual iCamera fits that gap perfectly! DSLR cameras can be daunting if you’re just starting out, but if you want to learn more than just point and shoot, this camera is the perfect starting point for your journey through visual art. The designer wanted to simplify the user experience of existing advanced cameras, making the body more compact and light. The volume of the lens is reduced, but it still includes swivel functionality for zoom. However, you can now do this comfortably with just one finger. It also aims to make transferring your files easier using cloud-based technologies – that tedious task that every photographer hates to do, but needs to do. So say goodbye to HD cards, setting up Bluetooth and keeping a record of the various accessories that normally need to be transferred. It charges wirelessly and has a handy flash that attaches magnetically to the body!
The redesign of Ludovico’s MacBook follows paths similar to those of the iPhone X and is aptly named MacBook X. Featuring a body that is curved rather than coined, the MacBook X gives the iPhone a hat tip and looks less susceptible to horrible snogging due to the lack of a sharp point. It also explores a wider screen that has those incredible curved edges and absolutely no frame. The absence of a notch means that there is no webcam on the MacBook X, which raises questions, but not very serious, considering that this is purely conceptual. Look at the bottom half and you’ll see that the touch bar is still there, above what I can only say is a keyboard that looks very different.
The iPhone 12 maintains the fearsome notch that was established with the iPhone X – and while we look for changes to the phone screen, the concept of Furkan’s iPhone 13 makes us look at the camera notch in a whole new way and how! First of all, the camera comes with 4 lenses now (maybe the macro lens is finally reaching the iPhone!) And it works like an instant notification panel. The UI for this notification panel is heavily based on the well-established and tested UI that the Apple Watch carries – showing everything from app notifications, widgets and even health statistics. We saw a conceptual technology showing a glass panel that functions as a touch screen, this would be the first commercial implementation of this technology, but one thing we know – if Apple really does, most newer models will soon follow suit. Leaving aside the coolness factor of this design, the mini-display can help extend battery life, reducing our dependence on the home screen to check our notifications.
The concept visualized by our own Sarang Sheth presents an interesting monolithic view of the all-in-one Macintosh, featuring a smooth monoblock glass that transitions from screen to keyboard in a single, grandiose movement. The screen literally folds down as soon as it hits the table to provide a cliff for a keyboard, as well as two trackpads that reside inside the glass. All in all, the whole thing looks pretty Dali-esque. This strikingly thin shape allows Apple to insulate the real computer in a block on the back that helps support the glass facade. Complete with a hodgepodge of doors (and that CNC-machined grid that Jony designed exactly a year ago), the grid also tilts slightly, allowing heat to travel out and up. The new version of iMac Pro allows Apple to keep its all-in-one desktop computer looking incredibly thin, without sacrificing power and performance.
Introducing the conceptual augmented reality glasses that beautifully carry the iconic design language we know and love. The challenge of this project was to create a revolutionary pair of glasses where the elegant fusion of technology and style led the design! We have seen Google try this in the past, but we believe that its downfall was the loss of the element ‘glasses’, leading to a cyborg aesthetic that did not please everyone. This concept preserves the lenses and the iconic shape of a pair of glasses, to create a discreet but undeniably similar product to Apple!
ISpoid is a conceptual dropper that collects data instead of colors and we are here for that! The movement of using a dropper to transfer colors was reinterpreted with the data delivery interface with an Apple pencil-like tool that was christened iSpoid for this concept project. The group of Korean designers who created this conceptual product wanted to make transferring and sharing data between devices easier and more fun, without the stress of connecting via Bluetooth, hard drives and the quest to find the right device for AirDrop. The product development phase involved sketches, brainstorming on usability and making the device itself as physically similar as possible to a dropper – if you look at the shape, it’s a hybrid between the dropper and the Apple pencil. The action is instinctive with this device, you place the dropper on the file, press the bubble at the top and watch the 3 lights on the tip light up indicating that the file has been chosen. Then, place it in the desired device and the lights will dim as if it would release the color of a dropper, but here are the data.
Apple’s version of a foldable phone can follow design tips from the Galaxy Z Fold 2 if they decide to make it a full-fledged version or opt for a subtle format similar to Razr’s if they want to serve a set of niche buyers. If we follow the patent requested by Apple, the screen will have a foldable panel without creases (like the Galaxy Z Fold 2) and a folding mechanism similar to the Motorola Razr – foldable like a practical mirror. The first renderings of the iPhone 13 are not exactly promising (for either version), but we can count on Apple’s tendency to be thorough in its design tests and the result will be ready to shock and surprise. Personally, I think the Moto Razr-inspired fold has a more exclusive design, with the folded screen looking like a throwback to the iPod Nano, which was part of its revolutionary arsenal.
A concept creator by the name of Phone Industry’s imagined a radically different circular Apple Watch … why not? It features a circular body inspired by the Samsung Galaxy and dial, with a thin bezel around the rim and a speaker grille on the periphery of the dial. It also dispenses with the rotating crown for a more standard touch button. I doubt you can watch Apple TV or a keynote on the circular screen (or even surf the Internet effectively), but the Apple Watch has never been touted as an Internet browsing device on your wrist. Instead, the circular screen could enhance existing Apple Watch services by making use of the circular UI to organize information effectively. Also, that circular watch face looks very beautiful, don’t you think ?!
For more innovative and exciting concepts from Apple, check out Parts 1 and 2 of this post!