Confirmed: Mac Pro is history, succeeded by Jobs' final project

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  • Reply 21 of 48
    macroninmacronin Posts: 1,174member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Junkyard Dawg View Post


    I've just returned from a west coast visit to an old college buddy, who is a worker bee at a colossal fx studio that buys hundreds of Mac Pro's each year. Occasionally this studio is graced with an Apple test mule, which normally is nothing exciting, just the same old tower with a new logic board and Xeons. Added to that, my buddy doesn't work in "the cage" where only a select few use the test mules. But he does occasionally collaborate with those lucky few who do!



    So last month he's in the cage, and there's a big freakin' cube in there. At first glance, he didn't think it was a Mac, but upon further study it sure seemed like an Ives design. Another guy noticed him studying it and said, "that's Steve's baby, right there! It's not a Mac, either. It's an Apple Pro!"



    Yes, Jobs wanted one last go at the Cube before he finally logged out. We all know how much Jobs hates tower computers, and the Mac Pro was no exception. My buddy says he really nailed it with this one, it's flat-out the most perfect desktop design he's ever used.



    As far design, the Apple Pro is a direct descendant of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_cube">; NeXTcube.</a> 12", cubed. Aluminum, anodized black (or maybe gunmetal grey, hard to say with the lighting). Vents ring the top of the cube's sides, so it's stackable. The cube was stacked on another half cube, only six inches high. How to easily stack it? Handles slide out from the bottom. Slick.



    Components are accessed by removing either the left or right side panels. Left side for RAM, CPU, and HDs. Right side for PCIe sockets. One 3.5 GHz Ivy Bridge processor. Only two tiny HD bays, this sucker runs SSDs off the PCIe bus, and in this test mule, there was built-in hardware RAID support, no extra PCIe card needed. Three PCIe slots, two of which were used by video cards, with one remaining. No extra-long PCIe card support, unfortunately. It wouldn't be a true Apple product if it wasn't gimped in some way. Optical drives? What, and ruin the perfection of the cube's faces? Looks like it's external optical drives for any professional who, God forbid, want to burn a project onto Blu-ray.



    The half cube was styled exactly like the cube. It's a six drive Thunderbolt RAID enclosure. A proprietary connector links the RAID half cube to the cube, so it powers on and off with the cube. There's also means to manually power it on and off so it can be used with any computer. Slick.



    Now for the coolest part: the guys says to my buddy, what we're really testing is the new Apple Galaxy system. Huh? He points across the room. On a desk are two four foot stacks of cubes. The anodized aluminum and cube designs conspire to make the towering stacks into works of art. The guy says, one stack of four cubes will costs us about the same as a high-end Mac Pro, and we can add cubes and half cubes one at a time as we need more power. Galaxy is incredible, he says. They've been working on beta versions of Galaxy for years, but now with the cubes it finally makes sense. My buddy says, "The Apple Pro with Galaxy will enable Apple to finally conquer the creative studio market" They're more powerful than Mac Pros, more expandable, cheaper, and damn sexy.



    The chatter is that Steve had a hell of a time getting this project authorized. Mac Pro sales are "in the thousands" and Steve was the only one at Apple who wanted to have another go at the desktop market. It's widely believed that this cube was only given the final go upon Steve's death, as it was his last wish.



    I just had to quote all of that, what a great read?!



    If this product ever became available, I would have a total nerdgasm?!



    And the head over to the Apple Store to price one out?



    (?just thinking that once the Galaxy code goes public, an old NeXT cube still running in a sealed off sub-basement of Steve Jobs old mansion will kick into gear and trigger a signal to the Apple data center in NC, uploading Steve'e digitized consciousness, which will then permeate the internet & any computer system it comes into contact with?)
  • Reply 22 of 48
    I wish this becomes true. I'm up for a new Mac this year and if a headless desktop comes out with a good price it will a be a no brainer for me.
  • Reply 23 of 48
    chris vchris v Posts: 460member
    That really was a lovely piece of fanfic, and I kinda hope it's actually true. I'd pile those things up on my desk until I could run 128 tracks of 24-bit audio & 128 simultaneous Space Designers.



    Just because I could.
  • Reply 24 of 48
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    Something like this might get me to update early.



