I dunno why, but I feel pretty confident predicting that the newest Apple whizbang announcement — flatscreen-on-a-stick — will be a pretty grand failure. Wait… thinking about it, I do know why I feel that way, at least partly. The Apple Cube was a miserable failure, and that was during times when geek money flowed in the streets. This new computer doesn’t seem to add anything by itself, but rather, does so with software that’ll run on any other Mac, and doesn’t appear to be much different than the new imaging software that’s built into Windows XP. Realistically, this isn’t a recipe for raging success. (The Time Canada link above probably won’t work next week; I’ll try to update it with a more permanent link once Apple announces the machine.)

Comments

Flatscreen—on-a-stick indeed! There’s a photo over here - http://www.37signals.com/svn/comment.php?postID=90&6

• Posted by: Alaina on Jan 7, 2002, 7:25 AM

This new computer doesn’t seem to add anything by itself,

but, but, it has an 15” lcd screen, a cd writer, nicer graphics hardware and a couple of hundred mhz extra, while costing 500 dollars less! i’d say it adds lots of stuff by itself…

if it flops, it’s because it looks like a kitchen appliance, not for lack of features. i hope they’ll introdcude different form factors - brick, oval, cilinder, cube(!) - and colors/materials - titanium! - over time.

• Posted by: Michel on Jan 7, 2002, 9:10 PM

What’s genuinely horrifying is some of the people who have really drank Steve’s Kool Aid, like this quote about iPhoto:

It will take some time for all of this to sink in, but we give up. The fun and ease of use factor is HUMONGOUS. The socioeconomic implications are huge as well.

Wow, I wonder what that dude thought about the My Pictures download wizard in XP a few months ago? Perhaps cities were going to be built around it.

• Posted by: Anil Dash on Jan 8, 2002, 5:36 AM
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