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Mac Musings

Now That's Different!

Dan Knight - April 20, 2000 - Tip Jar

Have you heard about the new one pound PC? I heard about it on Slashdot on Wednesday. It's an impressive example of thinking different, something Apple certainly doesn't have a monopoly on.

The Pocket EPC System is small. At 5.9" long, 4.2" wide, and 1.25" thick, it's about the size of a stack of 4x6 file cards. In the photo, the computer itself is the smaller piece next to the CD-ROM/floppy drive docking module - it may be the first computer smaller than a Diskman.

Starting at $899 with the dock, the base system includes a 466 MHz Celeron processor, Windows 98, 64 MB of memory, a 6 GB hard drive, a speaker, PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports, microphone and earphone ports, two USB ports, a VGA port, and S-video out. It also has a touch pad built right into the computer.

As if to stress the Pocket EPC's portability, it even comes with a carrying case. Just set it down, connect it to a monitor and keyboard, plug it into the electrical outlet, and you're ready to compute.

This one pound wonder is smaller than most external drive cases - much smaller. I've been inside the iMac, which has one of Apple's smallest system boards ever, but don't think you could pack it into a case this small, although I would love to see Apple produce a computer like this.

Picture it. Instead of toting a hard drive or Zip disk with files between home and work, you could toss the whole computer in your brief case or large purse. You could work anywhere that has a keyboard and monitor.

The only thing missing from this machine seems to be ethernet. (Do you think the Wintel world will ever get the idea that 10/100 ethernet networking - not some cheaper, slower alternative - should be a standard feature on every computer?)

I'd love something like this. Here are some starter specs, Apple. Why not see what you can do:

400 MHz G3 with faster options
64 MB memory, expandable
6 GB hard drive with larger options
two USB ports
two FireWire ports
10/100 ethernet
16 MB ATI or 3dfx video
VGA and S-video out ports
PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports (in case you get stuck in a Windows office)
integrated touch pad, speaker, microphone
analog microphone and earphone ports

And to keep it from being perceived as a "me too" product, some things to make it distinctively Apple:

AirPort ready, possibly via dock
rechargeable battery supporting sleep
ruggedized design (like the iBook)

This could share a lot of iBook and PowerBook parts, but eliminating the need to run off battery power and the expensive flat panel display.

We're looking at something about the same size as a 500 page mass market paperback (which I just measured at 4.1" wide, 7" tall, and about 1-1/4" thick). Wow!

I'll even suggest a name: the MacBook.

Dan Knight has been using Macs since 1986, sold Macs for several years, supported them for many more years, and has been publishing Low End Mac since April 1997. If you find Dan's articles helpful, please consider making a donation to his tip jar.

Recent Mac Musings

Why Is Apple Ditching Netbook Support Now?, 11.16. Mac OS X 10.6.2 deliberately removes Atom support. What does Apple have to gain by doing so?
IDE Is Dead; Long Live SATA!, 11.04. SATA has displaced parallel ATA. While IDE hard drives haven't disappeared, the best deals are in SATA hard drives.
The Future of Personal Computing: Personal Servers and Low Cost Portables, 11.02. With WiFi everywhere, virtual network computing, and remote access, your iPhone, iTouch, iTablet, or MacBook Air becomes a gateway to your home or office computer.
The Late 2009 Mac mini Value Equation, 10.21. We called the Mac mini 'the best value in desktop Macs' two months ago, and the refreshed Mac mini only improves that value.
More in the Mac Musings index.

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: Power Mac G5 Quad, Oct. 2005 - With two 2.5 GHz dual-core G5 CPUs, the G5 Quad was the most powerful PowerPC Mac ever and introduced PCI Express.
Group of the Day: Mac Network deals with all aspects of Mac networking.
November 21 in LEM history: 00: OS upgrades, downgrades - AltiVec vs. Pentium III - 01: Saved by the clones - Computer of the future - 02: Apple Education: Let's get to it - 03: Panther lets Macs and PCs work together, - Lombard SCSI bug - 05: 3 survivors from the 1970s - Real world battery life inadequate - Windows to Mac file transfer with Zip disks - $99 alternative to Microsoft Office - 06: Parallels 1.0 far more polished than beta
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