New Mac Pro's radical design draws admiration, criticism via Photoshop
Apple's ultra-minimalist design for the new Mac Pro may have drawn "oohs" and "aahs" from admirers, but that hasn't stopped the Internet from sending up the powerful new desktop in a number of amusing manipulated images.
Revealed on Monday as part of the Worldwide Developer Conference keynote, the Mac Pro wowed attendees and viewers watching online with its spare, cylindrical look. The bold design drew immediate praise from many tech commentators, who had been awaiting a refresh of Apple's most powerful desktop for some time.
The Independent called the new workstation "a bombshell of beautiful design and raw power," noting that the genius of the new look isn't just skin deep: that cylindrical shape works to improve airflow across components, cooling the device without the need for multiple heat-sinks.
In something of a backhanded compliment, CNN called the new Mac "the beautiful new Apple computer most people won't buy". The same article, though, said the Pro was "a design marvel... that bears little resemblance to computers as we've traditionally imagined them.
Even Gizmodo ? always cautious in its Apple praise since a dust-up with the iPhone maker three years ago ? hailed the "brilliant insanity" behind its design, saying it was the type of design only a company like Apple could produce.
Notably, most reports made reference to Apple marketing chief Phillip Schiller's now famous on-stage utterance in defense of the power of Apple's design. "Can't innovate anymore, my ass," Schiller quipped after revealing the new form factor.
And while the tech press and design aficionados seem to have fallen in love, the always irreverent Internet has already provided the requisite snark and mockery to perhaps bring the discussion back down to earth. Shortly after its unveiling, a wave of Tumblrs and forum threads riffed on the new Pro's design, turning it into a number of other things.
For the benefit of our readers, of course, AppleInsider has assembled a collection of the best of these Pro parodies.
Inspired by the Magritte, we also thought we'd make a humble contribution to the collection.
Risible or remarkable, the new Pro's design is innovative, but perhaps not entirely unprecedented. Amazon Japan sells a trashcan that bears more than a passing resemblance to Apple's powerful new desktop.
In a savvy bit of marketing, the company tweeted a warning that the trash can ? which sells for roughly $36.50 ? was not Apple's newly announced computer. That tweet was retweeted more than 13,500 times, with 3,026 favorites, some of which may very well have led to a few sales.
Finally, keen eyes at The Mac Observer have noted the new Mac Pro's similarity to the cylindrical entrance of Apple's Shanghai retail store. The diminutive desktop also looks somewhat like a scaled-down Cray I supercomputer. The Observer post notes that Cray I buyers would have paid $8.8 million back in 1976 for its 160 megaflops (floating operations per second) of power, whereas the Mac Pro will cost in the thousands of dollars, delivering 7.5 teraflops of computational power, about 47,000 times faster.
Revealed on Monday as part of the Worldwide Developer Conference keynote, the Mac Pro wowed attendees and viewers watching online with its spare, cylindrical look. The bold design drew immediate praise from many tech commentators, who had been awaiting a refresh of Apple's most powerful desktop for some time.
The Independent called the new workstation "a bombshell of beautiful design and raw power," noting that the genius of the new look isn't just skin deep: that cylindrical shape works to improve airflow across components, cooling the device without the need for multiple heat-sinks.
In something of a backhanded compliment, CNN called the new Mac "the beautiful new Apple computer most people won't buy". The same article, though, said the Pro was "a design marvel... that bears little resemblance to computers as we've traditionally imagined them.
Even Gizmodo ? always cautious in its Apple praise since a dust-up with the iPhone maker three years ago ? hailed the "brilliant insanity" behind its design, saying it was the type of design only a company like Apple could produce.
Notably, most reports made reference to Apple marketing chief Phillip Schiller's now famous on-stage utterance in defense of the power of Apple's design. "Can't innovate anymore, my ass," Schiller quipped after revealing the new form factor.
