Originally posted by Smircle Am I the only one left who cares more about specs and prices than looks?
Apparently. Sorry.
Hey, we're just going on history here. Apple started it, so gripe at THEM.
When they had beige boxes, their monitors matched. When they had the blue and white G3, they had several monitors in matching colors. When they went to the G4, they soon had those graphite versions of the previously-blue "three-legged" Studio Displays. When the Cube came out, they added that cool, glass-based "Mobius strip" 17" Studio Display (ADC). As mentioned above, their LCDs have matched their G4s through the past 3 or so years (silver, glossy, curves, clear accents, etc.).
So after four years of this kind of stuff, why shouldn't/wouldn't we expect the same in regards to their new, redesigned towers?
And it's not an "either/or" thing either. I'm quite sure the quality and all will still be there. They won't suddenly suck, just because they match.
Hey, we would've all been fine to spend the rest of our lives with beige, squared-off towers and boxes. Apple - yes, Apple - showed us otherwise, so now we've come to expect certain things. Appearances DO matter, I guess. I don't want ugly shit on my desk...not anymore. Now that I know I don't have to!
That's just it, I thinkl that in a very sophisticated/subtle way, they match very well.
Mr Scates, I'm surprised at you. I just spent a throughly enjoyable day of oogling mac hardware at two seperate shops, as a buddy of mine admittedly looked for a PC notebook.
Anyway, I want to comment on this so called aesthetic "mish-mash"
The G5 and the display hardly look mish-mashed at all.
Actually, they complement each other beautifully!
Apple has some of the only industrial design anywhere that I can think of that actually renders plastic in warm, soulfull forms. The "keyboard- mouse-display" flow together; they form a human interface centre. In the flesh, the G5 itself looks perfectly at home next to it. In the new silver, the displays complement the G5 case. Instead of being all cold, it's more yin-yang, hard and soft, but all part of the same language: A nice balance and very pleasant.
Apple may change the displays to add a greater degree of adjustability, but I think it would be a shame to lose that great plastic and the way it ties the keyboard/mouse/display with what I consider a complimentary G5 style.
I was a funny day of reflection. I wandered around in the cold, took in a few buildings, made a few notes, read an article over lunch. Frank O Gehry will most likely redesign our Art Gallery (AGO). I'm not a great fan of his metal sculpture exteriors. They can be interesting on the small scale, but are IMHO overblown in something like the Bilbao Guggenheim. However, that interplay of material and form, interior space, a kind of zen ambiance. The current displays plus G5' still do that quite well. Better than any of the horrific industrial-geometric, matching slab concepts I've seen on the net.
More notes from the underground, not Dostoyevski, but "PATH" Torontonians know it well:
If any mac products don't "fit" the aesthetic as well as they could, those would be the eMac and iBook.
They're both sturdy, they're both white, but neither seems to fit the mac aesthetic as well as the PB's, the iMac, and the Powermacs/Displays.
It's at first a bit odd, given that key periperals are white: iPods, Pro Mouse, and Keyboard are all white. Neither the eMac or iBook look bad, but neither is especially intersting either. The G4 iBook is much better than the Opaque G3, I saw them side by side. I would have taken a pic, but I just couldn't bring myself to be that geeky in public -- geekiness will remain closetted here at AI, in the form of too many posts.
I think, for the same reasons as above, there's a bit too much white, it's clean but a bit boring in both those cases.
I don't know exactly where to draw the line between clean/minimalist and boring, perhaps the case is best demonstrated by the difference between the PB and the iBook. The PB's are all gorgeous, 12, 15 and 17. I'm not sure whether the 15 or 17 is the best looking, but they both look great. The 17 is a very interesting study, cause there's a lot of empty space there. But it's so impossibly thin when you open it up, and with the minimal bezels, the screen and keyboard dominate. It never feels big, it exudes power, queue requiste AI auto analogy, it's the grand tourismo of notebooks while other 17 and even 15.4" models are more like SUVs. In contrast, the iBooks are solid and neat, but the screens and keyboards don't have the same presence. This isn't really a comment on the relative widths, just the interaction. On the PB's the rest of the machine disappears: once you start using them, all you notice is the screen and keyboard, it has almost no visual distraction. On the iBooks, you never completely forget that there's a lot of white plastic around you.
I think the Apple look will have white/lucite/shiny bits in all their peripherals, and the pro machines will have a little cisual seperation.
