New G4 Case Leaked?

[MacRumors]

MacOSX.org
claims to have spy pictures of the new G4 enclosure
due out next week at macworld. Real or not? Either
way, you should
click to see it before they get pulled...

 

[tywoods]

new case

I like the new case so far.

looks futuristic.
cant't wait till MW




ty

 

[arn]

looks like they could be real...

If so, at least some of the rumors running around were true.

arn

 

[ThomasB]

No Logo?

If Steve Jobs has stressed that the apple logo is up there with Nike and others, why no apple logo on front?

Could this just be a prototype that will spend the rest of its life in the shop?

I like the current one better anyway.

 

[Macwizzard]

Good case, I'm sceptic if it's real or not.

 

[TokyoAussie]

That case looks like an anti-climax of expectations.

 

[macdaddy]

FAKES?

They look too fake to be real. I would expect apple to produce pictures that were not obviously doctored with photoshop. I would be more likely to believe a hand-rendered picture rather than these. Plus there is an almost Compaq feel about those.

 

[Chevell]

Uhm, this is where that reading thing comes in handy.

Well DOY! I freely admited that they are photoshopped to conceal the location of the shots which will automatically give away the source. The source, BY THE WAY, is not Apple. You think Apple would just GIVE me photos? Lordy. Anyhow, I can guarantee you they are real, but do not take my word for it, wait ti MWNY.
-Chevell

 

[Foocha]

Very interesting

These pictures look real to me. I'm suprised that the new enclosure is so similar to the old one - I got the impression that it would look more like the new TiBook. It's not so much a redesign - more a refinement of the original case, which has not changed much since the Blue and White G3.

Apple's designs over the last year have become increasingly minimalistic - moving away from the rounded curves and bright colours that were part of the iMac's original appeal. If these pictures indicate that Apple hasn't abandonded the style of the G4 tower, but has refined it instead, I hope that the same will be true of the new iMac. I think it would be a shame to loose the curves and colours - they have become such a distinctive part of the brand identity.

 

[blakespot]

REAL

These images really do look real to me. Obviously they're not computer renderings. Especially the 4th image, on the linked-to page. Quite real seeming. There's not a lot of sense, to me, in using one of the iMac's higher-quality speakers (again, one) in the front of the G4, but hey...it does look sorta cool. (Think HAL's eye...) But indeed, now that the user above mentioned it....where is the Apple logo?

The only point that at-all makes me think they might not be real is the lack of logo. As far as "leaked" images that have come close to MW's in the past...these seem to be the real deal. I'd be on these being legit.

Let's see if the cease and decist order comes against that site we linked to. That'll be the sure way to tell... And it should happen in the next day or so...


blakespot

 

[pants]

a disappointment.

The ice cream box with teh useless handles is old hat. I believe these pictures to be true, but I an mighhty disappointed that this mac enclosure i no radical step away froma design that externally at least, has never cut it with me. All I can say is that great, those comedy childish doors are gone.
I would have killed for a Ti type enclosure, but this will leave me waiting.....

 

[hampsoc]

These pictures are so obviously fake, they go against all the other indications we've had so far. I just don't believe Apple would produce such an obvious rehash of the G4 tower. I could make this at home, given two hours and some double-sided sticky tape. Oh, I just realised that is exactly what someone has done!

 

[qwerty]

yep

im gonna have to agree... i don't think that apple would/should put out an industrial design that looks so much like an old product. 'IF' these pictures are real, the G4 tower will be the only product from apple sporting the translucent plasticy finish of old (bar airport).

why would they want to leave arguably the most important machine in their lineup out of the redesign?

i don't think they would, but then this is apple we are talking about.

also, the bad quality photos don't win me over. even if you had to cut out the background to protect the source, why is there a 'cut 'n' paste' feel about the whole thing. and that blur across the lot...

its nice to have something to take a poke at tho...

 

[InterfaceGuy]

Made At Home?

If someone thinks they can make this at home I'd like to see them try it. This can't be just an edited G4. Not only are the drive bay doors gone but do are all the stripes that go up the casing. I believe this to be the real deal. The only problem I find though is a white case won't match the displays, IMO. Maybe an additional display will be added. I hope so, I would love a white computer/display, would match my new iBook.

Looks to me like the door over the CD is clear but the door will still open up like the current G4.

