The original iPhone didn't always look so good, as these early prototypes show

Once upon a time, the original iPhone looked like the missing link between an iPod and something vaguely resembling an older smartphone. Indeed, the OG iPhone's elementary school graduation photo, shared by Ken Kocienda – to whom we owe the iPhone's on-screen software keyboard that practically everyone else copied – isn't all that flattering. But that doesn't matter, as the blocky, lumpy prototypes you are seeing were important milestones towards accomplishing the basic blueprint for virtually all smartphones that followed.

Ken Kocienda, who's still at Apple after 16 years (according to his LinkedIn), kept these early prototypes inside a drawer in his desk. They were called "Wallabies" inside the company, though no one can tell why. What do you think about the Wallabies? While we're still fond of our classic iPods, for they remain terrific music players even in the age of streaming, we're sure glad to have moved on to more elegant designs.

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