Macrumors said:
Lemme guess - Lisa gave Steve a Black and Decker Snakelight for Father's Day 2001?
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Apple Patent: Adjustable Screen Snake Arm
- Thread starter MacRumors
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Lemme guess - Lisa gave Steve a Black and Decker Snakelight for Father's Day 2001?
Reasons for patenting
Assuming you can afford to, it is wise to patent a new idea even if you don't think it's a good one.
Assuming you can afford to, it is wise to patent a new idea even if you don't think it's a good one.
neonart
macrumors 65816
ClimbingTheLog said:
And what's an eMac worth if you remove the monitor, the extra case parts, the larger power supply, etc.?
Apple *can* make a less expensive headless machine. They just don't. This would bring in tons of folks- including the frugal Linux nuts that always tell me- "Apple has some sweet boxes- but the're too high for me..."
It's beyond my comprehension. 😕
iMeowbot
macrumors G3
Le Big Mac said:
Concidentally, the place where I work built virtually identical LCD display arms for video microscopes a couple years ago. Those ball-and-tube tension arms are in common use for holding measurement instruments like indicators. They work beautifully for 4-to-5 inch monitors, but would definitely have been unwieldy for the iMac's 15-inch and larger displays.
Reliability would not have been an issue, but the two-handed adjustment would have been vastly inferior to the fingertip control that was ultimately chosen. (For the scopes, we needed the ability to bend around corners, so a swing arm wasn't in the running.)
thatwendigo
macrumors 6502a
ClimbingTheLog said:
You're talking about the general computer market, of which Apple is only a subset, and one with its own special economic issues. Unlike other OEMs, Apple is restricted to a number of proprietary formats that severely limit the ability to cut down pricing. Even if they were to accept a profit margin as low as, say, HP or Dell, they'd not be able to meet the same price point. This is simply a function of the extra cost in shorter runs of manufacturing, using parts and formats that are not industry standard, and even the parts that Apple has to build for itself, rather than having some off-the-shelf solution like other companies do.
It all adds up, and the only reason that the eMac is that cheap is that it uses parts that are out of date (PC133, PATA, and so on), to cut around the more expensive components. I'd not be surprised if the margin on the eMac is also far, far lower than their other machines, and that they're taking a hard hit on them in order to be able to claim a sub-$1k setup.
neonart said:
Once again, Apple cannot compete in the pricing game. There will be a company out there, using parts that are more standardized, more easily available, and cheaper, that will undercut them every time.
They need to keep focusing on quality.
legion said:
Altho a fair comment... 17 years in computer support has shown me that hardware is not the problem. Hardware is quite reliable. If software was as reliable as hardware... us support guys would be out of a job. 😀
In our fleet we have already about 20 laptops. A mix of Compaq and Dell. They have been quite reliable and on the rare occasion repair has been necessary it hasn't been a problem. Also, we have next business day repair agreements, so time delays aren't a problem either.
Moving data isn't an issue - we are on a network, users aren't supposed to keep anything on their computers.
Granted all that tho, we only keep our hardware for 3 years. Experience says beyond that you do see more problems.
PS As always, I do wish I could change us over to Macs. It's just those two mission critical Windows-only, resource-hogging Office-interacting apps. 🙁
whooleytoo
macrumors 604
neonart said:
Ditto! When the G5s came out, I scanned several pc website forums to gauge the reaction, and was suprised how positive it was (apart from the SPEC rating hullabulloo). But the universal reaction was, they're just too expensive.
Speed bump the PowerMacs, introduce a cheap, single processor iMac; make shedloads of cash from OS & iLife upgrades and AppleCare, and I'm a happy camper!
Wonder Boy
macrumors 6502a
Dont Hurt Me
macrumors 603
Man you are allways right there, worse then no seeums! Allways to APPLE'S RESCUE!thatwendigo said:
AMD does have a heck of a chip make no mistake. How do i know thatwendigo? because one is still matching what 2 G5s are doing thats how.
Im glad they didnt do the snake light thing. would have removed all the class the Imac has.
