From ArsTechnica: “…I figured I’d show you guys what next-generation, avante garde computer design would probably look like were Jobs and Co. to be swallowed up in an earthquake or choke on their granola or something. Ladies and gentlemen, feast your eyes on these monstrosities: Intel’s Concept PC Gallery [ed: requires Flash Player], part of their Ease of Use Initiative. The fellow Mac user who sent me these aptly quipped, “Looks like they were designed people who were laughed straight out of Infinite Loop during their job interviews.” A few of them actually look like they were designed by Georgia O’Keefe. (Ok, I’ll concede that there are one or two interesting designs in there.)”
Concept PC Design from Intel
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
We don’t see these designs in the computer shops every day, and most of them IMHO pretty ugly, but maybe they give you greater functionality 🙂
I thought the new iMac was scary and weird… if this is what the future PC has to offer, I am definitely not going anywhere for awhile (just like the Snickers commercial)! The ‘Ottoman’ looked like a toilet, I guess that could be useful in the bathroom?!
OK, now I realise the time for the human race is over. Designing for design’s sake (and NOT for funtionality) just doesn’t make sense. Everything in nature marries form with function, but this…this…this is just yuppie garbage.
The only ones I kinda liked from that list and they had some good concepts (but not quite there yet) were: Beacon Rock, Enchant, Entrata, Hilo Bay, Magic Bean & Media Center. The rest sucked really bad.
No thanks …. I think I want that iMac now.
I liked some of them, Like Deep Forest. I think the small and clean units will be more likly in the future. Some of the screen and keyboard designs were nice. I would have thought the new iMac’s would have looked like them, a flat screen with computer built flat on the back. I think the iMac designer got to good of a look at bonsai. I don’t see computers with wild projections like some (ikebana) had being very realistic. I can just hear repair issues “well my kid snapped of my HD and part of the video card” . Many of these are nothing but a regular case with some differant lines and colors then current ones. I think people prefer to work with a box shaped computer cause there just more simple to place. You make it all weird shaped with projections it gets hard to put it anyplace but the middle of a table. I don’t know what they were thinking with ottoman or aztek. That seams like a step backwards. Big not good for most. I mean what do you do with it, put it in the middle of the floor so Dic Van Dike can trip over it?
The toilet comparison was really excellent! Somehow it also looks like a deepfryer I think. Some are indeed really ugly. And a lot are not much different than the ones we see today anyways… just normal towers with a bit more colour.
The ones I really liked are the ‘modular’ ones where you can just stick your new hardware into the socket. Made me think of old tube-amps. I think that’s a good path to walk on.
The ikabana in this case looks very nice i think but my ultimate favorite is deffinately the titan! Great design and great functionality.
Where is the sense of adventure…where is the aesthetic? Most of the designs were very interesting and some were surprisingly elegant. Don’t get stuck in the boring “gray box” mentality. Computers can be art, too!
I’m not quite sure what the heck it does but it’d sure make a nice centre piece for the coffee table 😉
Any one notice eXo looks a heal of alot like the Xbox? :}
Hrmmm, Some look odd, a little strange but then again, so does the new iMac.
…After seeing these monstrosities from Intel.
ciao
yc
O’Keefe? Which? None of them look remotely similer to an O’Keefe . . .
the lego case is far cooler.
good lord those look bad. Even with an open mind, they are just not good looking
LoL @ the ‘Entrata’. “To the bat PC Robin!”
Keep It Simple, Stupid was never more appropriate. What could be simpler than a pedestal on which to support a flat panel? And if it’s going to be an all-in-one, it’s obvious the pedestal must BE the CPU (except to PC manufacturers, who apparently think the entire CPU needs to swivel, too). But something has to be done about those silly Apple tripod flat panel designs, which have little flexibility in terms of tilt or rotation angle for shared viewing. Let’s hope they return to the earlier pedestal design of the first Apple flat panel for their modular computers. Meanwhile, others are providing pedestal monitors at larger sizes, and some can even rotate to portrait orientation.
I once thought that the future of flat panels was to hang on walls, but I guess not everyone lives in a cubicle, do they…
TomEM
* Head of the horrible:
– Vesta (Velocity Group at Anderson Design). <<…the ultimate home manager. Able to monitor…even the Nursery…>>
Just what the F is that???!!! Ed Wood couldn’t have designed it better.
– Bonsai (Stratos design). <<Stratos reorganizes the structure of the home computer with its concept PC, Silicon Bonsai.>>
Errrr, silicon boobs look nicer. There is an arm to put the real bonsai! I’m not hanging my cap there.
– Attivo (Fiori design).
Looks like one of those old Polaroid instant cameras, this one’s a bit bigger.
– Aztec (Ziba Design).
Nooooo!!!, don’t sit on that!!!
– Ottoman (Sozo Design)
Flush baby flush.
– Ikebana (Velocity Group at Anderson Design).
The Art of Flower and Foliage Arrangement.
* Designs stolen from some building’s (Modern Art museums most probably):
– Titan, Unimod, Home Media Center, Sasha, Badis Badis.
* Worst names polished for stardoom:
– Badis Badis> Boy Boy
– Beacon Rock> All Fat
– Gozinta> Crackzilla
– Ikebana> Sashimi
– Sasha> Adolf
– Granny> Auntie
– Swoopie> Woopie
– Fun-Kshun> Just Fuck
* Not so ugly:
– ICE, Groom Lake, Akeru, Exo, Palo Alto, Hilo Bay.
* Best Marketing Ease of Joke:
¿Ease of Use Initiative? Je,je,je, well put Intel. That’s a nice marketing, instead of saying come buy Intel’s Flex-ATX design, they turn it into some helpful initiative, the fits that gives me!
* REALLY neat designs outside this NIGHTMARE:
– The Cappuccino GX1 computer, aesthetically looks a bit similar to the ICE prototype (from Sozo Design’s, in Intel’s dirty dozen). Now that is a new&cool concept, that’s beauty and ease of use, not Intel’s garbage. You can even customize it, If I had the money I don’t have I’d buy myself one. Check it out at:
http://www.cappuccinopc.com/default.asp
– Look what AN AWESOME BEAUTY!!! has designed John Palmer (the genius that designed the BeBox), The HIPTOP. I have to get one of these, I’ll sell my Rolex. This is love at first sight:
http://www.danger.com/products.html
– Don’t have enough room for another machine? Have a Matchbox PC:
http://www.tiqit.com/mpc.html
KUDOS to John Palmer, that’s computing. Get a clue Intel.
His website:
http://www.josephpalmer.com/
Sorry for the lapsus.
“What could be simpler than a pedestal on which to support a flat panel? And if it’s going to be an all-in-one”
A box or two
I’ll take the one in the center:
http://www.atari-history.com/computers/concepts/concepts.html
I wouldn’t take this article at face value. Some of these box designs were given to Intel *years* ago. The Aztec, for example, I saw (I think) 3 years ago on Intel’s website.