A 12-inch DVTa-stage prototype polycarbonate MacBook Neo from the year 2006. It is running OS X Tiger 10.4.6 beta 4 with a 1.5GHz Intel Core Duo processor and 512MB of DDR2 RAM.

The MacBook Neo was originally planned to accompany the MacBook and the MacBook Pro in 2006 as a 12-inch entry model, however the processor limitations resulted it being shelved. That is, until 20 years later when Apple Silicon finally made it possible.

#AlternateTimelineApple

Two screenshots showing an Apple product page advertising the "IEM-APP-A3122 Mk III" compared to a Sony product page advertising the "LiteBuds 6".

In an alternate timeline, Apple brands their products like Sony and Sony brands their products like Apple.

#AlternateTimelineApple
#AlternateTimelineSony

A disassembled 16-inch M5 Max MacBook Pro with no NAND packages on the main board and two of the battery cells replaced with 1.8" iPod hard drives.

Due to rising NAND prices, Apple takes inspiration from the original MacBook Air and ships the M5 generation of MacBooks with iPod hard drives instead of SSDs. Despite the slower speeds, they earned improved iFixit scores due to the better repairability.

#AlternateTimelineApple

Two side-by-side mocked-up Reddit screenshots. On the left shows a 2012 MacBook Pro precariously sitting on a wet stone floor outdoors in the rain with a power bank plugged in and a wireless mouse and gamepad, running Ubuntu Linux. On the right is a ThinkPad set on top of a microfibre cloth with a silicone keyboard dust cover, incorrectly installed. Beside it are a pair of fine-haired makeup brushes and some disposable gloves.

Just saw this in an alternate timeline.

#AlternateTimelineApple
#AlternateTimelineThinkPad

In an alternate timeline, Apple made the MacBook Pro with a translucent back plate, similar to the iBook G3.

#AlternateTimelineApple

A polycarbonate MacBook with a notched Liquid Retina display.

Apple introduces the all-new MacBook. It features the A20 chip in an unapologetically polycarbonate design, in a throwback to the original 2006 model.

It comes in five vibrant colours: White, pink, yellow, blue, and green.

#AlternateTimelineApple

A square Magic Trackpad-like device with an iPod-style Click Wheel on the top surface.

Expanding their line of Mac accessories, Apple releases the Magic Click Wheel. With a capacitive touch surface and tactile buttons, it is a dedicated media playback controller for compatible macOS, iOS, and iPadOS devices.

1,000 songs sold separately.

#AlternateTimelineApple

In an alternate timeline, the Scottish variant of the orange iPhone 17 Pro was much more resistant to colour-scratching than the international model because it was made by taking the silver version and anodising it in Irn Bru.

#AlternateTimelineApple

Screw you
*un-professionalises your iPhone 17 Pro*

#AlternateTimelineApple

A variant of the 2010 iPad, with a 15.5-inch display showing the iOS 3.2 Home Screen. Cydia is present, indicating that it is jailbroken.

The 2015 12.9" iPad Pro was not the first time Apple considered making a larger iPad. From the very beginning, they experimented with a 9.7" and a 15.5" iPad model however only the 9.7" made it to production. The yield for 15.5" touchscreens was too low.

#AlternateTimelineApple

Mmmmm… something powerful is coming.
#AlternateTimelineApple

An iPhone 17 Pro with a translucent Bondi blue back piece showing the internals.

Okay, but what if...?
(dbrand teardown skin image used as reference, the rest is edited by me)

#AlternateTimelineApple

A 2009 iPod nano, iPod classic, and iPod touch all with cameras on the back. Below, a hand is holding up an iPod classic and using it to record a video.

In response to the Flip Video's success, Apple originally intended for the 2009 iPod nano, classic, and touch to all have video cameras. The classic's camera was cancelled because the hard drive write speed wasn't enough for continuous 240p recording.

#AlternateTimelineApple

An iPod classic with a casing that resembles the iPhone 17 Pro.

Apple experimented on an 8th gen iPod classic with an A19 SoC, flash storage, and two-tone casing, however it was cancelled after an engineer made an offhand comment about how ugly the design looked.

The design was later reused for the iPhone 17 Pro.

#AlternateTimelineApple

I had a few expectations from 2025, but seeing my #AlternateTimelineApple satire posts being covered on Hong Kong's national news website because they missed the "satire" tag was not one of them.

(The article was probably written by AI with no human fact checking)

A comically small iPhone that is essentially the iPhone 17 Pro reduced to just its Plateau.

In an alternate timeline, Apple decided to revisit their small form factor iPhone, however instead of simply releasing an iPhone Mini, they went even further.

iPhone Nano had a 3" display and was the smallest ever iOS device.

