Dual Swingarm iMac G5?

[uberman42]

Apple has fooled you all!

SUCKERS!!!

Ya! Kinda like the other patent drawings for the iMac with the Dr. Octopus arm.

Here's the new iMac...take that picture, think of the complete opposite if it, and there is your new iMac.

1AM to 3AM PST is going to be interesting....

 

[jettredmont]

The only reason to add 2 arms instead of 1 is to make it do something that 1 arm can't do.
And I suggest that thing is wall mount. So that it can fold away.

About folding "flat" ... I reall can't see myself folding an LCD screen down "flat" yet face-up on a desk. The space above it would remain unusable for fear of something falling on it! And what a dust collector!

Good line of thought, though. That would certainly be a benefit if we're talking about a wall-mounting design.

 

[jettredmont]

Well the pyramid is slanted all the way down to the bottom, so it would be awkward to put a disk drive anywhere along the face of the pyramid. The dome at least straightens out as you get closer to the bottom of the base.

Um......that's what I meant if I wasn't clear.

Okay, but there's still a shape-dissimilarity there. The bottom of the semi-sphere is generally mostly upright, but it still curves dramatically from left to right. So, Apple provides (IIRC, it's been a while since I've gazed longingly at an iMac) a curved drive cover which flips down and out, revealing the actual drive tray.

I don't see the difference between a curved drive cover and one which rests at a 60/45 degree angle. Either way, it flips out, and the real mechanism takes over. Or, they go slot-loading and the slot loader "grips" pretty darned close to the opening of the slot anyways ('cause the slot-load grips don't need to be full-CD-height). FWIW, the PowerMac has a drawer-behind-cosmetic-door design, and the "real" door of the drive is quite far in there (which makes trading disks without looking a bit more difficult; the last quarter of the disk always hits the top of the opening unless I'm thinking about it).

 

[iMeowbot]

Hmm, now all you need is a big firey, glowing eye in the middle of that screen image...

 

[mvc]

Please God don't ever make me spend $2000 on a computer that I have to dump water into so it will stand up without falling over.

Sounds like an expensive pot plant to me. You have to water those too or they fall over. Perhaps a Palm™. No hang on, wrong manufacturer, an Apple Tree

 

[dr.Zoidberg]

cd tray

yeah, i hear you on the PM tray loading disc drive, i dont like having to visually guide it in...thats why i LOVE the slot loading on my TiBook...it is the best drive design ever....Why did they drop that design anyway? dont trays break and such? Anyone making any Kool-aid?

 

[jettredmont]

I understand why you might want a tv on the wall, or a monitor thats basically being used as a tv, especially a nice big 30" one.

BUT

Why do you want an iMac on the wall?

How are you going to use it - are you going to sit on a chair beneath it or across the room from it, using a wireless keyboard and mouse perhaps. Is that going to be comfortable, is it going to be usable for any activity except the most basic pointing and clicking. Fancy typing that way? How big a screen would it need for you to be able to read type on it from say 4 feet away, let alone 8 feet? How's the ergonomics of working from a lounge chair while viewing a screen on the wall that may or may not be at the right angle depending on how the furniture is arranged.

Try about two feet away. Which is about the same distance as my current monitor. Except the wall-mount monitor would fold back flat against the wall when I'm done with it.

I can't see how this would benefit anyone, I can imagine a use for a detachable screen that becomes a form of tablet / media viewer / remote controller, assuming that was technically do-able, but I cannot see any practical use for a wall mounted iMac. Am I missing something here? Anyone actually use wall mounted computers (i.e something you have to interface with) as opposed to wall mounted displays?

Ummmm .... yes. You are missing something.

You free up quite a bit of desk space that way. Yes, you still have the keyboard and mouse to stand on edge somewhere to get the desk completely cleared of computing debris, but for the folks out there who don't spend every minute of their time at their desk typing on the computer, getting it out of the way so that they can get "work" done is a really nice feature.

