Joswiak: ‘True to What an iMac Has Always Been About’

After Apple unveiled the iMac G5 in Paris this week , Vice President of Hardware Product Marketing Greg Joswiak gaveMacworldeditors a guided hitch of the desktop ’s unexampled intent . Among the topics of conversation : the iMac ’s cooling organisation , why FireWire 800 was leave out , and how this new model fit in with Apple ’s target .

Q : Apple has acknowledged that the heating created by the G5 chip posed a challenge for a G5 - based iMac . Tell me about how the cooling system of rules addresses that dispute .

We have three different cooling zones , or cooling areas . One is over the G5 central processor ; it ’s an active organization . There ’s a cooling zona that die hard of course over your hard drive , which is also another affectionate part , and another one that runs over the power supplying and logical system board . By doing the three different cooling expanse , we take a big heating challenge and crack it into smaller 1 , which is really the essence of good thermal intent . In the old days , you ’d put one fan here and another one here , one to blow in the line and the other to push it , and trust that you just bear on enough tune through the cavity that you cooled it off — and that just means loud . By doing this , we have very restrained fans . We have some engineering science that allows us to pulse the devotee , we escape them ultra slow , and they only run as tight as they need to . There ’s some tycoon management technology on the board to do that .

Q : The G4 iMac could move in all directions — how does the new iMac compare in placement ?

The presentation tilts from negative-5 to 25 degrees . We found that most people do n’t end up enkindle or lowering it . The self-aggrandizing thing is the leaning direction , and what we ’ve done here is achieve disconfirming disputation , which is very important , particularly if you have tiddler sitting around a data processor , because they lean to be looking up at the computing machine . And we still have the ability to swivel left and ripe , but it does it on the full base ; we did n’t postulate to make an branch to do that . There are little skid on the bottom — this achieves much of the same things [ as the G4 iMac ] in a different way and , we recollect , in a secure way .

One of the thing to note is this arm , which is anodized aluminum , in reality get on indoors of the electronic computer . It ’s mounted at the center of gravity of the iMac , which is what makes it so easy to tilt , and yet there ’s a passel of engineering in what appear to be a very unproblematic invention to quickly dampen the motion . You ’ll notice that it quickly dispel the vim and stops . And if you ever notice anyone else who does anything like that , try it out and see how chop-chop it come to remain .

Q : The unexampled iMac looks like a cross between the eMac and the new Apple Cinema Displays .

Obviously we have one design team . We do n’t farm out our pattern , so there ’s no doubt that you see law of similarity . One of the similarities that you obviously see is with [ the iPod ] , the same approach to threefold - shooting plastic — that ’s no coincidence either . This is a double - shooting charge plate , but you have an opaque layer , a crystal stratum , over it . That ’s something that we cogitate looks very nice , but also do some operative want . For representative , if you ’re going to put in a CD , you could see from the back where the opening is — teeny little things like that that lean to , over the course of time , make hoi polloi bonk their Mac and urge magazines like yours , versus people getting [ angry ] over sentence at their PCs because of petty thing that drive them ballock .

Q : Can you tell me about the speakers , having them underneath ?

There are little speaker inclosure that are plan to down - fire . And the reason for that is you generally want to hear your audio , you do n’t need to see it . So we project it to do just that ; it ’s designed to be for personal listening , with pretty overnice frequency orbit .

One of the things that we want to achieve here is on-key all - in - unity . That was one of the places we had to disclose the all - in - one model with former mat - panel iMac , because you ask external speakers to play stereophonic sound . And we knew that this one had to be the ultimate when it came to design an iMac , and the ultimate when it come to designing an all - in - one , so we demand to incorporate utterer . And again , we wanted to do that in a way that did n’t compromise the simmpleness of the looking and the cleanness of the look , but it still allows you to have nice stereophonic auditory sensation with separation and dependable chain of mountains .

It ’s probably deserving note the way we near the goal of the undertaking , have been on-key to what an iMac has always been about . The soul of an iMac is really four thing . Number one , it ’s all - in - one elegance , the fact that you may just pull it out of the box , plug it in , and get to employment — it ’s all there , you do n’t have to figure out how to get the jigsaw puzzler to fit together in the right way .

Number two is utmost simplicity . You await at this computer , and you cognize it ’s simple . And you guys know well than anyone what the experience is like with iLife and Mac OS X — it ’s far simpler than what you’re able to do on a PC .

Number three is , it had to be perfect for iLife , perfect for that digital modus vivendi , for how you work with your photos and your euphony and your motion picture — that has to be a space that we own . We ca n’t yield that to anybody , and we want the iMac to be the best way to work with the digital life-style .

