<strong>I agree totally. I love the CD players where you wave your hand in front of it and the drawer automatically pops out. There's no reason why towers can't have that, after all even hand dryers in restrooms have motion sensors! <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
Such a feature works with Apple's style, something incredibly simple, and very cool, yet nobody has thought of doing it yet. </strong><hr></blockquote>
You're wrong on that note.
[quote]
A loud clatter of gunk music flooded through the Heart of Gold cabin as Zaphod searched the sub-etha radio wave bands for news of himself. The machine was rather difficult to operate. For years radios had been operated by means of pressing buttons and turning dials; then as the technology became more sophisticated the controls were made touch-sensitive -- you merely had to brush the panels with your fingers; now all you had to do was wave your hand in the general direction of the components and hope. It saved a lot of muscular expenditure, of course, but meant that you had to sit infuriatingly still if you wanted to keep listening to the same program.
I agree with the elegant minimalist designs, but find it difficult to see how the El Cap' enclosure can evolve beyond the QuickSilver. Take just the handles for example, they were milky white and ribbed in the blue and white G3. In the graphite G4 the colour was removed, and in the QuickSilvers the ribbing was removed. It's difficult to see how the handles could be made any more elegant and minimalist, without disappearing altogether. In a similar way, the drive bezels were reduced to their simplest purest form in the QuickSilver. As you say the MDD towers haven't followed the trend, having holes punched in the front out of necessity. Perhaps with the introduction of a new processor the QuickSilver style enclosure will evolve further, with some form of colour change and moniker to denote it's G5 status (or whatever it will be called).
[ 02-28-2003: Message edited by: RodUK ]</strong><hr></blockquote>Then what is the logical extension of that? The basic Quicksilver design has been around since the B&W G3's and has spanned the entire lifetime of the G4. That is a very long time. With its compound curves there is nothing minimalist about the design. Expect the next generation towers to be as different from the current towers as the current iMac is from the original.
<strong>Then what is the logical extension of that? The basic Quicksilver design has been around since the B&W G3's and has spanned the entire lifetime of the G4. That is a very long time. With its compound curves there is nothing minimalist about the design. Expect the next generation towers to be as different from the current towers as the current iMac is from the original.</strong><hr></blockquote>
The question is - is minimalism a design property of being square, or of lacking extra design elements? I'm not sure where I see the extra elements on the Quicksilver case, but if you want curves, they're there. If you want square, I suggest you try a NeXT Cube.
Either way, rounded doesn't mean non-minimal, and just because attention and effort goes into the design doesn't mean it's non-minimal either. In fact I would argue the opposite - it takes much attention and effort to design something which is truly minimal.
The TiBook is also a great example of minimalist design - no element is present without a purpose. Compare to the overwrought design elements in a Dell laptop.
Someone asked this and no one answered- but does anyone think the hot swap drives ala Xserve would make it.
I think that would be a very cool addition. Each computer comes with one drive full and a plate on the other. So one can bring their drive around with them.
[quote] Someone asked this and no one answered- but does anyone think the hot swap drives ala Xserve would make it.
I think that would be a very cool addition. Each computer comes with one drive full and a plate on the other. So one can bring their drive around with them. <hr></blockquote>
I did, earlier in the thread. Why would anyone want to just carry around an Apple Drive Module? Why would anyone want to pay $250 for a 60GB Apple Drive Module just so they can pop it out of a PowerMac and carry it around? That's not cool. Please. 60GB internal drives can be had for as little as $50. And this is the truth: you won't be ripping out your hard drive so frequently that you need hot swap access to it while maintaing uninterrupted uptime. If you are an exception to this truth and you do, BUY THE XSERVE. End of story.
Why doesn't anyone understand this concept. If you want a drive that you can remove and take with you, get an external firewire drive. Get a very small one. And stop suggesting Apple Drive Module in PowerMacs. They have serve a very practical use in rack servers but not in PowerMacs.
I did, earlier in the thread. Why would anyone want to just carry around an Apple Drive Module? Why would anyone want to pay $250 for a 60GB Apple Drive Module just so they can pop it out of a PowerMac and carry it around? That's not cool. Please. 60GB internal drives can be had for as little as $50. And this is the truth: you won't be ripping out your hard drive so frequently that you need hot swap access to it while maintaing uninterrupted uptime. If you are an exception to this truth and you do, BUY THE XSERVE. End of story.
