How about something all new in the Mac lineup? Frankly sales are strong even though nothing really new has been added to the line in years. However those strong sales seem to be centered around a few machines, I really think Apple could do well by building a more appealing desktop machine. While the term XMac is often dismissed as impossible, I think the real impossibility is getting people to buy hardware they don't want, which is the Pro and Mini or two thirds of the desktop line. I really think Apple has no choice but to take a hard look at why the sales suck so. In the end Apple should be able to build an XMac machine with enough performance spread to cover both the Mini and most of the Mac Pro markets.
That would be the perfect Mac for me. Apple used the slogan, "Which Mac are you?" I wrote them and told them I was the mini tower they aren't building.
A new approach to the storage subsystem. That is support for PCI-Express SSD's for high speed storage plus traditional storage.
Better than doubling of GPU performance.
Better Thunderbolt support.
A dock for iPad.
Better speakers. A pet peeve of mind on most Apple devices.
A USB port and an SD port accessible from the front of the iMac.
A totally redesigned and serviceable chassis.
These are just off the top of my head. The iMac isn't perfect, there is much Apple could do to improve And modernize it. Speaking of modernization there are technologies coming that we may not see this year that could work their way into future iMacs. The ideas above are possible if not probable.
list of awesome hardware updates, some of which make perfect sense, some of which would be nice but will never be done, and some of which make absolutely no sense at all
Yes, but he said redesign. That's just hardware updates. Do you realize how much unnecessarily larger the thing would have to be to have an iPad/iDevice dock?
Really the only thing we would ever get out of a "redesigned chassis" is a single tray (like the Mac Pro) for hard drive swapping. Maybe two trays on the 27", but I doubt even the one.
I think the only iMac chassis redesign will come when Apple's desktop OS moves completely to multitouch.
Nah. While the iMac is still awesome, the design has been out for awhile. I expect Apple to alter it in someway. Its design is older than the MacBook Pro. I expect it to be a little bit thinner & ever sleeker. I suppose whatever design they apply to it will be similarly reflected in the upcoming redesign of the MacBook Pro.
A USB port and an SD port accessible from the front of the iMac.
A ... serviceable chassis.
Having just finished the Jobs biography, I think it's safe to say that those particular two things won't happen! (It would be a complete departure from Jobs' and Ive's design goals.)
Having just finished the Jobs biography, I think it's safe to say that those particular two things won't happen! (It would be a complete departure from Jobs' and Ive's design goals.)
However I have to say Johnny must be a bit on the lazy side if he can't find a way to integrate something like an SD slot in the from of the iMac. I'm not a big proponent of form over function at all! In the end it can lead to very high user dissatisfaction if it gets out of control.
Even from the standpoint of serviceability there is much that could be done without dramatic changes to the exterior of the iMac. For one thing there needs to be just one layer of parts and very easy access to the parts likely to fail. I'm looking at the hard drive here alompng with the power supply.
Look at it this way, Apple successfully reworked it Mac Book Pros into highly serviceable machines after having some of the worst machines on the market. They can do better with the iMac if they really want too. It might not be the machine I want to see, but it could still be light years from what we have now.
Just because Apple took 6 years to change the PowerBook G4/MacBook Pro enclosure, doesn't mean they'll wait that long for the iMac. I could point to the MacBook Air, which they released in January 2008, and revamped with an entirely new enclosure in late 2010.
Apple made great strides in serviceability with the MacBook Pro unibody enclosure. I don't know if that will happen with the next iteration of the iMac. It would only be a good thing if it was easier, simpler. Apple is selling more & more Macs these days. Either they have confidence in building them better with components that have a higher mean time between failure or they have to have highly trained staff spend more time to dissect them when they come into the AppleCare facility for repair.
A new approach to the storage subsystem. That is support for PCI-Express SSD's for high speed storage plus traditional storage.
Better than doubling of GPU performance.
Better Thunderbolt support.
A dock for iPad.
Better speakers. A pet peeve of mind on most Apple devices.
A USB port and an SD port accessible from the front of the iMac.
A totally redesigned and serviceable chassis.
