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Apple has been making CRT monitors since the late 1970s. Their
last model, the Apple 17" Studio Display with ADC ended the line of
perennially pricey displays with a myriad of off-the-wall features
and ever-changing proprietary connectors. Yet there probably hasn't
been one model that somebody doesn't love.
Apple's last CRT (tube-type) display was officially discontinued
a few days ago with no imminent replacement. It was the ultimate
over-engineered, over-incompatible, over-priced CRT display. It
packed many groundbreaking features into a $499 package (in a time
when you can easily get a basic 17" inch CRT for well under
$200.):
Astronomically high redraw rates to 153 times a second,
eliminating "flicker" and improving video and game
performance.
Theater Mode, which beefs up the brightness so the picture is
as bright as a TV screen for full-screen DVD movies, iMovies, and
QuickTime movies.
A brand new proprietary monitor connector. Called the Apple
Display Connector, or ADC, it lumped the monitor signal, USB, and
(like NeXT computers) monitor power into a single connector.
Auto-DCC. Short for Automatic Digital Color Calibration, this
automatically adjusts individual colors in the monitor to keep them
from fading with the age of the monitor - great for Photoshop work.
Unlike Apple's previous 21" CRT that introduced this feature, this
didn't need an open USB port to work. This is courtesy of the
built-in USB in the ADC connector.
Built-in USB hub. While this is not a dramatic feature, as many
other monitors have them, it deserves brownie points in the 17" CRT
for being the only CRT available that doesn't take up an existing
USB port on the computer. Again courtesy of ADC.
RF-shielding plastic. Like the slot-loading iMacs, the
transparent plastic case was formulated to provide radiation
shielding without needing aluminum panels inside, allowing you to
see the guts of the monitor all the time. This was Apple's only
external monitor designed this way.
A vertically/horizontally flat screen. A first in a lower-end
monitors, this keeps images displayed on it distortion free
(straight lines straight, round lines round, etc.).
The ADC, however, alienated the 17 incher from all older
Macs. At this writing, there is still no shipping adapter that lets
you use the monitor with anything other than the ADC port, which
only late-model G4s and Cubes have. According to Apple's financial
reports, the 17" monitor sold very poorly, most likely due to that
limitation. The fact that so few people chose to buy or even
consider Apple's last CRT monitor means that not many are aware of
all the amazing technology culminated in the 25-odd years of Apple
designing them.
I'll miss the CRT, and at the same time I look forward to new
developments as Apple completes the transition over to the more
modern, environmentally friendly flat-panel displays. Here's to the
future Apple Cinema Display, complete with multi-rez
picture-in-picture and a titanium wall-mount!
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