October 26, 2001

1:10 PM

The Apple G5 SPHERE!SPHERE! It's Round! It's hella'fast. Get to the page before Apple sics the lawyers on them and makes this great page vanish. If someone has already posted this sorry, I haven't seen it, but I'm pretty new...so there you go.
posted by Dome-O-Rama (48 comments total)

is this real?
posted by jpoulos at 1:15 PM on October 26, 2001

No
posted by adrianhon at 1:18 PM on October 26, 2001

That's what I was wondering, too. It strikes me as wishful thinking on the part of an Apple fan.
posted by ljromanoff at 1:18 PM on October 26, 2001

hmmm not the apple website...

cute though
posted by Kafkaesque at 1:18 PM on October 26, 2001

cjg.net is URL redirector to mac.com. Though there might be some more domain trickery involved here. It looks photoshopped to me. Why does every new apple product have to have x amount of fakes on the web before it comes out. Really, don't mac users have anything better to do?
posted by skallas at 1:19 PM on October 26, 2001

notice the word "spoof" from the source: rel="shortcut icon" href="http://homepage.mac.com/icebox7/hidden/spoof/spoof.htmlfavicon.ico"
posted by Kafkaesque at 1:21 PM on October 26, 2001

Spoof or no, I would buy something like that just for the form. That's definitely a piece of art.

Kudos to the creator.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 1:22 PM on October 26, 2001

Yeah it's damn clever, but not real, no. I just thought it was perfect to post here.

And, no we don't have anything better to do, we're fans, it doesn't have to make sense. Fandom never does. I'd like to meet the guy who made this and buy him a beer though. Just for balls and creativity.
posted by Dome-O-Rama at 1:23 PM on October 26, 2001

Really, don't mac users have anything better to do?

They're trying to imagine a world into being. Totally honorable enterprise, that sphere looks awesome.
posted by lbergstr at 1:24 PM on October 26, 2001

I'm still holding out for Crazy Straw G5, or possibly Dodecahedron G5.

Yes. The only reason i know the word dodecahedron is from playing too much D&D as a young sprout.
posted by Kafkaesque at 1:25 PM on October 26, 2001

"just for balls"

heh.
posted by Kafkaesque at 1:25 PM on October 26, 2001

the latest g4 still seems a lot prettier than this.. man, i really need one of those..
posted by lotsofno at 1:26 PM on October 26, 2001

Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page:


"This page is for entertainment purposes only, and, of course, to expose the monkey who lives in my left shoe to the world.
Translation:
Don't sue me, I don't have any money. Please."


What tipped me off was the reference to the "G5" chip -- we'd have heard about that well before it appeared in any product.
posted by me3dia at 1:33 PM on October 26, 2001

the moebius strip G5?
posted by jpoulos at 1:37 PM on October 26, 2001

They're trying to imagine a world into being

Don't kid yourself, a webpage spoof isn't an imagined world. Its a spoof to see how many people you can fool. Yes, its done nicely, but its not some highbrow attempt to communicate a new reality.
posted by skallas at 1:38 PM on October 26, 2001

we'd have heard about that [G5] well before it appeared in any product.

The Register: PowerPC G5 to hit 2GHz
Of course, take it with a grain (or entire shaker) of salt-- their source is MacOS Rumors, who is not well known for accuracy....
posted by andrewraff at 1:38 PM on October 26, 2001

Another indicator it's a spoof:

"The AGP 4X graphics slot, incidentally, comes loaded with a graphics accelerator that's loaded in itself. Models feature the state-of-the-art NVIDIA GeForce4 MX accelerator for previously unheard-of 3D performance. The GeForce4 has 73 million transistors, and can perform 96.3 billion floating point calculations per second. Translation: you kill three enemies before the light from the screen reaches your eyes."

I want me a GeForce4 MX
posted by Dillenger69 at 1:39 PM on October 26, 2001

I read an article about the g5.. can't find it now, gotta trust me
posted by Mick at 1:39 PM on October 26, 2001

So is this thing stackable? Or does it fit into a larger sphere of spheres?
posted by samsara at 1:39 PM on October 26, 2001

It, like many previous Apple Macs, will eventually make a nice fish tank.
posted by ljromanoff at 1:49 PM on October 26, 2001

Dang -- I was headed here with this post in hand.