These are just off the top of my head. The iMac isn't perfect, there is much Apple could do to improve And modernize it. Speaking of modernization there are technologies coming that we may not see this year that could work their way into future iMacs. The ideas above are possible if not probable.
USB/SD card from the front? Functional? Yes for lazy people who can't reach a few inches to the right. Ugly too. Keep dreaming. Flies in the face of Apple's xen like consumer designs.
Gpus? X2? Like it to be so but iMac history isn't littered with dramatic Gpu bumps.
Retina? iPad 3. iMac? ...
I suppose on servicing the iMac is way behind the mac pro and the mini too... Having replaced the HD on my iMac it's not really difficult ie impossible... But in no way easy. Diddly ESP if you don't have torx 8 screw drivers. I knew someone who serviced pcs for a living. Took me and my cousin to sort the hd.
However I have to say Johnny must be a bit on the lazy side if he can't find a way to integrate something like an SD slot in the from of the iMac...
No, if the book was even vaguely accurate about his design philosophies, then lazy would be putting a slot on the front of his machine. What it took to create a machine that also qualifies as artwork was the antithesis of "lazy". The slot it HAS is no harder to get to than one on the front would be.
(Not to mention that a front loading card-slot would require two hands to use ... one to insert, the other to keep the screen from tilting when you do so... one hand will do with the edge loading slot.)
No, if the book was even vaguely accurate about his design philosophies, then lazy would be putting a slot on the front of his machine. What it took to create a machine that also qualifies as artwork was the antithesis of "lazy". The slot it HAS is no harder to get to than one on the front would be.
(Not to mention that a front loading card-slot would require two hands to use ... one to insert, the other to keep the screen from tilting when you do so... one hand will do with the edge loading slot.)
USB/SD card from the front? Functional? Yes for lazy people who can't reach a few inches to the right. Ugly too. Keep dreaming. Flies in the face of Apple's xen like consumer designs.
Yet Apple puts ports on the front of the Mac Pro. And some consumers pony up for the Mac Pro just because it has features like ports on the front and an easy to open case.
Apple has decided that there is only one type of consumer. The type that wants form over function. But then it admits (sort of) that form over function doesn't really work and sells the Mac Pro. Mac Pro puts function over form yet stills manages to have a great looking form.
Apple could design and sell gobs of a consumer desktop that adds some practicality to the design.
Don't you think that Apple has worked to eliminate wasted motion on the assembly line? Made sure that all the steps are easy to see and perform? Yet the buyer is supposed to except Macs in a form that is harder to use?
That why so many of us complain about having to remove a screen to access a hard drive or having to break out the putty knife or suction cup to open a Mac.
Someone should hand Apple's management cars to drive that need s suction cup to remove the window so they can get inside and drive. Or have to use a putty knife to pry open the car door to get in.
A design that predates every single other sold by Apple.
Quote:
And some consumers pony up for the Mac Pro just because it has features like ports on the
front and an easy to open case.
I have NEVER heard that. No intelligent 'consumer' wastes $2400 on a computer they can open (when they're not going to DO anything in it) or for 'ports on the front'.
Quote:
Apple has decided that there is only one type of consumer. The type that wants form over function.
Uh... huh...
Quote:
But then it admits (sort of) that form over function doesn't really work and sells the Mac Pro.
So does this say the Mac Pro doesn't have the best design of any openable computer on the market?
Quote:
Apple could design and sell gobs of a consumer desktop that adds some practicality to the design.
Blah, blah, blah, xMac, blah, blah, blah, the reason the PC exists, blah, blah, blah...
Quote:
Yet the buyer is supposed to except Macs in a form that is harder to use?
'Accept', and no, they're not "harder to use".
Quote:
That why so many of us complain about having to remove a screen to access a hard drive or
having to break out the putty knife or suction cup to open a Mac.
And that is the only real complaint people have about the iMac that I agree with. There should be a drive bay on it like the Mac Pro has for easy hard drive swappage.
Quote:
Someone should hand Apple's management cars to drive that need s suction cup to remove the window so they can get inside and drive.
Completely and utterly different concept. That's a HORRIBLE analogy. HORRIBLE analogy.
