Apple is known for some beautiful industry design that were trend setting at the time of introduction. The Mac which sets the way all-in-ones should be designed. The iMac which sets how computers should be viewed at, a work of art instead of just a tool. The iPhone designed, despite being mocked by competitors, sets the tone for the rest of the industry. There were some times that Apple has outdo everyone else and decided to cut off the products for various reasons, mostly economics or technological advancements. These are the products that we wish Apple would bring back from the dead.
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MacBook Pro 17"
There is no laptop as legendary as the MacBook Pro 17". It was first launched as the PowerBook G4 as Apple was still using PowerPC chips at that time. It eventually comes with a 1920 x 1200 pixel screen which may seems lesser than today’s 16-inch standard of 3072 x 1920 pixels, but you have to remember, Apple display algorithm for retina display scale your screen to various ratio. So in reality, you have a from a 2048 x 1280 to 1152 x 720 screen with default to 1792 x 1120 screen, wich is much smaller than the 17" screen. Plus, having a 17" super laptop was such a feat when Apple was ready to make bold moves.
I remember seeing this laptop for the first time when I was in senior year at college. The laptop was comically large but yet fully balanced like all things should be. Compared to the 16" model of today, the legendary 17" is larger than today, but you have to remember this is early 2000s bezels, plus it supports the Super Drive and loads of ports. With today’s technology and M-series chip, it would not be much bigger than the current 16" laptop.
Mac Cube
The Power Mac G4 Cube was the brainchild of Steve Jobs and Jonny Ive to create the most beautiful computer ever made. As a bonus, it has the powerful (at the time) PowerPC G4 chip that is packed inside a 8" cube which is hold up by acrylic glass enclosed which gives the illusion of it being suspended in mid-air. No computer looked like it before and no computers looked like it after.
Some issues with the design is the the acrylic glass cracked and not to mention that the desktop is very expensive ($1,800 at launch, $2,700 today) for it’s day. And trying to upgrade the machine is tricky and heat was a major issue. Because of all this, the G4 Cube was a spectacular failure for Apple as it got discontinued within a year from release.
Now, Apple is a $2 trillion company, material science has gone a long way thanks to phones. We now have things like shatter proof glass and Apple has long abandon upgradability for users in most of its products. The new M1 chips preview a future where desktop class chips can run fanless or very low power consumption. The Mac Mini design has been with us for more than 10 years. The design is still good and I have no complaints on it, but if Apple wanted to showcase the future of Macs, bringing back the Mac Cube would be the way for desktops.
Mag Safe For laptops
One of Apple major innovation was the introduction of MagSafe for laptops. No longer that you have to worry that tripping the power wire on your laptop will make your laptop fly across the room. It was abandon when MacBook started to use USB-C. There were valid reasons for this: laptop battery is getting better so you don’t need to charge as often; USB-C includes power delivery as well as data; it is hard to make USB-C with magnet enclosure when you want to use USB-C for everything.
Of course the reasons behind the removal is fine and dandy, but the reality is if you are using professional apps like Final Cut Pro, Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator, you battery life will decrease to matter of a few hours and you will be looking for that charger and wire soon. There are some solution to this like having a USB-C cable stick out from the monitor to charge and do the display, but the point being that when doing heavy pro apps, the MacBook Pro all day battery life just falls short. There’s valid reasons for wanting the MagSafe again since pros will tether to their power cables just like before.
MagSafe has made a comeback in the iPhone 12. Now, MagSafe is extending the Qi charging standard to include a ring of magnet around the charging coil and also the ability to transfer some data between the charging coils. It is rumored that Apple might bring back MagSafe in the some form for the redesigned MacBooks. Could it be magnetic induction pads on the laptop itself? One have to wait to find out.
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