It looks good, and this riff isn't really going anywhere, but there it is, just out there to think about, and possibly interesting depending on your state of mind.
Different color, shape, materials, lines, accents, etc. I understand about "complementing" and so forth (as in a nice aluminum-looking LCD would complement a G5 tower).
IMO, the current situation is like putting on of those beige AppleVision displays from the early/mid 90's next to a G4 Cube and saying "it complements it well".
No it doesn't. Completely different era, materials, design/vibe, etc.
Same with the G5 and current displays. Not as horrendous as a beige CRT and Cube, but I think Apple can do better. Again, there's four years of history saying so.
I honestly don't think Jobs, Ive, etc. have said "hey guys, let's just leave the displays as is...". It's essentially the ONLY thing they've not massively re-worked in over three years, so for that reason ALONE...
I dunno, I think they could clean up the orm of the display, but it should keep the clear plastic, and have some curve to it.
Think of it this way. A dapper dresser looks good wearing the right pants, jacket, shirt, tie, shoes, etc etc. It's not a three-piece, but there's no denying the sense of style. Mr three-piece looks good too, but rather safe, boring, like the rest of the crowd, so long as the tailor is competent, he won't look bad, he can't, largely because it's so conventional.
When you see them together, the 20 and 23" displays go together well with the G5, and especially the keyboard and mouse! The G5 should be under your desk anyway.
None of this is to say I wouldn't mind a redesign, but they ought to keep the lucite. I would have the back cover of the display in aluminium, with the same aspect as a PB lid, just thicker, but I would keep the lucite feet and/or pedastle (depending on function). That clear plastic is on the speakers, the mouse, the keyboard. It looks good, and some of it has to stay; it's very Apple. Just trim the bezel a bit and keep the feet.
The easle style may be the best for the 20 and 23"
None of this is to say I wouldn't mind a redesign... Just trim the bezel a bit and keep the feet.
The easle style may be the best for the 20 and 23"
I disagree. The "feet" on the current displays keep you from sliding your keyboard under the display to get it out of the way like you can with the iMac. I don't propose making new displays exactly like the iMac design, but similar would be good. This is what I hope for and expect. If there is to be a 30" model, skip the stand and just let me hang it on the wall behind my desk...with a HDTV tuner input.
Saw some nice LCD monitors at Best Buy today. Raise, lower and tilt. Very flexible and user-friendly. Brand? HP.
Now that's just Eeeeeevil cubist... making my mind run crazy with ideas of Apple and HP working together on displays.
Imagine the volume price that could happen when Apple and HP get in together. Who makes HP's displays? Samsung? I know there are not all that many companies actually making flat panels. Everything seems to be rebadged these days. Most people don't realize how much "Apple" stuff is rebadged stuff from other manufacturers.
Most people don't realize how much "Apple" stuff is rebadged stuff from other manufacturers.
Uhh...outside displays, there isn't much Apple stuff that's rebadged. And even then, you can't just say a display was rebadged, That's like saying the IBM 970 was rebadged as a G5 PowerMac.
Uhh...outside displays, there isn't much Apple stuff that's rebadged.
Apple's printers were made by Canon, Xerox, and HP. I was referring to the Apple stuff that is out there, not current shipping hardware. And thank God, cause Apple stuff "just works" now.
Am I the only one left who cares more about specs and prices than looks?
I mean, it sure is nice to have good-looking equipment, but first and foremost the stuff has to work. Looking at the way current Apple displays are constructed, I doubt they are half as adjustable to different viewing angles as any cheap Dell panel. I sure hope they find a decent way to mount them on an arm.
i agree, we can (in theory) make a g5/display enclosior out of sterling silver, that would look good but 3k with no chips. no one would purchase it. everything sounds good but when the wheel hits the road, would you pay $3000(today not in 1999) for a 23 inch if thats what all these toys cost to be profitable
In this thread, http://forums.appleinsider.com/showt...threadid=37599, the poster predicts huge new displays, but says nothing about timeframe other than sometime this year. For me, that is the single most interesting Apple rumor. I make art with my Mac, and have always dreamed of having a really huge work area, with everything I am using all spread out.
So - what is 'Huge" by this year's standards? 30"? 42"?
I really like the BenQ FP991 19" displays, High Contrast ratio (700:1), super thin bezel, dual inputs, 170/170 viewing angle and priced pretty well too.
