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New iMac Pictures Leaked?

krimmc writes "Pictures have been posted on the internet of the supposed new mac design which will feature the guts of the computer behind the flat panel monitor. The new computers are to debut as early as next week and its creating a buzz among current apple users. News.com has also published coverage of the new design." As with most of these things, we won't really know if it's real until Apple cease and desists the website. Pictures are really crappy looking, so its hard to tell anything anyway.

14 of 197 comments (clear)

  1. I dunno... by beaverbrother · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The pictures looked like flatscreen tv's... Could you really fit an imac in there?

  2. Re:Not Sure by Randy+Wang · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Actually, the guy admitted it was a hoax - it's really a 20" LaCie in a PowerBook box. That's why the foam doesn't fit the back!

    Sorry, no linkage (no French, either).

    --
    --- Egads, I glow in the dark!
  3. We waited for that? by evil+carrot · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Well, the box resembles the kind an Apple display comes in. The unit itself looks similar to pictures I've seen of the recent aluminum displays. I'm not convinced.

    If popular convention has it that the iMac is going G5, and the computer will be set up as in the picture, then does that mean cooling problems have been solved? If so, why not placate the power users who crave portability and offer a PowerBook G5 before catering to the lower-tier market within which the iMac resides?

    --

    I am not who I say you are.
  4. A vertical tablet-PC? by pla · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Can't help but think this doesn't really seem all that revolutionary of a design. With the original iMac, they made the monitor and the PC the same nice compact unit. This just takes the next logical step now that flat panel displays have come to the mainstream.

    Also doesn't seem all that much of a leap from a tablet PC... Make one a bit bigger, and add ports for all the standard peripherals, and mount it vertically. Poof, you have the new iMac.

    I will, however, give Apple credit for doing it first. Might not seem like a real leap o' engineering, but I've looked forward to exactly this form-factor. If they make it use a wireless keyboard and optical mouse as well... Oooh, what a wonderful thought! A literally one-wire PC (two if you still use a wired LAN).

    Just sell it for under $1000, and I'll take three (and here we run into the reason for which I will probably never buy a Mac... I'd guess a starting price of $1600-$2400, depending on how decked out they make it).

  5. Is this actually the Apple Tablet? by Chess_the_cat · · Score: 2, Interesting
    --
    Support the First Amendment. Read at -1
  6. Re:Not Sure by hype7 · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Actually, the guy admitted it was a hoax - it's really a 20" LaCie in a PowerBook box. That's why the foam doesn't fit the back!


    A hoax makes sense. About 6 months ago, MacBidoulle self-retired from the rumour business - it said it was taking too much pressure from the mothership.

    They've stayed pretty true to their word - up until now...

    -- james
  7. Sensible design (even if faked) by G4from128k · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Although the photos may be fake, the design is sound. A 17 inch or 20 inch LCD creates a massive space of real estate in the back -- plenty of room for a mobo, powersupply, drive bays, etc.

    Cooling would only be trick if Apple insists on passive cooling (which is just the type of thing Jobs might do). Even this would not be that hard an engineering problem because the height of the monitor provides an excellent chimney effect for passive cooling. Mounting the G5 (and other hot electronics) at the base of the unit and allowing the G5-heated air to rise the height of the monitor would provide a fairly nice draft (at least 4-8 times the cooling capacity of the ill-fated PowerMac Cube). An auxillary fan might be used if needed (a large low-RPM exhaust fan in the center top could provide extra airflow if needed).

    --
    Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
  8. Re: LaCie Pictures by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Funny, the first link (an article from september '03) claims the photon20vision is a new model, but I bought one several months before that...

    Excellent panel, BTW; the viewing angle is basically any angle you physically can view it from, zero dead pixels (not sure whether this is guaranteed, but mine is perfect), very bright, fast.

  9. Re:Hosted on Mac.com by Lars+T. · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "Someone claimed to have posted stolen pics of the iMac G5 taken in an elevator at the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. They were available on a .Mac account for about 90mins before they were taken down. (http://homepage.mac.com/ihepworth/PhotoAlbum1.htm l)"

    --

    Lars T.

    To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck

  10. Spartacus! by Cid+Highwind · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If The Steve really objects to having a new iMac integrated into the monitor panel, it's not for technical reasons. The Twentieth Anniversary Mac was a computer integrated into a flat-panel monitor, complete with a vertical CD drive, and they made that way back in 1997! (that large box next to the TAM in that picture is just a subwoofer, the CD-ROM is right below the screen)

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    0 1 - just my two bits
    1. Re:Spartacus! by Etcetera · · Score: 2, Interesting


      However, the TAM was limited to a 4x CD-ROM drive for precisely that reason. As the parent says, though, I have no idea how much technology has improved for vertically-mounted drives since then.

  11. Haven't seen anyone else take the plunge by inkswamp · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I'll finally put my guess into the public forum.

    First, I think these iMac pics are probably fakes. Just a gut instinct as a long-time Mac user. It doesn't really look much like an Apple design. I could be wrong, but only if they're striking out in some tangential direction.

    Second, look at another Mac-related tidbit that made the rounds of the rumor sites just recently. It hints of a tablet Mac which is strange because the market is weak and Jobs has already gone on record saying that PDAs are not a market Apple is interested in (and possibly by extension, tablets as well?)

    So what does that leave us with?

    Well, Apple has recently made a relatively quiet product announcement with Airport Extreme so if I were to put 2 and 2 together, the result would be a dockable iMac, a machine where some of the components are in a base station (optical drive for one, some ports, etc.) and the screen actually rests in the base where is recharges when it's in desktop mode and can be picked up and walked around with and used like a tablet using the technology they've begun to explore with Airport Extreme.

    Sounds far-fetched, but take a second look at the sketches for the "tablet" which appears to have an dock-connector similar to the iPod's on one edge. Maybe this isn't a tablet per se but the screen for the iMac G5.

    My theory may be completely off-the-mark, but just following the threads of Apple's recent products, I'm lead to consider this sort of possibility.

    --
    --Rick "If it isn't broken, take it apart and find out why."
    1. Re:Haven't seen anyone else take the plunge by Anonymous+Writer · · Score: 4, Interesting

      My theory may be completely off-the-mark, but just following the threads of Apple's recent products, I'm lead to consider this sort of possibility.

      One of Apple's strongest selling lines has been their notebooks. Considering that some people actually buy notebooks as desktop replacements, you may not be completely off-the-mark. A desktop iMac with a small footprint and a dockable tablet that links wirelessly would fit this market well, working as a desktop, yet providing portability. It would fit the same niche market for people that use notebooks around the home, while alleviating the problem of dealing with plugging and unplugging cables. Steve Jobs did seem to give a clue that Apple may be working on some kind of wireless product- here's a quote from AppleInsider...

      When Jobs was demonstrating the new Airport Express, Walt Mossberg said that the biggest problem he saw was that users had to get up and walk to their computers to change play lists. Jobs joked that walking was good, but when pressed, he smiled a wry smile. AppleInsider correspondents took this to mean that Apple is developing in this area, and the Airport Express is just a step along the way.
  12. Ducky? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I opened both images in a hex editor. Obviously the guy had the same idea and had replaced the information with lots of "@@@@@" characters, except "Ducky". Does anyone know what Ducky means?