Here's a processor with the right form factor for this machine if Apple and Motorola don't get their act together on the G5.

ljromanoff -- as opposed to my old PCs which are only good for doorstops.
posted by fpatrick at 1:54 PM on October 26, 2001

ljromanoff -- My OLD circa 1995 powermac 7200 is living and operating FULLY at a friends house who I gave it to after getting my G4 - she just needs web access and email. HOw many crica 1995 windoze boxes are out there running perfectly well and still using pretty up to date software? I've got a Quadra 800 here too, and it works though it has jack for space. Going on ten years old and still works.

You're just jealous. You know it. We know it.
posted by Dome-O-Rama at 2:00 PM on October 26, 2001

Its a spoof to see how many people you can fool.

Perhaps, but I don't think that's the case here. Windows people don't care, and most Apple people knew right away that it was a spoof (at least I did).

The site is nothing short of brilliant artwork - a delightful skewering of Apple that also serves to put the company on a pedestal.

It, like many previous Apple Macs, will eventually make a nice fish tank.

As an Macintosh zealot, I'll take the bait and lash out at this one (it feels like a good time for an old fashioned computer brawl): Old macintosh computers are turned into fishtanks because they're beautifully designed, it has nothing at all to do with their performance.

An old Mac classic machine is still a marvel, as anyone with even a minimal sense of aesthetics will attest.

So there!
posted by aladfar at 2:01 PM on October 26, 2001

Yes, because anyone who disagrees with you must be totally lacking in aesthetics. And stupid, too, I'd wager.
posted by Danelope at 2:07 PM on October 26, 2001

An old Mac classic machine is still a marvel

how about a color classic g4?
posted by riffr at 2:08 PM on October 26, 2001

The problem with some (I say again: SOME) Mac fanatics is that they have these really impressive imaginations uninhibited by, say, the laws of physics, and they start to believe a little too much in what they can imagine. Sometimes they even fool other people (like CBS Marketwatch and the iWalk). Then, when something real like the iPod is released, they dump all over it because it doesn't have a TFT screen/AirPort/an unrealistically low price tag/insert impossible wish here. Brian Tiemann, writing at Applelust.com, thinks there's no satisfying the die-hard Mac users: what Apple produces can't hold a candle to what Apple should produce, ITNSHO.
posted by mcwetboy at 2:11 PM on October 26, 2001

It's like the Russian Dolls. You open it up and there's another computer inside.
posted by alan at 2:20 PM on October 26, 2001

The only reason i know the word dodecahedron is from playing too much D&D as a young sprout.

D&D? Pfft. The only reason I know the word dodecahedron is that it plays an important role in my very favorite book.
posted by pudders at 2:28 PM on October 26, 2001

"Networking performance is equally gratifying, especially when you have big pipes: built-in Gigabit Ethernet lets you shoot large files literally through the air at previously undreamed of speeds."

Damn, too bad it's a hoax.. I was looking forward to gigabit wireless.. though I hear 57MBit wireless should be out soon..
posted by krux at 2:29 PM on October 26, 2001

Mmmmm 802.11a
posted by zeoslap at 3:03 PM on October 26, 2001

Of course it is real --- I saw it on the internet.
posted by spilon at 3:04 PM on October 26, 2001

This isn't too far from possibilities. Sticking components into a round case with wireless hookups, that I can imagine. BUT HOW WOULD YOU PLUG THIS THING IN? You'd be using laptop batteries and have to recharge every two hours.
posted by Iberaband at 3:14 PM on October 26, 2001

"Don't kid yourself, a webpage spoof isn't an imagined world. Its a spoof to see how many people you can fool. "

unless of course the guy mentions it's a spoof multiple times...

/me rolls eyes.
posted by jcterminal at 3:31 PM on October 26, 2001

My OLD circa 1995 powermac 7200 is living and operating FULLY at a friends house who I gave it to after getting my G4 - she just needs web access and email. HOw many crica 1995 windoze boxes are out there running perfectly well and still using pretty up to date software?