I think this was mentioned when the LCD iMac hit.....
if you remember when the LCD iMac first hit there was (is?) a quicktime vid on apple.com that had Jobs, and Ives and whomever else doing the "meet the new iMac". i*think* that's where i remember hearing this.... anyway they said the initial inspiration for the LCD iMac was a sunflower and the initial prototypes used a gooseneck design for massive adjustability of height and angle. they said the problem was that the gooseneck design was prone to tilting .... as in the screen not being square with your desk....
i'm sure working prototypes exist(ed).... but it was replaced with the more robust neck they produced.
if you remember when the LCD iMac first hit there was (is?) a quicktime vid on apple.com that had Jobs, and Ives and whomever else doing the "meet the new iMac". i*think* that's where i remember hearing this.... anyway they said the initial inspiration for the LCD iMac was a sunflower and the initial prototypes used a gooseneck design for massive adjustability of height and angle. they said the problem was that the gooseneck design was prone to tilting .... as in the screen not being square with your desk....
i'm sure working prototypes exist(ed).... but it was replaced with the more robust neck they produced.
dukemeiser
macrumors 6502a
I'd say it was just a prototype that was rejected. That arm system would look ugly compared to the current one.
Le Big Mac
macrumors 68030
inkswamp said:
There have been numerous reports/complaints about too much looseness in the pivot points such that the arm won't keep the screen at teh desired height. Not a problem for everyone, but when i've gone into apple stores, I usually see a couple of forlorn looking imacs with the arms in unnatural positions. The bigger problem than the fact that the joints get loose is that you can't just tighten the screws at home.
V E S A
Exactly!
And WTF is with Apple NOT adhering to VESA standards with their Cinema Displays???
You would think arrogance was only for Gates & Co.
They got the hint with having both ADC and DVI (DVI wins in numbers).
Sometimes NOT going with the flow results in a clog.
Dont Hurt Me said:
Exactly!
And WTF is with Apple NOT adhering to VESA standards with their Cinema Displays???
You would think arrogance was only for Gates & Co.
They got the hint with having both ADC and DVI (DVI wins in numbers).
Sometimes NOT going with the flow results in a clog.
kgarner
macrumors 68000
I looked at this patent last year, just after I started getting into patent drafting. This is in the same patent as the arm design they did use. This is what patent people call an embodiment. It is just meant to keep other people from finding a quick and easy route around your patent. You basically patent this to keep your competitors from doing it. I agree, that it is good they went with the other design, though.
ldkaplan
macrumors regular
The arm on my iMac is a bit loose. I was a tad mad at the fact that I can't tighten it back up. It's a secondary computer now so I don't worry too much, but it's fact that it does happen. The gooseneck approach would have been ugly IMHO...they went the correct route.
Le Big Mac said:
robbieduncan
Moderator emeritus
areyouwishing said:
There is no chance that Apple will introduce any new hardware that is bootable into OS 9. This simply will not happen.
dukemeiser said:
Yep. You're right.
Most people havent bothered to read the article, and had they, they would have realized that this patent is very old, pre LCD iMac. It was probably just one of the designs while they were still designing the LCD iMac.
ChrisH3677 said:
I go back and fourth on this. At IBM we all had our Thinkpads and the ability to work anywhere, which was nice. We also had the ability go home and dump the contents of the HD every night and walk of with millions in IP or install every class of spyware known to man and then bring it back into the office.
Laptops make a lot of sense in a lot of ways for corporate deployment, but the security issues alone would make me cringe if I were an IT support manager.
Dont Hurt Me said:
depends on how you define 'fine'. true, I have my monitor exactly where I want it, but if I have to be careful not to breath on it or else it starts an endless slide down onto my desk and I get to spend the next hour trying to get it to stay in place again.
voicegy
macrumors 65816
uzombie said:
Yeah, well, that's a point well taken, but these babies took care of it for my Cinema Display at work - and I'm very pleased with the results.😎
http://www.macmice.com/products_ergomac_1.html
Attachments
thatwendigo
macrumors 6502a
Dont Hurt Me said:
Someone has to counter your FUD.
Find a single post where I say that AMD doesn't do decent chip designs, DHM. I don't, because they're the only PC company I have any real respect for, largely because they're following along in a RISC-like attitude. They'd rather redesign a chip to get better performance than pull stupid crap like endlessly extending the pipeline and tacking on cache so that a dying model can keep going.
If I had to use a PC, it would be an Athlon of some variety.
Sure it's ugly but...
The cost of manufacturing that monstrosity would have been prohibitive. With all of those pieces -- each one needing some sort of locking mechanism, probably triggered by the lever behind the LCD... Like they say "Keep It Simple, Stupid!".
The cost of manufacturing that monstrosity would have been prohibitive. With all of those pieces -- each one needing some sort of locking mechanism, probably triggered by the lever behind the LCD... Like they say "Keep It Simple, Stupid!".
Dont Hurt Me
macrumors 603
I agree, in fact my wife has giving me the word order the Aurora! they just added a 5900se video card option for only 60 bucks more then the fx5200. Why am i waiting? time to jump off this TiTanic??thatwendigo said: