How we love when the design community is one step ahead of the gadget geeks. After our post about Gizmodo uncovering the similarities between Apple and vintage Braun designed by Dieter Rams, it turns out that Emdashes’ Emily Gordon picked up on the Rams-channeling three years ago! In her post, “Haven’t I Seen You Somewhere Before,” she even picks though A Century of Design: Design Pioneers of the 20th Century by Penny Sparke to find the alignment in Rams’ philosophy:

Sparke continues, “For him the role of machines in the domestic environment were to be that of ‘silent butlers’: invisible and subservient, and there simply to make living easier and more comfortable. They were to be as self-effacing as possible and leave room for the role of beauty to be played by, say, a vase of flowers (in Rams’s case, the white tulips that he frequently chose to accompany his otherwise austere environments).”

Can’t you just imagine that in a Steve Jobs-issued memo? We’re madly in love with that Braun TPI with T3 receiver above she calls a “proto-iPod”…made in 1959.