Normally, this isn’t something you’d find on the front page of OSNews, but the amount of craftsmanship and attention to detail going into this project is just mind blowing. In fact, it’s so mind blowing that many Apple rumour websites posted this as a possible shot of an upcoming Apple netbook. Well, yeah, if Apple started making laptops out of wood…
Cult of Mac posted a photo earlier this week of what appeared to be a small version of the white Apple MacBook. While it looked like a real laptop, it did have a few oddities that made it feel “not right”. Still, the photo made its usual round across the copy/pasting Apple webring.
Gosh, do they feel silly now. Cult of Mac later revealed that said photo was part of a series of photos sent to them by an artist… Who replicated a white MacBook out of wood, and drew all the details on the device with a pencil. The full photoset is just astonishingly beautiful.
Of course, it also illustrates the sad state of Apple reporting these days. The various Apple websites have turned into a sort of copy/paste webring automaton with barely any critical thinking, who will post anything even if it’s obviously fake. Just one website has to write that Apple will buy Twitter, and by the end of the hour, Apple has not only bought Twitter, but also FaceBook, MySpace, and three camels. It’s time we finally get an Apple news website of decent quality, with good, critical editors who can properly discern fact from fiction.
Well, at least Steve gets a good laugh out of this every morning. I guess.
I used to be one of those who would follow the apple rumor mill quite closly. This was when appl was releasing new, exciting products all the time.
The various forms of the iMacs, the ipod the cube!
Now, its sortof generic hardware with a niceish case…
I think Ives has grown to old for this cutting edge lark 🙁
Hey everyone, my friends brother aunt second cousin met Steve Jobs in a bar last night and heard that Apple will buy Twitter!
“It’s time we finally get an Apple news website of decent quality, with good, critical editors who can properly discern fact from fiction.”
I thought Apple put those down?
And i’m quite sure they’ll keep them down!
Asus has made laptop casings (partially) of bamboo and leather, and I recall seeing a home computer in the 8-bit era that sported wooden side panels (the case was a bent metal sheet with wooden side panels and all connectors in the back). Of course, a lot of homebrew laptop/computer cases sport wood and other natural materials.
Next is a real clamshell laptop. 🙂
But a laptop case entirely of wood would be too fragile and won’t conduct heat well enough. I suppose thin plywood would be O.K. for the screen backing and around the keyboard (as these parts don’t get too hot). Wooden keys would be rather stylish, I think — especially if the symbols on the keys are made of inlaid wood.
Yeah… as long as the coding on them didn’t wear off or nothing else rubbed off on it too much. I’m not anxious to have splinters jabbed through my fingers by typing… although maybe it would help enforce typing breaks and might help RSI.
I’ll just leave this here…
http://www.datamancer.net/steampunklaptop/steampunklaptop.htm
said on an article titled:
Apple’s Rumoured Netbook Made Out of Wood
Classic.
Thom’s comment:
Your reply:
How was that hypocritical?
All you’re doing by referencing the article title is agreeing with the very same point that you cited as being hypocritical.
Edited 2009-05-06 11:05 UTC
Because he did the opposite of what he said he wanted?
This isn’t an apple news site, this is just an IT themed indexing site and personal blog.
So no he didn’t.
If Thom boasted insider knowledge, then you’d have a point. But he doesn’t. He only posts the links to news items you and I submit.
So if you have a problem with the Apple-specific news items then perhaps you should volunteer yourself as an editor?
Edited 2009-05-06 13:15 UTC
You do realise the article title is in jest, right?
I figured that was pretty drop dead obvious.
Thom, one lesson about computer geeks… we typically miss the obvious, and apparently some of us don’t have a sense of humor either.
I like the title, I laughed and it did get my attention for the sheer craziness of that idea. Knowing Apple they’d probably even try it if they thought they could make it work.
Edited 2009-05-06 11:40 UTC
Speak for yourself. Most are not as dimwitted,anal and humorless as that. I want more exactly like this.
Seems like you all didn’t get the title. Have you even read the article?
The title says: The NETBOOK, that was presented on a photo and spread as a RUMOUR that this might gonna be built by Apple, was just a WOODEN model by some crazy artist, and NOT a leaked Apple photo or something.
Nobody said that Apple will build a wooden netbook.
Any story about Apple gives the fanboys “wood”…..
Nice one.
Even if it was a real product, it wouldn’t surprise me. Olympus took one of their point-and-shoot cameras and made the casing from wood. I’ve seen phones with wooden casings, also. Besides that, the Apple I had a wooden casing.
So, why oh why, would I be surprised?
And was it the original Palm Pilot that was prototyped as a piece of wood to see how practical it’d be to carry around?
Probably so. A lot of mockups start with wood or clay, so it would (or wood) be likely that Palm used that technique.
Thinking back, I made the joke that Greenpeace wouldn’t be happy with Apple until their computers were made of wood, so it seems funny that someone might have picked up on that.
The only site I go to for Mac info (besides this one of course) is Macrumors.com They’re very open and honest, and constantly say if something sounds ‘fishy’ and etc. They have the “Twitter” acquisition on their “Page 2” of very questionable rumors (as it should be).
I was quite amazed when I saw that story because a) it doesn’t make sense and b) it is on the major news network’s websites Geez why? I want to see a wooded netbook on their sites… that would make me happy. Also, absolutely AMAZING work by the artist on these.
While of passing interest (pretty!) isn’t this fairly page 2 in nature?
I know Thom has previously pointed out that:
A. Page 1, page 2, what’s the difference? Cope with it.
B. Page 1 have longer ‘Read More’ sections, Page 2 don’t.
but:
A. If that’s the attitude of even the editing team, then what’s the point at all?
B. We’re left with the crazy situation where long interesting and OS related articles are dropped on page 2 with short descriptions, or the situation with Kroc last week adding some tangential musings to an article on OS adoption just to push it to page 1.
Back on topic, it’s smacking a little of schadenfreude for Thom to mock the apple rumour community *after* cult of mac revealed the full story – where was the insightful, critical analysis of the ‘obviously fake’ story before the reveal? Glass houses etc.
I’ve seen bamboo laptop cases before, but when you talk about Apples in wood casing, you can’t help but think of the old Apple I…
When I think of wooden PC cases I am reminded of the infamous Nigerian scam story that went horribly wrong for a scammer duped into providing 2 wooden carved projects, the second being the C64. He was led to believe that that was eaten by an african hamster so was denied his prize.
http://www.419eater.com/html/john_boko.htm
What’s so “mind blowing” about this? Must have a mind that gets “blown” rather easily.
the media have turned into a sort of copy/paste webring automaton with barely any critical thinking, who will report anything even if it’s obviously fake.
I think that’s what you meant to say.
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/apple_introduces_revolutionar…