“Intel on Wednesday showed off its living room PC of the future–and it looks a lot like the Mac Mini. As part of a speech at the Intel Developer Forum here, Vice President Don MacDonald demonstrated several concept PCs, including the Sleek Concept Entertainment PC–a square, metallic-colored device that was immediately reminiscent of the desktop computer Apple Computer introduced earlier this year,” Ina Fried reports for CNET News.
“It’s unlikely that Intel itself would build such a device. The chipmaker often uses its twice-yearly developer events to try to spur creativity among computer makers. Past efforts have seen PCs twisted into all sorts of shapes and even embedded in an Ottoman foot rest,” Fried reports. “An Apple representative declined to comment on Intel’s concept PC. Thus far, the concept PC is just a piece of plastic, literally, although its design showed a clock display and optical drive in front, with ports such as USB, optical audio and FireWire in the back.”
Full article, with more photos of the thing, here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple leads. Wintel follows. As usual. The clock on the front of this fake Mac mini is reminiscent of the pure stupidity of the “Ottoman PC” – the all-time joke of Wintel concept “design.” Somewhere, right about now, Jonathan Ive and Steve Jobs are laughing their arses off.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Where Apple leads, Wintel follows years later – January 31, 2005
FrankenMac mini, it’s alive! Man rips apart Mac mini, turns it into PC – January 31, 2005
Apple leads; Wintel follows as usual – November 11, 2002
This is so funny, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. It’s blatant rip off, anyone can see that. Even CNET captions the photos as “Mac Mini like”.
The speed with which INTEL have produced their ‘knock-off’ version certainly gives credibility to the Apple claim that employees who leak details of future products need to be rooted out as early as possible.
Intel is Pathetic..What a rip-off
At this point, it is merely plastic. I would be a good to see what kind of processor they will be able to fit within that; given the huge power consumption of their chips.
“Speed” in producing a knock-off? It’s just a plastic box?! Anybody could have ginned that up with a 3D CAD unit and a stereolithography machine overnight if they wanted. While I agree on the need to maintain trade secrets, using this as an example is a bit silly….
Do they have a feature where that clock on the front can be made to blink “12:00” constantly, just like the potential user’s VCR?
Magic Word: Who. As in “Who Who, Who are you?”
They out to change their name from Apple Computer Inc. to the Apple Bandwagon Company.
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“The speed with which INTEL have produced their ‘knock-off’ version certainly gives credibility to the Apple claim that employees who leak details of future products need to be rooted out as early as possible.”
EXACTLY!!
Who’s surprised that this imitation looks like crap when compared to Apple’s product? It’s funny that so many companies try to copy Apple but they can’t even get it to look decent. Normally when companies copy, they actually improve the product. The fact that the design of the iPod has not really changed over the years shows how good it was to begin with.
man oh man….why do these people even exist if they cannot come up with their own idea of a “mini”. Much less silver painted on white plastic casing to achieve the white grooves. Bleah!
Explain this to me: Why would Dell, HP, or Gateway bother with this kind of design (or ANY design) when their business models are based around slapping a box together for the lowest possible cost?
There’s no reason why Wintel boxes can’t have beautiful and evocative designs… except that the boxmakers don’t give a damn because their customers don’t give a damn.
Oh come on guys! It’ll be $200 cheaper than the Mac mini!!!
And you’ll get viruses, a crap operating system and all the pop ups you can handle for that money.
ps it’s an ugly beast… surely they could have done a lot better. I’ve seen school projects from kids with more style. It looks like they’ve put bathroom tiles over a full size DVD drive.
It’s a lean, mean, switching machine! Wintel users can switch to … huh?
C’mon, this is great… I reckon it’ll be around $800 cheaper than the Mac Mini – that’s right folks, they’ll be paying you to acquire this piece of fine technology!
It it doesn’t run OS X, it just doesn’t run. Yet another POS Windblower machine. Who cares.