Personally, someday, I want to VESA-mount my screens to my wall so that I don't have to yield my desk space to them.

I mean, what good is a 2" flat panel display when it's still sitting on a 6" diameter base taking up a good square foot of desk space just because of its footprint and assorted clutter?

 

[Wonder Boy]

Why are so many people taking the pyramid base at face value/ It's just part of a sketch to show the subject, the arm, in use.

that's why i said "if that's for real..."

 

[AoWolf]

Try about two feet away. Which is about the same distance as my current monitor. Except the wall-mount monitor would fold back flat against the wall when I'm done with it.




Ummmm .... yes. You are missing something.

You free up quite a bit of desk space that way. Yes, you still have the keyboard and mouse to stand on edge somewhere to get the desk completely cleared of computing debris, but for the folks out there who don't spend every minute of their time at their desk typing on the computer, getting it out of the way so that they can get "work" done is a really nice feature.

Personally, someday, I want to VESA-mount my screens to my wall so that I don't have to yield my desk space to them.

I mean, what good is a 2" flat panel display when it's still sitting on a 6" diameter base taking up a good square foot of desk space just because of its footprint and assorted clutter?

Yeah but do you really want your $2000 dollar computer hanging on a nail?

 

[Kid Red]

What I find funny is the patent picture clearly shows a screen that looks nearly identical to todays current plastic clear screen and yet the artist's rendering has a hard square edged metal screen. I would then assume the base will not look like a charcoal grill version of the G5 and would instead be white as always.

 

[fixyourthinking]

A little clarification...

I was the one who initially wrote about the iMac having a gel cooling base. [by adding a water]

I realize it sounds silly at first, but it would provide a tremendous cooling effect.

For all those that said you wouldn't have water in your Mac - ummm don't order a Dual 2.5Ghz then ... what do you think is in the liquid cooling? Possibly, there's a liquid.

I also did not suggest the extreme of adding water yourself via conventional means. There are ways to add water without pouring it from a pitcher. Besides, you would be adding it to a gel that would form in the base, solidify into a gel, and therefore add weight and be a coolant.

See this slashdot article that talks about how there is a substance called sapphire that [if applied] can allow running water over the top of bare electrical wire and circuit boards.

 

[jettredmont]

Please God don't ever make me spend $2000 on a computer that I have to dump water into so it will stand up without falling over.

Can we just fill it with beach sand instead?

 

[BlueRevolution]

Everybody's going on about the pyramid base! The fact is, what is the most basic shape - the cube, right? So by not using the cube they may be telling us something, namely that the iMac G5 WILL have a cube base. It would certainly fit the shiny silver G5 heat sinks better . They wouldn't want to show us what the thing looks like before it's released, so no cube. And no sphere, of course, since that would be just the G4 all over again and that would get the rumors community REALLY complaining. Better to have them arguing about if a pyramid looks cool or not while they're quietly preparing to launch a cube. Or maybe I'm just grasping at straws here...

 

[Steve G.]

As a patent attorney...

OK, some of this may have been hit before, and I apologize for not sifting through all 200+ messages first, but:

1. The patent was filed for in October 2003, and issued last week. (This was already pointed out.)

2. The patent is for a "display device with a movable assembly". But in order to show how is connects to something, a base of some sort had to be shown. Besides, the pyramid gives nothing away about any potential base design. The one thing that it does show is that the arm gets connected at the top, through a single point. (If they had drawn a watermelon in there, I'm sure there'd be a series of posts about harnessing the electrical power of fruit.)

3. The timing of the issuance of the patent is completely out of Apple's control. No one can predict how long examination will take, even for a design patent. And then, after the patent is allowed by the USPTO, an issue fee must be paid. While there's a set deadline for that, when it's paid has an effect on when the patent will issue, and can be paid at any time prior to the deadline. And then there's a delay prior to actual issuance. All of that assumes that nothing goes wrong at the USPTO.