This is a proto unit, that might explain why the Apple is gone?

 

[MacRumors]

I'd bet money that these are real. As for those that think they're fake becuase they look so much like the current G4 towers...yea, I've heard rumors about an Ti-looking tower...but only recently. For longer, and from more sources, I've heard that Apple is sticking with the basic G4 tower, using a slightly modified faceplate.

To me, this plays directly into the most abundant rumors I've heard on the matter, adding a good bit of credibility to these images, IMHO. We'll see when it's all over (or when letters from Apple legal start flowing about the images...)


blakespot

 

[rickag]

This is all nice and everything, but it's what's inside that matters.

 

[Pants]

well...

well, if they have put as much thought into the innards as they have the outside, then I suspect a 500 to 733 mhz G4.

 

[macboy]

I suspect that we'll see 633 - 933 or something like that.... maybe Apple will surprise us and will announce a 1 Gigahertz machine that will ship in september.... but announced in New York....

 

[Pants]

more to the point,

and Im prepared to bet 5 of Her Majesty finest beer vouchers with anybody here, if these ARE real pics, and such little effort has gone into the revamp, I bet you all that theres no 'great leap forward' in the imac design. More of a little stumble or trip..... and similarly, if these are real, I betya all we dont see a g4 running at 950+mhz. After all, we almost certainly wont be seeing the mystical Puma....

But how Id love to give this fiver away and prevent any further sclerosis....

 

[blakespot]

The industrial design of the iMac is more important than the G4 towers. The iMacs are more whimsical machines that must be sexy. The G4 towers go to people that are serious about wanting some hard-working, high-end Mac hardware. It should be a bit more "traditional" given the office setting that many of the towers will end up in. I think this slight change in the G4 says nothing about the iMac's design, which I feel will be radically different.

Anyway, I will be buying one of these new G4's (a dual processor machine hopefully!) and I'm pretty happy to see a bit of a change. It's enough that it does weigh as a plus, to me, the new design.

And I'm convinced that these photos are real.



blakespot

 

[Pants]

Originally posted by blakespot
The industrial design of the iMac is more important than the G4 towers. The iMacs are more whimsical machines that must be sexy. The G4 towers go to people that are serious about wanting some hard-working, high-end Mac hardware. It should be a bit more "traditional" given the office setting that many of the towers will end up in. I think this slight change in the G4 says nothing about the iMac's design, which I feel will be radically different.

Anyway, I will be buying one of these new G4's (a dual processor machine hopefully!) and I'm pretty happy to see a bit of a change. It's enough that it does weigh as a plus, to me, the new design.

And I'm convinced that these photos are real.



blakespot

Im not sure where your coming from with this blake me boy yes, we are serious about wanting hard working serious hardware. Just we dont seem to get it very often. The "traditional" g4 does look out of place in an office environment - if we wanted tradition, apple should have stuck with the (good) beige g3 tower. As it stands, teh silly plastic doors, daft 'handles' (is the g4 really a piece of roadie equipment??) and finger smudging front shiny front piece just doesnt cut it in an office.

One of the reasons Im prepared to shell out extra on apple tech is the element of design, both internal and external. The Ti book being an exemplary example where I am prepared to shell out over the odds for something I find visually pleasing. Again, the cube is another example. The g4 enclosure on the other hand is just an evolution of a beige box with 'gimmicks' and shiny plastic. its also old, dating back from the blue g3....

generally, if this mac world doesnt surprise me (and a fair few chums too), Im jumping ship for the first time in 15 long years. Its shaping up not too (dual proc i hear you say? like the 500dual is REALLY equivalent to a cheap gig + Athlon in anything other than pshop??or do Apple expect we all run a side business in print preparation? ) ...Personally Im getting fed up of waiting for "the next Mac world". like tomorrow, it never seems to quite arrive.....

 

[luxfero]

Where is the extra bay??

ok if it is true it is a bad news....
What about the extra bay that everybody wanted??
How could you get a professional machine that does not allow you that add a new driver??
The G4 design enclosure is very old now II really hope that something new and more expandable will be introduced at MWNY!

 

[arn]

Originally posted by Pants

The g4 enclosure on the other hand is just an evolution of a beige box with 'gimmicks' and shiny plastic. its also old, dating back from the blue g3....

I very much like the current G4 casings. I think they are very different from the "beige box"...

You can't expect Apple to wow/impress every with iteration of machine. Besides - you wouldn't want them to change designs every new Mac they put out.

generally, if this mac world doesnt surprise me (and a fair few chums too), Im jumping ship for the first time in 15 long years. Its shaping up not too (dual proc i hear you say? like the 500dual is REALLY equivalent to a cheap gig + Athlon in anything other than pshop??or do Apple expect we all run a side business in print preparation? ) ...Personally Im getting fed up of waiting for "the next Mac world". like tomorrow, it never seems to quite arrive.....

It's a bit ironic that you're telling Blake this... He had ordered the motherboard/heatsink/cddrive for a 1.4ghz Athlon machine about a week ago... but, then changed his mind.

Staying with Apple/Mac shouldn't necessarily be from the Industrial Design alone.... but the design and the subtle touches are a part of the Apple experience. What should keep you with Apple/Mac is the fineness of the whole solution/implementation. It was getting a bit sketchy for while as Mac OS 9 showed it's age.

Newton OS and the Messagepage 2100, however, was a complete Apple experience (along with poor marketing ) - but seriosly, the NewtonOS was insanely fine... as was the industrial design. Similarly, Mac OS X promises to offer a superior solution.... and it has a pretty candy coating for us too...

arn

 

[blakespot]

Seems like the wrong time to jump ship. I considered it. I can build a 1.4GHz Athlon w/ GeForce 3, RAID drives, etc. for $1,400. And that's in a nice, server-style tower case (expensive). I went as far as to purchase the motherboard, heatsinks, DVD drive, and floppy. Then it hit me. Regardless of how much faster that machine would be than a Mac (and yes, the 1.4GHz Athlon does indeed easily defeat any G4 out there presently)...I just couldn't bring myself to run Windows as my home OS. No. It feels proprietary, after using OS X and its Unix underpinnings.

We're at an early stage with OS X. It's an exciting time. There's new hardware on the way (and I think we'll be seeing dual 733's and potentially dual 8xx's--quite capable of running OS X very, very swiftly). There's native apps on the way--portings of Unix apps, OS 9 apps, PC apps. It's a stable OS using the best kernel out there (Mach + BSD), the most advanced GUI out there, and the single best applciation development toolkit included for free. (NeXTSTEP Developer, which had the precursor to OS X's kernel, and all the same dev tools, used to cost $5,999 -- no hardware in that price.)

It seems this is the worst time to jump ship. So I'm returning/eBay'ing what I've ordered to build the PC and am about to jump on the next G4 offering. I felt I'd regret the move to gravely.

(I admit... part of the decision had to do with me popping in "Pirates of Silicon Valley" the other night and watching a few minutes... made me patriotic.)



blakespot

 

[Pants]

excuse teh guest thing...

I did sign up, but uhh...lost my p/w a while ago....

The value thing in the design is important in that it is tangible evidence of that extra money you spent over and above a pc box. the thing is for me (and Im a solaris boy at work...) is I like the idea of osX, but like with all things computers, they *must* be bought today for use today - not sometime in the future. If you buy for what you *may* be able to do, your wasting your cash, as we all know. As it stands, osX is not that useable today even steve admits that - its lacking apps and speed, which, currently wont be improving it seems until Puma gets a release. If we are all raving tech heads and WANT unix, then linux on a pc is a far cheaper option - albeit uglier (hell, i can even play UT under it! ) if we want pretty, but vacuuous and expensive (currently the acne ridden blonde 14 year old to the workaholic brunette), we go osX. The blonde experience may get better, and may grow up to be a babe, but currently the brunette experience gives more satisfaction, especially if your desperate!

As it stands teh mac experience is not that great. sure its a mac - but nVidia drivers are no great shakes in comparison to the pc world, apples memory pricing is a complete comedy, the develpment tools that we would have paid for years ago are all freely downloadable for linux (but, hey thats progress! )....I'd also like to bring up the matter that the US version of the 'digital lifestyle' doesnt cross teh pond. Few Euros want or need a palm top - were to busy fiddling with our mobile phones!

Im really really hoping these pics are a fake, and that recent rumours of a top end of 850 mhz are a fib. If not I'll be bidding for your athlon board and getting me a cool case from thinkgeek.!! (will you ship across the pond? )