Slashdot Mirror
New Flat Screens From Apple
Hah! Apple has announced a new flat screen.
Colm@TCD sent us the linkage but check
out the numbers: 1600x1024 (same as a widescreen TV, or the SGI flat
panels) but its 22 inches! Holy yummyness batman! Bet ya gotta mortgage your home. (insert sounds of drooling here)Update: 09/03 08:50 by H :We originally touched on this while talking about the G4
And my 486es don't even have heat sinks on them. What's your point?
The Apple Cinema display is not available seperatelly for 3 reasons:
p lay_DS-a.pdf
1) It will only run from a 450Mghz and 500Mghz PowerMac G4 machines, for reasons listed bellow.
2) It's in *very* short supply for now, and since the 450 and 500 G4s dont ship right now, it gives Apple a chance to build-up supply.
3) It requires the AGP2X graphics connector only available on the 450 and 500 machines. See the data sheet (PDF) at
http://www.apple.com/displays/pdfs/AppleCinemaDis
Now, onto the Not-Supported-On-400 issue.
The *current* 400Mghz G4 machine has a Yosemite motherboard. That it, the same as the Blue and White G3. The processor is that of a G4, however. The 450 and 500 machines uses the Sawtooth motherboard. This is partly the same motherboard as the iBook (both motherboards derives from Apple's new Unified Motherboard architechture--a cost-cutting measure).
At some point, when Apple ships the last of the Yosemite motherboard, it will release a new 400Mghz G4, which will probably be refered to as "revision B", as they do for most machines (current iMac is rev D). Either that or, most likelly, they will speed bump the 3 offerings by 50Mghz. The line of G4s would then all be based on Sawthoot, and will range from 450 to 550Mghz. This is a common upgrade path at Apple (withness the iMac).
At that point, the low-end machine (either a 400 or 450) will have the AGP2x port and thus will be able to use the Apple Cinema Display.
Weither or not a controler for other machines will ever be made remains unclear. But I think I can answer this for myself: if your machine doesn't have AGP2X (or better), then you're out of luck
At the Apple Store, it's $6500 as part of a bundle:
:-)
$6,498.00
450MHz G4
1MB L2
128MB SDRAM
20GB Ultra ATA
Zip drive
DVD-ROM/DVD Video
ATI RAGE 128 AGP
10/100BASE-T
56K internal modem
Apple Cinema Display
Accepting orders Oct 1
Is this sort of like "Buy this monitor and get a free G4?"
How about this for future LCD screens?
...and 266-ppi panels should be out by the end of the year.
--The more you know, the less you know.
Ugly, and like all Apple stuff, overprice, underperform.
Name another LCD available today with the same or better size, resolution, and price. Heck, with the exception of the widescreen Sony 24" monitor, I can't even name a CRT that beats it in all three categories. Plasmas are big, but low resolution and expensive, the big CRTs usually don't go that high-res and cost a bundle.
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
No, a 486 can't compare to a modern chip. That's exactly my point. You can't compare the processing power of two chips by comparing what kind of heat-dissipation equipment is attached to them. If the hypothesis that the G4 is faster because it has just a heat sink while the P-III needs a heat sink and fan is true, then it follows that this here 486-66 could whip both their tails, because it doesn't even need a heat sink. And my 8088, as you point out, is even better, because it not only doesn't have a heat sink, it's barely warm to the touch. Oh, and those big liquid-cooled supercomputers? Those things must just suck...
All - I know that there is a strong anti-MS (and sometimes anti-Apple) feeling on Slashdot, but do you really want the freedom to engage in peaceful commerce* to be subject to approval by higher-ups? Apple surely wants to maximize its profits, but it has no coercive power: it can only sell frickin' huge, frickin' expensive monitors to people who want them. If they think they can sell their production quickly enough to the very limited number of people who will be snapping up higher-end G4s, that's their right, eh? And if not, how far down exactly would you like the micromanagement to go? ("You can design Web pages as a freelance artist, but only if you are licensed by the state and if you don't do more than three pages for the same company each year. That's just to be fair.") Big companies start out as small companies (except in the case of some spinoffs which start big ... I'd have to say the difference then between the big company and the spinoff is basically semantic.) And if you work for a small company, how would you like the FTC and other agencies breathing litigious fire down your neck the way they do big ones? Should big companies be watched carefully? Yes -- but mostly for stupidity and stagnation. I seem to detect a lot of of envy / resentment in the kind of 'watching' / meddling advocated in these parts ... and among the CEOs of the other companies who are clamoring to break up MS. "Waah, daddy, his toy is better! Break his toy so mine is better!" or something like that ... just thoughts, timothy *(To be clear about my use of the term 'commerce,' in this case, we're not talking kiddie porn or heroin, so that particular extreme arguement I think would be out of place.)
