Ok, I've looked at about 50 times, and I think it's a fake.
The menu bars at the top and bottom look like they are fixed, rather than being displayed on the screen.
The handwritten letters have no blockiness in them. They look like post production animations, as does the interpreted text.
If I had to guess, I'd say that someone built a shell to place over a PDA, vidoetaped the hand motions over the fake device, and then used some animation software to add the cursor, the intepreted text and the written text.
remember how the Quicksilver photos had every one saying they were fake? maybe this is the same in that it looks bad due to poor quality cam / lighting / compression.
Just to clear that part up: You can get all white baggrounds for your Newton today and many are changing because the light wear off after some years of heavy use.
give me a handheld video (much harder to fake) and i'd believe.. but it seems to me the screen is superimposed on a well designed piece of plastic.. good job, but not good enough..
also, the interface is definitely not what apple would do, it doesn't have any of the friendliness or good looks of os9 or osx.
but, it definitely made me want an apple pda, a dream i had given up on
remember how the Quicksilver photos had every one saying they were fake? maybe this is the same in that it looks bad due to poor quality cam / lighting / compression.
It could be real, but im not fully convinced.</strong><hr></blockquote>
HAHA, very true. I remember EVERY single person at MacNN swore they were fake and each post had "If it's real, it so ugllyyyyy!!!"
I was one as well, that's why I never bought a QS, I thought they were ugly.
After viewing it for a few times I have realised that it is a heat moulded plastic cover...
How did you work that one out, I hear you say...
Well...
1/ None of the features on the surface are actually edged, or separate from the 'main body' as you'd expect froma wheel or buttons etc, a sure sign of vacuum or heat moulded plastic
2/ When his hand leaves the 'iwalk' after writing on it, the side he was on raises a little bit (zoom it in and compare that sides movement compared to the background detail of the desk). This is flexing from the cheap fabricated cover stuck on the real hardware underneath (assuming that that bit wasnt cgi)
I do remember that now. My screen is definitely not as bright as it once was. Doubt I would ever change the screen over now, but a white screen would have been nice.
ignoring all of the problems with the screen, that apple "scroll wheel" doesnt look at all usable. It looks like its been pried off of the hood of a car.
A scroll wheel would be cool. It was impossible to use the Newton one handed. that was about the only thing I never liked about it. (Other than it was near impossible to sync and backup. Doh!)
<strong>it's totally fake. Don't watch it frame-by-frame, but watch it at full speed. Don't you see the words floating slightly differently than their physical surroundings?</strong><hr></blockquote>
i watched it a couple of times looking at what you said, but it looks to me like the change in pressure of the hand on the unit moving it slightly.
but the shadows around the edge of the screen reallt bother me...like they put a sorda apple looking cover on another pda.
<strong>Arrow over to the last frame of the video before it goes to the black spymac logo. Look at the "shadow" between the "iwalk" and whatever the blotch on the right is... any idea what the deal is?
Also, in the lower left of the device, where the white and "tan" meet, there is sort of a blurred spot... i dunno, i'll withhold judgement</strong><hr></blockquote>
The case appears to be clear plastic over white, like the iBook. The "shadow" I would guess is the reflection of the right edge of the device on the table top. The spot on the lower left looks like light reflecting off the case.
I've not used a Newton, so I won't go too far, but looking at the picture of the Newton, the interface looks quite different.
For you Newtonians: is this interface consistent with the Newton? i.e. Did it (or could you make it) look like this? The screen seems much squarer on this unit than on a Newton. Also, I seem to see a bit of "aqua" blue in the upper right corner; maybe it really is a color LCD but this particular app is mainly B&W.
My take: This is a real device, made by Apple, and is not a Newton. I suspect it is a prototype from the Dolphin project (Codename was posting a lot of stuff earlier that matches up with this pretty well). I agree with others that the esthetics and ergonomics make it unlikely to see the light of day as a real product.
I do a lot of post work like this, and the other Mike was correct. Whenever the writers hand hits the prop, it shakes it, someone just used a 4 corner besier warp in After fx or Combustion to basically place a layer on top of the device in perspective. The layer contains the text. Its fairly effective, but if they had been trying to do it correctly, they should have tracked the corners the whole time, rather than just assuming they stayed stationary.
Comments
The menu bars at the top and bottom look like they are fixed, rather than being displayed on the screen.
The handwritten letters have no blockiness in them. They look like post production animations, as does the interpreted text.
If I had to guess, I'd say that someone built a shell to place over a PDA, vidoetaped the hand motions over the fake device, and then used some animation software to add the cursor, the intepreted text and the written text.