How do we even know that it works? It’s probably just a mock up. You know how hot PC’s run. That thing would melt in an hour. They just want to do the ‘me too’ bit, and look like innovators. How M$’ish. A bunch of imitators. Get An Idea!!!!
They should fill it with sand and make it a paper weight.
If someone is going to make a PC for the “living room” can you make it black and the size of standard stereo equipment please.
How they can fit all those viruses in such a small box is beyond me.
Aaaamazing!
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“C’mon, this is great… I reckon it’ll be around $800 cheaper than the Mac Mini – that’s right folks, they’ll be paying you to acquire this piece of fine technology!”
Then I’ll order a trainload of these and retire.
…for me to POOP ON…!!!
I can’t believe that anyone would have the gall to show off such an obvious rip-off of Apple’s design in a public forum.
I love how this thing has no guts on the inside.. while it makes sense for a concept PC.. if they actually tried to replicate the insides of the Mac Mini in such a small space, they would appreciate Apple’s Engineering Wizardry.
What exactly is the point of saying, ‘the Media PC of the future is on sale down the street for 499 bucks and does not run on Intel chips’?
Oh well.. they have a huge expo like this and people are impressed by empty computer cases…?! Pathetic
My God! Have they no SHAME???
“At this point, it is merely plastic. I would be a good to see what kind of processor they will be able to fit within that; given the huge power consumption of their chips.”
Very, very well said. Does anyone remember the bizarre pyramid-shaped concept PC that Intel unveiled after the original Bondi iMac blew the doors off the industrial design community? This is just the 2005 version.
hey guys.. note the lack of a 3.5″ floppy drive?
Could the PC world be catching up with 1997?
slurpee,
i like your style
This link will describe a switcher story on how Sterling Moss changed a Compaq laptop for an ibook.
http://racelegends.typepad.com/pressing_on/2005/01/sir_stirling_mo.html
B-sabre is right on target, I have it from very good authority this is a one of 3 that that was rushed for out. it aint a real product, just sit and watch.
windoz uzer you are too clever. Didn’t see it coming.
Looks like I am not the only one who is annoyed at the fact that I get a popunder ad almost every time I come to this site.
http://www.spymac.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=160415
MLPU,
Perhaps you missed this:
MacDailyNews, “2/22. 10:25pm ET: We are currently testing various pop-under ad codes. We have now been in contact with Fastclick and there is a way for our users who do not wish to accept pop-unders to opt out. Users who wish to opt-out of pop-under and other Fastclick ad network ads may do so by installing the Fastclick Opt-Out Cookie. If you choose to install this cookie, please consider buying any songs you wish via iTunes by launching iTunes via our left side column to launch iTunes or please consider patronizing our other sponsors via banner and text ads (such as Other World Computing, MacService, PowerMax, The Apple Store, The Apple iTunes Music Store, and others) as MacDailyNews will be unable to derive any Fastclick revenue from your visits. MacDailyNews is an ad-supported site and Fastclick is a major component of this site’s revenue and helps greatly in offsetting our operational costs. Thank you.”
The link to the MDN article
Wow, that ottoman PC is really something. Finally a pouf that “ron” can love.
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its great to see how advanced the new PC’s of the future will be…
now we need to go from concept PC to reality PC
The digital clock on the front is a supurb design feature
why hasnt’ anyone come up with that before
Apple really needs to play catch up on this baby
Is it me, or is that thing UGLY!!! You can always tell a non-Apple product at a glance. YUCK!!!
The whole of Intel can’t design their own form factor and simply have to mimic Apple design.
Perhaps its the last gasp to try and persuade PC users not to leave the Windows world.
Unfortunately, it the OS that’s crap – as much as the design.
Can they shoehorn the pwr requirements for longhorn in their box or is it another Win ME only disaster waiting to happen aimed at the very low end of the market? Mac mini may be small but it runs the full strength OS
Looks crap and totally lacks any form of style!
They can’t quite understand that this product will not compete with the Mac Mini because ‘it’s the OS!’.
I can’t see how this product is going to encourage windows pc buyers considering 90% of the world use windows anyway!