And number four is an innovative excogitation , as we ’ve always done , starting from the ground up . Not being restrain to run to [ a generic electronic computer maker ] and deciding where you put the logo , designing a computer from the ground up to meet the needs of our customers . It ’s those four things that were honest in 1998 , they were true in 2002 , and they ’re unfeigned in 2004 , as to what an iMac means . And we retrieve it is unfeigned that this iMac delivers on those excogitation goals that we ’ve always had better than any iMac has ever done .

Q : The lighter , smaller iMac is obviously more portable . Do you envision people move it around the house ?

I think it ’s always been the pillow slip that we plan computer that can go in any elbow room of your house , any place in your school , or any plaza in your small business , and sometimes customer change their intellect . Sometimes they palpate like the computer should go in the living way , and then , mayhap later on , it should be in the bedroom , and maybe later on it ’s the kitchen . Every time they change their mind , it should n’t be a Herculean crusade . We all have friends who have PCs , and wherever they first set up it up is where it ’s snuff it to die — because it ’s too much hassle to move all the different components , and all the dissimilar thing they have to do , to move that figurer . And that ’s not the case here . In the case of this 20 - inch iMac here configured with radio , I ’ve got one cord — the power corduroy . It ’s using AirPort for an cyberspace connection , it ’s using Bluetooth for its keyboard and mouse link . So for me to move it , I close it down , I unplug it , I can carry it anywhere I require , and it ’s round-eyed enough to stop up it in , turn it back on , and get back to work .

Q : How do you dispatch the back ?

There are three screws , and they ’re captured so they do n’t number out at all , so you do n’t need to worry ‘ Oh my God , where did that prison guard go ? ’ Loosen the piece of tail , and the back will merely get off , down first , and the back is off — you now have full access to the motorcar . AirPort is easy to add up . The feeler are plant in the computer , so all you have to do is get your AirPort card , plug it in , push the antenna jack in , and you ’re off and running . you may put up to 2 GB of RAM within , with standard 400MHz DDR memory .

Q : What about the rest of the motorcar ’s insides ?

The power supply is n’t a brick left out on the storey , it ’s all integrated in spite of appearance . It ’s really awful , because this is the most summary design we ’ve ever done for an iMac , yet it ’s the most approachable . It ’s very easy to serve this , which is why you see tabs , because it ’s easy enough for a service mortal or even a customer to self - service on this product . There are even four indicant light on the motherboard that an Apple Care soul will secernate you to look at the luminousness , and depending on what ’s lit up , can tell you the state of different sub - systems .

Q : Anything special about the port ?

You have standard analogue audio out , but it ’s also one of the combo jacks like we have on the AirPort Express that countenance you to do digital out as well , so you could do 5.1 surroundings phone , for example , from DVD Player .

Q : Why no FireWire 800 ?

FireWire 800 had really been more attractive to a professional gang . And really , more [ appealing ] than the speeding has been the vantage [ professional person ] have with transmission line length .

Q : Why Serial ATA ?

This has been derived patently from what we did with the Power Mac G5 . We were one of the first to really embark with Serial ATA . This is , in a lot of ways , come to to that .

Q : hatchway up an iMac used to be a weekend projection or expect a technician . This seems much gentle .

A place where the iMac really shines is that it is inordinately accessible . The iMac had always been a little bit more difficult to access . unremarkably if you go to an engineering squad and say , “ I need it to be smaller , I need it to be more hefty , and I need it to be quieter , ” if you do n’t get quetch out of the room , ordinarily you ’ll be told , “ OK , pick two of those . ” And this is a fount , like with the PowerBook , where they said , “ We ’ll birth all of that . ” This is patently significantly smaller than the previous iMac . We made it more powerful with the G5 processor , and we made it quieter — this is 25db , a whispering is 32db , I think the previous iMac is 28db .

Q : Will the work that lead into the iMac help you for a G5 PowerBook ?

There ’s still a sumptuousness we have in two inches that we do n’t have in a fraction of an in , if you guess about how much place there really is in the bottom of a PowerBook . We ’ve not been unforced to do a battleship - like product that some of the personal computer guys have done with their PC notebook computer that use background processors . Certainly we were trying to memorize from the iMac , but not like , “ Oh , there ’s this breakthrough now , expect it next month .

Q : What about availability ? Phil Schiller said middle of September in his keynote .

Well , let ’s be naturalistic . That ’s when they first start transportation . By definition a ramp means snuff it from zero to whatever full capacity is conk out to be . On day one , there ’s all this demand that ’s built up , and inevitably , there ’s a shortage . People get excited about our products — that ’s good , and in no way do I need to dampen that . … but the reality is with any unexampled ware , it ’s hard to imagine any case where [ a shortage ] is n’t the case .

Updated 9:20PM 09/04/04 : “ Pre - installed Bluetooth functionality ” was originally name in the lead paragraph but is not part of the existent Q&A ; this was an redaction error , and the reference has been remove .