4. Having a patent on something doesn't mean it has to be used. With all of the iMac look-alikes that were out there (and wanna-bes that never got out), this could have been purely a defensive move on Apple's part.

-----
CYA disclaimer: This is not legal advice, and I'm hoping that you didn't think it was. I have never done any legal work for Apple. And this is a monitor arm, not Soylent Green!

 

[iMeowbot]

Can we just fill it with beach sand instead?

How about stuffing it with bacon, so that the G5 can can produce that yummy bacony smell?

 

[mvc]

Try about two feet away. Which is about the same distance as my current monitor. Except the wall-mount monitor would fold back flat against the wall when I'm done with it...

You free up quite a bit of desk space that way. Yes, you still have the keyboard and mouse to stand on edge somewhere to get the desk completely cleared of computing debris, but for the folks out there who don't spend every minute of their time at their desk typing on the computer, getting it out of the way so that they can get "work" done is a really nice feature...

Yeah, but you are talking about still using a desk to work at, so it's pretty marginal improvement since you have to position a desk at the spot on the wall where you have mounted your iMac. I can't see it being widely considered a huge benefit to the average consumer. Certain specialist situations might exist, like a busy techy or student in a crowded space or someone earlier mentioned an example in the medical arena, but its hardly a mainstream consumer requirement or selling point.

 

[ibjoshua]

dual = double = 2

Why do I keep reading about dual and double armed displays? This patent quite clearly has one arm with three joints. The current iMac also has one arm but only has two joints.

If you want to see what advantages three joints have over two then take your coffee mug (pencil, cd or any small object) and place it on your desk a foot in front of you. Now put your elbow on the desk in front of you and don't lift it off. Okay, your arm effectively only has two joints now (elbow and wrist) and if you're doing it correctly you won't be able to pick up, let alone touch the mug with your hand.

Three joints would add a lot of extra flexibility. You could have your monitor a foot above the desk and right in front of your face or at the same height but way back above the pc casing.

That said, I'm inclined to agree that the current iMac was a possibly a tradeoff of flexibilty against ease and cost of construction. Consequently I'm also inclined to agree that this is just a second generation design.

However, Steve Jobs once said that vertically mounted optical drives were a no-no at Apple, I've not been convinced of the 'pizza-box' rumour because of that. (No one seems to mention this anymore.) Does anyone have any ideas how they would get around that problem?

I know everyone is excited but there does seem to be a lot of knee-jerk posting around these forums these days. Calm down, read the posts, think and then by all means post something -- if you've got something to say.

As an earlier poster pointed out, this is an Apple patent so what good is anyone doing telling us that this is 'un-apple' (or words to that effect)? It's an Apple patent. End of story.

i_b_joshua

 

[savar]

The iMac has always had a distinctly different design and personality than the PowerMacs, and especially with the industrial, masculine look of the PowerMac G5, I would be willing to put money on the fact that the new iMac will implement a completely different design altogether. If it does turn out to be aluminum (which may be unlikely because of all the talk of aluminum shortages) I am sure that it will at least be coloured...

Hmm, yes and no.

Original iMac: Transparent & Bondi Blue
PowerMac G3: Translucent & blue..(Bondi? I'm not sure..)

iMac G4: white, molded plastic, rounded edges, silvery apple logos
PowerMac G4: white & silver, molded plastic, rounded edges, silvery apple logos

And now???

The iMac has always been differentiated by *form factor* (namely: all in one) but not strictly by color, aesthetics, or materials.

 

[Apple of my eye]

iMac, Maybe not

--The patent is for a display bracket. The lack of detail on the pyramid base leads me to believe that the base is not the focus but the bracket and swivel are. Perhaps this is a future option for mounting a cinema display.

 

[fluidinclusion]

It's not ever going to be made by Apple. Here's why:

Well the patent does include the base, so its dual swingarm + pyramid base. Like others have said, they were just cover their bases....literally. Maybe they thought having the dual swingarm was a bit of a quality assurance nightmare. It would have been......the current arm is already difficult enough. How do you get the wires through both arms without them being visible? And even if you could, there's always the chance of the cable breaking at the point where it passes through the joint that keeps the two arms together.