1996 gateway 200 mgz running win 98, office 2000 etc. etc. Runs perfectly.

1995 quantex?? (it's my brothers) 133mgz running the same software No problem.

Next?
posted by justgary at 3:33 PM on October 26, 2001

It, like many previous Apple Macs, will eventually make a nice fish tank.

As an Macintosh zealot, I'll take the bait and lash out at this one (it feels like a good time for an old fashioned computer brawl): Old macintosh computers are turned into fishtanks because they're beautifully designed, it has nothing at all to do with their performance.

That's pretty much what I was saying to begin with. People are so touchy these days.
posted by ljromanoff at 3:43 PM on October 26, 2001

1996 gateway 200 mgz running win 98, office 2000 etc. etc. Runs perfectly.

1995 quantex?? (it's my brothers) 133mgz running the same software No problem.

Next?


PC-Compat 100 mhz (also produced by Gateway, incidentally) that my father still runs on (windows NT 4); for email, some lightweight engineering calcs (wireframe rendering of some sort of tension/load bearing calculations)

Up until a year ago, my friend was running his BBS ("Skies of Acid" running Renegade -- which turned 10 in 1999) on an old 486 -- not modern software, but it still worked (and he still had users.)

Of course, it goes both ways... Next to my (getting well, real oldish, i suppose -- though it didn't seem like it until i typed out the number four-fifty) 450 mhz Pent III, I have an old mac at my house that I'm running Max on (some kind of 7200 tower of some sort) because I can't really afford the kind of cash that owning the latest and greatest Apple products often requires.

i like them both.
posted by fishfucker at 3:56 PM on October 26, 2001

I'll wait for the "upgrade" when they make it candy-colored.
posted by archeopterix at 4:11 PM on October 26, 2001

We're replacing and retiring our Sequent mainframe tomorrow, which was running Dynix, and was produced in '88.
Except for a little yellowing of the plastic, it looks just as good as the metal door-fronted server racks that surround it, and it's been running the whole backend of the company I work for, including databases, text-file processing, communication with POS machines, accounting processing, printing, email... everything but firewall, up and running full speed, night and day, for the past 15 years.

So nyeah.
posted by SpecialK at 4:27 PM on October 26, 2001

we were running our home firewall on a 286 with 4 megs of ram and a 20 (?) meg hard drive for a while. it ran fine, and when we switched over to the linksys router, there was no noticeable difference.
posted by chrisege at 4:40 PM on October 26, 2001

"So is this thing stackable? Or does it fit into a larger sphere of spheres?"

With the different colors...kinda like a gumball machine.
posted by Blacktooth at 4:44 PM on October 26, 2001

/me rolls eyes

Are they dodecahedrons, and what number did they come up?
posted by kindall at 5:38 PM on October 26, 2001

Actually, this unit is designed to be highly portable. Apple includes three finger-holes in the top. Of course, when you're at the Mac store, you have to run around to all the little displays and find one that fits your fingers.

Finally, a computer The Dude would be proud to own.
posted by Hildago at 5:40 PM on October 26, 2001

that page has been around since around the time of the Cube's release. And yes, the G5 chip is a reality...you'll see it at MacWorld SF (cross your fingers).
posted by xochi at 6:25 PM on October 26, 2001

More information on the power source for the new Mac Sphere can be found here.

(or not).
posted by skwm at 7:34 PM on October 26, 2001

"Are they dodecahedrons, and what number did they come up?"

ugh. botched roll. looks like my Ravnos needs to blow some blood points in...

oh god i suck.
posted by jcterminal at 8:17 PM on October 26, 2001

Hildago: Apple includes three finger-holes in the top.

And man, it is the king of the lanes. A perfect game every time. Think 300.
posted by hijinx at 9:22 PM on October 26, 2001

"So is this thing stackable? Or does it fit into a larger sphere of spheres?"

Actually, according to the modern genius Buckminster Fuller, spheres stack best in an elegant shape known as the cuboctahedron (66.5KB JPG).
posted by johnnyace at 12:45 AM on October 27, 2001

I'm looking forward to the beach ball model.
posted by hockeyman at 8:46 AM on October 27, 2001