Apple’s lesser known desk phone, known as the W.A.L.T. (Wizzy Active Lifestyle Telephone), combined some telephone functions with faxing features, and now you can see in in action in a new video.
Thanks to prolific Australian leaker and writer Sonny Dickson, we now get to see for the first time ever a video of W.A.L.T.R. in action.
As evidenced by the video, the prototype device was powered by Mac System 6 and had abuilt-in monochromatic screen that responded to touch and stylus input.
You could customize ringtones, see the caller ID on the screen, edit the address book, send and receive faxes and even access online banking.
And here it is in action.
W.A.L.T. was designed in partnership with BellSouth. The device never went past the prototype stage and it’s remarkable that Dickson was able to get his hands on one of these rare prototypes.
From his report:
While it doesn’t amount to a lot today, it’s still extremely interesting to see the device in action, and shows that Apple was thinking about improving the concept of the desk phone (albeit not the mobile phone at that point) for a very long time before the original iPhone finally made its public release.
Manufactured largely from PowerBook 100 parts, all framed with a specialized version of Mac OS Classic that is customized with WALT bootup text and specific WALT related language. It even included a built in hard drive instead of using firmware, adding to it’s Mac-esque qualities.
Be sure to check out Sonny’s blog post if you’re interested in a bunch of photographs that show off the internals.
How do you like this piece of Apple history?
Let us know in the comments down below.
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