Get two of those bad boys together and a rev b G5, mmm-mmm my new computer setup
Comments
Maybe Apple's trying to find a way of including iSights to the display somehow?
Originally posted by Smircle Am I the only one left who cares more about specs and prices than looks?
Apparently. Sorry.
Hey, we're just going on history here. Apple started it, so gripe at THEM.
When they had beige boxes, their monitors matched. When they had the blue and white G3, they had several monitors in matching colors. When they went to the G4, they soon had those graphite versions of the previously-blue "three-legged" Studio Displays. When the Cube came out, they added that cool, glass-based "Mobius strip" 17" Studio Display (ADC). As mentioned above, their LCDs have matched their G4s through the past 3 or so years (silver, glossy, curves, clear accents, etc.).
So after four years of this kind of stuff, why shouldn't/wouldn't we expect the same in regards to their new, redesigned towers?
And it's not an "either/or" thing either. I'm quite sure the quality and all will still be there. They won't suddenly suck, just because they match.
Hey, we would've all been fine to spend the rest of our lives with beige, squared-off towers and boxes. Apple - yes, Apple - showed us otherwise, so now we've come to expect certain things. Appearances DO matter, I guess. I don't want ugly shit on my desk...not anymore. Now that I know I don't have to!
Not our fault.
Mr Scates, I'm surprised at you. I just spent a throughly enjoyable day of oogling mac hardware at two seperate shops, as a buddy of mine admittedly looked for a PC notebook.
Anyway, I want to comment on this so called aesthetic "mish-mash"
The G5 and the display hardly look mish-mashed at all.
Actually, they complement each other beautifully!
Apple has some of the only industrial design anywhere that I can think of that actually renders plastic in warm, soulfull forms. The "keyboard- mouse-display" flow together; they form a human interface centre. In the flesh, the G5 itself looks perfectly at home next to it. In the new silver, the displays complement the G5 case. Instead of being all cold, it's more yin-yang, hard and soft, but all part of the same language: A nice balance and very pleasant.
Apple may change the displays to add a greater degree of adjustability, but I think it would be a shame to lose that great plastic and the way it ties the keyboard/mouse/display with what I consider a complimentary G5 style.
I was a funny day of reflection. I wandered around in the cold, took in a few buildings, made a few notes, read an article over lunch. Frank O Gehry will most likely redesign our Art Gallery (AGO). I'm not a great fan of his metal sculpture exteriors. They can be interesting on the small scale, but are IMHO overblown in something like the Bilbao Guggenheim. However, that interplay of material and form, interior space, a kind of zen ambiance. The current displays plus G5' still do that quite well. Better than any of the horrific industrial-geometric, matching slab concepts I've seen on the net.
If any mac products don't "fit" the aesthetic as well as they could, those would be the eMac and iBook.
They're both sturdy, they're both white, but neither seems to fit the mac aesthetic as well as the PB's, the iMac, and the Powermacs/Displays.
It's at first a bit odd, given that key periperals are white: iPods, Pro Mouse, and Keyboard are all white. Neither the eMac or iBook look bad, but neither is especially intersting either. The G4 iBook is much better than the Opaque G3, I saw them side by side. I would have taken a pic, but I just couldn't bring myself to be that geeky in public -- geekiness will remain closetted here at AI, in the form of too many posts.
I think, for the same reasons as above, there's a bit too much white, it's clean but a bit boring in both those cases.
I don't know exactly where to draw the line between clean/minimalist and boring, perhaps the case is best demonstrated by the difference between the PB and the iBook. The PB's are all gorgeous, 12, 15 and 17. I'm not sure whether the 15 or 17 is the best looking, but they both look great. The 17 is a very interesting study, cause there's a lot of empty space there. But it's so impossibly thin when you open it up, and with the minimal bezels, the screen and keyboard dominate. It never feels big, it exudes power, queue requiste AI auto analogy, it's the grand tourismo of notebooks while other 17 and even 15.4" models are more like SUVs. In contrast, the iBooks are solid and neat, but the screens and keyboards don't have the same presence. This isn't really a comment on the relative widths, just the interaction. On the PB's the rest of the machine disappears: once you start using them, all you notice is the screen and keyboard, it has almost no visual distraction. On the iBooks, you never completely forget that there's a lot of white plastic around you.
I think the Apple look will have white/lucite/shiny bits in all their peripherals, and the pro machines will have a little cisual seperation.
It looks good, and this riff isn't really going anywhere, but there it is, just out there to think about, and possibly interesting depending on your state of mind.
