Slashdot Mirror
Hip-e All-In-One PC
stallard writes "Yahoo! News reports this story:
'In November, Digital Lifestyles Group Inc. plans to ship the
hip-e, a new Windows-based PC inspired by the iMac, specifically designed to cater to teenagers. It was Chairman and CEO Kent Savage's own experience after his son asked him for an iMac that led to the new all-in-one system's creation.'"
CPU?
Latest Intel processor: high performance, low power consumption, quiet, Intel Pentium-M System
Memory?
Plenty of memory capacity - up to 2GB
The configuration page only lets you add accessories and change the "skins" for the computer.
Vague specs and zero customability! hip-e, Fuck Yeah!
take a look at the specs. at $1699, this is a ripoff. you're paying for eye candy basically.
i can make a MUCH better computer for that price.
Marge, get me your address book, 4 beers, and my conversation hat.
Well, it sure was a lot cheaper to design and build the whole Hip-E than to just buy the kid an iMac!!
I've met other Windows users that were equal in thier utterly pathetic traction to the Windows platform.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
You know, for the price, why not just buy an iMac G5?
I can't put my finger on it, but the design if this thing just makes me squirm. Why not be intelligent and just rip-off Apple instead of revisiting the mistakes of the Barbie and Hot Wheels PCs?
Three Squirrels
Now here's a teenager that is really, really pissed at his dad.
Just imagine you'd asked your dad for an imac and instead of saying yes or no he's actually going to build something similar running windows?
Jeez, it's like wanting to have this really cool sneakers and your mom coming home with these crappy imitations that, at least to her, look just as cool and are so much cheaper. Bah.
What a joke. People want iMacs precisely because they are NOT PCs. and the name "hip-e" what a joke. This is like a comedy sketch.
The hip-e is supposed to sell for $1699, isn't that the same or maybe even more than an iMac? So what's the point? The CEO's son wanted an iMac, so he designs something that costs more. That's real smart.
Once again, marketing drones fail to understand that 17 year olds are quite as stipud as you think they are, and when 40 year olds try to design for 17 year olds they often get it wrong.
Apple may take concepts that have been tried before (like the HD MP3 player), they just make pratical devices that actually do well in the mass market instead of flopping like a carp dropped on a highway.
So the "Hip-E" is indeed a copy of the iMac, in that you are assuming they are trying to copy a device that actually sells vs. one whose sales start out in the toilet with one hand on the handle.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
From the apple store (not including school discounts even though this thing is targeted towards students):
17in G5 iMac
- 512MB DDR400 SDRAM - 1 DIMM
- 160GB Serial ATA drive
- Bluetooth Module + Apple Wireless Keyboard & Mouse + Mac OS X - U.S. English
- 17-inch widescreen LCD
- 1.6GHz PowerPC G5
- Combo Drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW)
- NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra w/64MB video memory
Subtotal $1,573.00
Meanwhile a hip-e node:
Unknown CPU (probably slower)
Same RAM and Hard Drive
Same quality if not inferior other parts
Subtotal $1,699.00
Bottom line: more expensive and slower!
the 17" iMac with DVD-Burning Superdrive sells for $1,499.00 If you add some RAM you are at the same price, as this vaporhardware. Buy the original instead! Get a life. Get a Mac.
Check out the video card, the LCD resolution, any number of other aspects of this machine. I suspect that it integrates a large number of laptop components, rather than desktop components.
Very odd.
Between me and my friends (who are between 15 and 16), we would never buy this. We'd rather have an iMac G5 for the same price, or even a normal tower PC with Linux running on it. Looks don't matter, it's how it runs. I doubt this Hip-e would perform anywhere near a Mac or PC of the same price. And I can't even see the cool factor in the Hip-e, so it's pointless.
I'm going to go create my own technology news site, with blackjack and hookers. You know what? Forget the news site.
The iMac has a standard mount (VESA - does Hip-E do the same?) so you can in fact hang it on the wall, and use a bluetooth keyboard and mouse from your bed. Yes the Imac also has speakers built in.
You can run your PC software using Virtual PC - except for games, that's why you have consoles...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Perhaps this is the point entirely. It's possible that they looked at the Mac and thought, "hey, these guys are selling stuff based on nothing more than cool factor, so let's design something that looks hip and cash in on the market."
If indeed that's what they were thinking--and judging from the price v. specs I'd say that was the case--they missed the whole point of the Mac, which is more than fancy hardware. It's also about all the rest of things that Mac users already know about, such as great hardware plug-and-play reliability, solid OS and software that makes the machine instantly useful even to newbies.
His kid lost out.
http://www.rootstrikers.org/
--
Power to the Peaceful
They're trying to capture the evangelism often seen among Mac users (and TiVo users, and customers of other brands with high loyalty), by which they suggest the product to their friends who could benefit. What the hip-e folks don't get is that except with the new TiVo reward system or whatnot, there usually isn't a kickback involved in word-of-mouth brand evangelism -- usually just a desire to help those who could benefit.