#AlternateTimelineApple

A comically small iPhone 17 Pro Mini with a 4.7 inch screen, in between a regular iPhone 17 Pro and an iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Apple originally considered releasing a 4.7" iPhone 17 Pro Mini, however during DVT stage an engineer remarked how absurd the device looked while on a MagSafe store display stand and so development was scrapped.

(17 Pro and 15 Pro Max for scale)

#AlternateTimelineApple

iPhone 17 Pro, except the Ceramic Shield plate on the back has the screen and Click Wheel from an iPod 5th generation.

People on the Internet: Apple should bring back the iPod.
Apple:

#AlternateTimelineApple

An iPhone 17 Pro with the Camera Control replaced by a Digital Crown and button similar to that seen on the side of the Apple Watch Ultra.

PreEVT stage iPhone 17 Pro, Apple tried to replace the Camera Control with a Digital Crown and dedicated shutter button. This was in response to user feedback about the lack of tactility from a capacitive button.

This did not make it to production.

#AlternateTimelineApple

A 2007 MacBook Pro prototype with the trackpad replaced by a pair of iPod classic Click Wheels.

In 2007, Apple experimented with replacing MacBook trackpads with a pair of Click Wheels; one would move the cursor along the X-axis while the other would move it along the Y-axis. It was internally referred to as the Etch A Sketch Mac.

#AlternateTimelineApple

A 16" MacBook Pro with the keyboard and trackpad replaced by a large touch-sensitive virtual input screen.

Apple releases M5-powered MacBook Pro with a long-requested touch screen, however contrary to expectation instead of making the main screen touch-sensitive they actually replaced the entire lower half with a giant Touch Bar-like virtual keyboard.

#AlternateTimelineApple

An iPod classic with a thin back casing that resembles a 1st generation iPod touch.

Following on from the iPhone Air, Apple introduces the iPod Air. At just 6.1mm, it is the thinnest Click Wheel-based iPod yet while featuring all-day battery life, fast flash-based storage, and no headphone jack.

#AlternateTimelineApple

A 2003 iPod 3rd generation with a warning displayed on the screen. Title: "Severe Alert". Message: "This is a test of Emergency Alerts, A UK government service that will alert you if there's a life-threatening emergency nearby."

Got jumpscared while listening to music today. Anyone else in the UK get this alert?

#AlternateTimelineApple

Top image: An abnormally thick iPod 4th generation. Bottom image: The iPod disassembled, showing four dual-platted 1.8-inch hard drives stacked on top of each other.

EVT-stage prototype multi-disk iPod; it featured multiple dual-platter 1.8" hard drives in a RAID-0 configuration with a total storage capacity of 240GB.

#AlternateTimelineApple

A comically long iPhone 5 prototype with a 10-inch screen. It is running SwitchBoard, Apple's internal iOS test software.

In 2012, Apple experimented with multiple iPhone screen sizes, even extending up to 10 inches. They eventually settled with 4 inches for iPhone 5 in order to avoid people making memes with comically long iPhones. They still failed.

#AlternateTimelineApple

An original iPhone next to a larger version of itself, which has the same width as an iPhone 6 Plus.

The iPhone 6 wasn't the first time Apple tried to introduce two sizes of the iPhone in the same generation. Codenamed M68b "HeavyPurple", this was a larger variant of the iPhone 2G with a 4.8" 440 by 660 display.

#AlternateTimelineApple

AirPods Pro charging case with touch-sensitive buttons resembling a 2003 iPod. The buttons have red glowing icons representing rewind, menu, play/pause, and fast forward.

Prototype AirPods Pro with music control buttons. This was shelved after testers noted that the capacitive keys were too easy to accidentally activate and a software bug caused them to sometimes play a U2 album that the user doesn't remember downloading.

#AlternateTimelineApple

An Apple Magic Mouse 2 with an iPod nano 4th generation screen.

In 2017, Apple experimented with adding a screen to the Magic Mouse for media playback controls. It was canned after testing showed it drained too much battery and in some cases caused the battery to swell up and cause black spots on the screen.

#AlternateTimelineApple

Turns out they tried this concept even earlier, with the iPod Mini! Just like how the Mini screen couldn't fit the album name, the Mini secondary display couldn't fit the song title.

#AlternateTimelineApple

A 2004 iPod 4th generation with secondary screen that displays playback information. The song Exodus '04 by Utada Hikaru is currently playing.

In 2004, Apple experimented with adding a second screen to the iPod that would persistently display playback information, allowing users to use the main screen for other tasks. While this did not catch on, it became the inspiration for the Dynamic Island.

#AlternateTimelineApple