t-jacobs@wasatch.UUCP (Tony Jacobs) (03/08/89)
I was privileged to be invited to the local Apple offices to see the "Apple TV" presentation of their new products. Quite a show! After playing a 3-4 minute commercial playing a real catchy tune, Mr. Gassee walks out with a tote bag over a shoulder (the size of a portable computer) and says he's here to introduce some new products! He puts the bag down and opens it up and pulls out a video card! (laughs follow) Then he follows with a 160 meg hard disk. Then he proceeds to the meat of the show... He pulls out an empty cpu box and says heres the IIcx box....then pulls out a mother board, describes some of the features of it and plops the board in.... then pulls out a fan/power supply (only he calls the fan something like a wind generating device -- real quiet) plugs it in, he does have a little trouble plugging in the connector to the mother board....plugs in the speaker (now bigger and front and center in the box)...plugs in the hard disk/floppy disk unit...slips in a video board and finally slaps the top on (much easier that the Mac II) and then proceeds to plug in cables,keyboard,mouse,and monitor... hits the on switch and twing. It runs. They really took some risks here and with other live hardware demos, but they pulled it all off. They showed the speed difference between a regular SE and the IIcx with a HyperCard demo, an Excel demo, and a 882 demo drawing (sombrero). Then Mr Skully came out and hyped the whole Mac product line. He said something to the effect that the IIcx is the most significant product that Apple has ever put out and that future system software would help bring that out. Those aren't his exact words mind you, but they were pretty strong. They showed a video of people using Macs, some of them doing some fairly impressive stuf. Later Larry Tessler came out and talked about how a lot of the Mac products have fulfilled many of his dreams and how some of those products evolved. AFTER the "Apple TV" broadcast... At the local Apple office they unvailed the IIcx, Portrait, & Two-Page monitors. Both the monitors have just as crisp and focused (in the corners) a picture as the Plus/SE. Packaging like the other Mac II monitors. One nice feature of the Portrait model is that it has an ADB port on it so keyboard & mouse can be plugged into it while the CPU box is somewhere else. The IIcx (drum roll) is 5.5" tall, 11.9" wide, and 14.4" deep. The styling close to the II only no verticle lines on front or sides. The horizontal line across the floppy drive port is similar to the SE/30 (extends from side to side). The top pops off without taking out any screws, just lift up on two tabs in the back. The box itself is a composite so that the plastic skin is molded right onto the metal sheilding (for RF noise protection). The NuBus slots are on the far left of the box, the power supply/fan in the right rear, with the disk drive module (both floppy & hard mounted together) just in fron of that. The memory simm slots are dead center in the front just behind the speaker module. The speaker is a larger & oval shapped. As small as this box is there is a big gap inbetween where the NuBus cards go and all the other stuf. About 3" wide from front to back less the speaker space. There is also a ROM simm slot just to the rear of the memory. It was empty (Gassee pointed to another part of the mother board where there was ROM). The box can be stood on end (the rubber feet on the bottom can be moved) or there is a bracket that allows you to mount it under a desk or shelf. The fan is really quiet. I put my ear right next to it and the noise of the air hitting me was as noisy as the motor noise! This unit has an external floppy disk drive port since you can only put one floppy drive inside. The insides can only hold a 3.5" hard disk too. The mother board didn't seem very dense. There appeared to be a lot of custom VLSI chips stamped "Apple". This machine has another new feature, it has an auto-restart in the event of a power outage. I have to eat a few words that I posted last week, I said I thought that the Mac IIcx would sell a lot better that Apple expected. After seeing their "Apple TV" production I think perhaps they do expect the IIcx to sell as well as I think it will. John Skully seemed to really believe this machine was going to be HOT. Much of the video material used in the production looks like it could be used for TV commercials and it wouldn't supprise me if they do. p.s. I put in my order for IIcx this morning....buying Apple stock tomorrow! -- Tony Jacobs * Center for Engineering Design * U of U * t-jacobs@ced.utah.edu
phil@mva.cs.liv.ac.uk (03/13/89)
In article <1253@wasatch.UUCP>, t-jacobs@wasatch.UUCP (Tony Jacobs) writes: > I was privileged to be invited to the local Apple offices to see the "Apple TV" > presentation of their new products. Quite a show! > > p.s. I put in my order for IIcx this morning....buying Apple stock tomorrow! > > -- > Tony Jacobs * Center for Engineering Design * U of U * t-jacobs@ced.utah.edu I got to see a IIcx this morning - and WOW!!! The system is nicely laid-out, and the contents of the box are very neat. The sound is better (bigger speaker than the II), the reset/interrupt buttons are at the front (although the hardware buttons themselves are about 2 inches set back inside the case!) so they are at last easy to get at. The power on/off button locks so that it will re-start if it is powered off ( they say in their blurb that this will be of great use if people use it for unattended file-servers). I'm not sure that I can afford one (seeing the prices that they're intending to charge for it here I _know_ I can't afford one) but it sure was nice! I think I better start saving up for my SE/30 upgrade instead! Phil Jimmieson, *************************************************** Computer Science Dept., * ** Note New Address & UserName ** * Liverpool University, * JANET : PHIL@UK.AC.LIV.CS.MVA * Merseyside, England, * ARPA : PHIL%mva.cs.liv.ac.uk@cunyvm.cuny.edu * L69 3BX * * * old address SQPHIL@UK.AC.LIV.CSVAX may work * (UK) 051-794-3689 ***************************************************