Rare Apple WALT prototype goes for $8,000 on eBay

It’s somewhere between nostalgia and awesome and it just went for US8,000 on eBay yesterday.

Per the cool cats at The Verge, a user posted an auction for an Apple WALT (Wizzy Active Lifestyle Telephone), a device introduced at Macworld Boston in 1993.

WALT, like Newton, also had a touchscreen, a stylus, and handwriting recognition. It was designed to be a companion to a home landline phone, and was designed in cooperation with BellSouth. Built into WALT were services like an address book, fax, caller ID, custom ringtones, and online banking. To interact with all of these services, users worked with a customized version of System 6 with a HyperCard GUI in place of the Finder.

According to the seller’s description, “Back in 2008 PC World published a list of the “Top 15 Vaporware Products of All Time”. The W.A.LT. was #1.” While WALT was ogled by the public at Macworld Boston 1993, the device never went into production. This prototype, complete with a full printed user manual (so much for ease of use), was being sold by eBay user russel400.

Cool stuff, even though the eBay description does mention that you’ll need to solder a few connections to get the unit working again.

Besides, what else were you going to do with that US$8,000?