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Well, there was the Macintosh TV, which was released in 1993.

Youc could also get the El Gato EyeTV for $199. It let's you watch and record.

Or you could get the Formac Studio TVR for watching TV and analog to DV conversions for high-quality copies of your TV programs/videos, that's $399.

Its possibly one of the best keyboards I've ever used, including an old "clicky" IBM one I had in one of my old jobs.

I'm incredibly surprised to hear comments like this. All of Apple's current keyboards are ergonomic hazards, unless you perhaps have really small hands or have replaced your hands with cybernetic limbs. There is no wrist support, the keys do not bounce back well, and the keys are too close together. In the case of their keyboards, Apple has chosen form over function.

Only two Apple keyboards have ever been good enough for day-to-day usage. One was the Apple Extended Keyboard (the original, not the II), which had good tactile response, though its ergonomic features were slim-to-none. The other was the Apple Ergonomic Keyboard -- you know, the one they released in 1992 which could split into two sections and had a separate numpad. It was more ergonomic than anything MS puts out, its keys were reminescent of the early IBM clickity-clackity keyboards, and the keys had ample space between themselves. It's one of the best keyboards I've ever used, though it was a bit on the large side.

Sadly, Apple stopped making ergonomic keyboards, even though it helped to popularize their usage with the mainstream. I guess Steve has a secretary to dictate all his typing; I'm not sure why else he would be so ambivalent about the risks of CTS (I got minor nerve damage from use of the Mac Plus keyboard while in college).

People always forget that Apple did make an "Apple III" that was targeted at buisness. Unfortunately the machine was an unmitigated failure. It wasn't fully backwards compatible with the Apple II's, and it had lots of hardware problems to boot.

More Apple III info...

As seen here, Apple once experimenting with a 'media PC' which did not meet with much success.. When will these corporate types realize that people don't want to watch TV on their computers? I'd much rather sit in front of my 36" Panasonic HDTV :)

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Apple's a little new to this UNIX desktop thing.

Erm, not really, there's AUX, oh and a little thing called NeXTStep and even UNIX for the Lisa (mention only). You might add MAE the Macintosh Application Environment which was written for Solaris and HP/UX, or to a far lesser extent (because it's hard to say that this was other than a split away organisation eventually subsumed by IBM and turned into frameworks for VisualAge amongst other things), the Taligent OO-OS initiative, which was targetted to interoperate with AIX at least at one stage in its life.

Since Jobs left Apple - 1988 iirc - Job's has been involved in UNIX on the desktop. It's no secret that the NeXT technologists / staffers supplanted the previous Apple corporate hierarchy.

Some interesting reading is this USENIX paper The Challenges of Integrating the UNIX and Mac OS environments.

My point is that Apple has a fair deal of relevant experience, and the NeXT - Apple merger is almost distant history, in corporate terms, when Be Inc. seemed to have a chance. And man, that feels a long time ago, even though it isn't _that_ long :)

http://www.acornworld.net/~jmayrand/B%26H.html

the Apple II was issued in black version a by Bell and Howe,this was in the early 1980's

The Lisa ran UNIX.

Actually, I believe the Mac LC's //e board was built around a single-chip ][. Here is a picture. I might be wrong, but I believe the surrounding chips are simply interfaces to the disk drives and Macintosh.

Here's a picture of an old-style piezo fan

You used to be able to buy piezo fans for the old Mac Classic (read the list near the bottom of the page).

IOW, piezo fans have been around since the mid-to-late 80's. Now, yes, I'll admit that they weren't very efficient (as in, they didn't move a lot of air)... but the concept has been there for eons.