The battle for front ports

frank777frank777
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
While Apple's battle cry has been "Digital Hub" for the past couple of years, many of us who actually have iBooks, iPods, Palms and Digital Cameras are going nuts having to play "find the port on the back of the mac" each and every time we need to sync a device.



It's obvious that the new "WindTunnel" design (sorry I like the moniker...) will be in use for awhile, so we can infer that our wish for front ports will not happen for a long time.



But looking at my 400mhz G4 just now, I just realized that this is a third party opportunity extraordinaire.



Every El Capitan has a "pouch" on the lower front, created in the area between the round handle and the front of the case. A savvy developer could make a semi circular attachment that sits in the pouch, with the firewire and usb cables running under the machine and plugging into the back.



[img]file:///Herald%20HD/Desktop%20Folder/powermac.jpg[/img]



What do you think? Anybody wanna do a mockup?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    kecksykecksy Posts: 1,002member
    Someone post the link for Apple's feedback page, so we can atleast request this feature for the next update. Would be cool if we could get everyone on AI to do it.



    And who was it who added front pannel USB and FireWire to their WindMac using the second drive bay as an access point?
  • Reply 2 of 5
    bryan furybryan fury Posts: 169member
    ..why not just use a hub?
  • Reply 3 of 5
    serranoserrano Posts: 1,806member
    Just put it into the 2.5" bay.







    Or you could buy a hub...
  • Reply 4 of 5
    aquaticaquatic Posts: 5,602member
    Hopefully this won't come as a surprise to anyone: if you're posting here, you're a geek! :eek: Most of my friends have never even heard of a hub for a computer.



    This is like asking someone to buy a door for their car (ok that's hyperbole but you get my point.) I am seeing more and more of this from Apple: if you don't like it, do it yourself. FSCK OFF! BUY A (#%$&()@# PC! People here seem to back this idea. This is NOT a smart marketing idea. Let me illustrate with examples: in OS X, if you want certain features you have to bend over backwards using hacks for something that should be there in the first place. NO this isn't subjective: TinkerTool, Carbon Copy Cloner, Drive 10 (defragment), Unsanity haxies, a utility to turn on Window Compression, yada yada, shouldn't be necessary to implement important features. How about audio on Macs these days? @(#%*&@#(&; that. You need a sound card, and in OS X, until now it was simply not there. I have heard 10.2 finally has Core Audio but I will wait till I see that. Audio used to be one of Apple's most interesting and high-profile markets, and you can still see Macs "Talking" on MTV or ads, or DJs using them. iPod has helped. But when they "helped" us by removing analogue audio...



    So in short, Joe Sixpack doesn't want to have to buy 6 PCI cards or whatever to get the Mac that should've come in the box. Or download 20 hacks for OS X. Remember that Jeff Goldblum (yea I know Jeff Goldblum) add about the 'new' iMac where it started out looking at the back of a Wintel? Perpetually complicated. 80-90% of people HATE computers because they are complicated (this is in no small way attributable to M$) That's why iMacs sell. They're simple. So far OS X reminds me of Windows, it is just annoying and complicated. I have it on my iBook but it's just a waste of a gig. 10.2 is a step in the right direction (printing, audio, networking are finally what 10.0 promised), but do ya'll know where I'm coming from? Average people make impulse decisions about PC purchases, and if you tell them they need to buy a "hub", they're going to say "Thank you, how about this Compaq POS with that game port, err USB, in the front."

    </rant>!



    Anyway couldn't the vents be designed to have ports in them, with the air flowing around them? Just a thought. <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" />
  • Reply 5 of 5
    kecksykecksy Posts: 1,002member
    Drive 10 is a total waste of money. OS X has causes very little disk fragmentation. Apple doesn't include a defrag utility, because their OS doesn't really need it.



    Windows is different.



    [ 08-22-2002: Message edited by: Son of Pismo ]</p>
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