SdC
This is a fake. An Apple fake...
remember how the Quicksilver photos had every one saying they were fake? maybe this is the same in that it looks bad due to poor quality cam / lighting / compression.
It could be real, but im not fully convinced.
give me a handheld video (much harder to fake) and i'd believe.. but it seems to me the screen is superimposed on a well designed piece of plastic.. good job, but not good enough..
also, the interface is definitely not what apple would do, it doesn't have any of the friendliness or good looks of os9 or osx.
but, it definitely made me want an apple pda, a dream i had given up on
<strong>Im not sure
remember how the Quicksilver photos had every one saying they were fake? maybe this is the same in that it looks bad due to poor quality cam / lighting / compression.
It could be real, but im not fully convinced.</strong><hr></blockquote>
HAHA, very true. I remember EVERY single person at MacNN swore they were fake and each post had "If it's real, it so ugllyyyyy!!!"
I was one as well, that's why I never bought a QS, I thought they were ugly.
I hope we get a G5!!
After viewing it for a few times I have realised that it is a heat moulded plastic cover...
How did you work that one out, I hear you say...
Well...
1/ None of the features on the surface are actually edged, or separate from the 'main body' as you'd expect froma wheel or buttons etc, a sure sign of vacuum or heat moulded plastic
2/ When his hand leaves the 'iwalk' after writing on it, the side he was on raises a little bit (zoom it in and compare that sides movement compared to the background detail of the desk). This is flexing from the cheap fabricated cover stuck on the real hardware underneath (assuming that that bit wasnt cgi)
Sussed!! :cool:
I think the whole PDA would be a color LCD.
this looks like a iPaq or a Handspring with a pretty case and I believe there is software to recognize writing on the screen instead of the well.
Congrats. You are the master analyzer. <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" /> <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" /> <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" /> <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" />
And even before they aired it.
Member of the year 2002
This is a fake.
I do remember that now. My screen is definitely not as bright as it once was. Doubt I would ever change the screen over now, but a white screen would have been nice.
Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
Now out of curiosity I hope they post all the videos so that we can see what else they have prepared.
A scroll wheel would be cool. It was impossible to use the Newton one handed. that was about the only thing I never liked about it. (Other than it was near impossible to sync and backup. Doh!)
<strong>it's totally fake. Don't watch it frame-by-frame, but watch it at full speed. Don't you see the words floating slightly differently than their physical surroundings?</strong><hr></blockquote>
i watched it a couple of times looking at what you said, but it looks to me like the change in pressure of the hand on the unit moving it slightly.
but the shadows around the edge of the screen reallt bother me...like they put a sorda apple looking cover on another pda.
<strong>Arrow over to the last frame of the video before it goes to the black spymac logo. Look at the "shadow" between the "iwalk" and whatever the blotch on the right is... any idea what the deal is?
Also, in the lower left of the device, where the white and "tan" meet, there is sort of a blurred spot... i dunno, i'll withhold judgement</strong><hr></blockquote>
The case appears to be clear plastic over white, like the iBook. The "shadow" I would guess is the reflection of the right edge of the device on the table top. The spot on the lower left looks like light reflecting off the case.
I've not used a Newton, so I won't go too far, but looking at the picture of the Newton, the interface looks quite different.
For you Newtonians: is this interface consistent with the Newton? i.e. Did it (or could you make it) look like this? The screen seems much squarer on this unit than on a Newton. Also, I seem to see a bit of "aqua" blue in the upper right corner; maybe it really is a color LCD but this particular app is mainly B&W.
My take: This is a real device, made by Apple, and is not a Newton. I suspect it is a prototype from the Dolphin project (Codename was posting a lot of stuff earlier that matches up with this pretty well). I agree with others that the esthetics and ergonomics make it unlikely to see the light of day as a real product.
Check out the Jog dial/ logo: It has problems with the perspective alignment with regards to the rest of the unit.
<a href="http://www.artificialstupidity.com/sayhello.mov"; target="_blank">http://www.artificialstupidity.com/sayhello.mov</a>;
It'll be there for a while.
I do a lot of post work like this, and the other Mike was correct. Whenever the writers hand hits the prop, it shakes it, someone just used a 4 corner besier warp in After fx or Combustion to basically place a layer on top of the device in perspective. The layer contains the text. Its fairly effective, but if they had been trying to do it correctly, they should have tracked the corners the whole time, rather than just assuming they stayed stationary.
Oh well.
.: Michael