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G5 Tower design

What do you define a Pro-Tower by....what do you think Apple's approach should be ?

  • Geek factor X ........ Thumb screws, modularity and ease of Access. Screw the curves.

    Votes: 22 29.3%

  • Contemporary American "Muscle Car". Not quite so Geek friendly but at least not ignoring the power u

    Votes: 35 46.7%

  • About what the Quicksilver's like: Kinda easy but an obvious compromise that borders on irritating.

    Votes: 15 20.0%

  • What's a Power User? I just want a bigger screen. A tower's better right?

    Votes: 3 4.0%
  • Total voters
    75
Mac loco....

Wasn't the Mac that looked like a loco that Xtreme G4 thingy??? :confused:

It reminded me of a loco also a toaster and a expresso machine aswell!!!!:D

Actually the link that mischief put with the boxy G5 is disturbingly close to how I was imagining it to look...... but in chrome:p

I still think the firewire 2 and usb 2 ports should be at the front....... and it needs to have G5 laser etched on the side!! Remember how cool it felt when you had those huge G3 letters visible to all on the side of the B&W macs!! Oh yes........

Althouth Apple should offer the badgeless option like BMW do....... well those that own 316 have them de-badged as its quite embarrassing!!:p

If you own a M5 you keep that badge baby!!! Burn!!!:D
 
Perhaps I was misinterpreted.

I liked the simplicity and iPod-like look of the "boxy" one.

The form factor I had in mind was effectively a straight morph of the two if the "locomotive"'s "cow catcher" went away. Basically I liked having the processor, RAM and stripped mobo under that dome lookin section and then flaring out to the full width for the PCI section in the back. I wanted to sketch it out with shark-gill looking vents in the sides and two Manta ray mouth style air intakes in the front between the mobo and the Optical drives.

I just don't have the time to do it in CAD and convert it to a QTVR, make an iTools homepage to it then post a link.
 
It is the Xtreme G4

It is!!
It is!!
It is!!

I I can't find a picture of the thing either:mad:

Anyone know where to find this puppy??

And wasn't it super cooled or something???
 
They should make the new G5 out of Balsa wood. That way it wouldn't conduct electricity and would be really light. If not that, they could always look into ceramics or masonry. Nothing says longevity more than brick. Heck, they could make the pro-models out of real masonry and the consumer level ones out of brick veneer. Then, they could have special tile models for the designers out there. :D
 
Tell me something I DON'T know.

This is my first desk job. A year of nothing but clicking and walking 15 feet to the john has ruined my physique. I feel like a 50 year old man. Ack.:(
 
Here's what I want the towers to be like:

Dual upright and horizontal orientation with option rack ears.

How this would work is that the hard drive bays would be mounted in a square enclosure that can be snapped in place either horizontally or vertically. Same for the Optical drives, only with the addition of a 2nd CDrom bay.

Also I would like apple work on the case design to allow it to run cooler without using fans or at least only use one ultra silent fan.

I want my damn eject buttons back, how "ease of use" is no eject buttons exactly ?

they could do to put 1 USB port, 1 Firewire port and a headphone jack on the front of the unit rather than round the back too.

That should be about all that needs changing from my point of view apart from not skimping on the Level 3 cache for the entry level tower and putting the audio inputs back.
 
They need to put the power button back on the keyboard! I use it EVERY DAY. I do not shut down my machine most of the time, but I do put it to sleep. It is soooooo much easier to push the power button and then hit enter and walk away then it is to move the mouse, click apple go down to sleep. Seriously, about 1 second and that includes pushing your chair in!!

I want the power button back when I get my new computer! Come on G5, bring the power *button* back!!
 
I like the idea of both the eject and power down buttons. Simple, clean and a 1 button push option for simple tasks.
 
Apple has been ignoring the keyboard/mouse issue almost entirely.

I'm beginning to think perhaps they're gonna drop them entirely and just go with a touchscreen and handwriting recognition.
 
Touch screen?

Sony had one for about a week - it didn't last. It will be a while before you get something that sophisticated at the consumer level.

Handwriting recognition?

And you're changing not only hardware, but software as well. How would you write on the screen?

If there ever is an automated text system in mainstream computing it will be with speech recognition, not handwriting. Start thinking hands free.
 
In terms of enclosure design, I think SGI has always been way ahead of everyone else, Apple included. SGI sucks now, and I miss the days when they were really a company to be admired, with products to match. Anyway, I was thinking that the case design of the desktop SGI Origin 200 (1997-2001?), still looking cutting-edge today, would be quite fitting for a G5.

The photo of this machine is below. Basically imagine a silver version of this, some parts metal (e.g. the sides) and the rest a similarly-colored plastic. Incorporate a fold-down motherboard drawer the same as in current G4 case design. Slap a big slightly-darker-than-the-rest-of-the-case silver Apple logo on the sides. The entire front of the Origin is actually a door that can be opened to reveal almost a dozen hot-swap drive bays (this is a server, after all). Most of those drive bays wouldn't be necessary in a Mac; make the door smaller and add USB/Firewire ports on the front panel somewhere.

