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My Turn is Low End Mac's column for reader-submitted
articles. It's your turn to share your thoughts on all things
Mac (or iPhone, iPod, etc.) and write for the Mac web. Email your
submission to Dan Knight
.
Even before the Cube was
released, people were looking for an aesthetically pleasing way to
make a computer part of their living room/home theater. But the
cases, even the Cube, look out of place. Everyone wants a black case
that looks like their receiver.
Working in a lab that does bio-informatic research (using
computers to sequence the human genome), Macs have never been a
viable option because they supposedly lack horsepower. With Apple's
new BLAST program, it's a lot faster than on a Pentium 4.
Imagine, however, if instead of having two processors do the
calculation, how fast would it be with 16 processors? This would be
possible through clustering technology, which is available for Macs.
But the problem with Apple's pretty cases is that they take up a lot
of space and can't easily be put into a rack. (Terra Soft makes
brackets for G3 B&W and G4 Towers.) Terra Soft came up with a
small G4 case called a briQ
that can be put into their proprietary rack.
What do these two problems have in common? How about killing two
birds with one stone? Create a rack mounted case that can also be a
computer control for your home theater. Apple has a lot of experience
creating pleasing looking cases; all they would need to do is have
two small holes on each side in case someone wanted to mount it in a
server rack or on their wall rack mounted home theater system
(brackets must be included). To hit each user segment, have three
models.
Home User
Power User
Server/Lab
G4 at
800 MHz
933 MHz
Dual 1 GHz
RAM
512 MB
1 GB
2 GB
Media Drive
Combo
SuperDrive
SuperDrive
These would also include onboard 100/1000 ethernet, a 4x AGP slot
with an nVidia card (possibly using a riser card). For home users it
would have component, composite, and S-video out as well as Digital
Comp.
The rack-mount Mac would have two PCI slots (probably on a riser
card), and for home users it would include a premium sound card with
optical and RCA audio out.
The new model would have two USB ports on the front and two on the
rear, a FireWire port up front and two in the back, and IR on the
front for a wireless keyboard or remote control.
Of course it would support an AirPort card, and it should be
capable of working as an AirPort Base Station.
If Apple is serious about being a digital hub, they need to make
computers that look like regular home electronics. Could you imagine
having the family over during the holidays, plugging your digital
camera into the front USB port, and looking at all your pictures on a
regular TV? Plus, with the AirPort card, it can become the center of
the digital wireless network as well.
Also, if Apple wants to be a serious competitor in the server
market, they need to add a rack mounted case to their product
line.
The market is waiting.
Share your perspective on the Mac by emailing with "My Turn" as your subject.
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