The Apple Chameleon

pookjp

As reported on macnn:



Apple submitted a patent application in February to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a computer enclosure that changes color depending on user settings or the system's current state or system actions. The "Active enclosure for computing device" features embedded LEDs that can be used to change the color of the computer housing. Dubbed a "chameleonic electronic device," the patent notes that the casing and multicolor LEDs could be uniquely positioned or the intensities changed to vary coloration, create an outward design (spots/stripes), make a portion of the housing "glow" or simply light the outline of the casing itself.



Link to Patent Submission



And the speculation begins.

anders

Is this anything new or is it the same as was discovered a year ago

macsrgood4u

It seems to be an addendum to the original filing with more specific information. There's also an item called "Morph Pad". These may be somehow related to the other recent disclosure about a tablet device?

It's all in the article.

monkeyastronaut

Future iMacs will sure be pretty amazing. You could download lighting patterns from the web and then apply them to your computer.

murk

Quote:

Originally posted by monkeyastronaut

Future iMacs will sure be pretty amazing. You could download lighting patterns from the web and then apply them to your computer.

I think it will be something more along these lines:

Chameleon Cube

tedndi

Quote:

Originally posted by monkeyastronaut

Future iMacs will sure be pretty amazing. You could download lighting patterns from the web and then apply them to your computer.

i think that they will be user configurable. To display such useful things as when e-mail has arrived or the amount of data flow, etc

monkeyastronaut

Quote:

Originally posted by TednDi

i think that they will be user configurable. To display such useful things as when e-mail has arrived or the amount of data flow, etc

Or as iTunes plug-ins to display light shows. Plenty of possibilities.

aurora

They need a gimmick because the hardware they push sucks. Cpu's and gpu's and memory are becoming a joke on this platform.

monkeyastronaut

Quote:

Originally posted by Aurora

They need a gimmick because the hardware they push sucks. Cpu's and gpu's and memory are becoming a joke on this platform.

Yeah, makes you want to run out and buy a Pentium 4, doesn't it?



If people cared that much about Cpus and Gpus and that stuff, the Mac platform would have died long ago when we were stuck at 500 MHz computers while the PC crowd had 1.5 Ghz machines.



It's the whole package that counts.

vinney57

Quote:

Originally posted by Aurora

They need a gimmick because the hardware they push sucks. Cpu's and gpu's and memory are becoming a joke on this platform.

Uh oh, the retard's back.

aurora

thats right Harold, and its true if you cant sell your machine on performance then a gimmick is the next best thing and this is a slick fancy gimmick many machines (imacs) were sold on color alone.

monkeyastronaut

Quote:

Originally posted by Aurora

thats right Harold, and its true if you cant sell your machine on performance then a gimmick is the next best thing and this is a slick fancy gimmick many machines (imacs) were sold on color alone.

You're right. Many iMacs were sold on color alone. I bet HP and Dell would like to say that about their machines.

revs

I highly doubt Apple are going to come out with a colour changing computer. A lot of their copyright fillings like this are done in such a way that you don't know the actual use of it. i.e. didn't the iPod like scroll wheel in the the patent for a new mouse turn out to be the wheel on the iPod mini and new ipods? I just think this is for something unrelated - do you really see apple, who make pretty subtle designs nowadays (clean lines, white/metal, nothing garish) are going to make a computer like the original imac, but where the coloured bits change over n over? IMO i think not.



revs

orange whip

a computer with a glowing, variable coloured case???





what a load of crap.





I know...... maybe they could put alien eyes on it or something.....





perhaps they could put it on enterprise products and call it a toy for enterprise users.





perhaps they could use it on portable devices (better still ones that use G5?s to really cripple battery life)





nope.... if it?s just ?pretty?, ?cutesy? crap then it will be just that - tacky useless ornamentation.





i suspect apple is capable of more than flowerpower (or should be)













(Wow.... i'm cynical tonight)\

rok

Quote:

Originally posted by orange whip

a computer with a glowing, variable coloured case???

what a load of crap.

I know...... maybe they could put alien eyes on it or something.....

perhaps they could put it on enterprise products and call it a toy for enterprise users.

perhaps they could use it on portable devices (better still ones that use G5?s to really cripple battery life)

nope.... if it?s just ?pretty?, ?cutesy? crap then it will be just that - tacky useless ornamentation.

i suspect apple is capable of more than flowerpower (or should be)

(Wow.... i'm cynical tonight)\

hmmm, that all sounds vaguely familiar...

jasenj1

I'm of two minds on this.



1. What a silly gimmick. Apple's really lost their edge.



2. If anyone can make this work, Apple can. Dell, HP, Sony, or any of the other Wintel box makers would never try a gimmick like this, and any small manufacturer would be lost in the sea of clone boxes. (Who knows, someone might already make this sort of thing.) Apple has the will to do the System software associated with this right - Applescriptable colors, lots of sample scripts (weather, stock market, email notification, RSS feeds, CPU load, time of day, etc.).



If Apple really comes out with a chameleon case, lots of people will cheer it as the coolest thing since the iPod, lots of people will jeer it as the dumbest thing ever. But, people - and the press - will talk about it. College, high school, and junior high kids will beg their parents for one. Yuppies with too much money will grab them for the fashion statement. And half of AppleInsider readers will complain that it only has a 1.6GHz CPU, or the graphics card is too weak, or it should have a bigger HD.



Apple knows (or believes) that fashion matters as much as technical specs. At the cost of some LEDs and a bit of System software, Apple can have a dramatic aesthetic differentiator - and claim that it's useful, too.



- Jasen.

lgnome

Quote:

Originally posted by MacsRGood4U

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i dont know... but this picture just seems to be a non implemented control panel to control the power button on the front of already shipping macs..

kickaha

See the far left tab? 'Housing Illumination'

buonrotto

One step closer to those Star Trek TNG terminals if you ask me.

beigeuser

Quote:

Originally posted by BuonRotto

One step closer to those Star Trek TNG terminals if you ask me.

Apple wouldn't be the first to do this.



http://prius.hitachi.co.jp/go/prius/...air/index.html



This links to a Japanese webpage for Hitachi. If you see the green circle in the middle of the tower, that's the part that changes colors. It will change to various colors depending on the current PC state. Sleep, accessing drive, TV recording etc. It will also display a color pattern for receiving e-mail, alarm etc.



If Apple makes the whole case like that, it will be new. But it might be more of a eyesore if your case keeps changing colors.

matsu

Could be usefull for something with limited screen real estate. Bring the window frame right up into the bezel. Imagine a tablet with little red yellow and green LEDs in the upper left corner. You launch an app, and it immediately fills out the whole screen -- no dock, no menubar, no borders. In the bezel are three warmly glowing LEDs. Touch red, app closes, touch yellow, app minimizes, touch green, cycle to the next open app?