The image of a screen balanced on the end of an articulated arm that allows precise placement is fairly common in science fiction. Even in an era of the highly stylized holographic computer interfaces depicted in movies and TV, you'll still see the occasional screen stuck on the end of an articulated arm. It still looks futuristic by our modern standards, and with that in mind, I present the iMac G4. Everyone, this is Jemma.
She's named after my tied-for-favorite character from my favorite still-running show, Agents of SHIELD, with whom she shares...
Well, not much, really. There was a time when Macs could be named based on hair color, but that time was short lived and you've already seen all of my machines that applied to. Whatever. It's not like you used a consistent naming scheme to name all 56 of your cats, so lay off.
This PC is, in my humble (also correct) opinion, the most beautiful desktop PC design. Ever. That's why I have two of them.
Okay, really, I have two because spares, and they're both rather old and pretty darn specialized. Apple is really the computer OEM if you are looking for someone willing to sacrifice standards in favor of aesthetics, and while people have been whining about this really a lot over the past couple of years, uh, guys. It's been this way for decades. This isn't new. Sure this thing used a standard hard drive and regular RAM, but if you want to replace either of those it's just a royal pain. Meanwhile the motherboard, power supply, graphics, display, literally everything else, is proprietary.
Hence the spare.
But when you're willing to sacrifice component interchangeability in favor of appearance, something Apple really embraced starting with the iMac G3, then you become able to produce some of the most striking computers ever made. They've made a lot of those, and this one is my favorite by far. It looks simultaneously retro and futuristic at the same time, and is completely unlike anything else. The monitor floats on that arm, easily adjusted for height, rotation, and pitch with a single finger, and frankly, that's a design trait that I would have liked to stick around for longer than a single generation.
Don't get me wrong, modern iMacs are slick, but I don't think there's really any arguing with the convenience of this thing.
So there it is. The prettiest desktop computer. Nothing groundbreaking in terms of power (the G4 chip in here was a step down from the ones in the PowerMac towers) or technology (even the flat panel display had already been in Apple's Studio Display for a while before this), but sometimes all you really need is groundbreaking design. Here's to you, Jemma.
Thanks for making my computer lab feel just a little bit more like Star Trek.
She's named after my tied-for-favorite character from my favorite still-running show, Agents of SHIELD, with whom she shares...
Well, not much, really. There was a time when Macs could be named based on hair color, but that time was short lived and you've already seen all of my machines that applied to. Whatever. It's not like you used a consistent naming scheme to name all 56 of your cats, so lay off.
This PC is, in my humble (also correct) opinion, the most beautiful desktop PC design. Ever. That's why I have two of them.
 |
| For anyone who’s wondering, yes the second one is named Fitz. Because of course it is. |
Hence the spare.
But when you're willing to sacrifice component interchangeability in favor of appearance, something Apple really embraced starting with the iMac G3, then you become able to produce some of the most striking computers ever made. They've made a lot of those, and this one is my favorite by far. It looks simultaneously retro and futuristic at the same time, and is completely unlike anything else. The monitor floats on that arm, easily adjusted for height, rotation, and pitch with a single finger, and frankly, that's a design trait that I would have liked to stick around for longer than a single generation.
Don't get me wrong, modern iMacs are slick, but I don't think there's really any arguing with the convenience of this thing.
So there it is. The prettiest desktop computer. Nothing groundbreaking in terms of power (the G4 chip in here was a step down from the ones in the PowerMac towers) or technology (even the flat panel display had already been in Apple's Studio Display for a while before this), but sometimes all you really need is groundbreaking design. Here's to you, Jemma.
Thanks for making my computer lab feel just a little bit more like Star Trek.
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