Different color, shape, materials, lines, accents, etc. I understand about "complementing" and so forth (as in a nice aluminum-looking LCD would complement a G5 tower).
IMO, the current situation is like putting on of those beige AppleVision displays from the early/mid 90's next to a G4 Cube and saying "it complements it well".
No it doesn't. Completely different era, materials, design/vibe, etc.
Same with the G5 and current displays. Not as horrendous as a beige CRT and Cube, but I think Apple can do better. Again, there's four years of history saying so.
I honestly don't think Jobs, Ive, etc. have said "hey guys, let's just leave the displays as is...". It's essentially the ONLY thing they've not massively re-worked in over three years, so for that reason ALONE...
Think of it this way. A dapper dresser looks good wearing the right pants, jacket, shirt, tie, shoes, etc etc. It's not a three-piece, but there's no denying the sense of style. Mr three-piece looks good too, but rather safe, boring, like the rest of the crowd, so long as the tailor is competent, he won't look bad, he can't, largely because it's so conventional.
When you see them together, the 20 and 23" displays go together well with the G5, and especially the keyboard and mouse! The G5 should be under your desk anyway.
Originally posted by Matsu
The G5 should be under your desk anyway.
No, yours!
The easle style may be the best for the 20 and 23"
Originally posted by Matsu
None of this is to say I wouldn't mind a redesign... Just trim the bezel a bit and keep the feet.
The easle style may be the best for the 20 and 23"
I disagree. The "feet" on the current displays keep you from sliding your keyboard under the display to get it out of the way like you can with the iMac. I don't propose making new displays exactly like the iMac design, but similar would be good. This is what I hope for and expect. If there is to be a 30" model, skip the stand and just let me hang it on the wall behind my desk...with a HDTV tuner input.
Originally posted by cubist
Saw some nice LCD monitors at Best Buy today. Raise, lower and tilt. Very flexible and user-friendly. Brand? HP.
Now that's just Eeeeeevil cubist... making my mind run crazy with ideas of Apple and HP working together on displays.
Imagine the volume price that could happen when Apple and HP get in together. Who makes HP's displays? Samsung? I know there are not all that many companies actually making flat panels. Everything seems to be rebadged these days. Most people don't realize how much "Apple" stuff is rebadged stuff from other manufacturers.
Originally posted by Jubelum
Most people don't realize how much "Apple" stuff is rebadged stuff from other manufacturers.
Uhh...outside displays, there isn't much Apple stuff that's rebadged. And even then, you can't just say a display was rebadged, That's like saying the IBM 970 was rebadged as a G5 PowerMac.
Originally posted by kim kap sol
Uhh...outside displays, there isn't much Apple stuff that's rebadged.
Apple's printers were made by Canon, Xerox, and HP. I was referring to the Apple stuff that is out there, not current shipping hardware. And thank God, cause Apple stuff "just works" now.
Originally posted by Smircle
Am I the only one left who cares more about specs and prices than looks?
I mean, it sure is nice to have good-looking equipment, but first and foremost the stuff has to work. Looking at the way current Apple displays are constructed, I doubt they are half as adjustable to different viewing angles as any cheap Dell panel. I sure hope they find a decent way to mount them on an arm.
i agree, we can (in theory) make a g5/display enclosior out of sterling silver, that would look good but 3k with no chips. no one would purchase it. everything sounds good but when the wheel hits the road, would you pay $3000(today not in 1999) for a 23 inch if thats what all these toys cost to be profitable
So - what is 'Huge" by this year's standards? 30"? 42"?
Originally posted by garyp
So - what is 'Huge" by this year's standards? 30"? 42"?
There is a huge problem with larger displays: the DVI (and ADC) connectors do not allow resolutions much higher than 2000 horizontal px.
Perhaps with a bit of cosmetic tweaking and "Ive magic" worked on it (and stick an Apple logo on it somewhere), but essentially it's there IMO!
One of those would look sweet perched next to a G5!
Originally posted by pscates
Actually, Apple's work is done FOR them if they'd just go and buy that cool-ass Eyegonomic company, making those really nice LCDs!
Perhaps with a bit of cosmetic tweaking and "Ive magic" worked on it (and stick an Apple logo on it somewhere), but essentially it's there IMO!
Not bad, except for their T24.
Get two of those bad boys together and a rev b G5, mmm-mmm my new computer setup