Have a question?
| Home / Editorial / The Lite Side
|
"This thing is just phenomenal," said iCEO Steve Jobs at the product rollout in San Francisco's Ripley's Believe it Or Don't Museum near Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, California, the state which is the home of the world-famous Governor.
"I mean, look at this. It's as big as a movie theater screen. It's bigger than the tallest man who ever lived. It's bigger than the Cardiff giant or the three-headed goat exhibit. I mean, this is hotter than that exhibit that makes you make faces in a mirror which people outside the museum can secretly observe you doing even though you don't know they're watching."
On hand to introduce the KiloMac was performer Weird Al Yankovic, who recently announced that all the sucky songs from the back sides of his early albums would be soon available for rabid fans to purchase on the iTunes Music Store. "This thing is so big that you can watch the Simpsons from 30 blocks away," crooned Yankovic. "My God, Robert DeNiro's mole has gotta be 5 feet wide."
The traditional hemispherical base of recent iMacs is not large enough to support the 1000" (that's over 83 feet or 25 meters!) flat-screen monitor suspended by a brushed-aluminum crane above the user's home. A new base design utilizing a 15' hemispherical shell from MMI Corporation will now serve as the base of the computer.
To insert a CD-ROM, users open a hatch in the side of the base, walk inside, and insert the CD-ROM in one of a bank of 40 players found inside. The computer contains 420 nVidia graphics cards, a speaker system 12' tall, and one USB port, about 8 feet up on the back of the dome.
This website shows a picture of the base of the KiloMac under construction.
"We're proud and excited to roll out this new product," said Jobs. "It comes standard with 100 foot FireWire cable, ethernet-enabled remote access software so you can operate it from far enough away to actually see the screen, and a Volkswagen iMouse you can detach from the computer and drive around to do little errands and stuff. I mean, just look at it. Just look. And look and look and look. This is a whole new thing, I mean no one is doing it but us."
Apple Computer ignited the personal computing revolution with the "eMate" hybrid PC and Newton sometime in the 1990s. Then the Revolution tanked at the box office, so Apple had to dry it out and light it again with an iMac.
<This article is available in a printer-friendly version.>
Recent Lite Sides
- What if Apple thought like a PC company?, 11.01. Apple has innovated and blazed its own trail. But what if it had followed the path taken by the PC copycats?
- How Microsoft can turn Vista lemons into lemonade, 10.22. How Microsoft could profit by no longer allowing manufacturers to sell new PCs with Windows XP installed.
- iPods that never passed beta or focus groups, 09.13. "What most Apple fans don't realize is that there were a few iPod variants that never made it out of beta testing and the focus group stage."
- Pigs fly, snow in Death Valley, and Dvorak uses a Mac, 08.03. What has the world come to when John Dvorak, founding member of the Axis of Macevil, walks into the temple of All Things Macintosh?
- More in the The Lite Side index.
Links for the Day
- Mac of the Day: 'Yikes!' Power Mac G4, Aug. 1999 - The only Power Mac G4 with PCI graphics was built on a modified G3 motherboard.
- Group of the Day: SuperMacs is for those using Umax SuperMac clones.
- November 21 in LEM history: 00: OS upgrades, downgrades - AltiVec vs. Pentium III - 01: Saved by the clones - Computer of the future - 02: Apple Education: Let's get to it - 03: Panther lets Macs and PCs work together, - Lombard SCSI bug - 05: 3 survivors from the 1970s - Real world battery life inadequate - Windows to Mac file transfer with Zip disks - $99 alternative to Microsoft Office - 06: Parallels 1.0 far more polished than beta
Recent Content on Low End Mac
- iPhone #1 Worldwide, Google Voice Search for iPhone, iPhone 3G Battery Pack, and More, iNews Review, 11.21. Also British accents throw off Google voice search, lots of new iPhone apps, universal USB car charger, new protective cases, and more.
- DisplayPort Copy Protection, Trackpad Update, Netbooks Not to Be Taken Lightly, and More, The 'Book Review, 11.21. Also Apple set for record sales, 4-finger gestures on original MacBook Air, MacBook Apple's best consumer notebook to date, Cricket laptop stand, bargain 'Books from $490 to $2,299, and more.
- 15 Reasons Macs Are Better, Quad-core iMac in January?, USB 3.0 Spec Finalized, and More, Mac News Review, 11.21. Also 25 years of Macs, 'Snow Leopard' in Q1?, SimpleTech's faster and greener hard drive, Hyperspaces, StarOffice for OS X, and more.
