This patent can’t possibly be enforceable, and (as with so many patents) should never be (never have been?) granted. There is endless and prominent prior art...
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Apple Imagines Mac-Inside-a-Keyboard Device Evocative of 80s Home Computers
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If the patent office determines it cannot be patented, that decision should protect Apple from patent trolls.
That’s not true at all. It’s not a factor in a patent litigation that some other patent was found not patentable by the patent office.
If Apple positioned this as a low-cost M1 gateway product I think it would be a winner.
Yea we have Raspberry Pi sort of things already but none of them run MacOS.
Yea we have Raspberry Pi sort of things already but none of them run MacOS.
For a user who already does have an hdmi monitor or someone who travels frequently and the places they go to have hdmi monitors I think that this could be something that is popular. As a user who doesn't require a whole lot of cpu or gpu performance I would consider this with a really nice monitor.
People have. Raspberry Pi 400, various retro machines, etc. Main issue is that if you go the x86 route, which is where most PC sales are, you get to choose between horrendously underpowered computing and keys that get so hot they melt your fingertips. Apple has an opportunity here because of the switch to Apple Silicon.
It’s also the kind of thing that is somewhat niche. It could fill in for Mac minis (which, themselves, are somewhat niche) for a lot of usage cases, but not all.
Just have marketing sell the x86 version mostly in the Arctic and Antarctic regions.
Yeah, it’d work for “Mac Mini on a desk with a monitor”, but it’d be a fail for “Mac Mini as a tiny server”, “bunch of Mac Mini’s in a rack”, etc. Lots of people seem to be envisioning only their own desk-with-a-monitor use case.
Also wouldn’t be that great for a “living room/entertainment center“ PC hooked to your tv, since you would be tethered to the tv.
I'd imagine that it would all be via some kind of iMac style power brick but with more than just an ethernet jack on the brick? Make the brick a TB4 hub? One (visible) cable out the center back of the iCompbord, the rest mounted discreetly behind the desk/monitor?
Came here to read through the replies, and say that depending on the price, I'd buy one just to put it inside a dead TI-99/4A? Figure out how to mod the cartridge slot to TB4 and mod a few old carts into USB drives ;-)
Well, I'd hope that it would be one TB4 cable connected in the center/back of the iCompBoard, the rest from an iMac-like power brick/TB4 hub, discreetly attached to the back of the desk or monitor?
Shrug?
Well?
Depending on the price, I'd buy one just to put it inside a dead TI-99/4A? Mod the cartridge slot to TB/USB and mod a few old carts into USB drives ;-)
I wonder if a Synology NAS would fit in the TI Expansion box? Hmmm..
Wish there was a way to play old TI games on M1 Macs these days? Maybe put a Parasec ROM on a USB drive inside a Parsec Cart? hmmmm.. Or mod an old cassette player into a USB drive, with Pirate Adventure cassette inside? Honestly, I'd be ecstatic to run TI BASIC and those two games again... hmmmm..
Probably a Pi project more than a iCompBoard/iKeyBoard Mod? Could do both I suppose?
I wish I still had all my old TI99 gear.. sigh.
And, I'm rambling..
Still...
Really would hate to see this *replace* the Mac Mini, though? Both Mac Minis I have are more servers, (one for office backups, and one for video/home theater use) and this form factor really wouldn't work for either?
Although, perhaps this design could be more easily modded into a rack mount? Hmmm..
Still, wouldn't fit *my* specific uses for Mac minis over the years?
Customers I have with Minis have pretty much always seemed to prefer mechanical KBs to any of Apple's available KBs since the first Mini was released? So, this wouldn't seem like a good fit for any of them either?
A cool idea, just not sure who would buy it outside the nostalgia crowd?
Depending on the price, I'd buy one just to put it inside a dead TI-99/4A? Mod the cartridge slot to TB/USB and mod a few old carts into USB drives ;-)
I wonder if a Synology NAS would fit in the TI Expansion box? Hmmm..
Wish there was a way to play old TI games on M1 Macs these days? Maybe put a Parasec ROM on a USB drive inside a Parsec Cart? hmmmm.. Or mod an old cassette player into a USB drive, with Pirate Adventure cassette inside? Honestly, I'd be ecstatic to run TI BASIC and those two games again... hmmmm..
Probably a Pi project more than a iCompBoard/iKeyBoard Mod? Could do both I suppose?
I wish I still had all my old TI99 gear.. sigh.
And, I'm rambling..
Still...
Really would hate to see this *replace* the Mac Mini, though? Both Mac Minis I have are more servers, (one for office backups, and one for video/home theater use) and this form factor really wouldn't work for either?
Although, perhaps this design could be more easily modded into a rack mount? Hmmm..
Still, wouldn't fit *my* specific uses for Mac minis over the years?
Customers I have with Minis have pretty much always seemed to prefer mechanical KBs to any of Apple's available KBs since the first Mini was released? So, this wouldn't seem like a good fit for any of them either?
A cool idea, just not sure who would buy it outside the nostalgia crowd?
I had one too. With the speech synthesizer and the peripheral expansion unit. I loved that thing.
Made it with AirPlay and it would be an interesting device to use in a living room together with Apple TV and any TV.