Everything Is an iPod In The Future: Difference between revisions

 

== Films -- Live-Action ==

** Nokia was enlisted to help design the communicators as well.

** It's probably worth noting that the Apple.com splash screen when the second-gen aluminium iMac was released had a frame from that movie on the iMac's screen.

** Ironically, the pop art bright colors in the Original Series make more sense as it prevents cabin fever among the crew.

** The films artbook actually almost outlines this trope word for word. It also refers to how the designers wanted the titular guide to look like the ''previous'' generations iPod to the Heart of Gold's current gen model.

* In the second ''[[Cube]]'', instead of something out of hell with dark shadows, visible circuit boards, spinning doorlatches and rumbling elevators, the environment of the new tesseract cube is almost user-friendly with all white surfaces and touch-to-open panels.

* The shiny areas of ''[[Minority Report]]'' qualify.

* The Work Pods and the interior of the ''Discovery'' in ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey]]'', made in 1968. This inspired the design of the iPod, hence the name. ("I'm sorry Dave, I can't play that...")

** Kaminoan interiors surely look like this trope, but it's subverted: the walls of Kamino's cities are actually covered by beautiful art... that's only visible in UV spectrum (and only Kaminoans have UV vision).

** Leia's ship that gets captured at the beginning of A New Hope.

 

 

== Literature ==

 

 

* The TARDIS in ''Doctor Who'' can be thought of as a version of this, in its original 1960s incarnation. The original set designer, Peter Brachacki, gave it a sterile white feel covered in a regular geometric pattern of circles with hints of neoclassical architecture to make it look "timeless", rather than making it deliberately futuristic. Due to the low budget the control console in the middle of the room was covered with conventional buttons, dials, levers and switches (Brachacki's original concept called for controls moulded specifically to the pilot's hands), but the sterile white roundel-covered walls became iconic and continue to inform the design of the current TARDIS sets nearly 50 years on. Amusingly, attempts by subsequent less visionary designers to make the TARDIS look deliberately futuristic (especially with [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0d/TARDIS_console_1983.jpg the console design in the 1980s], which looked like a giant [[wikipedia:BBC Micro|BBC Micro]]) dated at alarming speed.

** That original circular design on the walls is a hugely-enlarged photo of a pill packet!

* [[Andromeda]] computers are rather like this.

* The interiors of Moonbase Alpha on ''Space1999'', and the Alphans' Rudi Gernreich-designed uniforms (particularly during the first season, when they were more unisex).

 

== Video Games ==

* The shinier locales in ''[[Mass Effect]]'', like Illium or the Citadel, tend towards smooth white walls and blue [[Holographic Terminal|Holographic Terminals]]. Both of the Normandy ships also have a sleek, minimalist aesthetic in their interior.

* The Empire of the Rising Sun in ''[[Command and Conquer]]: Red Alert 3''.

* The Parasites from [[Gratuitous Space Battles]]. Their ships consist entirely of white metal hulls with brightly colored, transparent accents, and sleek weapons.

 

== Web Comics ==

* [[Robot Buddy|Winslow]] in ''[[Questionable Content]]'' is basically a very large, self-aware iPod with arms, legs and a video-screen "face", supposedly made by Apple. His PC and Linux-based counterparts have somewhat more physical faces that can change expression.

* [[Domain Tnemrot]] Tempest has a computer that looks and acts like an iPad. This is explained in the [[Word of God|notes]] as most tech in the future being touch screen.

 

 

== Western Animation ==

 

 

* Also compare the iPad, essentially an iPod touch with a screen that's twice as big in each direction but which may in fact be thinner. Or, as one critic wrote, a more powerful iPod Touch that can be used by people without the eyesight of an Air Force pilot.

* Deliberately averted by Microsoft with their design philosophy called "Metro"<ref>named for the signage used by mass transit systems, not metrosexuality. or so we've been told</ref> that was first used in the user interface for the Zune HD and later fully fleshed out in Windows Phone 7<ref>although elements of it date back to the "twist" UI used in Windows Media Center 2005 and earlier generation Zunes</ref> which eschews glossy, rounded icons for decidedly flat, square tiles and heavy [[Useful Notes/Fonts|typography]], along with off-centered alignments and text that runs off the screen in order to aid in navigation through contextual clues to reduce the amount of excess UI elements. It is about as un-Apple as they could get while still being visually distinctive and functional - which was the goal.

** Funnily enough, it was so Un-Apple that Apple seemed to finally take notice everyone was copying them and decided to sue everyone... except Microsoft.

** Microsoft played it straight with their view of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxPn4Eo0PRk 2020].

* The [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cf7IL_eZ38 "A Day Made of Glass"] commercial by Corning. 5 minutes of life in a world where nearly everything is either translucent or reflective, which makes it more like Everything Is Windows Aero in the Future.

* An early example was the Ford Sierra, when it first came out in 1982. It was the first of the Fords to sport the bulbous "aero look" and was so unique at the time, it was dubbed the "Salesman's Spaceship".

* The [http://www.westfield.com/ Westfield] chain of gigantic shopping malls, in the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand, to the point that rather than standing out for their design, the Apple stores in them completely blend in to their waves-of-curved-sheet-glass aesthetic.

* Discovery thinks this trope [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-px4MAKREs here]. Its a three parter about 2057, guess when this was made.