Apple's ugliest designs

[satchmo]

We all know the attention, beauty and design aethetics of Apple products. But that wasn't always the case. It has released some pretty hideous stuff in it's early days too.
What would you say is the ugliest desktop/laptop/peripheral from Apple?
I would submit the LC520/Performa all-in ones.

http://www.lowendmac.com/500/lc520.shtml

[ast3r3x]

You can't look back and call something ugly really. That was good looking for it's time. That is how computers were back then. The plain fact it had SOME curves was pretty good.

[Fran441]

The Performa 575 was my first Mac. :(

I had an Apple ][GS before that but I'll never forget the day it showed up. It was an excellent computer that was in service for many years. I used it until we got our first iMac and then my sister used it until the iMac was passed down to her.

Unfortunately, the 575 was in the basement when we had a flood a few weeks ago and I don't think I'll be able to boot it again since it was in a few inches of water. I might try and salvage the HD but I'm not even sure about that.

[digitalandres]

Hehe, the LC520 was my first computer ever. Wow.

[Chinney]

I find the G5 to be pretty ugly, to be honest. I would very gladly have one, but I would hide the box under the desk, or in an appropriate custom slot.

[Akumulator]

http://www.lowendmac.com/imacs/art/imac20.jpg

Sorry iMac owners.... I gotta say this one. The arm is pretty cool, but I find the iMac fugly.

[Dave K.]

Originally posted by Fran441
I had an Apple ][GS before that but I'll never forget the day it showed up. It was an excellent computer that was in service for many years. I used it until we got our first iMac and then my sister used it until the iMac was passed down to her.

You went from an Apple II GS to an iMac! :wow: Was there anything in between??

[LoCash]

Originally posted by ast3r3x
You can't look back and call something ugly really. That was good looking for it's time. That is how computers were back then. The plain fact it had SOME curves was pretty good.

Please explain the original toilet seat iBook to me then. In my opinion, the original ones never looked good. Not then, not now, not in the future.

[satchmo]

Originally posted by ast3r3x
You can't look back and call something ugly really. That was good looking for it's time. That is how computers were back then. The plain fact it had SOME curves was pretty good.

I disagree. Sure, things were different back then with respect to technology, but design is design. I think most of us can agree that the original 128K Mac is not ugly. Neither was the neXT computer. Yet that technology was no different.

My disdain for the LC520 is simply based on it's forced design. No flow, but simply hard edges that reveal each of it's components.

[Matvei]

I loved the tangerine ibooks!

I wish I had one now even.

My vote for ugliest Apple design is... The Flower Power iMac!

Now, that is ugly...

[ZO]

FLOWER POWER iMAC

That was just HORRENDOUS

With regards to actual design, the LC II and such were just big plastic rectangles that were pretty damn ugly

[ast3r3x]

I don't think the colored iBooks were that ugly at all. Horribly small screen, but not that bad. And durable like nothing else. They followed along with design at the time of the iMac and people (excluding you ;)) liked them.

It's like looking back at 80's clothing or ideas of flying from before the they discovered how and laughing. Yeah it's funny, and yeah 80's clothes are ugly, but that is how it was. At the time it wasn't bad. Do you think the Apple ][ would have been excepted as well if it looked like an iMac?

[Matvei]

I like the LCI, LCII and LCIII designs. Clean and non-garish. They are the antidote to ugly pcs with stickers, colored panels, neon lights and other riced-up designs. I like their understatedness.

Pizza boxes rule! I'd love a G4 in a pizza box (or a cube!).

[Placebo]

I personally hate the look of Sawtooth G4s. I don't know why exactly; it could be the 'ribbed' plastic, could be the bluish-grey highlights...it looked dark, trying to be futuristic.

[rok]

blue & white g3, mostly because a.) the blue was just so damn bright and b.) the watermarked "G3" on the side, which probably mocks its owners even today.

[Concord]

Y'know, of all the Apple designs over the years the only ones I can say I *really* liked were the Cube, the iPod, the Ti/Al-Powerbooks and the 20th anniversary Macs. Most of the Macs I'm more-or-less neutral on, but the real ugly ones IMO are:

Flower-power iMacs - uh, no.
The original clamshell iBooks - ugh.
The mirror-door G4 PMs - a mishmash of elements that just didn't work.
The G5 PMs aren't "ugly" per se, but they are so PC-like I almost want to call them Anti-Macs.


C.

[Messiahtosh]

The ugliest Mac created? Pretty much anything from 1987-1996, all of those (minus a few PB models) were downright bland.

