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macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,287
30,363
CNet has an article on the shallowed CRTs, that may slow the tide of LCD's.

Sarnoff said the technology, called S-Cubed, can shrink the depth of 32-inch displays from 22 inches to 11 inches. Unlike with other attempts at making thinner CRTs, picture quality will actually improve, said James Birch, Sarnoff's director of business development.

Birch said manufacturers could use their existing assembly lines to build the displays, although there would be a 10 percent to 15 percent increase in cost.
 
K

Kleetus Slack Jawed Yokel

Guest
It's not the depth, it's the light

In my own opinion, the worst feature of CRTs is not their size, it's the fact that prolonged use of a CRT is effectively prolonged staring into a lightbulb. It's like having a light shining in your eyes all day every day. Ouchie!

Eben though LCDs are backlit, they are still MUCH easier on the eyes. It's like comparing having visuals projected into your eyes with lights, or reading a well-lit piece of paper with the visuals on it. Which sounds friendlier?
 

evildead

macrumors 65816
Jun 18, 2001
1,275
0
WestCost, USA
I agree

I was at my eye Dr. and he has booklest in his waiting room about how bad CRT's are for your eyes. Also the radiation levels are much higher for CRT's They say that it should not effect us but.. better safe than sorry. For Adults its probably not bad but for kids... I have read that radiation is bad for them and brain development. And kids today are going to be sitting infront of a monitor for the rest of their lives. I just got a Apple 17" LCD. It is the best monitor I have ever owned. All my friends are gelous and eye strain is noticably less.
 
M

Mister Sparkle

Guest
Of course, this begs the question of what Apple's gonna do with their iMacs.

A more expensive CRT? An even more expensive LCD? Or what about those super-thin IBM CRTs I heard about?

I'd love to see an LCD iMac. I'd also LOVE to see iMacs go back down to $799.

I can just see Apple raising the price of the bottom line again, till you can't get an iMac for less than $1,399 or something. Sigh.

Konichiwa!
 

ThlayliTheFierce

macrumors regular
Jul 31, 2001
248
0
San Luis Obispo, CA
doubtful

I doubt that iMacs will ever reach those prices in the low end, it would alienate their biggest market, education. They'd rather go for cheaper iMacs over better ones. Remember, schools and students are both poor.


A computer engineering student
 
M

Mister Sparkle

Guest
re: doubtful

Then again, who would ever imagine that the iMac would go from $799 to $899 to $999????

Apple's really dropping the ball on this one. That's why it does seem possible they could raise the price even more to do a new screen technology, retarded though that may be.

Or maybe they'll keep the price this rediculously high when they add a new screen, instead of seeping back down to a reasonable price.


Miiister Spaaark-le... "You will join me or die!"
 

mnkeybsness

macrumors 68030
Jun 25, 2001
2,511
0
Moneyapolis, Minnesota
hey fish-bulb-(mr. spark-le)

ever think that apple will bring up the price and make the imacs better and maybe make a new low end/low cost computer for schools and students????

just a thought by my enormously large monkeybrain
 
M

Mister Sparkle

Guest
I would love to see that. A CRT iMac with nothing extra for $699, and an LCD iMac for $1299.

Thing is, if Apple was in the habit of thinking this way, why do iMacs cost a thousand dollars?

Does a kid in a computer lab need firewire and a CD burner? Do I need these in my corporate environment? Heck no! I can't believe I have to pay at least $200 more so secretaries in my office can burn CDs and do high-end video capture. (While I'd love these features plus LCD for my home computer.)

Sure, I know that the business world isn't exactly the mainstay of the Mac market, but does Apple really need to charge companies who dare to use Macs a premium?


I'm disrespectful to dirt! Can you see that I am serious?
 

Kela

macrumors 6502
May 12, 2001
287
1
US
Email to steve

I think all imac will have CRTs. None will have LCDs. Secondly, the starting imac will be a 533 mhz and the ending 733mhz. Also, the bottom of the line i-mac will come with 128mb ram and will retail at around 899-999$. The top end would go uptil 1699$ and will have 256mbram. Remeber people, they cannot sell one model for 999$ that has a CRT (which is thicker and hence needs a different hull/body) and another model which is also an i-mac and retails for only 700$ more (which is LCD). The reason behind this is that the imacs have to be made on the same assembly belt and hence different product designs cannot occur. They will all look the same just with different colors and the usual happiness.

- analytic Kela
 
M

Mister Sparkle

Guest
Well, then... the answer's obvious.

Keep the iMac pretty much like it is and try to get the price down. And also introduce the iPanel or something. A middle-of-the line, which Apple has been missing for quite a while. Sure, there won't be any new hardware at Paris, but maybe in January or something.

The thing is... Apple is saying they want to double their market share. How can they do that with four products? Especially when there are about a ka-friggin-jillion models that run the other OS?

I think it's high time they expanded their product line to include a mid-range desktop and portable.


You have many question, Mister Sparkle!
 

Jake R

macrumors newbie
Aug 20, 2001
14
0
Grand Rapids, MI
iMac2

I figure there will be an iMac II or something like that, with a smaller chassis that fits an LCD. I wonder about things like where the motherboard will be. If they put it right behind the display, there could be problems related to orientation of hard drives, etc. That was the nice thing about the CRT... it's footprint fit nicely over a motherboard, making for a nice, elegant design.

Ideally, a monitor can be angled to an appropriate viewing angle. This is somewhat more important for LCDs than CRTs, although color shifting based on viewing angle is a lot better than it used to be. If the panel is user-adjustable, and the motherboard is right behind it in the same part of the enclosure, that probably means that drives are moving too. You don't want to be changing the orientation of a drive while it's spinning. This isn't a big problem for hard drives, which spin on a solid bearing, but for things like CDs, it's probably not smart.

Given that, I don't think I'd want the CPU to be right behind the LCD part. If we follow that guideline, we end up with something hinged, like a Powerbook.

Oh, wait. We already have one of those.

So then, I figure have a small base with the drives in it, but keep the motherboard behind the monitor. A bit of ingenuity would take care of the hinged connection to the drives with no trouble, I'm sure. They've got the basics down already in the connection to the LCD in a laptop.

If they made the panel part of the thing, say, 2.5-3" thick, they could even fit in a standard AGP slot, oriented so that the card is parallel to the motherboard. How cool would that be? They could have a G4-esque swinging door on the back of the display, that gave access to the RAM and that card, too. All they'd have to do is figure some way to connect to the video card internally, which wouldn't be incredibly hard either.

Ah, speculation. Isn't it fun?

-Jake
 
U

Ummmm

Guest
There is a PC "iPanel"

sort of.

If you go to http://www.advantech.com there are industrial sysems with a built in LCD panel. Sure, they are PC's, but, it gives you an idea of how they can put somehing like that together. Of course, they are using a SBC(single board computer...), and notebook HD's.

Now, comparing what I am showing to you to an iMac is silly. The systems at Advantech are for indusrial control, automaion, or kiosks. (although I did see a touch screen iMac at an ABC Warehouse at a ?Whirlpool? display). The cost is way up there due to small size of some of the components, and the low quantities of production(I think).
 
J

junco927

Guest
My 2¢

I would like to see a G3 based power mac form factor for the "LCD iMac", sorta like an expandable Cube. It wouldn't be a G4 knock-off, rather it would be a grown up iMac. Throw in some pci ports, an AGP slot, and a couple of internal bays and a slot loading cdrw drive. It could even come in colors/patterns. The case would be finished like the new iBook.
 
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