Is Apple too design focused -- sleek sexy?

[Dybbuk]

I don't know, I appreciate Apple's focus on aesthetics; they are an undeniably large part of our culture. It is one of the main reasons I switched, to be honest. Computers and electronics, just like other large visible objects in your house, are FURNITURE, and they should not look like crap.

However, with the new iMac -- the keyboard in particular, which looks like those fake metal keyboards they put as placeholders at cheap furniture stores -- it seems like the worry of Apple worrying about being sleek and sexy will soon be a thing of the past!

(Also, I just bought a Macbook and it seems like white is on its way out, so I'm a tad bitter! Although, I guess I'll be like the cool dudes with Pismos.)

 

[HW-Hack]

My opinion is you can never be too design focused, so my answer is no. Also I do not see the relation between your problem and design.

User focused design and design bringing new elements into play are very important - but if your industrial design is cool and your electronics are hot - your products will fail.

In my past life I've gone round and round with the creative design guys/gals - both sides have to meet in the middle more or less. The standard PC (which I'm typing on) looks like crap - boxy - cables and crap everywhere. The current iMacs are sweet.

But my point is on the G5 iMacs that back case should have been about 1/2 inch thicker with proper venting via in-line-air flow of the internal parts or the addition of a vent fan .... god forbid we have some nice venting IN THE BACK OF THE MACHINE

 

[Macky-Mac]

....But my point is on the G5 iMacs that back case should have been about 1/2 inch thicker with proper venting via in-line-air flow of the internal parts or the addition of a vent fan .... god forbid we have some nice venting IN THE BACK OF THE MACHINE

The G5 was certainly known as a "hot" chip and you have some interesting points......but you really need to provide some evidence that the failure of your hard drive is part of some broad pattern of similar failures, otherwise it's just a matter of your personal experience, which could be random after all, and not a result of the case design.

 

[mad jew]

A mechanical failure on a hard drive is typically where the bearings burn out or the seek head augers into the platter surface.

A HW failure (as in electrical) is where a silicon component (chip - transistor - etc) stops working

Both of the above conditions are influenced by either excessive heat - or by being in an environment that just constantly hot

Thanks for clearing that up. I'd have thought a hardware failure encompasses either mechanical or electrical failures.