Way back in ancient times (by which I mean 1996), Apple was just another cheesy computer company leaping on the latest tech-buzz bandwagon -- advance to 3:00:
Seriously: "Another multimedia capability that's raising a lot of interest nowadays is virtual reality. And Apple is leading the way with Quicktime VR."
Yet another example (like this 1992 video) illustrating how easy it is for major tech companies to become excited about a new technology -- and how quickly they can drop it.
Oh yeah, if you're wondering how the hell Apple would ever make a video as cheese-ass as this one, there's a very good explanation for that:
This was shot in 1996, back in the times Apple was competing (or rather struggling to compete) with Windows desktop clones, led by a couple non-visionary, traditional computing business types. (Steve Jobs was still in exile from the company he co-created.) Ironically, if you asked a tech wiz in 1996 about the future of Apple, they'd probably say it would be the leading creator of virtual reality -- as opposed to phones.
Hat tip: Boing Boing.
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It's a bit of stretch to say that Apple's QuickTime VR, unveiled in 1994, was a "virtual reality app" in the way we now think of virtual reality. It was just a plug-in that was eventually incorporated into QuickTime that allowed support for cubic panoramas. (Actually, it was pretty cool when it came out.)
Posted by: Ziki Questi | Tuesday, March 24, 2015 at 04:38 AM
Yes. QTVR was very advanced for its time. It was used quite a bit in corporate training scenarios where people needed a 360 degree view of a space, such as a cleanroom or factory floor.
Be kind about the video. That was made 20 years ago. Things have changed in a big way in those 20 years.
Posted by: JustSayin | Friday, March 27, 2015 at 10:13 AM