"Close the World, Open the nExt" is the phrase seen at the end of every episode of the anime series Serial Experiments Lain. It is yet another play off of Apple Computer.
nExt seems to be a play on NeXT. When Apple co-founder and current iCEO Steve Jobs was ousted from Apple in the 80's, he founded NeXT. NeXT computers were impressive machines with an advanced OS, and they cost approximately $10,000. The Application Programming Interface (API) for NeXT was called OPENSTEP. When Apple was looking for a new OS to replace the floundering Copland project, they ended up choosing between two operating systems, BeOS and NEXTSTEP. They ended buying NeXT, bringing back Steve Jobs to Apple in the process. NEXTSTEP provided the technological basis for Apple's next-gen OS project codenamed Rhapsody, which eventually evolved into Mac OS X. The Mac OS X server-side version is currently available. The client-side version of Mac OS X is due in the summer of 2000. Most new Apple computers run Mac OS 9 which features voiceprint password computer activation, sort of like the Navis in lain.