Apple Planning Entirely New Mac Product Line?

[barkmonster]

How about just a "Mac"...

A mini tower with the innards of the core i5 iMac, 2 user upgradable hard drive bays, 4 user upgradable RAM slots, 2 PCIe slots, one containing a user upgradable graphics card. 7200rpm drive as standard.

It would fit between the Mac Mini and the iMac and share the smooth design of both while having a simple door mechanism on the back for upgrades.

That's the only Mac apart from a used Mac Pro that I ever see me buying unless I win the lottery or something.

I feel left out of Apple's customer base when they spent years providing entry level systems for a fair price from the G3 to the G5 then decided to dictate what we want from them by only providing workstations, laptops or a laptop for your desk.

Come on Apple £1,000 buys a lot of computing power these days, just look at the Mac Mini compared with the Mac Pro from only 3 years ago and sell me something inbetween!
(When I have the cash obviously)

 

[barkmonster]

Matt I think you are on to something. I do not think it's the tv yet. I think that the new mac pro will be like a super mac mini. Sizeable clusters which will be useful to my high end work and also driving my home entertainment, which could be replacing my apple tv for new tv next year. It's about the big picture and the mac pro's are too close to the old pc idea.

A thunderbolt based expansion chassis with several hard drive bays including an optical one, all with SATA 6Gb/s in a form factor the Mac Mini simply sits ontop of would be excellent.

 

[munkery]

However, I am not saying Thunderbolt is garbage. I think it has a great potential, just not for external GPU's I don't think is the answer.

The ViDock from a third party manufacturer provides big graphics improvements over integrated intel graphics via an external GPU connected by an ExpressCard slot. ThunderBolt has less bandwidth limitations than ExpressCard. Other limitations of ViDock, such as not driving to the laptop display, are not present with the Thunderbolt based dock for the Sony Viao Z which uses an AMD 6650 GPU.

Of course Microsoft would say that. But really that desicion is up to the hardware manufacturers.

Oh noes!

https://www.macrumors.com/2011/08/18/hp-to-spin-off-pc-business-as-sales-stagnate/

 

[hybra]

Does anyone remember news from a few days ago that Apple registered "Apple Pico" name? Inflating the "Mac Mini" size they could give us a less powerful, more affordable "Mac Pico" that's the size of an iPhone, with Bluetooth for connecting mouse/trackpad/keyboard and wi-fi for the display (or an integrated pico projector, but I doubt it). Less poweful because it's going to be an entirely "cloud" device.

 

[MacApple21]

A mini tower with the innards of the core i5 iMac, 2 user upgradable hard drive bays, 4 user upgradable RAM slots, 2 PCIe slots, one containing a user upgradable graphics card. 7200rpm drive as standard.

Oh the fabled xMac...
Well, firstly I call bogus on this particular rumor. I'm in no doubt, that all of the Macs will evolve, some of them (MBP, MP) probably before the end of this year. I don't think they will change any external things on neither the iMac nor the MacBook Air. I don't see what can be done? Besides both designs are less than 2 years old, and both are selling like hotcakes - why change a winning team?
Regarding the MBP and MP, it's a whole different story, though. Both designs are more than 2 years old, and especially the MBP has some potential regarding design changes (lose the optical, slimmer, more MBA-like). Still, I suspect we might see some water-cooling, but it's only a sneaking suspicion..

 

[sirenum]

A tardis???

made me lol

 

[spacemanspifff]

How about this?

I would love something like this...

Full touch screen, built-in keyboard, adjustable angle and runs Lion!

 

[Julius]

A thunderbolt based expansion chassis with several hard drive bays including an optical one, all with SATA 6Gb/s in a form factor the Mac Mini simply sits ontop of would be excellent.

You can already do this with a promise nas off the apple website. Of course without the sata option. Besides i would expect more from this announcement.

 

[Ephmreal]

What about laptop with a screen (like an iPad) for the keyboard/trackpad etc? remove buttons completely? That way, when the trackpad/keyboard arent needed, you can have dual screen.... stuff goin on...?


And the ability to play PC games without installing windows....

 

[sean.crees]

"Entirely New Product Line" would suggest not a revamp of a current product like a 15" MBA, or revamped MBP's, or a miniaturized Mac Pro. Not saying this stuff isn't going to happen, just saying that it wouldn't be "Entirely New Product Line"

The only thing i can think of that fits the bill of "Entirely New Product Line" would be Apple Televisions with integrated Apple TV. People have been talking about it for a while now, and it makes a lot of sense for Apple.

I'm foreseeing an October launch of stuff like the iPhone 5, and at the very end a "One More Thing..." "The New Apple TV"

 

[Ephmreal]

Oh the fabled xMac...
Still, I suspect we might see some water-cooling, but it's only a sneaking suspicion..

Hmm... water cooling in an electronic device im gonna be plugging into my mains.....? Id rather not....

 

[theSeb]

Does anyone remember news from a few days ago that Apple registered "Apple Pico" name? Inflating the "Mac Mini" size they could give us a less powerful, more affordable "Mac Pico" that's the size of an iPhone, with Bluetooth for connecting mouse/trackpad/keyboard and wi-fi for the display (or an integrated pico projector, but I doubt it). Less poweful because it's going to be an entirely "cloud" device.

