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View Full Version : Gee!, I was unaware of this iMac flaw!


kookbreaker
3rd February 2005, 09:54 AM
Yup. They can help an earthquake kill ya!

I tend to take computer commentators with a grain of salt. They are usually blowhards, but occassioanlly they have an interesting obseration or two.

Now, I've seen plenty of columnists bash apple. Heck, it was once a sport. Sometimes they are right, sometimes they are wrong. But even when they are wrong they usually have some basis in reality.

Meet Rob Enderle (http://news.designtechnica.com/talkback46.html). Rob has already ingratiated himself to the LINUX world by calling everyone who uses that system idiots. Rob is apparently considered such a BillGatesButtkisser in the Linux community that he's considered an unfunny joke.

Well, seems that Rob decided to go after Apple. Fair enough, but I was under the impression that you needed to have a basis in reality to make a point.

For example:


I’m not a fan of the current iMac, the PC in a monitor has been done before and the new offering has relatively poor ergonomics (when compared to the old iMac), is less distinctive, and is far less stable. I live in California, earthquake country, and the old iMac was one of the most stable products in its class, the new one places the weight too high and relies on a base that is too narrow making it likely that it would fall. Falling glass can be a huge hazard in a home late at night when you are trying to get the kids and family to safety during an earthquake.

Ah. Yes. real winner there Rob.

Never mind that you've obviously never touched an iMac. If you did you'd know that they are pretty stable. More importantly, you'd know that there is no glass used on the LCD monitor.

Reeeeeaal impressive work there, buster. "iMacs will kill your family!" says more about you than Apple.

coalesce
3rd February 2005, 03:02 PM
So never mind the fact that the rest of the house is collapsing around your ears. Just watch out for that darn iMac!!!

And don't get him started on the iPod Shuffle's lanyard! Not only will it choke you, but you'll probably put an eye out with it!!!

Idjit.

Michael

Peskanov
3rd February 2005, 05:23 PM
Why computer designers are always so weird?
A few months ago I saw a computer case designer who despised PS2 design and liked the Xbox one!! :?


The first small form factor Apple, the Apple Cube, was as beautiful as it was difficult to set up and use.Â_ It was a nightmare of bad thermal engineering and had horrible reliability.


The cube dificult to set up and use!?!?!
First news about thermal problems too; mine works perfectly since 2001, and I live in Spain!
Certainly the cube have problems, especially the experimental "power on" light...but thermal? and set-up?


The Lisa was a bone headed product that showcased how little Apple actually knew about the business market and both offerings showed what can happen if you focus too much on form and not enough on function.


The Lisa focused too much on form!?!?! The Lisa was all about technology, Jeezuz! The original Mac focused on form, not the Lisa...

Bah, another weirdo...

Nasarius
3rd February 2005, 10:07 PM
Oh, this is just too easy.

Most people expecting a $500 Mac will find they are paying as much as twice as much than they intended if they buy Apple peripherals and at least half again as much if they buy from third parties. In both cases they won’t get the expected out of box experience Apple has been known for because the offering is not complete.

Er, um, except...that's exactly the point. See the diagram (http://www.apple.com/macmini/) showing the Mac mini hooked up to a PC keyboard, mouse, and monitor? The Mac mini isn't really targeted at new computer users; the iMac is probably a better value for them. God forbid Apple should try to expand their customer base.

Enderle also misses the fact that small-form-factor boxes are not yet "mainstream". Apple has the potential to make them so, like they did with the iPod. The Mac mini is slightly smaller than most mini-ITX boxes. It's actually more powerful and, yes, cheaper than similar mini-ITX systems (not even counting the software).
So who wants to bet that HP, Gateway, and Dell will be scrambling to design their own inexpensive small-form-factor computers once it's obvious that the Mac mini is a huge success?

cesium
5th February 2005, 09:54 AM
Regarding the new iMac, I was rather dissapointed with the design of the case. I own a G4 iMac, and love the ability to swivel and tilt the screen. With teh new mac, the screen can only be tilted up and down.

Also, I am not a big fan of extra stuff around the screen, the plexi-glass stuff around the G4 screen is ok, but the G5 has a lot more stuff around the screen.

The fact that the speakers were integrated into the device was also dissapointing. I like my iMac external speakers, but apple internal speakers tend to be crap, and if I installed external speakers, then I would have these internal speakers doing nothing. This is not a problem, but having devices who's functionality overlaps has always annoyed me.

When I finaly have to get a new computer, I will gut my iMac and run cables from the monitor, CD drive, and external ports to a nice new G5 (G6?) powermac, or (god forbid) a pc (i could get a KVM switch, so I could have a mac, an XP box, and a Linux box all through my iMac monitor.)

kookbreaker
7th February 2005, 07:39 AM
Originally posted by Nasarius
So who wants to bet that HP, Gateway, and Dell will be scrambling to design their own inexpensive small-form-factor computers once it's obvious that the Mac mini is a huge success?

Some of them already have them...trouble is they look like crap!

I like when he says that Dell 'beat Apple at the iMac game'. When did that happen? I know there were a host of imitations in the PC world, but none of them were exactly a runaway success.

kookbreaker
7th February 2005, 07:42 AM
Originally posted by Peskanov
[The Lisa focused too much on form!?!?! The Lisa was all about technology, Jeezuz! The original Mac focused on form, not the Lisa...

Translation: It used a mouse.

This guy was definately in the "eek! a mouse" crowd in the 80's.

I also fail to see how Apple's errors of over twenty years ago have any effect on things today.