[Christopher]

Any ideas of what it will look like?I read one time of a possible
shape of a dodacahedron in black.They definitely need to change the design.Its been three years and it is time for change.I read that it would be a shorter tower and wider design.I can only hope it is super cool...Make all the Wintel crowd envious.The NeXT cube was ahead of its time.Any sketches of ideas...???www.macosrumors.com once wrote about it...but not too many details.Only that the windtunnel would stay similiar until the next revision.Hopefully in Jan. it will change.Hopefully with a faster bus etc..Hopefully they will debut it at MacWorld and not three months later.

[Mac Zealot]

Yeah, I hope so too, I mean the quicksilver was awesome but the MDD is quite ugly.

[InterfaceGuy]

Originally posted by Mac Zealot:
Yeah, I hope so too, I mean the quicksilver was awesome but the MDD is quite ugly.

Thats what I thought before I bought one. I didn't think I was gonna be happy. But, now thats its grown on me I think it looks better than the Quicksilver.

[Mac Zealot]

Originally posted by InterfaceGuy:


Thats what I thought before I bought one. I didn't think I was gonna be happy. But, now thats its grown on me I think it looks better than the Quicksilver.

I thought this would be the case, as chances are good I'll end up with a MDD g4 soon.

But no, the MDD design is not growing on me, I find it kinda... strange.

It's like how they made the blue and white g3 case 'better' by making it graphite.

This is the second time they've messed with a case and made a design I could care less about.

Quicksilver + B&W = best el capitan design

BTW: There's one thing I still prefer about the quicksilver design, and though it wasn't designed very well (heatsink next to power supply), all of the fans were at or near the back of the case.

The MDD has the fans in the center and near the front, BAD choice.

[tomra]

I have to agree on that the MDD is a "mockup" design...not clean and sleek like apple computers should be. Still...i find it a lot better than most of it�s PC counterparts and it�s certainly something i can live with

[Superchicken]

I don't see apple as going way outa the box on the Power Macs right now, maybe once the PPC 970 comes out that's a possibility. But I highly dout we'll see a major case rev with such weak proccessors... then again they did make a better G3 case right before the G4s... but I think it should be blue...

[Xtraz]

I'd think with such weak processors that case-design is probably the only thing (other than an awesome OS) that'll draw people to buy the machines.

[milhous]

The cube design philosophy is great. I don't know what the dimensions were on the NeXT Cube, but I would assume that it wasn't that big. Let the cube design live on with the PowerMac Cube sporting an optional quad 970 configuration. Also, it would be cool if it was black and had the same easy accessibility of the internal components that the present cases have today.

[Sven G]

Something like this wouldn't be too bad...



... especially the USB and FireWire ports on the front of the machine...

[eddiecatflap]

..it's funny how we can design a better mac than apple , ain't it?

..i guess it helps not having all that stuff inside to get in the way.

[Eriamjh]

My worthless predicition is same case design, with possible small changes. Apple really switched things around for improve cooling (speed holes) and I betcha the next revision will need it.

If it doesn't need it, it will have it for when they overclock to chips to make up for lack of speed.

[aloner]

I like it.....

[brainchild2b]

we are going to get a brushed metal type case similar in look to the titanium powerbook, but not titanium due to cost. Alot of fancy pc cases come in brushed metal now with clear side panels.

That's what you will see at macworld.

[JVB_2112]

Originally posted by brainchild2b:
we are going to get a brushed metal type case similar in look to the titanium powerbook, but not titanium due to cost. Alot of fancy pc cases come in brushed metal now with clear side panels.

That's what you will see at macworld.

Personally I doubt we will see any new case design at MWSF 2003. I think it may be too soon. After all who says that Apple needs to update case design anyways?

Who knows though, just my opinion.

JVB

[clarkgoble]

An improvement in case when there is little improvement on the motherboard has been shown to improve sales. When you can't improve the innards too much improve the outside. . .

[CheesePuff]

They need to improve on the MMD design, and make it an air tight sound proof case... then no one will care how loud it is.

Oh, and lower the prices back to $1,599; $2,299 and $2,999.00.

[suhail]

A friend of mine who works at Apple, just emailed me a pic of the new Mac!!
I will post it in this forum in a few minutes.
It looks� Well kind of SOUR!!

[whatever7]

It will definitely have the metallic theme for the G5.... I don't know about the last version of G4. The current G4 is ugky because it "preludes" the next gen. Last model year cars usually have the most unclean design too. They have to sell them thought gimmicks such as "special edition" or whatever.

[CheesePuff]

Originally posted by suhail:
A friend of mine who works at Apple, just emailed me a pic of the new Mac!!
I will post it in this forum in a few minutes.
It looks� Well kind of SOUR!!

Well... hurry hurry hurry!!

Or are you just joking around?

[suhail]

[firefly]

Thats just WRONG.

[superblue]

Well I wouldn't rule out an all-white enclosure. I know, I know - consumer = white, pro = titanium... yeah yeah whatever... But I think a white PowerMac could have considerably more impact than a metal one.