That's not why Apple registered apple pico

A Handheld projector (also known as a pocket projector or mobile projector or pico projector) is an emerging technology that applies the use of an image projector in a handheld device. It is a response to the emergence of compact portable devices such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants, and digital cameras, which have sufficient storage capacity to handle presentation materials but little space to accommodate an attached display screen.

 

[Ephmreal]

Hmm... water cooling in an electronic device im gonna be plugging into my mains.....? Id rather not....

Why did that get down-marked??

 

[theSeb]

Why did that get down-marked??

I am guessing because water cooling for PCs has been available for many years and has proven to work.

 

[ndstrenge]

It's what happens when mac and iPad hook up: the MacPad.

It's a macbook pro with an iPad for a removable screen.

 

[Ephmreal]

It's what happens when mac and iPad hook up: the MacPad.

It's a macbook pro with an iPad for a removable screen.

ISnt it HP or Dell or someone who already has done this?

Through true enough had a go with a Windows tablet in HMV once... didnt end well...

----------

I am guessing because water cooling for PCs has been available for many years and has proven to work.

But it could all go horribly wrong.... ZZZZZAP...!

 

[Muro]

It's what happens when mac and iPad hook up: the MacPad.

It's a macbook pro with an iPad for a removable screen.

This is what I also think will come out but I would name it the iPac
(crossover between the iPad and iMac) think this name suits better into the current productline names.

 

[KnightWRX]

I would love something like this...

Full touch screen, built-in keyboard, adjustable angle and runs Lion!

Hum... none of the advantages of a tablet, none of the advantages of a desktop. All the cons of both.

 

[Tanguyvd]

The iMacbook Air Pro Touch!

... Classic, you forgot Classic

or it's about this *pico device

 

[AidenShaw]

speed and bandwidth caps make it impractical for most

Much of the above will be covered by iCloud in time. I don't think Apple is interested in going backwards into the "PC as a digital hub" age. It is all about "smaller, faster, lighter" devices that interface with the cloud to create the experience of the device just being an access tool to your data.

Someday, perhaps, but right now those 6 Gbps SATA ports are a lot faster than almost anyone's network connections.

A local hub to cache the cloud would help solve that, though.

It could even use BitTorrent-like technologies so that the "Mac Cloud" is formed by the sum of all of these "entirely new Mac" devices.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

All you who keep imagining a new computing device, remember that Apple regards itself as a consumer electronics company now, not a computer company. SJ has also recently described conventional computers as "trucks" that most people do not need.

Also from the article, if this is truly an entirely "new" product then its likely to be in a category of it's own, not a branch of some existing Apple product.

 

[Sackvillenb]

I don't know what they could or would put out... I could see a thinner 15 inch laptop perhaps... While I would LOVE to have something between the mac mini and imac (like a mac pro light), I really really doubt Apple would do something like that. That would be far too accommodating on their part, and I don't think it would make them very much money. In that respect, I could see a new ios device before a new osx device. But what kind of device? Who knows...

 

[roadbloc]

I would love something like this...

Full touch screen, built-in keyboard, adjustable angle and runs Lion!

Enjoy your neck-ache.

 

[Shop]

What about laptop with a screen (like an iPad) for the keyboard/trackpad etc? remove buttons completely? That way, when the trackpad/keyboard arent needed, you can have dual screen.... stuff goin on...?


And the ability to play PC games without installing windows....

Like this:

 

[MorphingDragon]

And of course Apple would say "Post-PC Era" if they can cause the demise of Computers, and push everyone towards tablets, they would be in a position to have a leading marketshare. Instead of their current 7-8%.

Funny how a company has to be succeeding at non-PCs to "usher in a Post PC era".

I could understand the term "Post-PC" if PC's were dying out, and tablets were a suitable replacement for all PC's. But as it stands now, Tablets are merely Media Consumption devices. They are not capable of creating much. And are currently not powerful enough to become a replacement. Yes there people out there like my Parents and Grandparents who use the iPads i bought them more than their Computers, but currently, they will inevitably come across something they need a PC for.

PCs aren't a replacement for ALL servers and dumb-terminals, are we not in ta post server-terminal era? Post-PC doesn't mean PCs wont exist or die out, just that PC is the has been mainstream computing medium.

A few years from now, you will see the youth stare at you in disbelief that a computer was something that had its own dedicated space in the house, just as the house sized computers before them.

The computer as we know it is changing, this is what the Post-PC era means. Cloud Computing is only the start, it has allowed us to be productive with only a Web Browser, it allows us to be system agnostic with maximum portability. Hell, a NZ Law Firm can access and be productive with all of their data and applications with only their Android tablets, and I'm not talking about a Citrix or RHEV session in a Java applet.

I agree with Microsoft, Tablets and such are not devices to replace your Computer, they are devices that compliment and work with your Computer. I believe that computers will always be around. Although Windows 8 will actually be a big step-up for Tablets, being a fullly fledged OS on one, allowing you access to the file-system, and everything a desktop can do.

I wouldn't trust a Microsoft opinion as fast as I can eat it in the form of a cake (the only good type of Microsoft opinion).

Microsoft's lack of agility is starting to show, in Enterprise and Consumer space. Google and Apple might as well just about own consumer space, especially in the portable market. IBM, Oracle, Red Hat and VMWare are absolutely making a Mockery of MS' enterprise infrastructure, slowly breaking the MS lockin by providing superior solutions that have the end user in mind at much better prices.

PCs are a two way relationship, the software effects the design of the hardware and visa-versa. If a company can effectively streamline the cloud, they are well on their way to being the next Apple.