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pabloEskimo · May 31, 2002, 02:00 PM

from <a href="http://www.rumortracker.com:" target="_blank">www.rumortracker.com:</a>

<img src="http://www.rumortracker.com/graphics/newg4tower.jpg" alt=" - " />

what do you guys think?

RUNTZ · May 31, 2002, 02:18 PM

what do you guys think?[/qb][/QUOTE]ugly! and photoshoped.

BTW 1.4MHZ is too high..

[ 05-31-2002, 02:19 PM: Message edited by: RUNTZ ]

Commodus · May 31, 2002, 02:19 PM

The design certainly LOOKS feasible, but it's almost too good to be true; given the clean lines on the Xserve, it's entirely possible that it's just a really clever Photoshop. One omission I would point out is the lack of "handles" - unless they're on the top, this would be a major omission and is the strongest suggestion that this is a fake. The PowerMac has had those handles since the B&W G3, and the Quicksilver G4 still has them.

On the other hand, such a design would also be more friendly to people using PowerMacs in tightly-packed arrangements (alongside audio equipment, for example). The design also suggests aluminum, which would certainly let the system run cooler and make dual 1.4 GHz G4s that much easier to run.

The big test? Let's see if Apple Legal acts.

Mac Boy · May 31, 2002, 02:39 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />what do you guys think?<hr /></blockquote>I think this picture is supposed to be speculative. That being said, there is no reason to have removable drives (with drive lights) on a tower. I like the Firewire ports on the front, and think this is an excellent idea. There probably only needs to be one though (for iPod). I don't think Apple will keep the speaker on the front, theres no reason to leave it there besides looks, and it doesn't fit in on the brushed metal. Most likely they will move it internally like on the iMac, and start including speakers for the high-end models. Finally, while I like the brushed metal look, I don't think the G4 will ever get to look this boxy. The Xserve is boxy for a reason, the desktop can maintain it's rounded-with-handles look, and possibly adopt the brushed metal somehow.

And thats my take.

- Ross

pabloEskimo · May 31, 2002, 02:49 PM

maybe it has a handle like the one the cube has...

SimeyTheLimey · May 31, 2002, 02:50 PM

It looks like my Dad's 1970's stereo amp.

Not that retro can't be cool.

MindFad · May 31, 2002, 02:54 PM

Quicksilver looks way cooler, IMO. They'll probably stick with something that looks similar to QS, and save that shiny metallic stuff for the Xserve. At least, I hope -- I like the QS case too much!

iNeusch · May 31, 2002, 02:55 PM

F.A.K.E.

Leonard · May 31, 2002, 02:58 PM

It's nice in a way, but as someone else said, it' rather boxy.

It's definitely a photoshop picture. Everything in that picture can be cut and pasted from an Xserve picture. A little stretching here and there.

I like the firewire ports in the front. It would be nice if there is a pair of USB ports (or at least 1 port) in the front too.

cdhostage · May 31, 2002, 03:08 PM

IOf youre gonna put FW ports in front, at least put USB ports in front too! This was one thing that bothered me about the neww Imac>

davidmd · May 31, 2002, 03:17 PM

This better not be what the tower looks like for one reason: that damn exposed speaker! Not only do I dislike the way it looks even on the current QuickSilver case, but it truly pains me to see all 30-or-so of the speakers on the QuickSilvers in my school lab looking like crinkled up tin foil!

IMO, those exposed speakers w/o a working cover have been the biggest design mistakes in recent Apple-designed hardware history. Other than that, though, I really like the minimalist lines! Nice!

euphras · May 31, 2002, 03:26 PM

I think it�s speculation but an absolutely realistic one. Sure, it�s a great leap away from those organic, bowed towers we see since the days of blue/white.
But look what they did with the powerbooks! The change in design could simply be no harder when transforming from the pismo to the tibook rev. a.
The Xserve is therefore only a successor of this minimalistic philosophy (in terms of industrial design).
The argument of the missing handles is not sufficient: If they really switch to an aluminum based design it would be simple to integrate immerseable handles.
A third point is: Apple was always the first introducing new stylistic features (introduction of "translucent colours" with the imac and first ibook...), but when the Wintel based industry copied these features Apple was immedeatly skipping this design and offering something never seen before.
Nowadays if you go to your local PC-retailer what do you see? Boxes with elements that separates them from the known "grey boxes"............so time for Apple to do the next step into the future of computer design??!?