    This would be somewhat dependent upon the status of he iPad as the idea here is to give up on a Mac portable for the desktop variant. I can see the day when people drop laptops for iPad/Desktop Mac Combos.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by LoganHunter View Post


    I wish this becomes true. I'm up for a new Mac this year and if a headless desktop comes out with a good price it will a be a no brainer for me.



    No brainer is right, especially if it represents a new generation technology wise. All in all desktops have been far less of a problem for me than laptops.
  • Reply 25 of 48
    shrikeshrike Posts: 494member
    Wow. That's quite the nostalgic post there Junkyard Dawg!
  • Reply 26 of 48
    jousterjouster Posts: 460member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Shrike View Post


    Wow. That's quite the nostalgic post there Junkyard Dawg!



    I know! It made me think of *the* Workerbee...or was that MacRumors? Or ThinkSecret? Damn. It's been a long time.
  • Reply 27 of 48
    shrikeshrike Posts: 494member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jouster View Post


    I know! It made me think of *the* Workerbee...or was that MacRumors? Or ThinkSecret? Damn. It's been a long time.



    I have vague memories that the Junkyard Dawg itself wrote posts such as these in the early 2000s. We had lots of user posted stories like this on AI back in the day. And ah, yes, Workerbee!
  • Reply 28 of 48
    not1lostnot1lost Posts: 136member
    I'm new here so you will have to forgive me if I sound ignorant. but after getting excited, then confused, then going into a hypnotic trance then flying high above the iClouds only to have my balloon to burst and falling to the ground and abruptly brought back to reality only to realize this has all been a dream or basically just a bunch of BS.... I think.... It was fun to read though!
  • Reply 29 of 48
    macroninmacronin Posts: 1,174member
    I, for one, miss the postings from kormac76…!
  • Reply 30 of 48
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by not1lost View Post


    I'm new here so you will have to forgive me if I sound ignorant. but after getting excited, then confused, then going into a hypnotic trance then flying high above the iClouds only to have my balloon to burst and falling to the ground and abruptly brought back to reality only to realize this has all been a dream or basically just a bunch of BS.... I think.... It was fun to read though!



    Read - yes it is fun, what would be really exciting is to see Apple put as much effort into some sort of desktop as they put into the AIR or iPad. Such an effort would be good for another five years or more.
  • Reply 31 of 48
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by wizard69 View Post


    Read - yes it is fun, what would be really exciting is to see Apple put as much effort into some sort of desktop as they put into the AIR or iPad. Such an effort would be good for another five years or more.



    Well, I looked at Marv's 'compact' Pro design...in the Mac Pro Refresh thread...and there's no reason why Apple can't put a bit more effort into the 'dated' Pro and give it a price cut.



    It's snatch Apple's arm off for Marv's design it it was priced around...£1395 six core. £1695 eight core.



    With an Apple display purchase Apple get plenty of margin on that surely.



    It's about time the Pro had some re-design love.



    Lemon Bon Bon.
  • Reply 32 of 48
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,309moderator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Lemon Bon Bon. View Post


    It's snatch Apple's arm off for Marv's design it it was priced around...£1395 six core. £1695 eight core.



    The prices couldn't go quite that low unfortunately, except if those prices were without tax as the 6-core CPU itself is $583 (£368) to buy from Intel. It seems the cheapest Pro might have been $2199 (£1388 ex VAT):



    http://www.everymac.com/systems/appl....0-prices.html



    I was sure it was under $2k at one point but possibly not. This would put its lowest price at £1665 for the 6-core including VAT as the redesign savings go into buying the higher priced CPU.



    Here's the image from the other thread just so people know what we are talking about:







    It would have 6 Thunderbolt ports so you could do the Thunderbolt chaining quite easily and with optical cables, be able to connect the computers over large distances. A creative office could hook up 5-10 Pros for distributed rendering seamlessly.
  • Reply 33 of 48
    hirohiro Posts: 2,663member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacRonin View Post


    I, for one, miss the postings from kormac76?!



    But with the move from plastics to Aluminum his company got cut out of the information loop. I think the aluminum Macs were strictly so Apple could avoid his firm in the future and gain information control. It had nothing to do with design or functionality.
  • Reply 34 of 48
    Just after Steve Jobs passing from this world there was posted somewhere a photo of him in his basement office with what looked like a mockup of a scaled down, shorter skinnier, Mac Pro Tower sitting on his desk.