However, I'm also of the 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' school of thought. I really can't think of a single problem with the G4 case in terms of form and function. Sure, there may be issues with fan noise on MDDs but that's not so much about case design as processor requirements. I know some people want ports on the front - and yes, they look neat - WHEN THEY'RE EMPTY! But you never see the product shots when they're full of uncoordinated cables do you?

The B&W G3/G4 case is a triumph - I think it just needs a bigger shift than going from 'graphite' to 'quicksilver' and then shoving some mirrors on the front. For me a glossy all-white case would do this, coupled with a new wireless super-pro mouse/keyboard combo.

[Sven G]

Originally posted by superblue:
I know some people want ports on the front - and yes, they look neat - WHEN THEY'RE EMPTY! But you never see the product shots when they're full of uncoordinated cables do you?

Of course, in the mock-up above (taken from The Apple Collection, BTW), the author just applies to the Power Mac something that is more common in the PC world: that is, additional ports on the front of the machine. The 4 ports on the back remain, of course; ideally, the USB and Firewire ports on the front should be used only for temporary, hot-plug peripherals, such as digital cameras, DV cameras, and so on: that's their intended use - so, definitely, no permanent cable clutter from them...

[Sven G]

... Ah - some interesting "metal" look Power Mac design ideas:







Something Titanium-like would indeed be really cool...

[suhail]

Hey�
Make no mistake about it, the iLemon runs circles around the latest Pentium, as shown here in the, yet unreleased, Apple ad.

[firefly]

Isnt that a slice of orange?

[CheesePuff]

Dual 1.44 GHz sounds much better than Dual 1.4 GHz.

and then Dual 1.67 GHz and Dual 1.84 GHz.

[firefly]

I noticed how the orange slice has become slightly more lemon-like. Coincidence, no doubt?

[pdot]

I think Apple is going to go for a meaner, tough guy look for their towers. I expect more metal and a more motorcycle-like appearance or like those cars with part of the engine sticking out of its hood.

[rm199]

I hope Apple stick the to Dual CPU strategy and put pressure on software vendors to optimise for the Dual architecture.

[suhail]

Originally posted by rm199:
I hope Apple stick the to Dual CPU strategy and put pressure on software vendors to optimise for the Dual architecture.

Writing code for dual processing is only effective for long calculations like renderings. It becomes useless, or even sometimes slower, when used in something like Word or IE. It is advantageous in MAYA, FCP, iMovie, etc.

However, OSX can utilize multi-processing to work for programs that are not written for multi-processing. It does that by sending code to the 'not so busy' processor, thus taking optimum advantage of the two processors.

The cooler thing about OSX is that if you sitick in 4x processors, it will follow the same guidelines, giving the code to the idle processors. Moreover, software that was written for multiprocessing should utilize all 4x processors (I'm not absolutely sure on this point, but I'm 70% sure)

[clarkgoble]

It becomes useless, or even sometimes slower, when used in something like Word or IE.

That is not entirely correct. In word processors a common technique is to calculate the size of paragraph blocks in the background while the user continues to type. By encapsulating all this repagination code in a separate thread you actually gain a fair degree of efficiency. There are other obvious multithreaded tasks in a word processor, such as interactive spell checking and grammar checking. If you are using a document management system then background calculation of meta-data can also be helpful (although rarely done in practice).

It is also true that efficient multithreading can dramatically improve functions such as printing and saving, allowing you to continue to work.

I believe that MS Word in both the XP and OSX versions doesn't multithread very well at all. I don't know about Excel, an other program with obvious multithreading improvements. I'd suspect it is multithreaded, but I don't know.

A browser can also benefit from multithreading, although the bottleneck is obviously the renderer. I don't know if the Gecko engine used by Chimera is well multithreaded. I know that Omniweb is heavily multithreaded but the current version is limited by a very old rendering engine. I suspect that Omniweb 5.0, due out in a few months, will show how multithreading can help.

Other programs that can obviously benefit from efficient multithreading are Apple's own applications like the Finder and so forth. Unfortunately, Apple hasn't exactly been leading the race here. 10.2's Finder is dramatically better, of course, than the version in 10.0. iTunes appears to multithread quite well (IMO). Appleworks seems quite poor, as with many other aspects of the code. Mail appears to multithread the mail gathering but I can't speak for the interface. iPhoto sometimes looks like it has poor multithreading, but it is hard for me to judge, not using it much.

The programs that can benefit a LOT from multithreading are programs like iMovie, iDVD, and then higher end graphics programs. My understanding is that Premier multithreads relatively poorly on the Mac. Photoshop has multithreading capabilities but reportedly hasn't optimized them as well as they could.

You are right though. Multithreading only solves certain problems. I think for a Unix system like OSX though it offers a lot when multiple processes are running. But faster CPUs are important. Further SMP with the design for the current Macs does introduce slight bottlenecks for each CPU relative to a single CPU system. The new 970 should SMP much better than the current G4 systems.

But Apple's big problem, as everyone admits, is that the G4 is much slower than top end P4s or Athalons. Altivec code cuts that a little, but most programs aren't Altivec optimized and there are only a few kinds of programs that such optimizations make sense for.

