Curved Mocks Up an Homage to the Original Mac
It’s easy to go overboard when rendering fantastic Mac designs, but the German publication Curved has taken another tack with an imagined iMac design that draws its inspiration from the original Macintosh. The pictures show off a compact Mac that’s sleek, curvy, and gorgeous — the only downside is that it isn’t real.
Umm... meh. Apple is not known for a retro-focus on design, or looking back at anything really. It's not like Ford or GM, where their greatest hits were in the past and they constantly try to rebottle that lightning with their retro-fugly redesigns. Apple is forward thinking and constantly improving, not self-aggrandizng with pats on the back for hindsight-based historical successes. And as mentioned this thing would be front-heavy and ill-designed for the real world in the form shown.
Even in it's day the original mac form factor was not universally loved, nor even really that great. too small screen, no adjustability for height/tilt, etc. About the only thing it did better than the Apple II ergonmically was the detachable keyboard.
I can't be the only person who looked at this and realized this would be a killer docking station for an iPad. Seriously - slip it in, have it charging, be able to use a keyboard with it, have a card reader slot to make moving photos from a camera easy, maybe some USB ports and build in some speakers on that bottom facing curve to bounce sound off the desktop...
How cool would that be?
I would buy it. I mean not only is it stylish, but perfect for my desk which is barely large enough for my 23" Apple LCD monitor and a keyboard/mouse.
But man, only if it was as inexpensive as the Mac Mini I just bought was. As in around USD$700.