But first, a little tangent. If you don't like to read stuff of a technical nature, I apologize for the amount of tech-oriented content I've been posting recently, but the Mac is close to my heart. However, I usually try to post only meta-technological stuff on this blog and maintain the pure tech. stuff for the
Impulsive Highlighters blog which is a free-for-all website for any kind of topic ranging from Domino's Pizza to Intel's Xeon. If, in fact, you feel inclined to join the group blog that is Impulsive Highlighters, you need only drop me a line in one of the comments sections and meet a couple of requirements such as being able to construct properly punctuated, grammatically correct sentences in any language and promising to write frequently on any topic or topics of your pleasing. I'm totally okay with literature in forms of Elvish, by the way; Quenya or Sindarin - take your pick; only, try not to write too much in Tengwar.
My main interest in today's musings is Apple's new Mac Pro workstation computer and how it shows a terrible want of a certain quality on Apple's part. Now, there are many curious aspects about this machine, but one that strikes me as particularly interesting is, for instance, its lack of physically distinguishable markings from its predecessor, the Power Mac G5, which looks remarkably similar on the outside, yet shares nary a common component on the inside. Perhaps you would attribute this to my recently posted theory that Apple is not innovating these days as much as it used to. I would agree with that and, today, I'm going to expound on my theory with a few facts added to the mix. First, I would like to show a series of pictures below of Power Macintosh computers sold between 1999 and 2002:
The Power Mac G3 Blue & White (B&W) - 1999
The Digital Audio G4 (mine) - 2000-2001
The Quicksilver G4 - 2001-2002
The Mirrored-Drive Doors (MDD) G4 - 2002-2003Notice that, although the basic shape of the mould for all these Power Macs remained the same during the three-year period, Apple nonetheless made changes in the case designs that were significant enough that you could easily tell the age of the computer just by looking at it. It also made the newer Power Macs even more enticing to buy because they (arguably) looked a lot cooler than the ones they replaced. Also, one feature that I was clearly a fan of, and still am today, was the easily upgradeable nature of these computers. There is a latch-like handle on the side of each of these machines, that, when pulled opens up the computer thus:
The easiest-to-upgrade computer I have ever ownedThe computer is laid out in front of you in a natural horizontal manner with no obstructions whatsoever and adding and replacing internal components is a process of admirable ease. It is because of this, that, over the course of the five years that I have owned my Power Mac G4, I have never given up on it. As of now, it has four times the amount of memory it originally shipped with, a new graphics card with twice the video memory, an additional hard drive boosting its storage by 5 times, a PCI slot that added USB 2.0 functionality to it, and a DVD±RW drive that replaces its aging CD-RW drive. And, I have recently purchased components that will make it over 3 times faster in the CPU department, yet again replace its graphics card for a new one with four times the memory of the original, yet again add a hard drive to it that will boost its storage capacity by about 8 times and a new monitor that will replace its CRT counterpart and provide video over DVI instead of VGA (ADC, to be more precise). This says a lot about the upgradeability of this machine. If you have enough money, you can upgrade any of the original Power Mac G4s to an extremely fast 2GHz G4 chip, up to 1.5GB of RAM and as powerful a graphics card as your money can buy, not to mention up to 2TB of storage (incidentally, same as the new Mac Pros), something not even possible in the Power Mac G5s that replaced it. You can also add AirPort and Bluetooth to it if you like. Even in 2001, this computer shipped with Gigabit Ethernet, Dual-FireWire ports and built-in antennas for a potential AirPort card. Mark you, this is a bottom-of-the-line computer we're talking about.
The G5, as it eternally remains - 2003-2006
The Mac Pro - 2006 onwards to infinityTechnobabble aside, G5-owners will tell you (with only a second's worth of hesitation) how despicably hard it is to upgrade their machines, the tons of components they have to
take out before they can put new ones in and how much noise those nine fans in four cooling zones make. Also, Apple ditched the easy-to-open case design of the G4 era for one that went back about a decade in terms of modern marvel and the G5 thus had to be opened like any other commodity PC case (of the 1990s, that is). The G5 was also about 4 inches higher than the G4 and thus wouldn't fit beneath all but the largest desks, apart from being a beast in terms of size and weight and generally a thing that you would not want to carry huge distances if given the chance. It also had one
less optical drive and the space for two
less hard drives than its predecessor. And aside from all that, I should also remark on the fact that Apple did not make a single iota's worth of change to the case design over the entirety of the three years that it was in service, compared to the 4 new case designs Apple introduced in the three years that the Power Mac G3s and G4s were in service. I guess they were just too preoccupied with their cute, little iPods, which as a matter of fact, they were and the iPods underwent many design changes during the same time period. The Mac had taken a back seat it seemed, and I'm not quite certain about whether it has left that seat yet or not.
When eminent Mac columnists talk about the fact that Apple did not change the case designs for the new iMacs, MacBook Pros, Mac minis and Mac Pros, they do not hint at the fact that Apple has not being doing that sort of thing for a long time now, but at the conjecture that perhaps Apple did not want to
shock its consumers by introducing a new processor architecture and case design simultaneously. I ask you people - tell me honestly whether you would have been more
shocked or
delighted if Apple had introduced some cool new designs rather than just rehash the old ones? In fact, the case changes are so boring that when I recently visited Mr. French who runs the computer section at the bookstore and asked him when the Mac Pros would be arriving (making my intentions clear that I was not in the market for one), he mentioned that their stock would be arriving the next day but that he would not care to put one up for display because of the Mac Pro's incredible similarity to the Power Mac G5 already on display and that it would be a complete waste of one extremely sellable piece of machinery. Disheartened, because I wanted to play with one and feared that I would have to make a trip to the Apple Store, I appealed to him to put one up on display and weakly protested with the fact that the new one had
two optical drives on the front. Anyhow, in the regard of looking at Apple with a critical eye, these Mac columnists are more akin to Apple
employees working at reputed publishing institutions than journalists because they write about Apple's products as if they were copying from something that Steve Jobs himself had prepared. Honestly, I have stopped reading their columns because a completely biased flattery of Apple is not what I want to read -
that is something I can do on
apple.com/macpro, thank you very much. Plus, this argument of not changing case design to not put people off doesn't even match up to the facts when you see that Apple did indeed change the case design somewhat for the MacBook as compared to the iBook and also introduced a Black model, which, if you've noticed, hasn't shocked people or anything, but has instead doubled the Mac laptop market share from 6% to 12% in just a few months.
So, I am sorry Apple, but I am very much underwhelmed by your lack of innovation at the moment and I am not going to unconditionally shower you with praises as far as the Mac Pro is concerned.
Labels: English
Do you have any idea how awesome the weather is? This ossum! And by "this", I mean that my left hand is as far away as possible from my right. The air is constantly moving, and you know what that means? Wind! Wind is good. Also, rain? It's been raining every now and then and I dreamt of rain while I was sleeping and it made me so happy… I love rain so much. Rain is good. According to the Delhi MET, the weather's going to go back to the norm come Sunday but who ever gave a damn about them anyway; they can't even give you the current temperature accurately let alone the next day's.
Also, how proud am I of putting some recently-acquired JavaScript skills to practical use on this journal? Very proud. I'm lovin' it. In the same light, I've been hearing a lot about this Ruby on RAILS thing and I think I'm going to have to check it out and see what all the fuss is about. Those of you who read this journal with any frequency may already know about my extreme love for all things related to trains. Well, here comes a web programming environment that (a) has most of its developer base using Macs, (b) has a faint connection to trains and (c) has an excellent logo, and what's left to do but to find out what Ruby on RAILS is! I'll let you know when I'm done doing that.