Best Macs
------
Apple II
Macintosh
PowerBook (all)
iMac 1
Cube
iMac 2
PowerMac G3
PowerMac G4
PowerMac G5
iBook 1
iBook 2

Worst Macs
---------
Original Wooden Box Apple 1
Macintosh Portable
eMac
All those beige ones...:p

[Luca]

There must be something subtle about Apple's beige case designs, because I just love some of them and I hate others. I am neutral towards many of them though.

First of all, I love the cases for the IIci, IIsi, LC, and Quadra 630. They're all pretty simple, well proportioned, and durable. Another one I like is the PowerMac 8600/9600 case, which is really big and impressive.

On the other hand, I really, really dislike the cruddy metal cases used on the PowerMac 7100 and 4400. The 7100 used the same case as the IIvx and Quadra 650, and the PowerMac 4400 used a unique case design that was more like a DOS box than a Mac. Also, although the PowerMac 8100/8500 case is small and compact, it is also hell to work inside of it, so I don't really like that one either.

Personally I think the PowerMac G3 All-In-One was uglier than either the 500 series or the 5000 series Performas. None of them look very good, but the AIO takes the cake for ugliness as far as I'm concerned.

[FormerLurker]

Originally posted by Luca
the PowerMac 4400 used a unique case design that was more like a DOS box than a Mac.

dingdingding
wehaveawinner

[ast3r3x]

Uglier mac ever made...probably the clones!

[Dr. John Zoidberg]

Originally posted by rok
b.) the watermarked "G3" on the side, which probably mocks its owners even today.

HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA :lol:

At the time of their release, I thought they were pretty cool. But looking back now, they are garish. Then again, I was 14. Such sophisticated tastes I had.

[a_greer]

While the specs at the time were cool, the uglyest thing with an apple logo IMCO, is the 20th anniv. speacial edition, and the price, $10,000 if mem. serves.

but the uglyest macs are better than this:
http://home.c2i.net/jcg/cp5726-filer/image001.jpg

[Messiahtosh]

Originally posted by Luca
Personally I think the PowerMac G3 All-In-One was uglier than either the 500 series or the 5000 series Performas. None of them look very good, but the AIO takes the cake for ugliness as far as I'm concerned. Agreed! 7th grade library time was spent on those beasts.

[Jeremiah Rich]

Originally posted by LoCash
Please explain the original toilet seat iBook to me then. In my opinion, the original ones never looked good. Not then, not now, not in the future.

Hah. I must completely agree with you on that... So glad they aren't making them like that anymore. Now of course they WERE in fact very durable, but thats about all they had going for 'em. I'd like to see (if not already done) one photoshopped onto a toilet.

[Messiahtosh]

In my opinion, it was the perfect extension as the portable iMac.

As Ive said it best, "It's like the future yesterday...now what if George Jetson had a computer? That's the perfect way of capturing the problem."

[Amorph]

I have to second the PowerMac 4400. Ugliest. Mac. Ever. The 7100 gets dishonorable mention.

The Macintosh Portable was a pretty dubious looking thing, too.

Really, the great offense of most late-80's to mid-90's Macs is sheer blandness. The Mac II? Sure, it sold well, and the IIfx was a real powerhouse. But... meh. The 840av? A super-hot machine. But... meh. And so forth.

Even though I loved my 8600, and even though it was about as good-looking as the beige Macs got, I'll take any kind of iMac over its square beige tower esthetically.

The worst design post-iMac was the last iteration of the G3 iBook, with that spartan, squared-off shell in matte white plastic. That only looked good next to PC notebooks.

[Defiant]

Originally posted by Messiahtosh
Worst Macs
---------
Original Wooden Box Apple 1 A Mac is not an Apple, dummy. :rolleyes:

;) 8)

[Vox Barbara]

Originally posted by ast3r3x
You can't look back and call something ugly really. That was good looking for it's time. That is how computers were back then. The plain fact it had SOME curves was pretty good.

I find this reply helpfull;)

seriously, i don't understand that thread either.
guys open your eyes and take computer design (inc. apple) as it was and is: evolution to something better. Step by step. And don't isolate certain pieces in order to compare it with actual aestetical standards. Evolution is the keyword here.

Well, stop blaming apple for bad industrial design. This is simply pathetic. Yes it is:devil:

[Messiahtosh]

Typically the solution is so understated with Apple, the nature of the solution completely belies the complexity of the problem it is actually solving....wait, I didnt say that, Jonathan Ives did.;)

[Leonis]

Originally posted by ZO
FLOWER POWER iMAC

That was just HORRENDOUS

With regards to actual design, the LC II and such were just big plastic rectangles that were pretty damn ugly


AMEN! :D

[msantti]

I find the G5 to be pretty ugly

The G5 is all sex baby. :smokey:

[CosmoNut]

The Key Lime clamshell iBook. What the hell was Apple thinking? Not only did it look like a toilet seat, but it could be seen from the surface of the moon! *shudder*

I didn't have much of a problem with the Flower Power iMac. It was cool for the very small niche market that it served. I actually wanted a Blue Dalmation iMac for a while there. There was just something about it that I REALLY liked.