And while the tech press and design aficionados seem to have fallen in love, the always irreverent Internet has already provided the requisite snark and mockery to perhaps bring the discussion back down to earth. Shortly after its unveiling, a wave of Tumblrs and forum threads riffed on the new Pro's design, turning it into a number of other things.
For the benefit of our readers, of course, AppleInsider has assembled a collection of the best of these Pro parodies.
Inspired by the Magritte, we also thought we'd make a humble contribution to the collection.
Risible or remarkable, the new Pro's design is innovative, but perhaps not entirely unprecedented. Amazon Japan sells a trashcan that bears more than a passing resemblance to Apple's powerful new desktop.
In a savvy bit of marketing, the company tweeted a warning that the trash can ? which sells for roughly $36.50 ? was not Apple's newly announced computer. That tweet was retweeted more than 13,500 times, with 3,026 favorites, some of which may very well have led to a few sales.
Finally, keen eyes at The Mac Observer have noted the new Mac Pro's similarity to the cylindrical entrance of Apple's Shanghai retail store. The diminutive desktop also looks somewhat like a scaled-down Cray I supercomputer. The Observer post notes that Cray I buyers would have paid $8.8 million back in 1976 for its 160 megaflops (floating operations per second) of power, whereas the Mac Pro will cost in the thousands of dollars, delivering 7.5 teraflops of computational power, about 47,000 times faster.
Comments
Except everyone who hates the design secretly wants one
So in that perspective, it's a success.
I'm waiting for the first copycat to validate that this is indeed a valid concept.
http://flic.kr/p/eMjQQC
"The New Mac Pro: Designed by Edison in New Jersey!"
Why is this even an article?
There are many mocking iOS 7 yet there's no separate article for that (nor should there be).
The new Mac Pro looks like an aluminum trash can, we all already knew that.
That's hardly news. The Apple haters have been doing this with every product Apple has made for decades. They don't have any vision of their own and don't understand Apple's drive for simplicity and quality, so they criticize.
Best to simply ignore it. Giving them attention only encourages them.
http://www.deltaflow.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/imac_vs_dell-1.jpg
I would have preferred the current Mac Pro design with new parts. At least it would have been replaceable parts (GPU etc...). There would have been more room for RAM and storage with the all new Flash parts, PCI slots etc... That would have been a beast of a machine.
But instead Apple released the all new Mac Canister. Its basically a dust vacuum sucking up all the dust from the bottom up! Oh and forget about putting it on the carpet, thats a fire hazard!
Quote:
Originally Posted by blackbook
Why is this even an article?
There are many mocking iOS 7 yet there's no separate article for that (nor should there be).
The new Mac Pro looks like an aluminum trash can, we all already knew that.
Maybe you are looking at it wrong. I think they look like turbojet accelerators that will propel you into parallel universe if you get too close.
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There was the same response to the original Macintosh, the original iMac, the G3 Tower, the "sunflower" iMac, and the G4 Cube. And except for the Cube, every one of those designs were successful. And the only problem with the Cube was it was over priced.
Let the haters have their fun. I admit, I find some of the pics cute. But eventually the joke will blow over and we'll be left with another revolutionary computer.
Quote:
Originally Posted by paxman
La-a-a-ame
Totally.
Those are pretty good. I'm not so uptight that I can't relax at a good joke.
That would be amusing. But given how computer companies throw anything against the wall to see if it sticks, what matters is if they stick with it. It took at least a decade for AIO computers to be a significant segment outside of Macs.
I don't see how it's a fire hazard.
I wish it had more RAM slots and more storage slots. Given how small the mini-PCIe cards are, they could have included six slots.
I wouldn't be surprised if Newertek made an HDD riser for it, like their miniStack.
Because some idiot with a Dell sucks at cable management we can't have new product designs? If you want to make it like the old pro, stick it in a metal box and run all the wires there. Putting spinning disks in a separate enclosure is a much better thermal design, but if you like it the old way, the new pro is small enough to accommodate your desire.