What a waste of money and R+D on a product that the windows market just will not need.
The whole concept behind the Mac Mini is to increase Apple’s market share by encouraging windows users who could not previously afford a Mac to buy a cheap mac mini.
The only way this will sell is if there may be a market for small under powered windows pcs – What am I saying… ALL WINDOWS PCS ARE UNDER POWERED!
LOL!
The guy just might have well have gone on stage holding a Mac Mini and saying ‘this is the future of the living room pc. We are going to copy Apple, who created this new and innovative product and who are leading the computer industry in every way”
What the guy didn’t realise is that all the press/developers etc know that it is a mac mini rippoff as soon as they saw it!
What a loser!
I had to go to Apple’s website to remember how good looking it actually is when people here said how darn ugly Intel’s prototype is. Intel’s mock-up is no where near as asthetically pleasing as the Mac mini. The Intel tile-on-a-box-of-tile look will just make people buy more Macs in my opinion. This kind of imitation is truly the kind that flatters.
http://www.apple.com/macmini/
Sorry… yes it was me … the original “My MDN Magic Word for today is high.” The imitators of my MDN Magic Word comment used to be quite flattering but now it’s old. But I think Apple’s situation is different here in regards to the Mac mini. This will only make the Mac mini more available to the general populations mindshare. If only Apple would make commercials for this and could keep up with supply.
My MDN Magic Word for today is “began” as in the My MDN Magic Word for today began with me and I’m sorry for the annoying after effects. Please ignore and scroll hopefully it’s just a fad.
That Ottoman PeeCee lives up to it’s name… it looks like a toilet!
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I looked at that Ottoman PC and thought it was a joke. I had to google it to make sure it was for real. What the hell were those guys thinking? Gambit is right, it DOES look like a toilet.
It’s a pitty that cookies / boxes are not patented, but this is
to silly. And that it soon will be promoted by a Knight ..! As: “The invention for Wintel.”
Skyblue –
I’ll take my ten pounds sterling in the form of iTunes tracks, please.
Thank you.
Poof!
Where’s my £10?
MDN,
What is up with your irritating banner ads now? I thought you had gone far enough with your pop-up/pop-under ads… but that goofy sound clip?
I may have to go elsewhere for my daily dose of mac gossip….
Hey, why not take the whole tour of Intel visions: http://developer.intel.com/technology/easeofuse/story.htm
None as stuoid as the Ottoman, but they are all hilariously ugly and useless.
But wait, the “Concept PC 2001 actually looks like the iMac G5! Note the slot-loading optical drive on the side. Oh, wait, the rest of the computer still is left on the desk. LOL!
I hope in the near future, the size of a DVD drive and DVD disc will shrink to a more compact form factor.
“It’s unlikely that Intel itself would build such a device.”
I think there is a mistake.
“It’s unlikely that Intel itself could build such a device.”
That’s better, I mean where would the fan go, perhaps outside of the box like The Mini’s power brick. There could be a processor brick and hard drive brick as well. Yeah that’ll work.
Actually, I don’t think this thing looks THAT bad. Too bad it is completely divorced from reality. Like SunSeeker pointed out, “Where exactly was the processor going to be located?”
Sort of like that guy who turned a Mini mac into a PC, only it didn’t have enough room for an optical drive and it also needed an extra cooling fan which didn’t happen to fit inside the Mini Mac case.
But what is with the “digital clock” embedded on the front of a computer? What the…?
Were there ANY adults involved in that design decision?
“But what is with the “digital clock” embedded on the front of a computer? What the…?
Were there ANY adults involved in that design decision?”
Sure there were!
Intel1: What is this?
Intel2: It’s a compact media PC. You know, a digital replacement for your cable box and VCR…
Intel1: It’s not a VCR.
Intel2: Why not?
Intel1: It doesn’t have the little clock blinking “12:00” on the front…
PS – how about the “remote” stuck to the “PC” with a big wad of masking tape? Classy.
http://news.com.com/Photos+Intels+own+mini+PC/2009-1042_3-5596587.html