    I apologize that I don't remember exactly where saw it or when it the image was taken.

    That said, I really hope the rumor of an all new design Apple Pro in this thread is correct, I would buy one.
  • Reply 35 of 48
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    There are likely many designs floating around. It seems as if even Steve had to fight to keep desktop development going and more than a few designs never left the labs. Remember last year when some of Apples internal design practices where revealed in the press. Often many revs are made to hardware and software before a final design is settled upon. As an executive it wouldn't be a surprise to see such hardware in the home.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by squareback View Post


    Just after Steve Jobs passing from this world there was posted somewhere a photo of him in his basement office with what looked like a mockup of a scaled down, shorter skinnier, Mac Pro Tower sitting on his desk.

    I apologize that I don't remember exactly where saw it or when it the image was taken.

    That said, I really hope the rumor of an all new design Apple Pro in this thread is correct, I would buy one.



  • Reply 36 of 48
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    While at the same time excuses are made for Apples desktop lineup.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Lemon Bon Bon. View Post


    Well, I looked at Marv's 'compact' Pro design...in the Mac Pro Refresh thread...and there's no reason why Apple can't put a bit more effort into the 'dated' Pro and give it a price cut.



    If Apple delivered another Mac Pro with basically the same internals but an upgraded processor it would really shoot their credibility to hell. It would basically amount to Apple telling the world they really don't give a damn.

    Quote:

    It's snatch Apple's arm off for Marv's design it it was priced around...£1395 six core. £1695 eight core.



    You must be from a different world as the above does not parse.

    Quote:

    With an Apple display purchase Apple get plenty of margin on that surely.



    Right now I have zero interest in Apples displays.

    Quote:

    It's about time the Pro had some re-design love.



    Lemon Bon Bon.



    Well it is about time the desktop customer got some design love from Apple. I really don't care what the final machine is called, it could be called Candy Apple for all I care. Come to think of it a chassis that is Candy Apple Red would be a blast.
  • Reply 37 of 48
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by squareback View Post


    Just after Steve Jobs passing from this world there was posted somewhere a photo of him in his basement office with what looked like a mockup of a scaled down, shorter skinnier, Mac Pro Tower sitting on his desk.



    You saw the image in the biography where he had a scale model of the G5 PowerMac on his desk.
  • Reply 38 of 48
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by wizard69 View Post


    While at the same time excuses are made for Apples desktop lineup.





    If Apple delivered another Mac Pro with basically the same internals but an upgraded processor it would really shoot their credibility to hell. It would basically amount to Apple telling the world they really don't give a damn.



    You must be from a different world as the above does not parse.



    Right now I have zero interest in Apples displays.



    Well it is about time the desktop customer got some design love from Apple. I really don't care what the final machine is called, it could be called Candy Apple for all I care. Come to think of it a chassis that is Candy Apple Red would be a blast.



    A great deal hinges on the next Pro update in terms of seeing where Apple is going or not with it.



    As for parsing...check out my comment on another Pro thread that calls for a much...wayyyy cheaper Pro model and a cheaper display (ie a price cut for both to make them both a saleable proposition.)



    I think a re-factored 'Pro' desktop, more compact, space saving but giving people the 'essentials' they need would delay the swing of the reaper's scythe.



    Give me that for a 'wow' £1k. The display for £500. That's £1500 (not cheap by any means!) for an entry 'Pro' model. Specs? Six core. 8 gigs of ram. Decent GPU. Value added. etc.



    See other threads for details/rants/random musings etc. I even include some parsing and editing of my comments to make them semi-readable...



    Lemon Bon Bon.
  • Reply 39 of 48
  • Reply 40 of 48
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Lemon Bon Bon. View Post


    A great deal hinges on the next Pro update in terms of seeing where Apple is going or not with it.



    ? What if?



    ? What if Apple pulls an iMac with the next Mac Pro?



    What if, in addition to being completely redesigned, it's completely redefined? No legacy ports (well, a few PCIe), just eight Thunderbolt. No optical drives. 4 or fewer hard drive bays.



    Hmm.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Lemon Bon Bon. View Post


    http://www.efix-shop.com/efi-x-bpu-u...r-warranty.php



    What is this?



    A deliciously easy to win lawsuit waiting to happen.



    These idiots really think they'll get away with this?! Didn't Psystar teach them anything?
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