This isn't it, folks.

Also, do you install the DVD drive slanted into the pyramid? Do you install a DVD drive with a slanted front face? Either way, it doesn't sound like Apple.

Covering their bases with multiple design patents is Apple's way of making it harder for other companies to make all in one arm-based iMac knockoffs.

 

[mvc]

--The patent is for a display bracket. The lack of detail on the pyramid base leads me to believe that the base is not the focus but the bracket and swivel are. Perhaps this is a future option for mounting a cinema display.

I agree, that's much a more plausible and useful option.

 

[jettredmont]

Everybody's going on about the pyramid base! The fact is, what is the most basic shape - the cube, right? So by not using the cube they may be telling us something, namely that the iMac G5 WILL have a cube base.

Nah, Cube's been done before. Think different. Introducing ...

the iMac Torus.



If only Ford hadn't appropriated the shape's name already ... what might have been ...

 

[nek]

Okay kids, check out patent D489,370 -- same jointed arm on a domed base. Also notice that the drawings are fleshed out more, showing the arm from multiple angles.

I suspect that the pyramid is simply an alternative design considered for the G4 machine.

Patent D486,486 which is the current iMac, was filed on the same day (Nov. 8 2001) as D489,370 so it quite likely just an alternative design as you state.

But it still seems odd that they would file this newer patent in Oct. 2003 which shows the same jointed arm as the older patent but with a pyramid base instead of the iMac dome base. This patent also mentions the pyramid base while the other 2 patents just say it is attached to a base.

 

[CholEoptera36]

I was the one who initially wrote about the iMac having a gel cooling base. [by adding a water]

I realize it sounds silly at first, but it would provide a tremendous cooling effect.

For all those that said you wouldn't have water in your Mac - ummm don't order a Dual 2.5Ghz then ... what do you think is in the liquid cooling? Possibly, there's a liquid.

Okay, I'm an HVAC tech (Heating, Ventalation, Air Conditioning technitian). Here's something about liquid cooling. I use refrigerants to cool houses. When I was in college and learning about refrigerants, everybody including myself had a hard time grasping the fact that water can be used as a refrigerant, and can cool a house from 80 degrees F down to about 60 degrees F. When the right pressure is maintained you can change the temperature of a surrounding, especially air. Temp and pressure are both directly proportional. A liquid that can take air through an evaporator may also be able to disperse heat contained in the air through a condensor via pressure changes of high to low. The heat does not directly effect degrees of temperature, but BTU in the form of ladent heat. Ladent heat is the kind of heat given off or obtained to change the state of a substance. Vapors will be formed by high pressure, and then will change back to liquid again through low pressure changes in a system. This is what happens in your A/C units. They don't make cold air, they take the existing air in your house and take the heat out, then dump the heat outside. I can use water if I want to in order to accomplish this, but usually we use manufactured refrigerants(R-22, R-12, R-134a, etc.) that have extremely low boiling points to start with so we don't have to mess with as much pressure change to get our desired results. But the water idea is not so far fetched, you can use water to cool or refridgerate anything you want. If you can use it to cool a house, you can do it in a computer. Although I can't think of how they would use evaporators, compressors, and condensor parts like what's in an A/C unit to get the job done in a computer Still that would be interesting to see water used as a refrigerant for hot processors. Only you'd be dumping heat given off by the processor into your room which wouldn't be too pleasent. With an A/C unit you dump the heat off outside where your outside unit is.

 

[ibjoshua]

on the artist's rendering..

Another thing, there seems to be a lot of confusion and speculation about the artists rendering. If I'm not mistaken, Mudbug or someone else mocked this up to give a better idea of how the patent application may look if manufactured. There is no relationship between the patent drawings and the artist's rendering. Mudbug never claimed they were authentic apple renderings.

Rant over.

i_b_joshua