'The Apple graveyard': 7 mythical Apple products from the past 50 years that never saw the light of day

Date:
Wed, 01 Apr 2026 08:00:00 +0000

Description:
Sometimes, that long-rumored Apple product stays a rumor and never graces the real world. Here are our favorite near-mythical gadgets from the company's 50-year history.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Tech Radar Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Become a Member in Seconds Unlock instant access to exclusive member
features. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting
your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Join the club Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. Explore An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter 50 years of Apple (Image credit: Future) We're celebrating Apple's 50th birthday with a week of content about the tech giant. It covers everything from personal recollections from our writers to the greatest and worst Apple gadgets as voted by you, and you can read it all on our 50 years of Apple page. Excalibur. The Holy Grail. Pandoras Box. Apple Car. Hang on one of those doesnt quite fit. But it turns out that while broader human history has given rise to many amazing mythical objects, so too specifically has Apple.

These are the products we heard about in hushed whispers during the companys first 50 years that never made it into the real world and instead went on a fast-track to the Apple graveyard. But what were they? And why werent they? Lets find out! Article continues below You may like From Ping to
'MobileMess': 11 things Apple got horribly wrong in the last 50 years Ranked: The 15 best Apple gadgets of the past 50 years as voted for by you 'A complete disaster': The 11 worst Apple gadgets ever, according to you 1.
Apple Car (20142024) (Image credit: Industry Leaders) Codenamed Project
Titan, the fabled Apple Car was eventually lobbed onto the Apple Scrapheap after a decade of tinkering. By then, it had reportedly transformed its appearance more often than Optimus Prime hopped up on sugared Energon .

One minute, it was a semi-autonomous electric vehicle that resembled a giant Magic Mouse. (You can only hope the charging port wasnt inconveniently
located underneath.) Later, it was a futuristic minivan compared to cutting-edge industry prototypes or, less charitably, a loaf of bread.

Ultimately, Apple decided it would sooner integrate its tech into other vehicles than make one itself, although not before an Apple Car prototype suffered the indignity of being rear-ended by a Nissan Leaf doddering along
at 15mph. Read more: Apple's Car project is dead according to a report and everything I've been telling you for the last nine years 2. Big Mac (1984) BigMac was actually the main focus of this family, with a portrait display
for pro workflows and high-end internals.After Steve was gone, Sculley killed BigMacand threw the BabyMac out with the MacBathwater. The new strategy? Emulate IBM exactly with a big CPU box: the Mac II.
pic.twitter.com/13hkbCP0Vy February 20, 2022 If nothing else, its a pity this product didnt make it, because it would have been entertaining to watch Apple and McDonalds throwing lawyers at one another. But this computer was almost the opposite of cheap fast food, reportedly destined to sport a snazzy portrait display, way more power than a Mac, and Unix underpinnings. Get
daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

When Steve Jobs was booted out of Apple, Big Mac became Dead Mac, and a project that had sneakily been rattling away in the background eventually arrived, with the much less fun name of Macintosh II .

Although with Apple alumni having revealed that the Big Mac prototype never went beyond a circuit board mounted on wood, perhaps thats just as well. 3. Apple Ring (from 2013) The Samsung Galaxy Ring (above) has never got to clash with an Apple-made rival so far, at least. (Image credit: Zachariah Kelly / TechRadar) With Apples penchant for wanting to make computers disappear, the Apple Ring would seem like a logical next step in its wearable line. Such a device would make even a 3rd-gen iPod shuffle look hefty by comparison although its hard to say what it would be used for. Health tracking? Gestural control of other Apple gear? Electrocuting your finger whenever you dare to criticize Apple? What to read next I saw Steve Jobs give his last WWDC presentation here's why it still matters 'Youre holding it wrong': 11 iconic phrases define Apple's last 50 years Apples best ever one more thing moments.

The Apple Ring remains in the realm of myths for now, presumably because
other smart rings havent set the world alight, and Apples solved most associated use cases with the Apple Watch .

Well, that and most people arent keen on devices that do a bunch of stuff but lack screens and controls. Just ask all those previous 3rd-gen iPod shuffle owners Read more: Will we get an Apple Ring in 2026? Here's what the rumors say so far 4. Apple TV (2010ish) (Image credit: Future / Apple) Today, you
can watch Apple TV (the streaming service) using the Apple TV app (er, an
app) on an Apple TV (the hardware). But analysts for years salivated at the prospect of Apple creating Apple TV (an actual television). You imagine the marketing team, less so.

Steve Jobs reportedly said Apple had cracked the code for a user-friendly, integrated set that eliminated the complexities of existing televisions. The resulting product would apparently have come in three sizes, and cost twice the price of similar contemporaneous televisions.

Its questionable, though, that the masses would feel compelled to double
their outlay when they could pay half and get the same experience by using an Apple TV (little black box version). Which is probably why the project was abruptly cancelled after a few years apt, given that the same so often happens to TV shows. 5. PowerBook G5 (2005) (Image credit: commons.wikimedia) Apples Intel Inside era was largely driven by its partnership with IBM hitting the rocks. The PowerPC G5 chip inside Mac towers never reached promised speeds. Worse, because it was so power-hungry and heat-intensive, it was no good for laptops, which remained stranded on the G4.

Apple valiantly aimed for the impossible, while internet wags less valiantly created mock-ups of slab-like PowerBooks, imagining the whopping heatsinks theyd need to run a G5.

On the plus side, we can guess what a PowerBook G5 would have been like,
since the first Intel MacBook Pro was basically a PowerBook G4 with a different chip. Imagine one of those, then, only with fans sounding like a
jet engine, desperately trying to keep the thing from melting. 6. Apple Watch with camera (20162025) (Image credit: USPTO) Even Captain Kirks fancy wrist communicator didnt have video. But that didnt stop Apple optimistically attempting to add a camera to Apple Watch. A slew of patents and rumors suggest this feature became a near-obsession, with Apple looking to embed a camera into the Digital Crown, within a detachable component, or on the end
of a pose-able watch band.

Proponents cheered on the idea of an Apple Watch for FaceTime and object scanning. Critics worried it could join smart glasses in becoming a PR nightmare due to surreptitious recording, and had concerns about battery life and usability.

For now, Apple seems content to leave cameras on devices you naturally point at things although rumblings suggest camera-equipped AirPods remain in contention. Sigh. Read more: AirPods with tiny AI cameras tipped to come in 2027, but that raises a question of what model they'll be in 7. Apple Paladin (mid-1990s) #MARCHintosh! Maybe the right time to start your home office pic.twitter.com/R9flrotXdm March 10, 2023 Remember the digital hub? That was Apples broadly successful idea to place a Mac at the center of your digital existence. Before that and the return of Steve Jobs there was the Apple Paladin, the digital hubs evil LinkedIn twin.

OK, thats unfair, but only because LinkedIn didnt exist back then. Nor, really, did the internet. So Paladin which also went under the inappropriately exciting codename Project X attempted to mash together a computer, a fax machine, a scanner and a telephone.

Reportedly, a few prototypes escaped into the wild, and so this final entry
is arguably merely borderline mythical. More like an Apple coelacanth, then and equally prehistoric. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!

And of course, you can also follow TechRadar on YouTube and TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp too



======================================================================
Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/tech/the-apple-graveyard-7-mythical-apple-products-f rom-the-past-50-years-that-never-saw-the-light-of-day


--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 (Linux/64)
* Origin: tqwNet Technology News (1337:1/100)