Unofficial, Yet Super Cool, Apple Museum Opens In Prague

While the Apple Store hasn’t officially come to Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, residents of the city have something else Apple-related to enjoy.

Recently, an unofficial Apple Museum has been opened in the Czech Republic, claiming to host the largest private exhibit of Apple products to date.

(Image: eirunning85 | Reddit)

The collection is housed in a total of three buildings in Prague, and has a pretty heft 472 items on display, including almost every Apple product ever released, as well as Steve Jobs’ business cards from his time at NeXT and Pixar.

The museum costs around $11 to enter, and all proceeds are reportedly being “donated to charity purposes.” Not only that, but soon enough entrants into the museum should soon also be able to enjoy food from a raw vegan restaurant called Steven’s Food, serving foods that probably would have been enjoyed by Jobs.

Apple itself doesn’t have a museum for its products, however there was one that was open until Jobs returned to the company in 1997. Unofficial museums, however, are popping up all over the place. Another museum, called All About Apple, claims to have the largest collection of Apple products, and is now open in a permanent location in Savona, Italy. Acording to reports, visitors to that museum an enjoy as many as 10,000 exhibits, including printers, hard disks, and so on, all of which are supposed to be in full working order.

Among the exhibits at the museum are one with different colored iMacs arranged in a circle, along with the words “The Different,” the slogan for the original iMac. The iMac was first released by Apple back in 1998, and has since evolved, looking nothing like the original. Gone are the transparent colors that were interesting at the time, but now look outdated. The iMac now features a sleek unibody design, gets thinner every few years, and now is offered with a 5K display.

(Image: eirunning85 | Reddit)

The museum also shows off the evolution of the iBook into the MacBook. The iBook was first released in 1999, and was discontinued in 2006. Originally, the computer features a “Clamshell” design which would look like a toy if it was released today. Like the iMac at the time, it was colorful and featured transparent plastic parts.

The Clamshell design was replaced with the “iBook G3 Snow,” which looked much more like a conventional laptop, and abandoned the colors in favor of a sleeker look. The laptop was only available in white, hence the “Snow,” and was lighter and smaller than the laptop it replaced. Eventually the iBook was replaced with the MacBook, which is still on offer by Apple and has been expended to include the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.

Way before the iBook was conceived, however, Apple released the Macintosh Portable. This computer was released in 1989, and was Apple’s first battery-powered computer. While it was met with excitement by many critics, it didn’t sell so well to consumers.

(Image: eirunning85 | Reddit)

The museum also holds classic computers such as the Apple II, and has one model of the Apple II Plus, this particular version being built by Bell & Howell. Bell & Howell made a model of the computer specifically targeted to the education market, and received a special license from Apple in order to do so.

The B&H model was the same as the consumer version of the Apple II, however it was sold in a black case and couldn’t be opened as easily. B&H also sold the unit with an optional “back pack,” which offered a number of inputs and outputs for external equipment, allowing equipment to easily work with the Apple II.

Of course, the museum also has the consumer version of the Apple II, which was one of the first highly successful personal computers and was designed mostly by Steve Wozniak. Somewhere between 5 and 6 million Apple II computers were sold between 1977 and 1993, and the computer was one of the longest running computers ever.

Unfortunately, most of us probably won’t be able to make the trek to Prague to see the museum, but thankfully Reddit user eirunning85, who lives in Prague, has posted some pictures to Reddit, so we can see what the museum looks like for ourselves.

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