Someone should hand Apple's management cars to drive that need s suction cup to remove the window so they can get inside and drive. Or have to use a putty knife to pry open the car door to get in.
Odd... I've been using my current iMacs for years now and have never needed a suction cup OR putty knife to use them.
Now... your car analogy... if you wanted to FIX a BROKEN car... you would need several different tools that most people don't possess.
Do you drive a car?... If so do you own a spring compressor?, torque wrench?, pickle forks?, a brand-proprietary fuel line disconnect tool?, compression gauge?, feeler gauges?, etc? ... or are you able to drive it without all those tools?
No, if the book was even vaguely accurate about his design philosophies, then lazy would be putting a slot on the front of his machine.
I really don't give a damn about his philosophies, in this case his views are certainly bull heaviness and yes laziness. It is not an impossible task to come up with an attractive yet useful solution.
Beyond that this so called design philosophy gave us the original Mac Books AIRs with their trap doors. One can not twist that into good design, in fact the market totally rejected the hardware. There is a balance between art and usefulness. The new AIRs acceptance in the marketplace has a lot to do with design that is acceptable to the users.
Quote:
What it took to create a machine that also qualifies as artwork was the antithesis of "lazy".
You are so wrapped up in the Johnny love fest you fail to see where many of his art projects have failed in the marketplace, mainly due to the design. Now I'm not here demanding perfection because if you don't screw up once in a while you aren't trying. What I object to is the lack of objectivity seen in these forums and the defense of really bad design at the hands of Johnny and his crew.
Quote:
The slot it HAS is no harder to get to than one on the front would be.
That depends upon a number of factors including how you have the unit mounted.
Quote:
(Not to mention that a front loading card-slot would require two hands to use ... one to insert, the other to keep the screen from tilting when you do so... one hand will do with the edge loading slot.)
Comments
How about something all new in the Mac lineup? Frankly sales are strong even though nothing really new has been added to the line in years. However those strong sales seem to be centered around a few machines, I really think Apple could do well by building a more appealing desktop machine. While the term XMac is often dismissed as impossible, I think the real impossibility is getting people to buy hardware they don't want, which is the Pro and Mini or two thirds of the desktop line. I really think Apple has no choice but to take a hard look at why the sales suck so. In the end Apple should be able to build an XMac machine with enough performance spread to cover both the Mini and most of the Mac Pro markets.
That would be the perfect Mac for me. Apple used the slogan, "Which Mac are you?" I wrote them and told them I was the mini tower they aren't building.
They'll smash the competition.
Apple's taking off...
Lemon Bon Bon.
I think it's fair to say that outside of the Mac mini, every piece of Apple hardware will receive a moderate or dramatic hardware re-design in 2012.
In what way would the iMac be redesigned?
It's all about the iPad 3 and iPhone 5.
They'll smash the competition.
Apple's taking off...
Lemon Bon Bon.
Apple has been flying for awhile and frankly the performance of the Mac lineup has been exceptional. It isn't just about iOS devices.
In what way would the iMac be redesigned?
Integration of hardware to support Siri
A high resolution screen, retina if you will.
A new approach to the storage subsystem. That is support for PCI-Express SSD's for high speed storage plus traditional storage.
Better than doubling of GPU performance.
Better Thunderbolt support.
A dock for iPad.
Better speakers. A pet peeve of mind on most Apple devices.
A USB port and an SD port accessible from the front of the iMac.
A totally redesigned and serviceable chassis.
These are just off the top of my head. The iMac isn't perfect, there is much Apple could do to improve And modernize it. Speaking of modernization there are technologies coming that we may not see this year that could work their way into future iMacs. The ideas above are possible if not probable.
list of awesome hardware updates, some of which make perfect sense, some of which would be nice but will never be done, and some of which make absolutely no sense at all
Yes, but he said redesign. That's just hardware updates. Do you realize how much unnecessarily larger the thing would have to be to have an iPad/iDevice dock?
Really the only thing we would ever get out of a "redesigned chassis" is a single tray (like the Mac Pro) for hard drive swapping. Maybe two trays on the 27", but I doubt even the one.
