Farewell, Beige Box--Hello, Stylish Silicon
Higher, faster, stronger ... sleeker? Like Olympic athletes, today's PCs constantly set performance records. But outwardly, most resemble the beige boxes of 1995. What's worse, they still have some of the same design flaws, like huge desktop footprints and inaccessible innards.
That's finally changing. Intel recently staged a PC fashion show that included a desktop PC shaped like a koi fish and another resembling a bonsai tree. Those designs aren't ready for mass-production, but a few vendors are serving up some style.
Users also deserve PCs engineered for real people. Apple's Power Macintosh G3 is an early example: The aqua-colored case pops open without a screwdriver, and the motherboard sits inside the door.
But PC makers won't let Apple hog the spotlight for long. NEC's Millennium, due by July, occupies a mere sliver of desk space. The appliance-like system prizes simplicity and has gold-medal looks. It's about time you had a choice.