Pat

tibook 667 "ivory", 6100 "piltdown man"

SkiBikeSki · May 31, 2002, 04:48 PM

It looks like your standard PC box, just made of brushed metal not beige paint. Apple would certainly do something cooler. And when they put a picture of it on their main page, it'll be a much better picture than that.

zazou · May 31, 2002, 05:15 PM

I will agree that this is entirely too Xserve like to be the real deal.

Xserve, unlike any other Mac form factor absolutely must conform to a set of specific guidelines. 1U

The desktops are much more open to custom ID (industrial design).

I do think the sentiment will be echoed and that aluminum/metal will be a major part of the design, but this is tool limited.

Give the complexity of the ID of the iMac and the current G4's this is not quite Apple as I see them.

This is your typical Lian Li PC aluminum case a'la Apple.

But, would I be disappointed this design? No.

It would be a BadAss new mac, right?

Mac Zealot · May 31, 2002, 05:18 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by pabloEskimo:

what do you guys think?<hr /></blockquote>Tis' a fake just like I posted on spymac. Not a bad one at that but here's why:

Ununiform colors....
That 'light' spot over the superdrive
The fact the reflection on both the apple logo and the speaker are identical to that of the apple logo on the xserve and the speaker on the quicksilver.

The firewire ports suck.

And why do we need front ports? Do you know how UGLY they look with dust in them?!?!?!? I dunno but why do you need them there?

One thing I love about the quicksilver is it looks so simple, and everything is almost hidden. On a PC everything is obvious and FUGLY!

dialo · May 31, 2002, 05:34 PM

Anyway, I think it looks good. Nice and clean. The top looks cut off though. Next time, make the black lines stop before the top, so they look like grooves. Other than that I think it looks nice. I hope the next cases are some sort of metal. The current boxes look frumpy and bulbous now.

IEEE1394 · May 31, 2002, 06:28 PM

I say it's fake due to the extremely poor wording.

"120 GB Hard Disk"
"Standard SuperDrive" <--- shouldn't that be "SuperDrive Standard"

Maneki Neko · May 31, 2002, 08:34 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by IEEE1394:
I say it's fake due to the extremely poor wording.

"120 GB Hard Disk"
"Standard SuperDrive" <--- shouldn't that be "SuperDrive Standard"<hr /></blockquote>Look at <a href="http://a772.g.akamai.net/7/772/51/5ac4d518c1890a/www.apple.com/home/images/2002/05/ibook05202002.gif" target="_blank">This Image</a>

It has the same hard disk wording. I don't know how apple would word the second phrase though.

Leonis · May 31, 2002, 09:16 PM

That looks fake to me.

Anyway I really hope this is NOT the new case. This just looks like a PC case in alumium.

bender · May 31, 2002, 09:21 PM

I think it looks too much like a boxy Sony VAIO computer. And to add to Mac Zealot's comments, the reflection on the Apple logo and the speaker don't line up.
It's also too low to the ground...it would inhale too much dust.
Fake.

Todd Madson · Jun 1, 2002, 02:37 AM

There's two possibilities: an excellent fake or someone in Cupertino is getting his butt chewed to
a bloody rag by a certain Mr. Jobs.

Whoever did the art did an excellent job of aping the graphic conventions Apple utilizes
of the text portion of the piece.

The graphic of the tower - I'm not so sure. Apple wouldn't be so stupid to leave the chromed
dome of a speaker exposed to prying fingers. Or would they?

[ 06-01-2002, 02:38 AM: Message edited by: Todd Madson ]

DNA man · Jun 1, 2002, 04:00 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by cdhostage:
IOf youre gonna put FW ports in front, at least put USB ports in front too! This was one thing that bothered me about the neww Imac><hr /></blockquote>The ports were place at the rear of the iMac to try and prevent kids sticking stuff in the ports. However, later with the feed back to Apple about the LCD screen being a target for damage, resulted in the eMac. May be the ports will move in RevB <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

As far as the PowerMac goes. It looks very much like a PS fake BUT I'd like to see Apple bring both FW and USB ports to the front of the Mac and improve on the speaker on the front.

red rocket · Jun 1, 2002, 05:00 AM

I don't like it.
If Apple adapted the Xserve's design for the tower (I really don't think they will but it's not a bad idea in itself), I'd expect them to do a far nicer job than this.

Here's my beef:
1) The proportions are wrong. Box looks fat.
2) Firewire ports should be right at the bottom.
3) SuperDrive should be higher up.
4) Speaker doesn't fit in with this type of design.
5) Ventilation grille on the front? I don't think so.

Dgysy · Jun 1, 2002, 06:00 AM

One other observation, from the photo's I've seen of the last few Powermac designs, they seem to be evolutionary in design, not a radical design change as this would be.

