mixgrafix said:
I ran across this in on sherlock Viewing Apple's stock notes.
http://www.hip-e.com/index.do
Good idea except it runs windows.
A home computer has to look the part. Let's be honest you wouldn't place a TV that was ugly as hell in your living room would you?
The people that design this stuff realise that the PC has to be a stylised home accessory, but they concentrate too much on trying to express what's in the box in the design instead of designing the box for itself: high-tech, streamlined and powerful.
My question is why? Apple's beauty comes from 2 main things:
1: The casing a practical: the G4 iMac took little space and allowed the user to control the position of the screen with little effort.
2: The are beautiful, independently of their content. This also appears to be the basis of design for Sony. When a G5 PowerMac/Alu display combo is switched off there is still the pleasure of looking at it for what it is, not for what it will do when you switch it on.
I really do wonder about the design philosophy of such companies. But then the problem also lays in the hands of the consumers. I, unfortunately, know a few people that would consider the hip-e to be a better design than the iMac G4 because it attempts to look cutting edge. The sad truth is that such pseudo-futuristic designs look dated because they draw on accepted design philosophies for such things, such as sloping lines. They also mix all these aspects of design philosophies with out any regard for whether they are well matched.
Anyway, enough of my moaning. The genius behind Jonathan Ive's designs is that he looks for simplicity. He takes one aspect of design and holds to it. I think he has improved over the years, although the G3 iMac was a brilliant design.
If we look at the G5 PowerMac, each face is simple. The curves are consistent at top and bottom. It is beautiful.
The 3rd gen iPod was a great improvement on the 1st and 2nd gens because it scrapped the sharp edges that conflicted with both the rounded back, the scroll wheel and surrounding buttons on the 2nd gen. The raised buttons on the 2nd gen made them the main feature and all else had to fit it - they didn't - not quite.
Now the 4th gen is an even greater improvement because the buttons are gone. I personally disliked them because their scale was wrong - I know they couldn't be any other way. I also like the grey wheel on the 4th gen because it brings it out as a feature and ensures that the curves of the iPod are the main feature - distracting the eye away from the rectangular screen.
Now back to the G4 iMac. It was good, but I thought that the hemispherical base conflicted slightly with the rectangular screen. He attempted to compensate by rounding the edges of the screen, but to me, it was a slight failure.
I am expecting the G5 iMac to be a thing of beauty and simplicity.
