Filed under: Rumors
What is The Brick?
The friendly folks over at Macenstein have a theory about The Brick -- a widely-rumored Apple product that may be debuting mid-October. So far, all we really know is the code name: "The Brick" (originally suggested by 9-to-5 Mac).
Many speculate that it refers to the form factor of the product -- whatever it may be -- but Macenstein has a different take: it's the Windows breaker. Get it? Like a real brick with a real window.
Apple may have a plan to pull significant market-share away from Microsoft using this product (or series of products). If true, it could be the missing piece of the puzzle that executives hinted about in Apple's Q3 conference call in July.
The question, of course, remains: what the heck is it already? A new, low-cost MacBook? An iTablet? Software? Let us know your predictions by leaving us a comment below.
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Reader Comments (Page 3 of 9)
lee said 5:45PM on 9-22-2008
to kill windows you must be windows
Or
To kill windows you must be pc
puhsitch said 9:22PM on 9-22-2008
I don't think either of those would work. The first gives Microsoft money for every machine that Apple sells, and the second would encourage people to buy non-Apple hardware and pirate OS X.
lee@onaprint.com said 9:43PM on 9-22-2008
It seems like a good idea to me.. MS is purely a software company, they seem to do ok-ish from only selling software now don't they?
Mac computers will still sell to us snobbish mac users. I will forever upgrade my iMacs ever 2-3 years.
The iPod and the iPhone has opened up Apple to a lot of PC users, but many of them are unlikely to take the plunge to a new computer and new OS due to the expense.
OSX86 project is comfortably running on PC computers, and happily causing OS X piracy to the weekend computer project nerds around the world..
Writing more drivers? so what!? Most have PC and Linux Drivers available.
Unless Apple give us a few cheaper hardware options, I am all for this - personally I want a $600 netbook running OS X, so I can sit on the couch and tap up some css/xhtml while watching tele and get me out of my home office...
options, it is all about options.. at the right price.
Kyle Hance said 11:29PM on 9-23-2008
The thing is that, yes, Microsoft is a software company, and that works for them. They do hardware here and there, but they are a software company. Apple is the opposite... They're a hardware company... That just so happens to be kick-butt at software too. But I think it'd be dumb for Apple to allow Mac OS X on any PC. It's one of the biggest selling point for Macs... And if they loose that selling point to the rest of the world, the majority of their hardware profit goes out the window.... Then they'd be smashing their own window with their own brick, rather than smashing Microsoft's Windows...
Glen Barnes said 5:06PM on 9-22-2008
I think it will be an "iLife Server". Think a server for the family where you share all of your media and then sync this to the various devices around the home. It will be like the Time Capsule but with smarts.
The difference between this and a Windows Home Server will be that it just works(tm). It will be a headless unit that can be managed through a piece of software on your desktop. All the iLife apps will be updated to work with this new brick so playlists, syncing, etc will just work right out of the box.
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Chris Saunders said 8:54PM on 9-27-2008
Thye Brick is the server part of the Apple Life Style Paradigm.
to further on Glen's idea. There is bluetooth 3.0 Wireless USB that apple could use to support a central wired machine that the lan cloud connects to. This allows for your central printer, mobileHome Sync server. Sync between server and mobileme cloud. streaming audio and video to new Apple TV's that either have optical drive or no optical drive. Audio only or A/V models as well. All wifi and bluetooth.
Hand Held devices will interface on many levels. And handhelds can stream desktop to any display attached to the cloud. Send a DRM'd (yuck) stream to the server to use the resources from the host machine. Allowing for your data to securly stay on your device (copy right lovers rejoice (boo)) while utilising resources available on the Lan cloud. doing this either by a streaming display back to your machine or using a lan cloud connected cinema display.
imacs, mac pros will be deemed workstations and fixed terminals. Mobile machines such as air,book and bookpro would act inbetween handhelds and the more powerful fixed units.
Again the Brick is a part of a bigger picture.... Apple can take it's time. I see this in 5 years time.
Don't foget the xserve hardware and that Apple can go after the Enterprise market by creating servers like Exchange or blackberry servers that allow for secure internal syncing with powerful security policies etc. Internal App deployment etc... It all makes sense to me....
Remember what drove Steve to design "his" Mac, that dream hasn't been realised yet, and the constant changes in tech and gadets (ipod/iphone) sub-notebooks tablets, batteries, etc.) allows Steve to get closer and expand on his own original dreams.
ChriS
Zoe said 5:11PM on 9-22-2008
I think it's that OS X will run on any Intel / AMD architecture....