I don't think that Apple would make such a drastic design change, maybe more like changing the color and perhaps the size of the case.

The server market is different from the consumer market so I don't think the Xserve will influence the Powermac design.

BrunoBruin · Jun 1, 2002, 09:19 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />I say it's fake due to the extremely poor wording.<hr /></blockquote>Not to mention the fact that Apple has never referred to the G4 as a "G4 Tower." It's always the Power Mac G4. But if this was supposed to be "accidentally" posted by Apple and then taken down, the incorrect capitalization of SuperDrive is the dead giveaway. Funny how someone would take the time to Photoshop up a nice case and then do something so obviously wrong.

I'd also find it very surprising if Apple did anything so useful as returning the eject button to the optical drive.

IEEE1394 · Jun 1, 2002, 09:28 AM

Is it just me or is the image no longer working?

Maybe a C&D from Apple?!

Naah, the host has been shut down due to excessive bandwidth consumption

Edit: O.K, so the image works after I post this. Figures.

[ 06-01-2002, 09:30 AM: Message edited by: IEEE1394 ]

Jerome · Jun 1, 2002, 01:43 PM

I think I like it, I'm tired of the toy-like appearance of PowerMacs. I'd like a more industrial look. Lose the front FireWire ports, the Superdrive eject button and all those unuseful-on-a-tower tiny lights and I'd be happy to have that thing...

We all know it's a fake tough, nobody said it was real.

Oh and yeah, take that cheap speaker off please

[ 06-01-2002, 01:47 PM: Message edited by: Jerome ]

Axel · Jun 1, 2002, 02:24 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by RUNTZ:
BTW 1.4MHZ is too high..<hr /></blockquote>1.4 Mhz too high ? I doubt the megahertz myth can save us any longer then... <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

Anyway I don't see why Apple would want to drastically change the PowerMac case design when they only add 0.4 GHz to the clockspeed of an old processor. I'm sure they'll wait till the introduction of the new G5s.

[ 06-01-2002, 03:02 PM: Message edited by: Axel ]

funkboy · Jun 1, 2002, 02:36 PM

I'm sure it's a fake - nice how the author mentions:
<blockquote>quote:<hr /> If anyone else know's of the alleged new "PowerMac enclosure" image that mistakenly made it onto Apple's site, drop me a note. That's what the Rumortracker Submit button is for!
<hr /></blockquote>He wanted people to say, "Look! He knew about this! It must not have been him who made this!"

Still, a nice photoshop, and definitely a possibility of what it could look like. I do hope Apple could innovate a bit more like they did with the new iMac... I'd like to see something that was just plain tall, something that stacked hard drives on top of one another to reduce the footprint of a big box and instead take up vertical space more.

Processor at the bottom
</li>
Drives - CD, Hard drive, etc. - above that, all easily removable, preferably by a method as seen in the XServe
</li>
plug-in ports above the drives, in a rotatable fashion, so you could have the ports facing the front, or the side, or back - whichever would work best for you
</li>
PCI cards on top - not sure how you could get it so IDE and SCSI cables would reach down to the hard drive bays from up there, but you could have all the PCI plug-ins on the top and have them vertically oriented to save horizontal space </li>

KellyHogan · Jun 1, 2002, 05:07 PM

Geforce 4MX. Whooooo! How much is the system price? $5000?

buffalolee · Jun 1, 2002, 05:17 PM

I like the design. I would like to see front USB ports and handles on it.

raferx · Jun 2, 2002, 01:16 AM

Har, har! That **** would never get out of Cupertino alive... Steve would kill the designer that came up that, besides John Ive is still top dog, and there is NOWAYINHELL he would ever come up with something like that. Leonis said it well, it looks like an old Compaq in Aluminium.

MindFad · Jun 2, 2002, 01:44 AM

Here, I'll give you the best of both worlds.

I could see myself liking this maybe.

<img src="http://homepage.mac.com/mindfad/.Pictures/newpm.jpg" alt=" - " />

[ 06-02-2002, 01:48 AM: Message edited by: MindFad ]

Dgysy · Jun 2, 2002, 07:47 AM

I like this better, I see nothing wrong with the current Powermac case, I think it looks modern, and the drop down panel makes getting into the interior a cinch.

This would make a nice update to the current case.

juanvaldes · Jun 2, 2002, 07:57 AM

Nice but fake.
Also like the firewire, only needs one as pointed out. Also they do need a single (at least!) USB port as well, once nice thing about winblows desktops is most of them do this now.