[Concord]

Originally posted by msantti:
The G5 is all sex baby.
Then I guess you think this is too... :D

http://members.shaw.ca/aesir/pedge_2600_front_314xvar.jpeg

Seeing as they're kissing cousins and all... :lol:


Cheers,

C.

[Zapchud]

There is no doubt in my heart that the FLOWER POWER IMAC was the ugliest mac EVAR!!

[HOM]

Apple's ugliest design? That's easy, Mac OS X.

[Kenneth]

Hey... for all FLOWER POWER IMAC haters... it is treated as a collectable item now.. live with the fact.

[Messiahtosh]

Originally posted by HOM
Apple's ugliest design? That's easy, Mac OS X. :err:

[Chinney]

Originally posted by msantti
The G5 is all sex baby. :smokey:

Actually, I think exactly the opposite. To me, it looks like "all work and no play".

The marketers wanted something that looked like a serious machine, to counter Apple’s image as just a ‘fun computer’ company. I think that they achieved that with the G5, inside and out, but the design does not excite me. On the other hand, I liked the FlowerPower iMac. But I guess that I am part of the problem, not part of the solution.:p

[KANE]

Originally posted by HOM
Apple's ugliest design? That's easy, Mac OS X.

HERETIC!! *C'mon guys, let's teach this infidel a lesson!*

[Vox Barbara]

Originally posted by HOM
Apple's ugliest design? That's easy, Mac OS X.

:wow:

well, by no stretch of my imagination i thought about that possibility. hm.

[Dr. John Zoidberg]

I'm going to admit that the Dell server doesn't look bad. Not particularly good, either, though.

I thought Key Lime was a great color. It was hours of retina-burning fun.

[kjm1863]

The ugliest without a doubt...the All-in One (Beige) G3/266. Not only ugly, but it must be the heaviest also!

[Giaguara]

Originally posted by HOM
Apple's ugliest design? That's easy, Mac OS X. :wow:

Hm, I would have REALLY voted for Classic. Anything before 7.x.


Another point: Everything is bound to its time. It is not fair to pick a model from the 1970s or 1980s and tell it is ugly. It may be, to today's criteria - but to tell with its time whether it was ugly or not, you have to know what the other computers looked at that time. A Mac of the 80's may look ubly, but if the VIC-20s, Commodore-64s, or Spectravideos don't turn you on .. is it fair to say it was ugly? If it was uglier than something by that time, maybe then.

For some reason, I like the 1980s box models. And for a reason I don't quite comprehend, I like even the Quadras (from 1991-2). I would like to buiuld a G4 or a G5 inside a Quadra, just .. to have the punk attitude. Just to prove that you can build your own lego Macs, and are not limited to the designs you get as default.
And to prove that not every design has to please everyone. You might hate the Quadra look, but I might like the Quadra for its guts - a G5 inside could make a difference.
Similarly, a dalmatian iMac or some other, more .. design solutions did not have to please everyone. By that time every computer had looked the same (ugly beige boxes from the PC world), and the 5 iMac colors were not new any more.

Cube is sweet. I would probably vote that as the sweetest design. If it could / when it can have a G5 inside, I want one.


Probably Power Macintosh G3 (Blue & White) would get my vote as one of the ugliest. Just because I've never been a fan of that tonality of blue, and the desing just does not turn me on.

[cybermonkey]

The apple 1 or I whatever it was and it's ridiculous wooden box :lol: followed closely by the lisa :no:

In no way, shape or form can you call OS X ugly!! Even window users want to emulate it.

[spindler]

Almost everything Apple has done has some merits to it. I really liked the beige models of the 1990s. They were handsome and friendly in a humble way. The one I don't like was the Mac IICX, which was just a boring square. In terms of software I would say the Quicktime 4 player and Sherlock 1 and 2.

[Pumpkintosh]

Worst:

4400 - I had one, and it grew on me initially. I wondered why everybody hated it. It wasn't that bad on the eyes. Then, I tried to open it up to work on it... Now I have eternal understanding.

The G5 - Yeah, it is well built, an engineering feat, a work of art, every detail thought of... but it is still uglier than Steve Ballmer in a thong.

Best:

The Power Mac 86/9600 case.
The El Capitan case.
The MDD case. (No, it is not an El Capitan. It is radically different internally, and very different externally. A drop down door does not automatically make any case an El Capitan.)
IIsi
LC/LC II/LC III