Skip to Content

Found Footage: A working NeXT Cube

Al Diblasi over at Alfred.TV keeps coming up with fun videos with old Apple or related devices as the centerpiece. In this latest 53-minute masterpiece on YouTube (below), Al boots up a 1991 68040-based NeXT Cube, and then shows off some of the built-in applications, an original brochure for the NeXT, a cool NeXT black turtleneck (Steve Jobs' influence, obviously), and a couple of versions of the NeXTstep OS and development environment.

For those of you who are new to the Mac world, NeXT was the company Steve Jobs founded after being kicked out of Apple. Originally, they produced both hardware, of which this NeXT Cube is a prime example, and software. NeXT was purchased by Apple in 1997, and the NeXTstep environment evolved into what we now know as Mac OS X and the Cocoa development suite. A NeXT computer used by Tim Berners-Lee was the world's first Web server.

Be sure to watch or at least skim through to the end of the video, where Al finds a couple more Apple gems in his brother's basement. You can follow Al's trips through retro computing on Twitter.


Al Diblasi over at Alfred.TV keeps coming up with fun videos with old Apple or related devices as the centerpiece. In this latest 53-minute...
 

Add a Comment

*0 / 3000 Character Maximum

13 Comments

Filter by:
carlo

I thought he presented very well, great to finally see a video of a NeXT cube.

December 03 2008 at 9:08 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Michael Van Houten

Wow...amazing. "Pages"...the "Dock". I guess Apple really did become NeXT.

December 03 2008 at 3:33 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
dogten

It resembles OSX because it is the basis of OSX. I set up the first NeXT lab at Texas A & M in 1991. I think my favorite part of it was the portable profiles. When you shut down a session you took your existence with you on portable personal media.

December 02 2008 at 7:44 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Daniel Jimenez

a next computer is used in Madonna's "Rain" video...

December 02 2008 at 3:39 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Eric

I have to say, I recognise several things from OS 9...

December 01 2008 at 5:17 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Paul

What is a moto roller chip.

December 01 2008 at 1:50 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
BeyondtheTech

Motoroler? :)

December 01 2008 at 11:43 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ken Villines

Here is a great Steve Jobs demo of NextStep 3. It is just unbelievable all the technology they had working...Video, graphics, next generation memory management. I think the machines were pretty expensive so we couldn't actually get this at home in 1991 unless you worked for Next or were Steve Jobs or Tim Berners-Lee*. Here is the demo and I recommend watching the entire thing because it will boggle the mind about how close this is to our current OS X.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j02b8Fuz73A

Other Links of Interest:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeXT

*first ever web server used by Tim Berners-Lee was a NextStep Cube

December 01 2008 at 10:49 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
ronny

awesome.....

similar -

Free iPod Song Downloads - Where To Download iPod Songs? -

http://www.techreviews4u.com/?p=1682

December 01 2008 at 9:55 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
MikeN

Can't stand this guy, all his vids drag on so much... I have not turned it on in 9 years my butt.. your not gonna record a video with out knowing if it boots..

But I have to hand it to him , he made me smile with his Motoroler !

December 01 2008 at 9:34 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to MikeN's comment
south

why not? after all, it's just him sitting in his room, it's not like he's doing it on live TV or anything.

December 01 2008 at 5:34 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Buy an ad here

Hot Apps on TUAW

Tweets

© 2012 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved.