Twelve South Launches Horizontal BookArc Stand for Mac Pro

[furi0usbee]

FAIL. So let's design something and make it take up more space? The vertical footprint is best, just ask them when they made their vertical MacBook Pro stand, that I had and loved.

Doing this is just to sell a product. This serves ZERO purpose. If Apple made a horizontal tube, then they could have made a vertical stand for that, but this is total FAIL.

 

[Brian Y]

My issue with this. TwelveSouth make things that look very pretty, but their build quality is crap.

My BookArc's rubber feet were glued on at an angle. One of them come off during use, making the metal of the stand scratch my glass desk.

My Compass stand fell apart completely.

And finally (things come in three's right?) the rubber feet fell off my magic wand. They replaced it, but the new one done the same thing after a few months.

I stopped using my bookarc when the foot fell off - if I glue it back on, I wouldn't want another to fall off, making the stand holding my £2.5k MBP to become wobbly. Nor would I trust one with a much heavier Mac Pro.

 

[H2SO4]

Hot air rises. It was designed to sit the way it does for a reason. Turning it on it's side means it doesn't rise out the top but instead can heat up other components that it wasn't designed to have heated in that way.

Who says, "I wish this Mac Pro took up more space and I'd like to have $60 less than I currently have."

Point taken and it’s useless I know. Still love it though.

 

[Digital Dude]

I suppose if the MacPro was designed to sit horizontal that someone would design a rack to make it sit vertical. I mean, it looks different so maybe that's the point. On the other hand, the Sonnet xMacPro Server rack is a whole different animal which provides a meaningful orientation.

 

[I Am Designer™]

Just because you can... Doesn't mean you should.

Seems Twelve South have created a product purely for the sake of saying they have.

This takes a product that has a small footprint and small scale as one of its selling points and actually increases the footprint whilst creating something that would sit awkwardly.

The fact they have to mention the Apple Tech Note shows theyve had to justify the product after the fact.

Bizarre.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

This looks pretty good, and the price struck me as shockingly low. Just by virtue of it being an accessory for a 4 figure priced computer that doesn't look like ass, I expected it to have its own 3 figure price, so it's half the price I was expecting.

Having said that, I don't own a Mac Pro, and I'm not really thinking of getting one, so I have no plans of getting this.

 

[mrxak]

From this official documentation:

Every time this comes up, I am once again forced to ask the universe, why did this have to be a cylinder?

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

Boom! I like it!

 

[opeter]

Well ... it reminds me of a barrel (for vine, vodka, palinka, whatever ...):

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

it takes up less space in the rack cited in the article.

Who stores a bunch of Mac Pros in a racked studio cabinet? Those that are looking to rack-mount them will do so in a real rack and use something like this.

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/rackmacpro.html

 

[John Bokma]

Just what I want, a fan blowing hot air at me all day while I work and blowing paperwork off my desk.

You might displace more air with just breathing. The air flow out of a Mac pro is very gentle (at least the times I checked it in a store).

 

[ChrisCW11]

This looks really nice.....until you plug ANYTHING in. Doesn't look like there is much clearance at all underneath for connectors, and they'll look terrible coming out of the top or side!

Why would you ruin the aesthetics by trying to plug anything into this configuration? The product shots clearly show that this stand makes your Mac Pro work without having to plug anything into it effectively making it wireless.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

You might displace more air with just breathing. The air flow out of a Mac pro is very gentle (at least the times I checked it in a store).

What were you doing in the store? Browsing the internet or doing graphic builds, video processing, or other highly taxing things.

 

[Eweie]

I thought of designing a wall mount for the mac pro that would have it sideways like this but 3 seconds after I remembered the convection cooling and just got too lazy to figure out a solution. so have these guys.

I hope people are smart enough to not risk their mac pros this way.

 

[Larry-K]

Hot air rises. It was designed to sit the way it does for a reason. Turning it on it's side means it doesn't rise out the top but instead can heat up other components that it wasn't designed to have heated in that way.

Who says, "I wish this Mac Pro took up more space and I'd like to have $60 less than I currently have."

Yeah, don't screw with convection. Nothing to be gained.

----------

Well ... it reminds me of a barrel (for vine, vodka, palinka, whatever ...):

Image

I guess it would work as a wine heater, Sake anybody?

 

[PowerBook-G5]

Can't use the Mac Pro as a trashcan anymore. Major fail.

No, but if you install a fan control app and tirn the fan up to the max, it's a nice little desk warmer in the winter!

 

[BlazednSleepy]

Accessing the I/O is completely ruined with this stand. It's pretty. But not functional at all.

 

[george-brooks]

I've started pointing my Mac Pro cables TOWARD me... I kind of like it--like a switchboard. All the front-mounted ports I could wish!

That said, the novelty may wear off and I'll turn it to the wall again.

Which is how I'd use this horizontal stand: Whichever side of my desk had a wall (or was least seen), I'd aim the cables out that way, off the side of the desk.

Or, I'd turn the whole thing SIDEWAYS, saving desk space in front of it, and letting all cables go off the back. It would look interesting that way too.

Ahh, good point, that could look nice

 

[CarpalMac]

I want one. Just so I can have it sit, looking like this. I have zero need or use for it, it's just a thing of beauty and I want one.


This is why Apple is so successful.

 

[D.T.]

Pssh, providing sources doesn't mean anything these days.

/s

Yeah, no kidding. Someone makes a snarky comment, a bunch of special people upvote it, and it turns out it’s technically inaccurate. Swell.

 

[yashrg]

This looks really nice.....until you plug ANYTHING in. Doesn't look like there is much clearance at all underneath for connectors, and they'll look terrible coming out of the top or side!

That must be why none of the photos on their website actually have any cables running out the MacPro

 

[SPNarwhal]

This looks really nice.....until you plug ANYTHING in. Doesn't look like there is much clearance at all underneath for connectors, and they'll look terrible coming out of the top or side!

Looks like there is plenty of room on the bottom for cables to plug into. ?

 

[george-brooks]

Looks like there is plenty of room on the bottom for cables to plug into. ?

Doesn't really look like it to me, the couple photos I've seen with any cables plugged in show them coming out of the sides. I would be worried about how much the cable would have to bend at the connector to be plugged in underneath. Though a couple people have noted that you could place it sideways on the desk and have the cables come out of the back. Clearly all of the press photos don't have any cables plugged in for a reason!

 

[dagger01]

Hot air rises. It was designed to sit the way it does for a reason. Turning it on it's side means it doesn't rise out the top but instead can heat up other components that it wasn't designed to have heated in that way.

Who says, "I wish this Mac Pro took up more space and I'd like to have $60 less than I currently have."

Yes, I can see the Product Manager's head exploding when he saw this. It was designed to sit upright as you said to dissipate heat. Also, the fan is designed to operate with gravity pulling down on its bottom and not its side, so I am sure the fan will fail prematurely as well.

Good way to shorten the life of your Mac Pro. Given how expensive they are that's a pretty stupid thing to do. And no, putting this thing in a rack mount configuration is not a good idea, for all the reasons stated above and because it draws air in from the bottom mounting them vertically in a rack on shelves would be stupid, too, unless the shelves were solid and there was a good four inch or more air gap between shelves.

 

[wesk702]

That's actually beautiful.

It is but it's gonna look horrendous with 12 cords sticking out.