Why doesn't anyone understand this concept. If you want a drive that you can remove and take with you, get an external firewire drive. Get a very small one. And stop suggesting Apple Drive Module in PowerMacs. They have serve a very practical use in rack servers but not in PowerMacs.
Why doesn't anyone understand this concept. If you want a drive that you can remove and take with you, get an external firewire drive. Get a very small one. And stop suggesting Apple Drive Module in PowerMacs. They have serve a very practical use in rack servers but not in PowerMacs.
Agreed. That's why Zip drives are (or were) so popular. If you need to transport data, burn a CD (or a DVD if you need lots of data). Media are cheap and light. Drive mechanisms are heavy and expensive (and delicate). It is much more reasonable to use removeable media. Maybe that's why personal computers have had removeable media drives since the very beginning. Hot-swappable drives are like having your own bazooka - you can pull it out and impress everybody, but you'll never actually use it for anything.
The QS is the best looking of them all. The MDD is the best tower case on the market, period. If Appleput the internal drive holding capacity of the MDD into an el-cap' with the cleaness of a QS, many people would initially react, so what? But it would be the best case on the market and the best ever made.
How easy could it be? Remake the front face of one continuous piece of plastic, no mirror doors. Use the same openings as the QS but in the MDD location, and make the portholes into a thin continuous slot. Done. New design, best of previous and current case, minimal effort.
I'm not convinced we'll see a new case, the current case is very very good and improving it will be a chore. They could make it a mite smaller too, but we are being nitpickity, aren't we?
A redesign? Jobs likes cubes. Big and little cubes: pro and consumer. hmmm...
The pre-quicksilver Powermacs looked stupid because of the plastic highlite stripes on the handles, kind of like the bezels of the G3 iMacs. The next powermac should have transparent, gleaming, plastic frosting over a brushed metal frame. That way, it would look kinda like the xServe, but with a candy look to it.
The QS is the best looking of them all. The MDD is the best tower case on the market, period. If Appleput the internal drive holding capacity of the MDD into an el-cap' with the cleaness of a QS, many people would initially react, so what? But it would be the best case on the market and the best ever made.
How easy could it be? Remake the front face of one continuous piece of plastic, no mirror doors. Use the same openings as the QS but in the MDD location, and make the portholes into a thin continuous slot. Done. New design, best of previous and current case, minimal effort.
I'm not convinced we'll see a new case, the current case is very very good and improving it will be a chore. They could make it a mite smaller too, but we are being nitpickity, aren't we?
A redesign? Jobs likes cubes. Big and little cubes: pro and consumer. hmmm...</strong><hr></blockquote>
I guess since I haven't really been in the market for a tower for two years I don't really understand the differences -- the B&W G3 I have is in the El Cap case, right? Right. Did Apple modify the case since then that much to allow more drive space in the MDD (i.e. it's still the physical dimensions of a B&W G3?).
I guess since I haven't really been in the market for a tower for two years I don't really understand the differences -- the B&W G3 I have is in the El Cap case, right? Right. Did Apple modify the case since then that much to allow more drive space in the MDD (i.e. it's still the physical dimensions of a B&W G3?).</strong><hr></blockquote>
Yes.
The MDD version of the El Cap can hold two optical drives and 5 HDDs, and the interior layout has changed to make things easier to get to.
The QS is the best looking of them all. The MDD is the best tower case on the market, period. If Appleput the internal drive holding capacity of the MDD into an el-cap' with the cleaness of a QS, many people would initially react, so what? But it would be the best case on the market and the best ever made.
How easy could it be? Remake the front face of one continuous piece of plastic, no mirror doors. Use the same openings as the QS but in the MDD location, and make the portholes into a thin continuous slot. Done. New design, best of previous and current case, minimal effort.
I'm not convinced we'll see a new case, the current case is very very good and improving it will be a chore. They could make it a mite smaller too, but we are being nitpickity, aren't we?
A redesign? Jobs likes cubes. Big and little cubes: pro and consumer. hmmm...</strong><hr></blockquote>
We'll see a new exterior to the case. The MDD which are ugly are an obvious transition with various elements garbled together from crrent products. Besides, I can almost guarantee a chrome Apple logo on the side of the 970 tower.