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
On the back of the monitor are two small ports, which look like USB. I can't confirm this, and I got lost in all of the other neat stuff there before asking someone. You might want to poke around the tech specs if this interests you.
---- Please be nice in case my Slashdot karma ~= my real life karma.
As others have said, that price includes a G4 machine as well. However, even if it didn't, I've worked at a company where it wasn't uncommon to see 3 17" flat panel displays per machine. Don't judge prices by what home users will be prepared to pay. Corporates will pay whatever it takes to get the display they want, particularly for something like this which is aimed squarely at the publishing/graphic arts market.
"The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike." -- Delos B. McKown
The command line is gonna look awesome on one of these! :)
Save the whales. Feed the hungry. Free the mallocs.
Just out of curiosity, is that what they call the difference between 35mm and 72mm?
Most movies are at LEAST 1.85:1, Titanic and Ep1 are 2.35:1. Anamorphic is a proccess of horizontally compressing the image on film and is independant of the display aspect ratio. 1.56:1 is "letterbox" widescreen. That is the aspect ratio that has been in use by hollywood since the mid 50's, when they needed some kind of "hook" to differentiate themselves from TV.
To repeat the Hollywood standard is 1.85:1. 1.78:1 (16:9) is the "widescreen" TV standard. 1.56:1 isn't a standard that I'm aware of...
"Grab them by the pussy" -- President of the United States of America
Intel is killing the x86 line anyway. We already knew that. If you want to pull the usual Mac zealot trick of comparing products that don't exist yet, try comparing future G4s to future IA64 chips, not to current Pentiums...
And if you know enough about Merced to make this comparison, I'd honestly like to hear it.
>...and 266-ppi panels should be out by the end of the year.
I believe 300dpi will be the magic number, as it was for the laser printer displacing daisywheel printers. 150 just doesn't cut it as easy enough on the eyes. At 300, electronic books, newspapers, etc. become as easy to read as the real thing.
As far as I can see it only has two problems: Apple's pig-ugly translucent styling, and the likely price by the time it reaches the UK...
"The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike." -- Delos B. McKown
And for the price of four G4s, you can get sixteen P-IIs...
The G4, on an absolute scale, is faster, but it's on the losing end of the price-performance ratio, and adding more of 'em isn't going to help that.
So by late next year, maybe the following year, e-books will indeed be on the horizon. :-)
--The more you know, the less you know.
A little history: Apple put $100M into Samsung a few months ago to build their flat-panel assembly lines, and I seem to recall seeing something about a 22" flat panel from them a week or so ago. Apple's gambit is apparently to monopolize the supply of these things, since most of Northeast Asia is scrambling to build factories to produce them.
---- "If we have to go on with these damned quantum jumps, then I'm sorry that I ever got involved" - Erwin Schrodinger
Pardon me, So, not available in shops, and not available unless you buy a POS G4. I just have a hard time with someone referring to a G4 as a Piece Of Sh!t. These machines have been demod and hyped for less than 48 hours, and you're already convinced that their pieces of sh!t? What a limited mind you must have. Whether you like Apple or not, I think they have at least earned open-mindedness. I don't think anyone should refer to any product as a piece of sh!t until they've used it themselves. If a G4 doesn't meet your needs, fine. But please don't make uninformed judgements based on personal whims.
SlashSigTheorem: Humorous, Political, Critical, Constructive- If you have a
...but given the nature of the AM-LCD developement, 400-ppi should be within reach.
--The more you know, the less you know.