[Jerome]

Originally posted by Eriamjh:
If it doesn't need it, it will have it for when they overclock to chips to make up for lack of speed.

Aren't the current Dual 1.25 already overclocked?

[Brien]

Well lets see... the Quicksilver and MDD case protos were on the forums, and as of yet, I havent seen any new pics, so my guess is the next g4 revison will keep the current case design.

[suhail]

Originally posted by brien:
Well lets see... the Quicksilver and MDD case protos were on the forums, and as of yet, I havent seen any new pics, so my guess is the next g4 revison will keep the current case design.

What are you talking about maaan�
The iLemon is real maaan�
Here, have a drag�

[Superchicken]

I think the iLemon would officially under sell the flower power iMac

[milhouse]

Originally posted by Jerome:


Aren't the current Dual 1.25 already overclocked?

No. They are not overclocked. That was an ignorant rumor.

cheers

[DrBoar]

With the G4 in its final lap in the towers I can not imagene that Apple will make any big changes to the towers as long as they use G4s.
Front mounted USB & FW ports would be nice. But one or at the most two speed bumps along with the usual updates of graphical cards etc is what I expect for next year.

The basic design is brilliant. If Apple want to have a more angular and "industrial" design while having vents and handle function they have to skip the handles and at slotted vents at the top and bottom that doubles as vents and grips. The case without the curvy sides and the external handles will look smaller. I hope they do not come out as squat as the VAIO towers.

The important thing will be the CPU...

[Phanguye]

Originally posted by milhouse:


No. They are not overclocked. That was an ignorant rumor.

cheers

technically if you think about it they are in a way(since they use the same multiplier as the old 1 Ghz G4) but in practicallity they arent

[Slaveway]

Apple needs to release a larger tower design.
The insides of the current G4's are just to cramped.
I feel that if Apple were to make the towers maybe 4" or 5" taller it would allow some interior design flexibility.
Some of us want more than 4 HD's and some extra PCI slots would be welcome by many Professional users.

Apple actually needs to move to full ddr support and maybe if they can't get faster chips.
Offer a unit with Quad G4's, Firewire 2, and all of the go-faster parts.
I would sell a Kidney to purchase that machine

[Hinson]

Here's a cynical thought for ya:

What if the only major change to the PowerMacs for the expo is making them so they can no longer boot using OS 9? Current macs can still do this, right? Isn't the next lineup of Macs supposed get rid of OS 9 Bootability?

I can imagine that no major processor upgrades will be available for Apple to use at this time (probably not 'til late next year at the earliest, IMHO). However, what if Apple uses "BYE BYE OS 9" as the major reason (along with perhaps a bit of a speed bump and/or price reductions) to go with a new case design, etc.?


Thoughts?


-Jay

[clarkgoble]

Rumor round the campfire is that Apple is backing down from the OSX only move until Quark Xpress is out.

[PacHead]

That would be extremely weak of apple to back out of what have they stated a million times before.

The new machines better be OSX only.

I, and many others have just purchased new machines, before the Jan.1 deadline, because of what apple has stated.

Hell, they even had a mock funeral for OS9 with coffins and all.

[firefly]

I find Apple's attitude with OS9 a bit drastic and unnecessary. Couln't they just let it die peacefully rather than strangling it? If OSX is really good enough to attract users to anyway, it wont really matter anyway what support OS9 has.

[el lindo]

Apple isn't killing OS 9, it already has died on its own. Apple isn't making it so you can't use OS 9, if they didn't want you to use it they'd include it firmware for everyone. They just aren't going to any lengths to make it possible for you to boot into 9.

[ChadC]

quick question... if we cant boot in OS 9 is it still possible to run in the classis enviroment? I have many programs that i don't have the money to uprade now and most likely wont for the next year or so(college is crazy, particularly architecture supplies).

Chad Coronato
ChadCoronato.com

[el lindo]

You will definately be able to run classic.

[libraryguy]

Originally posted by Sven G:
Something like this wouldn't be too bad...



... especially the USB and FireWire ports on the front of the machine...

I love it!! Would be great to have USB and Firewire on the front and back. What are the other two drive bays for? Quad optical drives

[Simon]

Originally posted by libraryguy:
I love it!! Would be great to have USB and Firewire on the front and back. What are the other two drive bays for? Quad optical drives

The upper two are optical and I suppose the lower two should be for the hot-pluggable ATA disk drives.

I don't like the idea. Why ATA 100 instead of 133? Why are the front-mounted ports not behind a door? The open ports look very messy, kind of like on a PC. And most of all, I don't like the idea because it is doesn't work. Open a QS or MDD and look where the components are. This idea doesn't think about what's going on inside: Where should the PS go? Where should the heatsink of the dual CPUs go? Where are the vents? And finally, the case isn't new, it's not revolutionary, it's hardly evolutionary. I'd expect Apple to do a much better job on the G4 PowerMac's successor.

[Christopher]

Apple will probably come out in 2003 with new LCDs-HD,printers,monitors,& CPU
design.Probably all a matching set.New design...possibly black.A totally new design.Apple and HP working together on new printers.