I think superdrive is right, and maybe 1.4 at the high end. :-/

Mac Zealot · Jun 2, 2002, 08:24 AM

juan that sounds really good to me, but if apple could find a REALLY cool way to conceal the front ports I'm all for it.

jay999 · Jun 3, 2002, 01:07 PM

Of coarse its a fake. I think the next box will be Red like VST firewire drives, w/ 1 usb + 1 firewire port in front, smaller than the QS box but larger than the cube, and the handles will be less pronounced and maybe collapsable.

I also think that apple will try to get away from Ghz and maybe come up with some other naming convention like gigaFlop for better marketing (i.e G4 20gF).

[ 06-03-2002, 01:28 PM: Message edited by: jay999 ]

Jun 3, 2002, 01:39 PM

I also think that this thing is clearly speculative.
Yet, Apple will probably stick with the neat-less design for the near future, since the Xserve has the same design. Then again, 1.4 Ghz would be cool, but are probably too much (not saying it wouldn't be cool <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" /> .

I do not like the design of the QSs. I hate the fact that the handles don't have lines, this just looks so ugly now. Any other thing on the machine is cool, I would say. Really nice indeed.

Firewireports on the front: Why would one like to have them there? Just for the iPod? Remember, the PowerMac line is targeted for businesses, not for consumers (actually that is).

Steve

Leonard · Jun 3, 2002, 02:29 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by SteveJobs:
Firewireports on the front: Why would one like to have them there? Just for the iPod? Remember, the PowerMac line is targeted for businesses, not for consumers (actually that is).

Steve<hr /></blockquote>So you can easily access the ports. <img border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" title="" src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" /> They should also have USB ports on the front.

Pros and Consumers both use DV cameras, iPods, USB digital cameras, and other firwire and USB devices that we'd like to be able to plug and unplug easily, without fighting our way to the back of the computer.

My VCR has ports on the front for just the same thing, so do TVs.

lookmark · Jun 3, 2002, 02:57 PM

Looks like it could be real to me. I think the Xserve showed us a glimpse of Apple's latest design direction. It definitely has an 'Apple' feel.

If not, someone sure put a lot of polish into this picture.

As for releasing all-new case designs: that's a given. Apple needs to up sales for the tower, and a considerable improvement plus a brand new case helps underline the fact of its newness -- and help people get out their wallets.

The G5, OTOH, won't need a new case design to spur sales; everyone will want one. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

[ 06-03-2002, 03:39 PM: Message edited by: lookmark ]

gumby5647 · Jun 3, 2002, 04:20 PM

eww. it looks like an E-machines.....

*looking for barfing smilie*.......BLAST!

G4ME · Jun 3, 2002, 05:44 PM

If they could add some curves to it and make it a little more like a cross between the Cube, Xserve, and QS then they have one hell of a product, I just like the incorporation of Titanium into the design, very classy

11011001 · Jun 3, 2002, 08:48 PM

It's slick... but way to square for Apple.

I don't think we can see Apple doing square boxes again... on consumer desktops... too much like wintel. I don't know, Apple always seems to get it right though

mac-at-kearsarge · Jun 3, 2002, 10:55 PM

In my ever so humble opinion I LOVE THIS DESIGN AND I'M PRAYING TO GOD THAT THIS ISN'T A FAKE(Although there's little doubt in my mind that it isa fake) the current QS design I think sucks (TOO MANY CURBES! and the exposed speaker doesn't work for me), the graphite G4 was awsome, and the bondi one makes me sick. the curves and the handles are cool features but they're not extremely practicle (Although I did find them usful every time I rearrange my setup and when I went to college). The design presented here is what Apple needs to do. Sure it's coming back to a more traditional design but I think it looks better because it looks more conventional YET it still has the unigue Apple style (I LOVE the metal finsih on the xsever with the mini neon LEDs. ) Here (again this is MY OPINION so please don't start yelling at me for "Thinking different". ) is what I want for the next case revision:

A fish and layout like the one presented here

1 FW in the front, 2 in the back
1 USB in front, two in the back
and mini audio jack 1 in the front AND THE BACK With the option that if you plug headphones into the front it cuts off the back connection (Which I am suggesting would go to your stereo system)

and THEM EMUST GIVE US AT LEAST TWO OPEN DRIVE BAYS IN THE FRONT!!!!

I also think that by doing these things Apple's market shre and popularity will grow even more now that they've recovered from the early/mid 90's slump and holding out through this recession. Keep in mind that these "PC" like features are what people want and I think we could get more converters to come over if we have features that they have on their PCs.

again this was just my 2 cents so...