MacRocks.com -- We daydream the cool imac music accessory!

I will miss the tremendous publicity advantages of leaking a hoax story and tell the truth. This product does not exist. The system described below is made up from parts of other not quite available products announced for the iMac as well as a good measure of old fashioned brainstorm inspiration.

The few main products, real and imaginary, are a rackmounted iMac such as the Marathon Computers unit we modeled from in our renderings, a fictitious multipurpose peripheral device resembling a musical keyboard (more on that later) and finally, the entirely cost prohibitive dual LCD touchscreen controller.

I went all out on the theoretical engineering of the touchscreen controller. The theory is to replicate the functions of the iMac desktop and traditional studio format controls functions of the autolocator and even the mixing console & effects rack.

I figure there will be some smart individual that can work out the messy details of the hard engineering of USB ports and perhaps a clever means of connecting video ala the old 100 series PowerBooks' external video connector. That connector has a very similar form factor as the USB connector. This might be confusing and cause problems, but the style would match.

Also, I'm not sure if the iMac will be able to run two monitors as an extended desktop. We know that all versions of the MacOS supports multiple monitors, but it is still unclear that there will be hardware to support this on the iMac. Once again I will point out that much of what we are talking about is only loosely based in reality. But I digress, and that spoils the daydream . . .

The multi purpose studio keyboard peripheral (MPSK) is very cool and, IMHO very doable. The theory is to have a single unit that houses nearly everything a small digital studio needs to interface and expand an iMac. This will save space for the user and reduce the number of external units one would have to tear down should they decide to move the studio to some other location like the basement or the Record Plant.

Inside the fiendishly clever iMac styled keyboard is the the standard array of performance MIDI features found in any master MIDI controller or digital keyboard. The back panel of the unit is where we find evidence of this being more than just a MIDI controller. Built in to this keyboard shall be a 3 - port USB hub, two geoport compatible serial ports, a parallel port (for PC printer), the standard compliment of MIDI I/O/T, four or eight channel analog audio I/O, and an undetermined digital I/O format (such as SPDIF).

I would also consider a built-in iMac compatible extended keyboard built on the top of the unit, but think it would be best to merely provide a fairly blank, flat area on the unit to set a regular iMac keyboard. This will give more set up flexibility for the user. The other keyboard idea was to have a slide out drawer built in under the performance keys so that the user may pull this drawer out to input that which cannot be inputted naturally on the MIDI keys or touchsceen. Again, that's for the design team to worry about.

Lastly on the MPSK, we find a large SCSI hard drive, CD burner and one of three removable storage devices. The choices are Zip drive, Super Drive/Floppy or the new Sony 200mb / floppy. We really don't know which of these will emerge as a dominant format. Iomega has a head start with the Zip and has released the 200Mb version in the "cross-platform" version with SCSI and PC parallel ports, but in spite of the large number of Zips in use the big drawback is no floppy support. Since we don't want to bloat the retail too much on this system, we can only figure in one removable . . . so it will probably be either the Sony or the Super Drive.

all right, we we're just bored and anxious for the coming of all things musical for the iMac (that being the aforementioned drivers from Apple) and had some fun day dreaming the perfect "Homer Simpson Car for every guy." Regardless of our naive assumption that all things will indeed be invented and compatible once the idea is born, you have to admit, it's a really good idea. I will gladly share the spoils of the exploitation of such an idea, if someone out there is in a position of product power and can command a development team to build this idea.

Just remember, I thought of it first. So don't be a jerk and take all of the credit (and $$$) for yourselves.


	Published: 02/13/99
	Published: 02/13/99
		Rumor, top secret project or pure science fiction?
By: Cris Dunnam I will miss the tremendous publicity advantages of leaking a hoax story and tell the truth. This product does not exist. The system described below is made up from parts of other not quite available products announced for the iMac as well as a good measure of old fashioned brainstorm inspiration. The few main products, real and imaginary, are a rackmounted iMac such as the Marathon Computers unit we modeled from in our renderings, a fictitious multipurpose peripheral device resembling a musical keyboard (more on that later) and finally, the entirely cost prohibitive dual LCD touchscreen controller. I went all out on the theoretical engineering of the touchscreen controller. The theory is to replicate the functions of the iMac desktop and traditional studio format controls functions of the autolocator and even the mixing console & effects rack. I figure there will be some smart individual that can work out the messy details of the hard engineering of USB ports and perhaps a clever means of connecting video ala the old 100 series PowerBooks' external video connector. That connector has a very similar form factor as the USB connector. This might be confusing and cause problems, but the style would match. Also, I'm not sure if the iMac will be able to run two monitors as an extended desktop. We know that all versions of the MacOS supports multiple monitors, but it is still unclear that there will be hardware to support this on the iMac. Once again I will point out that much of what we are talking about is only loosely based in reality. But I digress, and that spoils the daydream . . . The multi purpose studio keyboard peripheral (MPSK) is very cool and, IMHO very doable. The theory is to have a single unit that houses nearly everything a small digital studio needs to interface and expand an iMac. This will save space for the user and reduce the number of external units one would have to tear down should they decide to move the studio to some other location like the basement or the Record Plant. Inside the fiendishly clever iMac styled keyboard is the the standard array of performance MIDI features found in any master MIDI controller or digital keyboard. The back panel of the unit is where we find evidence of this being more than just a MIDI controller. Built in to this keyboard shall be a 3 - port USB hub, two geoport compatible serial ports, a parallel port (for PC printer), the standard compliment of MIDI I/O/T, four or eight channel analog audio I/O, and an undetermined digital I/O format (such as SPDIF). I would also consider a built-in iMac compatible extended keyboard built on the top of the unit, but think it would be best to merely provide a fairly blank, flat area on the unit to set a regular iMac keyboard. This will give more set up flexibility for the user. The other keyboard idea was to have a slide out drawer built in under the performance keys so that the user may pull this drawer out to input that which cannot be inputted naturally on the MIDI keys or touchsceen. Again, that's for the design team to worry about. Lastly on the MPSK, we find a large SCSI hard drive, CD burner and one of three removable storage devices. The choices are Zip drive, Super Drive/Floppy or the new Sony 200mb / floppy. We really don't know which of these will emerge as a dominant format. Iomega has a head start with the Zip and has released the 200Mb version in the "cross-platform" version with SCSI and PC parallel ports, but in spite of the large number of Zips in use the big drawback is no floppy support. Since we don't want to bloat the retail too much on this system, we can only figure in one removable . . . so it will probably be either the Sony or the Super Drive. all right, we we're just bored and anxious for the coming of all things musical for the iMac (that being the aforementioned drivers from Apple) and had some fun day dreaming the perfect "Homer Simpson Car for every guy." Regardless of our naive assumption that all things will indeed be invented and compatible once the idea is born, you have to admit, it's a really good idea. I will gladly share the spoils of the exploitation of such an idea, if someone out there is in a position of product power and can command a development team to build this idea. Just remember, I thought of it first. So don't be a jerk and take all of the credit (and $$$) for yourselves.
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