Comments
<strong>I agree totally. I love the CD players where you wave your hand in front of it and the drawer automatically pops out. There's no reason why towers can't have that, after all even hand dryers in restrooms have motion sensors! <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
Such a feature works with Apple's style, something incredibly simple, and very cool, yet nobody has thought of doing it yet.
You're wrong on that note.
[quote]
A loud clatter of gunk music flooded through the Heart of Gold cabin as Zaphod searched the sub-etha radio wave bands for news of himself. The machine was rather difficult to operate. For years radios had been operated by means of pressing buttons and turning dials; then as the technology became more sophisticated the controls were made touch-sensitive -- you merely had to brush the panels with your fingers; now all you had to do was wave your hand in the general direction of the components and hope. It saved a lot of muscular expenditure, of course, but meant that you had to sit infuriatingly still if you wanted to keep listening to the same program.
<hr></blockquote>
HHGTG, Chapter 12, Paragraph 1.
<strong>
I agree with the elegant minimalist designs, but find it difficult to see how the El Cap' enclosure can evolve beyond the QuickSilver. Take just the handles for example, they were milky white and ribbed in the blue and white G3. In the graphite G4 the colour was removed, and in the QuickSilvers the ribbing was removed. It's difficult to see how the handles could be made any more elegant and minimalist, without disappearing altogether. In a similar way, the drive bezels were reduced to their simplest purest form in the QuickSilver. As you say the MDD towers haven't followed the trend, having holes punched in the front out of necessity. Perhaps with the introduction of a new processor the QuickSilver style enclosure will evolve further, with some form of colour change and moniker to denote it's G5 status (or whatever it will be called).
[ 02-28-2003: Message edited by: RodUK ]</strong><hr></blockquote>Then what is the logical extension of that? The basic Quicksilver design has been around since the B&W G3's and has spanned the entire lifetime of the G4. That is a very long time. With its compound curves there is nothing minimalist about the design. Expect the next generation towers to be as different from the current towers as the current iMac is from the original.
<strong>Then what is the logical extension of that? The basic Quicksilver design has been around since the B&W G3's and has spanned the entire lifetime of the G4. That is a very long time. With its compound curves there is nothing minimalist about the design. Expect the next generation towers to be as different from the current towers as the current iMac is from the original.</strong><hr></blockquote>
The question is - is minimalism a design property of being square, or of lacking extra design elements? I'm not sure where I see the extra elements on the Quicksilver case, but if you want curves, they're there. If you want square, I suggest you try a NeXT Cube.
Either way, rounded doesn't mean non-minimal, and just because attention and effort goes into the design doesn't mean it's non-minimal either. In fact I would argue the opposite - it takes much attention and effort to design something which is truly minimal.
The TiBook is also a great example of minimalist design - no element is present without a purpose. Compare to the overwrought design elements in a Dell laptop.
I think that would be a very cool addition. Each computer comes with one drive full and a plate on the other. So one can bring their drive around with them.
[ 02-28-2003: Message edited by: FrostyMMB ]</p>
I think that would be a very cool addition. Each computer comes with one drive full and a plate on the other. So one can bring their drive around with them. <hr></blockquote>
I did, earlier in the thread. Why would anyone want to just carry around an Apple Drive Module? Why would anyone want to pay $250 for a 60GB Apple Drive Module just so they can pop it out of a PowerMac and carry it around? That's not cool. Please. 60GB internal drives can be had for as little as $50. And this is the truth: you won't be ripping out your hard drive so frequently that you need hot swap access to it while maintaing uninterrupted uptime. If you are an exception to this truth and you do, BUY THE XSERVE. End of story.
Why doesn't anyone understand this concept. If you want a drive that you can remove and take with you, get an external firewire drive. Get a very small one. And stop suggesting Apple Drive Module in PowerMacs. They have serve a very practical use in rack servers but not in PowerMacs.
[ 02-28-2003: Message edited by: FrostyMMB ]</p>
<strong>
I did, earlier in the thread. Why would anyone want to just carry around an Apple Drive Module? Why would anyone want to pay $250 for a 60GB Apple Drive Module just so they can pop it out of a PowerMac and carry it around? That's not cool. Please. 60GB internal drives can be had for as little as $50. And this is the truth: you won't be ripping out your hard drive so frequently that you need hot swap access to it while maintaing uninterrupted uptime. If you are an exception to this truth and you do, BUY THE XSERVE. End of story.