No more having to use windows when you build a low cost pc.
OS X is the 'brick' that will 'breakthrough' onto any x86 platform... thereby destroying the monopoly held by Windows
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der mono said 5:14PM on 9-22-2008
My guess is, due to the fact that the mini hasnt been updated for a while that it will be a new entry model. penryn based.
remember my words (-:
mono
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Think Adrian said 5:14PM on 9-22-2008
This isn't a killer, but I'd still want an AirTunes, without the airport express, for the price of halv an airport express and the size of an iPod power adapter.
Buy two for the price of one express.
The killer might be a mac mini that really is powerful, yet even cheaper. And smaller?
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Tony said 5:24PM on 9-22-2008
A mini with a semi decent graphics card... preferably PCI so you could upgrade it.
I'd buy that.
Tsondru said 5:15PM on 9-22-2008
While Mr. Jobs has a habit of saying Apple will never do this, or offer that, in almost every case this statement has eventually proven to be false. It is all a matter of timing. Witness the iPhone, and the iPod touch. It is ridiculous to think that some form of tablet is not on the way. However, this is not the brick. The brick is, in my estimation, Apple's next strategic move in grabbing a sizable chunk of the Windows marketplace by implementing a strict licensing scheme for OEM Macs of very specific configurations. Of course this was a complete cannibalization process before Jobs stepped back in, with him exercising exacting control over a new program, he will engineer it in such a way so as to severely limit this from happening.
Apple will continue to design, build, and market Mac Pros, iMacs, and laptops, but will license configurations which will replace Mac minis with similar configs, as well as as the legendary but still non-existent X-mac mini-tower. Obviously these can be sold in configurations with Windows pre-installed, and I suspect many of them will be. This is just part of the weaning process, as those accustomed to the stale milk from Microsofts teat slowly grow accustomed to the rich cream of Apples approach to computing.
Apple will have to approve each design, allowing little latitude for deviation. Obviously, a move such as this would be linked with a huge marketing blitz. I think this scenario is very plausible, and is a strong explanation for the facts at hand, which are admittedly few.
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spook4thecia said 5:18PM on 9-22-2008
DVR AppleTV is an awesome idea, but don't know about the brick tie-in.
A real Windows killer would be to make every PC-only user to sit in front of OSX for one hour and do what they normally do. Instant 20-40% consumer market jump.
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Aurorob said 5:26PM on 9-22-2008
Mac Mini / Apple TV merge into media center machine with cable card slot and DVR functionality?
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Chris said 5:30PM on 9-22-2008
Its hard for me to believe that they would enable OS X on non Apple machines, OS X can't just work on any system, drivers have to be written for all hardware components, and that is just not going to happen. I could see something to thwart EFI-X and OSx86, but also a compromise so Apple can still make money on OS X being run on non-Apple hardware.
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André said 5:32PM on 9-22-2008
What about a cheaper, redesigned Mac Mini based on an Intel Dual-Core 330?
1.6Ghz (or preferably faster) capable of running 4 threads and with the new Intel GMA X4500HD to boot.
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Steven said 5:33PM on 9-22-2008
Am I seriously the first person to hear 'Brick' and think 'Newton'? Or am I just such a huge fan of the Newton that I trick myself into thinking that Steve would ever bring back the huge piece of awesome that he so brutally killed. I know, there is no chance that this 'Brick' is a new newton, but a guy can dream, right?
Here's my design for a new Newton:
640x960, millions of colors, make the screen the same size of the original MP2100, but iPhone thinness around that screen. And a screen that uses multi-touch but can still accept pen input for handwriting and drawing. And of course, Wifi, Bluetooth, microphone, speaker, a camera on the front for videoconferencing, and maybe an optional 3G 'Whispernet' subscription? And of course, an optional external keyboard for typing. All for a whopping $599. Any takers?
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bsab said 5:39PM on 9-22-2008
nope
JimB said 5:59PM on 9-22-2008
I know there is still a small (albeit oddly vociferous) community who cling to their Newtons... but in a world pushing towards 10 million iPhones being sold this year, iPhone is the modern Newton. What you describe, while perhaps appealing to some, isn't different enough from the phone or Touch and would just be biting into their own market rather than expanding it in any substantial way. I really think dreams of a rebirth of the Newton are never going to be anything other than dreams.
Galley said 5:36PM on 9-22-2008
All I want is an iTunes Server that I can pop four 1TB hard drives into, just like a Drobo.
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mabhatter said 1:19AM on 9-23-2008
Amen, that's what Time Capsule should have been doing to backup all that iTunes store stuff we've been buying.