I think the only iMac chassis redesign will come when Apple's desktop OS moves completely to multitouch.
Nah. While the iMac is still awesome, the design has been out for awhile. I expect Apple to alter it in someway.
It has been around 4 years. The aluminum PowerBook G4/MacBook Pro case was around for 6. I wouldn't say it's a given.
The only alteration I see is the removal of the ODD.
A USB port and an SD port accessible from the front of the iMac.
A ... serviceable chassis.
Having just finished the Jobs biography, I think it's safe to say that those particular two things won't happen!
Having just finished the Jobs biography, I think it's safe to say that those particular two things won't happen!
However I have to say Johnny must be a bit on the lazy side if he can't find a way to integrate something like an SD slot in the from of the iMac. I'm not a big proponent of form over function at all! In the end it can lead to very high user dissatisfaction if it gets out of control.
Even from the standpoint of serviceability there is much that could be done without dramatic changes to the exterior of the iMac. For one thing there needs to be just one layer of parts and very easy access to the parts likely to fail. I'm looking at the hard drive here alompng with the power supply.
Look at it this way, Apple successfully reworked it Mac Book Pros into highly serviceable machines after having some of the worst machines on the market. They can do better with the iMac if they really want too. It might not be the machine I want to see, but it could still be light years from what we have now.
Apple made great strides in serviceability with the MacBook Pro unibody enclosure. I don't know if that will happen with the next iteration of the iMac. It would only be a good thing if it was easier, simpler. Apple is selling more & more Macs these days. Either they have confidence in building them better with components that have a higher mean time between failure or they have to have highly trained staff spend more time to dissect them when they come into the AppleCare facility for repair.
Integration of hardware to support Siri
A high resolution screen, retina if you will.
A new approach to the storage subsystem. That is support for PCI-Express SSD's for high speed storage plus traditional storage.
Better than doubling of GPU performance.
Better Thunderbolt support.
A dock for iPad.
Better speakers. A pet peeve of mind on most Apple devices.
A USB port and an SD port accessible from the front of the iMac.
A totally redesigned and serviceable chassis.
These are just off the top of my head. The iMac isn't perfect, there is much Apple could do to improve And modernize it. Speaking of modernization there are technologies coming that we may not see this year that could work their way into future iMacs. The ideas above are possible if not probable.
USB/SD card from the front? Functional? Yes for lazy people who can't reach a few inches to the right. Ugly too. Keep dreaming. Flies in the face of Apple's xen like consumer designs.
Gpus? X2? Like it to be so but iMac history isn't littered with dramatic Gpu bumps.
Retina? iPad 3. iMac? ...
I suppose on servicing the iMac is way behind the mac pro and the mini too... Having replaced the HD on my iMac it's not really difficult ie impossible... But in no way easy. Diddly ESP if you don't have torx 8 screw drivers. I knew someone who serviced pcs for a living. Took me and my cousin to sort the hd.
Lemon Bon Bon.
However I have to say Johnny must be a bit on the lazy side if he can't find a way to integrate something like an SD slot in the from of the iMac...
No, if the book was even vaguely accurate about his design philosophies, then lazy would be putting a slot on the front of his machine. What it took to create a machine that also qualifies as artwork was the antithesis of "lazy". The slot it HAS is no harder to get to than one on the front would be.
(Not to mention that a front loading card-slot would require two hands to use ... one to insert, the other to keep the screen from tilting when you do so... one hand will do with the edge loading slot.)
No, if the book was even vaguely accurate about his design philosophies, then lazy would be putting a slot on the front of his machine. What it took to create a machine that also qualifies as artwork was the antithesis of "lazy". The slot it HAS is no harder to get to than one on the front would be.
(Not to mention that a front loading card-slot would require two hands to use ... one to insert, the other to keep the screen from tilting when you do so... one hand will do with the edge loading slot.)
You nailed the Wizard to the cross with that one.
Serves him right for calling Ives 'lazy.'
Lemon Bon Bon.
USB/SD card from the front? Functional? Yes for lazy people who can't reach a few inches to the right. Ugly too. Keep dreaming. Flies in the face of Apple's xen like consumer designs.
