Filed under: Humor, Rumors, Odds and ends, iMac, Apple
Something we won't see tomorrow: iMac Multitouch
The rumors are flying about what Apple might do to the Mac lineup tomorrow-- for my part, I just hope Jobs stays away from the Mac Mini long enough for me to get one with Leopard on it. But I can guarantee you that you won't see this baby, as cool as it is. This is a 3D demo from a guy working on a demo reel for ad agencies. But it is pretty amazing.
Now, people have said before that a multitouch computer like this wouldn't work-- to find out why, touch your screen for five minutes and notice how tired your arm feels. However, an interface like this is too good not to use somewhere. Sure, we may not see an iMac with a big touchable screen like this, but "...a guy can dream, can't he?"
Thanks, Andrew!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Buckeye77 said 8:28PM on 8-06-2007
Not bad. Actually finds a creative way to make use of the two tone paint job on the back of the iPhone. I'd buy it.
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Andrew said 8:30PM on 8-06-2007
Baby steps. You can't revolutionize something TOO much without scaring most people away. If/When MultiTouch makes it into Macs, it will be in the form of a touchpad like area. From there, we may even see a full MultiTouch keyboard instead of a real one, but making an entire screen MultiTouch would be too much of a jump I think...on the other hand Jobs DOES hate buttons :)
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lhasapso said 8:39PM on 8-06-2007
The iPhone has done well these last two years?
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Dave Caolo said 8:39PM on 8-06-2007
Buckeye77: I agree. The iPhone paint job on the iMac looks niiiiice.
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JohnPQ said 8:44PM on 8-06-2007
"I just hope Jobs stays away from the Mac Mini long enough for me to get one with Leopard on it. "
Me too! Everyone that I know wants to see an updated Mac mini. It's a shame that Apple doesn't seem to care for it.
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amiga_tone said 8:54PM on 8-06-2007
Don't get me wrong this looks nice but let's take a good look at a multi touch iMac, either Apple starts a glove or bandaid market or you are going to have a lot of people with very sore, very worn down fingers!
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mentalsticks said 8:53PM on 8-06-2007
to all the mac mini lovers: what would you do if the mac mini was taken out of production: buy a PC? Switch to Linux. No, you'll get an iMac. On which Apple makes a couple of hundred bucks more profit than on a Mini. So it's in Apple's best business interest to get rid of the Mini - IFF it does not attract new switchers. And now they've got the iPod and the iPhone to lure those away from their gray, wan, drab little plastic PC cases, so why would they keep the Mini?
That said, I too am in love with the Mini and want it to remain.But it might just be a good business decision, too.
That also said, I believe that companies should sometimes make bad business decisions, esp. a company like Apple whose products are highly emotional.
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George said 9:01PM on 8-06-2007
I have a mac mini in a data center. (macminicolo.net) I'd really love a chance to upgrade that server.
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Carl Trimble said 9:30PM on 8-06-2007
From time to time I get these thoughts that come to me. Usually I just think them and do nothing about it. But that time has come and passed. I am done not saying anything aloud. So here it is...
1. The mac os will receive an enhancement come version 10.5. I am not sure what they will call it, but it will enable us to type very fast and very accurate. The os will have the iPhoneesque (my new word) typing built in, and everyone will praise Steve and ask what took so long for us to come up with this “new” style of typing. Even your most horrible typists will be typing in upwards of 80 wpm with ease.
2. The two finger scroll that we are so used to will be upgraded in 10.5 as well. Safari will “scroll like butter” on the mac as well as the iPhone. Steve liked it so much, he realized that something was missing when he set his iPhone down and started use his MacBook Pro. He then told his developers that he wanted everything that was great about the iPhone to be in the new os upgrade. He wants to reverse pinch on the track pad and zoom into a photo in iPhoto. He wants greatness within the os as well as the iPhone.
That is it right now. I will keep you posted and hopefully you will see that these predictions are closer to the truth than they are fiction.
Until next time...
Thanks,
Carl
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greatslack said 9:40PM on 8-06-2007
Wow, that was an awesome commercial. If I were Jobs, I'd hire this guy in a sec.
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david said 5:04PM on 8-08-2007
That's why they have patents for a multi-touch mouse. Duh!
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Robert said 10:22PM on 8-06-2007
The Mac Mini Colo thing is pretty sweet. I agree... the Mac Mini is a great little box. A new one would definitely be my next immediate purchase.
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z@k said 10:26PM on 8-06-2007
What I really want for Christmas is an apple mouse pad, that does not use a mouse, but rather it is the pad that is the input. It would be touch sensitive just like the iphone (fingertip technology) but the major selling point is it would work for both windows and mac.
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Skunk said 10:33PM on 8-06-2007
Well i mean you are right and you are wrong, if you had a multi touch screen it would not be sitting in front of you like it is now it would be laying down on the table reading like a newspaper, making alot more sense. Or did you notice from that one professor guy it was a table at a 45 degree angle and he was standing up?
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Anthony said 10:41PM on 8-06-2007
I'm hoping Apple implements multi-touch using that metal keyboard that popped up not to long ago. The way it would work is either side where the metal shows would be a multi-touch. And to keep from inadvertently touching, you would have to be touching the other side to make it active. Of course you could swap sides in prefs for lefties.
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JohnPQ said 10:53PM on 8-06-2007
"to all the mac mini lovers: what would you do if the mac mini was taken out of production: buy a PC? Switch to Linux. No, you'll get an iMac."
iWon't! AIO desktop computers don't do much for me. I would rather have something without a display attached to it. For many of us, that means either saving more for a Mac Pro or possible moving back to Linux.
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Cliff said 11:04PM on 8-06-2007
Whether your arms get tired depends on how the mac is placed. Place it flat on the table like a sheet of paper (or iSlate) and see if your arms get tired!
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ChrisM70 said 11:07PM on 8-06-2007
Your complaint was that a touch-screen computer would make for sore arms - but perhaps you aren't looking at this in the right way.
If a multi-touch iMac were created, maybe it would change the standard "screen propped up on a stand" way of looking at computers. Maybe computers would become something that sit lower on a table, or embedded INTO a table (I hate to say this, but kind of like the Microsoft Surface) where you could access it more easily with your hands?
Whatever happens, the multi-touch is pretty cool, and I would love to scroll through the music on my iMac like I was spinning the "Big Wheel" on The Price is Right!
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Simon Arch said 12:50AM on 8-07-2007
@lhasapso - I think the idea is that this iMac is a future product, from 2009.
And yeah, I really like the iPhone cladding on the iMac. I'd buy one. Um...if I had the money, that is. :)
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elusive said 7:02AM on 8-07-2007
Okay, so some people are suggesting that a new multi-touch iMac could be lying down or placed in a 45 degree position, but that ain't going to happen. First of all, you there's no way the average dude can find room to put his new 24" iMac flat on his desk -- let alone on his lap -- and Apple knows this.
Furthermore, a lying down/tilted screen would completely rule out the possibility to do stuff like watching movies. Unless you'll get some kind of mount with the iMac. But we'll all have to agree that we're not going to be (very happy about) moving that $2000 toy around between table, lap and mount.
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