Why doesn't anyone understand this concept. If you want a drive that you can remove and take with you, get an external firewire drive. Get a very small one. And stop suggesting Apple Drive Module in PowerMacs. They have serve a very practical use in rack servers but not in PowerMacs.
[ 02-28-2003: Message edited by: FrostyMMB ]</strong><hr></blockquote>
Well put Frosty! Thanks for laying the smack down!
<strong>
Why doesn't anyone understand this concept. If you want a drive that you can remove and take with you, get an external firewire drive. Get a very small one. And stop suggesting Apple Drive Module in PowerMacs. They have serve a very practical use in rack servers but not in PowerMacs.
[ 02-28-2003: Message edited by: FrostyMMB ]</strong><hr></blockquote>
Agreed. That's why Zip drives are (or were) so popular. If you need to transport data, burn a CD (or a DVD if you need lots of data). Media are cheap and light. Drive mechanisms are heavy and expensive (and delicate). It is much more reasonable to use removeable media. Maybe that's why personal computers have had removeable media drives since the very beginning. Hot-swappable drives are like having your own bazooka - you can pull it out and impress everybody, but you'll never actually use it for anything.
[ 02-28-2003: Message edited by: TJM ]</p>
The QS is the best looking of them all. The MDD is the best tower case on the market, period. If Appleput the internal drive holding capacity of the MDD into an el-cap' with the cleaness of a QS, many people would initially react, so what? But it would be the best case on the market and the best ever made.
How easy could it be? Remake the front face of one continuous piece of plastic, no mirror doors. Use the same openings as the QS but in the MDD location, and make the portholes into a thin continuous slot. Done. New design, best of previous and current case, minimal effort.
I'm not convinced we'll see a new case, the current case is very very good and improving it will be a chore. They could make it a mite smaller too, but we are being nitpickity, aren't we?
A redesign? Jobs likes cubes. Big and little cubes: pro and consumer. hmmm...
<strong>A note about the el cap'
The QS is the best looking of them all. The MDD is the best tower case on the market, period. If Appleput the internal drive holding capacity of the MDD into an el-cap' with the cleaness of a QS, many people would initially react, so what? But it would be the best case on the market and the best ever made.
How easy could it be? Remake the front face of one continuous piece of plastic, no mirror doors. Use the same openings as the QS but in the MDD location, and make the portholes into a thin continuous slot. Done. New design, best of previous and current case, minimal effort.
I'm not convinced we'll see a new case, the current case is very very good and improving it will be a chore. They could make it a mite smaller too, but we are being nitpickity, aren't we?
A redesign? Jobs likes cubes. Big and little cubes: pro and consumer. hmmm...</strong><hr></blockquote>
I guess since I haven't really been in the market for a tower for two years I don't really understand the differences -- the B&W G3 I have is in the El Cap case, right? Right. Did Apple modify the case since then that much to allow more drive space in the MDD (i.e. it's still the physical dimensions of a B&W G3?).
<strong>I had a vision today. The next "PowerMac" will be a round cube.
Better get that apple protection, for when it rolls off your desk.
<strong>
I guess since I haven't really been in the market for a tower for two years I don't really understand the differences -- the B&W G3 I have is in the El Cap case, right? Right. Did Apple modify the case since then that much to allow more drive space in the MDD (i.e. it's still the physical dimensions of a B&W G3?).</strong><hr></blockquote>
Yes.
The MDD version of the El Cap can hold two optical drives and 5 HDDs, and the interior layout has changed to make things easier to get to.
<strong>A note about the el cap'
The QS is the best looking of them all. The MDD is the best tower case on the market, period. If Appleput the internal drive holding capacity of the MDD into an el-cap' with the cleaness of a QS, many people would initially react, so what? But it would be the best case on the market and the best ever made.
How easy could it be? Remake the front face of one continuous piece of plastic, no mirror doors. Use the same openings as the QS but in the MDD location, and make the portholes into a thin continuous slot. Done. New design, best of previous and current case, minimal effort.
I'm not convinced we'll see a new case, the current case is very very good and improving it will be a chore. They could make it a mite smaller too, but we are being nitpickity, aren't we?
A redesign? Jobs likes cubes. Big and little cubes: pro and consumer. hmmm...</strong><hr></blockquote>
We'll see a new exterior to the case. The MDD which are ugly are an obvious transition with various elements garbled together from crrent products. Besides, I can almost guarantee a chrome Apple logo on the side of the 970 tower.