third season of for all Mankind Now available on Apple TV+, and this time the science-fiction drama set in the 1990s with a billionaire who wants to explore Mars. In the first two episodes of this season, some viewers noticed that a very old Apple product made a cameo appearance on the show the Newton MessagePad.
But more than just putting a Newton messagepad on the show, the producers went beyond it. Since we are talking about a science-fiction drama, they came up with the idea of letting the characters use Newton for video calls. Of course, this was never possible with the real Newton in the ’90s, but it’s certainly fun to see what a primitive version of FaceTime could have been.
Ben McGinnis, one of the producers of for all Mankindshared on Twitter How did he shoot the scenes in which the Newton MessagePad was used for video calls.
According to McGinnis, the team has created a special Newton-based case that fits the iPhone 12 Pro Max. He also invented a fake accessory which is basically an external webcam that can be attached to the Newton MessagePad. While some scenes show the classic Newton interface, those with video calls were made with an iPhone.
“The #Newton POV angles on the show were #shotoniphone,” says McGinnis.
What is Newton?
For those unfamiliar, the Newton MessagePad was a personal digital assistant released by Apple in 1993. The device was controlled by a stylus and had handwriting recognition allowing users to take notes with ease. The Newton had smart features like a built-in calculator, calendar, and even an email client.
The device was introduced by then-Apple CEO John Scully during the period when Jobs was fired from the company. The very famous former Apple design chief Jony Ive, who joined the company in 1992, worked on the second generation Newton MessagePad – which was more compact and had a redesigned stylus with a rounded shape.
When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1998, he discontinued the Newton MessagePad. Despite all of the Newton’s issues, some believe it was far ahead of its time as it can be considered a very early prototype that led to the idea of the iPhone and iPad.
product placements for all Mankind
Unsurprisingly, Apple has a lot of product placements on the Apple TV+ show. Almost all the characters are constantly using iPhones, iPads, Macs and AirPods. However, since for all Mankind Set in the past, Apple had to wait until the show’s timeline went ahead before putting out product placements.
But the Newton isn’t the first Apple device to make a special cameo appearance for all Mankind, In season two, we saw several characters working with Apple II computers. Apple is yet to be updated for all Mankind For the fourth season. But if it does, I’m sure we’ll see iPods in space.
you can see now for all Mankind on Apple TV+.
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