The CineMassive MasterPlex 21T (<–double intercaps = double the power) offers flat-screen madness: a 21" LCD center with five 17" arrayed around the sides. That works out to a cool 8,473,600 pixels for $3,299. Is it just me, or does it seem like the 20" Apple Cinema Display was just introduced* for $3,999? [Via John Agger]
I have a soft spot for this stuff, maybe, as I haul around my second 17" Mac portable. (I’m much happier now that I have a bag that doesn’t feel like it’s cutting my shoulder with piano wire.) Of course, it’s always theoretically possible to carry around an even bigger screen… [Via]
Marginally related: I enjoyed CNET’s story "You call that high-def?," listing some of the more tenuous (okay, entirely unwarranted) ways the "HD" moniker is being slapped onto various endeavors. And with that, I’m off to pet my GatoHD’s high-def coat.
* 1999–for real? I am getting old.
Yeah, I bought one of the first 22in Cinema Displays to go along with a dual Ghz G4 and 1.5 GB of RAM. *That* was a hefty purchase, but as I’ve upgraded since then (G4>G5>MacPro), the students and others get the hand me downs and I am proud to say that the 22in Cinema Display is still running strong alongside the G4 in our lab.
More on topic, it is amazing how desktop real-estate becomes valuable. Since 1987, I’ve been running multiple displays and thought that the advent of the 30in Cinema Display would be enough….. until I had to plug in a second 23in Cinema Display to hold all the routines applications while the principal work occurs on the main display.
Yes, 1999. Wow. I just sold my original 22″ Cinema that I purchased in ’99 after I replaced it with a 30″. Yeah, it was $4K but it served me well for almost 8 years. But the brightness and crispness of the 30″ makes me wonder how I worked on the original for as long as I did.
[Although its service with me was shorter (2 years), I feel the same about my PowerBook 17″ vs. my new MBP 17″: the new monitor just blows the old one out of the water. –J.]
In addition to selling my old Cinema I also got rid of my TV and am using the 30″ and elgato’s eyeTV as my boobtube solution.
And yes, it seems like you can never have enough screen real estate but I think my arm would be fatigued mousing around the Cinemassive display.
Unrelated: John keep up the good work with the blog and Photoshop. You’ve demonstrated tremendous patience withstanding all of the CS3 icon critiques. I think most of us are grateful that Adobe has you interacting with the customer base. I’m excited about CS3 (less so about the icons but I spend much more time looking at the application itself than I do at the Dock!) and I am still praying that Adobe will transform Flash or other into something resembling the more progressive GUI of LiveMotion!
[Thanks for the words of encouragement, Greg. 🙂 –J.]
Hmmm.. I never thought about referring to the two 17″ flat panels that flank my main screen as wings, but I guess it fits… Thanks to the total awesomeness that is called Synergy2, my desk looks like this…
http://rwillustrator.blogspot.com/2006/12/peek-inside-garage.html
Glad you liked the screen John 😉