The Origin had only three fans, (one on the CPU, one in the power supply, one at the front), but it was still loud as all get out. That's unacceptable for a Mac. I want one QUIET chassis fan at most. To the poster who complained about the large heatsinks in advocating five fans in the case - I say why? The fewer fans you need, the more efficient and well-designed your enclosure is, the less energy you use, the less dust gets sucked into your system, the less noise your system makes, and the fewer parts there are inside the system that could malfunction. I consider having NO fans the ultimate goal. Apple ought to revive the Cube strategy of removing the power supply from the case.

By the way, those of you with neon-lit windows in the sides of your cases - do you realize how lame you are or are your Frodo ears deafening you to the criticism?

Alex

(Sorry, the post didn't include the picture - it is at http://www.sgi.com/origin/200/images/home_200.jpg
 
Not so.

Handwriting recognition is already built into X and Apple pioneered it's development through Newton.

Voice rec sounds good until you really think on it a bit.

Picture it:

Apple's main campus.........buildings full of cubicles in open-floorplan office space..........all is serene outside but upon entering the building: Suddenly we are submerged in the chaos of over a thousand 1 sided conversations, phonecalls, dictation.etc.

Now picture the home user: His wife (hopefully) asleep in the next room our protagonist verbally boots IE. (whispering) "Go to: titties dot com." The Mac responds with an error message: Please speak up I can't hear you. (Frustrated, normal conversational tone) "Go to Titties dot com"..........(From the other room) "Honey? Why are you up so late? And why are you surfing for smut???"

Sounds cool but it's a bad idea.
 
Re: Not so.

Originally posted by mischief
Handwriting recognition is already built into X and Apple pioneered it's development through Newton.

Voice rec sounds good until you really think on it a bit. Suddenly we are submerged in the chaos of over a thousand 1 sided conversations, phonecalls, dictation.etc.

Sounds cool but it's a bad idea.
Click to expand...

I have to disagree here.

Ever hear of signal processing? If you where a headset with a mic, even if you whisper, its going to be many dB above most background noise, which makes it easy to filter out.

Now, granted in a Dilbert environment, some one yelling across a cubicle might get picked up, but thats not going to happen all that often.

Besides, the voice recognition would have to be tied into a switch of somesort, mouse click, what ever so that it only activates when on.

But my main arguement would be that this is in the future, not any time soon. There is no way any computer is going to get rid of the mouse and keyboard in the next 5 years.

I just hope we see the G5 in less time.
 
It still doesn't work.

Have you ever tried to do tech support by phone?

Try Via voice once with food in your mouth or...say.....a chest cold.

It'll be the Betamax of I/Os - an interesting idea that went nowhere.

It's cool to WANT Star Trek but LAME to EXPECT it.

Compare handwriting rec to voice rec at the technology level. Voice rec is great for the disabled and supplementing other inputs but it SUX as a main input.
 
You want to place a bet and see where this all is in 5 years?

I agree there are some issues with the technology, but the evolution of the computer won't be stopped by a head cold.
 
probability

Though it may seem advantageous for pigs to have wings and it may even be genetically possible there are 2 problems:

1. Why would I waste my time making Pigs fly when Chickens already can?

2. Would you really want pig excrement falling from high altitudes?
 
Re: probability

Originally posted by mischief
Though it may seem advantageous for pigs to have wings and it may even be genetically possible there are 2 problems:

1. Why would I waste my time making Pigs fly when Chickens already can?

2. Would you really want pig excrement falling from high altitudes?
Click to expand...

Yeah, but chickens don't fly very well. They're not migratory, no.

Integration of a touch screen and handwriting recognition is something for PDAs. If pdas evolve into larger, faster machines (pc getting smaller and smaller), this too might come to pass.

More likely the keyboard will be for a long time and the other techs will be offered as upgrades or options.
 
According to SpyMac and other reliable reporting sources, the next generation G5 case will feature brushed chrome "monolith" configurations sporting a central circular "digital hub" interface, which will be covered to prevent people poke-poking it like the current quicksilvers.

Hal480x832.jpg


It also sings "Daisy,...Daisy" and will kick your ass in space!
 
Originally posted by Digidesign
According to SpyMac and other reliable reporting sources
Click to expand...

You shouldn't really call SpyMac reliable. Its just not right. What are your othe sorces?
 
Liquid G5.....

Genius.....:p

Then it could take the shape of anything you'd want it too!!!:p

What would I want it to look like though??? now the question???
 
Hey alex_ant, that SGI station looks a lot like my UPS (from MGE inc.).

Digidesign, listing spymac along with reliable sources is like calling hitler a nice guy, it just doesn't work.

How about having a system built on the same liquid metal tech as seen in Terminator 2??? :D... You can then make it into whatever shape you wanted. Anything from a tower to an ultra compact portable.
 
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