Full FeedWhat is this ‘brick’ I keep hearing about?
No, I’m not talking about the iPhone you tried to jailbreak a few months back. Rumors have been flying about Apple’s next “One More Thing” announcement that’s supposed to happen at an October 14th Apple event. The common theme in many of these rumors is the “brick.” But what exactly is this brick?
It’s pretty doubtful Apple would name any of its products the “Brick,” so I think it’s safe to assume that if this turns out to be real, it’s a codename. There are two rumors circulating, and iPhone Savior is reporting on both of them. Sadly, both of them are exciting, and logic would dictate that only one could be the brick. Even still, I’m hoping for both.
First up to claim the name of the brick is a new, upgraded version of the Mac Mini, the Mac Mini Pro. Above, you can see some concept art designed by Erwan Hesry which is highly unlikely to be anywhere close to what this rumored product might look like. Basically, this would be a mini version of the Mac Pro. Far better than a Mac Mini, but smaller than a Mac Pro, and hopefully cheaper. I really like this idea, since I’ve been looking for a good excuse to buy a Mac Mini for my TV. I just don’t want to buy the current Mac Mini; there isn’t enough power there for me. But let’s say they include a Blu-Ray drive in this, keep the specs high enough to make this a decent computer and somehow put a reasonable price on it, then I’m sold. This rumor makes some sense, since the Mac Mini hasn’t seen a revision in over a year.
The second rumor that claims the name is the portable touch screen Mac. It goes by many names: the Mac Tablet, the iTablet, the iTouch, and my personal favorite the MacBook Touch. But no matter what you call it, I don’t think this rumor will die until Apple makes it a reality. This rumor has been around for so long that I think Apple would be crazy if they never release a product similar to this. The users obviously want it, and it would likely sell like nothing else. Apple has experience with touch interfaces with the iPhone and iPod touch, so it’s not far fetched to think they are looking for ways to use that technology in their full OS.
So which rumor appeals to you more? Would you buy either one? Personally, these are my two dream products from Apple, and I’d love to have the opportunity to buy both. What do you think, Apple? Will you let me give you my money?
Via [iPhoneSavior]
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Like you said, I’d love to see this two rumours became real. But, as I live in Argentina, even if they were cheap as hell over there in the States, here it will cost a fortune. There, you can get an iPhone for 200 bucks (let’s forget about the data plans and all of that for just a second). 200 dollars for a really cool phone. Here, you end up paying $1500 (that’s in argentine pesos). Almost 500 dollars. But, that’s a lot of money. Imagine yourself paying 1500 bucks for an iPhone. I know it’s not accurate when it comes to conversion rates, it’s just for you to know how do you feel when buying Apple stuff here. iMacs flying off the shells for 1200 over there, 2200 here. And not because of the taxes from the import. Everything here is more expensive ‘cause they need to pay their employees. How much money do they get, if they have to oversell a product for a that kind of money. You can get a cheaper iMac if you choose to buy one from an online site like MercadoLibre (similar to eBay), but you get no support. Mac Mini’s here cost over a thousand bucks. And that’s for the basic model.
on September 21, 2008 at 06:33 PM - LINKI like the idea of the “brick”, but in that mockup I don’t see any PCI or AGP or PCI-Express slot. Not the type of computer I would get.
I still think Apple needs to REALLY hit the gaming market, even if it means using BootCamp for an early transition for the gaming market to get more mac games out there. (and we mac users and developers are used to transitions in the past with the mac).
Steve Jobs can parade top flight game developers onto their keynote stages until they are blue in the face, but until Apple releases a “gaming mac”, or at least a mac that is expandable when it comes to the graphics card, memory and (long shot) the CPU, they won’t ever crack that market.
on September 22, 2008 at 04:16 PM - LINKI believe Apple, Inc. divides the world into two groups:
Group A: Those who open their computers (brainy 7%)
Group B: Those who do not open their computers (aka “Everyone Else”)
If you are in Group A, Apple sub-divides you into two groups:
1) Those who use their machines in a professional capacity
2) Those who do not use their machines in a professional capacity.
If you ARE a professional (Group A1), what ever field you are in will be best served by a server or a workstation. For this group they make and sell the X Serve and Mac Pro.
If you are NOT a professional(Group A2) then you are in a niche that is already overrepresented and overserved in an oversaturated market. You provide the most noise and expect the most freebies. If a product proves to be less than 100% perfect, you assume malice but never blame. You represent a single digit in the market of end-user-made purchases.
Frankly, you are not worth R&D;on a product.
They already HAVE an expandable workstation. Anything smaller would suffer from the “Cube Effect”: it would be less expandable, but the difference in parts price would have little effect on the total build price and therefore it would cost roughly the same as the Mac Pro for Apple. It therefore serve neither group A1 (Pros) nor A2 (non-pros), and would not sell.
Apple sells PRODUCTS, not platforms. A platform is a necessary evil. For apple, it’s all about the physical/tangible gadget. What geeks need to realize is that’s how those in Group B (aka “the other 93% of humans”) view the world, too. It’s a gadget: like a toaster, or a pocket calculator, or a VHS tape rewinder, or a coffee maker, or a bread machine, or a roomba, or a remote control car, or a walkman, or a phone, or a clock radio, or a TV, or…
Each product Apple sells is supposed to a clealy defined market segment. They make ONE non-pro laptop, ONE pro laptop. ONE phone, ONE hard drive music player, ONE no-screen flash-drive music player, two with-screen flash-drive (ONE focused on video/games, ONE focused on music/audio) players. ONE rack-style server. ONE expandable workstation.
Each machine comes with options, making it SEEM like more products. (No, there are NOT nine new nanos this year. There is ONE new nano and it comes in nine colors.)
If the brick is a cheap headless Mac, expect the Mac mini to go bye-bye.
on September 30, 2008 at 04:18 PM - LINK