- Virtualization Shootout: VMWare Fusion 2 vs. Parallels Desktop 4, Kev Kitchens, Kitchens Sync, 11.20. Both programs do the same thing, but one runs Windows XP smoothly alongside Mac apps, while the other bogs down everything but Windows.
- Just Right: Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Baby Bear MacBooks, Charles W. Moore, 'Book Value, 11.20. Some people like small and light notebooks, others prefer huge desktop replacements, but the best value tends to be in the middle.
- Apple Caves to Hollywood with DRM on iTunes Videos, Frank Fox, Stop the Noiz, 11.20. HDCP on the new MacBooks means that you may never really own those videos you buy from the iTunes Store.
- Leopard Runs Very Nicely on PowerPC Macs, Simon Royal, Mac Spectrum, 11.19. Some claim that Mac OS X 10.5 is so optimized for Intel Macs that it runs poorly on PowerPC hardware. That's simply not the case.
- No High Definition iTunes Video for You, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 11.19. The October 2008 MacBooks are preventing users from viewing some high-def iTunes content from being viewed on their external displays. Poor form!
- Every Working Computer Is Useful to Someone, Allison Payne, The Budget Mac, 11.19. Whether it's a PowerBook 1400, G3 iMac, or Power Mac G4, it could be all the computer someone needs.
- 3 WeatherBug Options for Apple Users, Charles W. Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 11.19. Have instant access to current local weather conditions with a Dashboard widget, iPhone app, or Firefox plugin.
- More links in our archive.
Recent Deals
- Best Power Mac G4 and AGP Video Card Deals, 11.20. Used 400 MHz, $50; 733, $100; 800, $199; 1.25 GHz, $300; 800 MHz dual, $200, 867, $300; 1 GHz, $350; 1.42, $400.
- Best iBook G3 Deals, 11.20. Used 300 MHz clamshell, $150; 366, $199; 800 CD, $180; 600 CD-RW, $240; 700 Combo, $290; 900, $369; 14" 600, $360; 900, $449.
- Best Power Mac G3 and PCI Video Card Deals, 11.20. Used beige 300 MHz, $25; blue & white 350, $80; 400, $90; 450, $105; PCI video cards from $15; shipping additional.
- Best iMac G4 Deals, 11.18. Used 15" 700 MHz Combo, $243; 800 MHz, $280; 1 GHz, $380; 17" 1.25 GHz SuperDrive, $400; 20", $549.
- Best MacBook Air Deals, 11.18. New 1.6 80, $1,150 after rebate; 120, $1,744 a/r; 1.8 80, $1,794 a/r; 1.6 128 SSD, $2,150; used 1.8 64 SSD, $1,500; new, $2,200 a/r; 1.86, $2,398 a/r.
- Best Mac OS X 10.0-10.3 Deals, 11.18. Mac OS X 10.0.3, $30; 10.1, $20; 10.2, $60; 10.3 CD, DVD, $100; CD, $119; 10.1 Server, unlimited users, $58; 10.3 Server, unlimited, $150.
- Best iPod nano Deals, 11.17. Refurb 3G/4 GB, $79; new, $114; refurb 8 GB, $99; new, $125; 3G/8 GB, from $134; 16 GB, from $189. Prices include ground shipping.
- Best Titanium PowerBook G4 Deals, 11.17. Used 1 GHz with SuperDrive, $478 plus shipping.
- Best Xserve deals, 11.17. Used G4/1 GHz, $999; G5/2 GHz, $1,288; new 2.0 4-core Xeon, $1,900; refurb 3.0 4-core, $2,599; 2.8 GHz, $2,499; 3.0 8-core, $3,499.
- More deals in our archive.
Consumer
advice, reviews
guides, deals
Apple History
Best Used Mac Buys
Used Mac Dealers
Video Cards
Macspeak
About Low End Mac
Contacts
Entire Low End Mac website copyright
©1997-2008 by Cobweb
Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.
Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work
for all. Please report errors to
.
LINKS: We allow and encourage
links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear
within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses
will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them
in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your
message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters
may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
PRIVACY: We don't collect
personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more
details, see our Terms of Use.
Low End Mac is an independent
publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise
approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh,
iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac
Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of
Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may
be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.