Yet Apple puts ports on the front of the Mac Pro. And some consumers pony up for the Mac Pro just because it has features like ports on the front and an easy to open case.
Apple has decided that there is only one type of consumer. The type that wants form over function. But then it admits (sort of) that form over function doesn't really work and sells the Mac Pro. Mac Pro puts function over form yet stills manages to have a great looking form.
Apple could design and sell gobs of a consumer desktop that adds some practicality to the design.
Don't you think that Apple has worked to eliminate wasted motion on the assembly line? Made sure that all the steps are easy to see and perform? Yet the buyer is supposed to except Macs in a form that is harder to use?
That why so many of us complain about having to remove a screen to access a hard drive or having to break out the putty knife or suction cup to open a Mac.
Someone should hand Apple's management cars to drive that need s suction cup to remove the window so they can get inside and drive. Or have to use a putty knife to pry open the car door to get in.
I'd love to see that!
Yet Apple puts ports on the front of the Mac Pro.
A design that predates every single other sold by Apple.
And some consumers pony up for the Mac Pro just because it has features like ports on the
front and an easy to open case.
I have NEVER heard that. No intelligent 'consumer' wastes $2400 on a computer they can open (when they're not going to DO anything in it) or for 'ports on the front'.
Apple has decided that there is only one type of consumer. The type that wants form over function.
Uh... huh...
But then it admits (sort of) that form over function doesn't really work and sells the Mac Pro.
So does this say the Mac Pro doesn't have the best design of any openable computer on the market?
Apple could design and sell gobs of a consumer desktop that adds some practicality to the design.
Blah, blah, blah, xMac, blah, blah, blah, the reason the PC exists, blah, blah, blah...
Yet the buyer is supposed to except Macs in a form that is harder to use?
'Accept', and no, they're not "harder to use".
That why so many of us complain about having to remove a screen to access a hard drive or
having to break out the putty knife or suction cup to open a Mac.
And that is the only real complaint people have about the iMac that I agree with. There should be a drive bay on it like the Mac Pro has for easy hard drive swappage.
Someone should hand Apple's management cars to drive that need s suction cup to remove the window so they can get inside and drive.
Completely and utterly different concept. That's a HORRIBLE analogy. HORRIBLE analogy.
Someone should hand Apple's management cars to drive that need s suction cup to remove the window so they can get inside and drive. Or have to use a putty knife to pry open the car door to get in.
Odd... I've been using my current iMacs for years now and have never needed a suction cup OR putty knife to use them.
Now... your car analogy... if you wanted to FIX a BROKEN car... you would need several different tools that most people don't possess.
Do you drive a car?... If so do you own a spring compressor?, torque wrench?, pickle forks?, a brand-proprietary fuel line disconnect tool?, compression gauge?, feeler gauges?, etc? ... or are you able to drive it without all those tools?
No, if the book was even vaguely accurate about his design philosophies, then lazy would be putting a slot on the front of his machine.
I really don't give a damn about his philosophies, in this case his views are certainly bull heaviness and yes laziness. It is not an impossible task to come up with an attractive yet useful solution.
Beyond that this so called design philosophy gave us the original Mac Books AIRs with their trap doors. One can not twist that into good design, in fact the market totally rejected the hardware. There is a balance between art and usefulness. The new AIRs acceptance in the marketplace has a lot to do with design that is acceptable to the users.
What it took to create a machine that also qualifies as artwork was the antithesis of "lazy".
You are so wrapped up in the Johnny love fest you fail to see where many of his art projects have failed in the marketplace, mainly due to the design. Now I'm not here demanding perfection because if you don't screw up once in a while you aren't trying. What I object to is the lack of objectivity seen in these forums and the defense of really bad design at the hands of Johnny and his crew.
The slot it HAS is no harder to get to than one on the front would be.
That depends upon a number of factors including how you have the unit mounted.
(Not to mention that a front loading card-slot would require two hands to use ... one to insert, the other to keep the screen from tilting when you do so... one hand will do with the edge loading slot.)
Try a little harder please.