Tag Archives: iMac Pro

Satechi’s cool new USB Hub gives you front-access to all the important ports on your 2021 Apple iMac

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The iMac’s 11mm thick design, unfortunately, means it isn’t really port-friendly (even the LAN port had to be relocated to the charging brick), although Satechi has a solution. The newly debuted USB-C clamp hub for the 2021 M1 iMac puts 6 different ports right where you need them. From USB hubs to even card readers, Satechi’s nifty little multiport hub has it all, and it conveniently blends right into the iMac’s form factor with a design language that matches the all-in-one computer perfectly!

At a price of $54.99 (which shouldn’t seem much if you already shelled out the cash for an M1 iMac), Satechi’s USB-C clamp hub puts all the essential ports at your fingertips. It plugs into one of the USB-C ports at the back and grips onto the iMac using a rotating clamp. The hub comes with 3 USB-A ports, 2 card readers, and one USB-C port on the front, and has data transfer speeds of up to 5Gb/s for the USB ports and 104Mb/s for the card readers. The Satechi USB-C clamp hub ships in September and comes with an all-aluminum body, although Satechi hasn’t really indicated whether they’re offering the hubs in the same color schemes as the iMacs.

Designer: Satechi

Here’s what the M1 iMac would look like if Apple ditched the white bezels and large chin for a 100% display

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Needless to say, some people were quite annoyed with Apple’s latest M1 iMac design. Notably, YouTuber MKBHD found it outright ugly, mentioning that sure, it was slim… but those white bezels, that massive chin, and the lack of a black version made the iMac look too chirpy and playful. For a computer that was capable of incredible heavy-lifting, it didn’t quite look the part. Designer Virgile Arlaud decided to take that feedback and create his own iMac concept. Arlaud’s iMac Pro M1 concept addresses every single pain-point MKBHD had with Apple’s original design

Instead of opting for a radical overhaul, Arlaud’s iMac Pro M1 concept takes the classic iMac Pro design and gives it minor yet significant visual upgrades. The conceptual all-in-one computer sports the crowd-favorite wedge-shaped profile with that slightly bulbed back. However, it absolutely gets rid of the bezels and chin on the front, sporting a gloriously infinite edge-to-edge display that’s an absolute pleasure to look at. Sure, the M1 may be the highlight of this computer, but that screen is the icing on the cake. If the M1 works behind the scenes to give you a great computing experience, that 100% screen on the front amplifies it, surrounding the user in Apple’s incredible, unmatchable UX.

This design direction obviously has some major pros, along with a few small yet unavoidable cons. Firstly, the lack of a bezel gives the iMac Pro M1 no space for a webcam, which played a pretty important role in Apple’s own iMac. The webcam ran 1080p video and used the M1’s processing power to run ISP algorithms for an incredible video. One could argue that the presence of a webcam is a pretty trivial feature in the workhorse that is the iMac, and that an iPhone running face-time would make a pretty decent replacement. One wouldn’t be wrong.

The absence of a chin also means that the iMac Pro M1 concept would lose out on that speaker array found in the original 2021 iMac. The down-firing speakers would have to be replaced with back-firing ones, and I’m no expert, but there would definitely be a small loss in sound quality and clarity. That being said, there are quite a few innovations that allow the screen to act as a speaker… so while Arlaud’s concept doesn’t really illustrate where a speaker would sit, I’d like to believe that this concept has that feature.

What’s really nice about this iMac Pro M1 concept is that it takes an “if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it” approach to the computer’s overall design. There’s really no need for an all-in-one computer to be 11mm thick (we’re not carrying it around in our pockets), so that slightly bulbous back and the seamless wedge-shaped design really feels like a nice design format that doesn’t need an overhaul. It even sticks to its original inspiration – Dieter Rams’ LE1 speaker design for Braun! The M1 chip sits somewhere within the curved back of the iMac Pro, along with vents for cooling, a USB-C power input, and a whole host of ports on the back, including two USB-C and two Thunderbolt ports, a card-reader, and the old-favorite 3.5mm jack. Let’s also not forget that slick, pipe-shaped stand that’s definitely another hat-tip to the iconic Braun LE1 speaker!

Designer: Virgile Arlaud

Apple may introduce a 14.1-inch MacBook Pro with a mini-LED screen

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When Apple introduced the much-improved 16-inch MacBook Pro, it raised an obvious question: when will the 13-inch model get a similar update? You might not have to wait too much longer. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo (who has a history of mostly accurate nea...

Apple’s latest patent hints at a revolutionary curved glass iMac Pro

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Given that we haven’t seen an iMac Pro redesign since 2015, and that Apple’s just recently issued a couple of patents for a new iMac, it’s safe to say that we may be looking at a redesigned iMac Pro in the near future. The patent image (which can be found at the end of the article) showcases an interesting monolithic take on the all-in-one Macintosh, featuring a slick unibody glass that transitions from screen to keyboard in one grand, singular motion. The screen literally folds downwards as soon as it hits the desk to provide a precipice for a keyboard as well as two track-pads that reside within the glass. All in all, the entire thing looks rather Dali-esque.

This impressively thin form factor allows Apple to isolate the actual computer into a block at the back that helps prop the glass facade up. Complete with a smorgasbord of ports (and that cheesegrater CNC-machined grille that Jony designed exactly a year ago), the grille sits at a slight tilt too, allowing heat to travel outwards and upwards. The new take on the iMac Pro allows Apple to keep its all-in-one desktop computer looking incredibly slim without sacrificing on power and performance. Designed to be a beast of a machine, the iMac Pro features a 24-inch Retina display complete with a glowing Apple logo below it, a FaceID camera module (taken from the iPad Pro) above it, and a unique ambidextrous layout at the very bottom that allows both left and right-handed users to have their own trackpad. A number-pad seems to be missing (even in the patent drawing), but I’d probably guess a simple program would allow users to turn the spare trackpad into a touch-sensitive number pad.

It’s worth remembering that companies usually issue patents to protect intellectual property and to copyright their innovation, and these patents and their subsequent drawings aren’t particularly an indication of any to-be-launched product. However, these publicly available patents do offer an insightful window into the company’s design and innovation process, and the fact that Apple’s been issuing patents for all-glass unibody iPhones all the way back since 2016 proves that this sublime-looking iMac Pro, at least in theory, could be possible… besides, if Apple IS planning on launching something this out-of-the-box, it would be their first radical product redesign since Jony quit the company last year. I have to say that looking at how slick the conceptual iMac Pro’s facade is, Jony would definitely be proud! Until then, I suggest admiring this drop-dead gorgeous, all-glass concept with a grain of salt!

Designer/Visualizer: Sarang Sheth

Patent via USPTO

Apple’s Sidecar feature only works on newer Macs

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On Monday, Apple released macOS Catalina, the latest major update to its desktop operating system. Going into the update, a lot of Mac owners were excited for a feature called Sidecar. If you haven't following the development of Catalina, Sidecar all...