New iMac to be used at our show booth!

MDLarson

MDLarson

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Well, last Saturday (4-13-2002) I ordered an iMac G4 800 with 512 MB internal RAM for my dad. Actually, it will be for the business too–it will be in our new booth with a local copy of our website for interested visitors.

If anybody knows about shows, attention getters are pretty important. I think this iMac is the ideal show booth computer, with it's swivel arm and neutral colors and whatnot.

It will be my responsibility to modify our website for show use. I'd be interested to know what suggestions you all would have. Like, visual OS X alterations, maybe a replacement 2 button scroll mouse, maybe get a Kensington computer lock thingy… Any suggestions would be great!

BTW, the we are Larson Systems at the Quality Detroit Expo. It ain't no Macworld, but if you happen to be coming, look for our booth!
 
Well, if you plan on leaving it unattended for even a minute in public, you may want to lock it up. Also, what do you plan to do with it? Show the website? I'm sure it will do just fine.

You also may want to check your HTML and make sure it's optimzied for the internet, not just Internet Explorer. I also believe Mozilla can do full screen Internet, but I've never tried in OS X. That might be kinda cool for a kiosk.

Also, update the (C) date to 2002 at the bottom, it still says 2001.

And you may want to look into a two button mouse with scroll wheel if you're going to be using it at a web kiosk, because it might be easier for people to navigate the internet with that type of mouse if they're used to it.
 
Yeah, while I personally can't stand NOT multitasking a Mac, I really think that having them locked in the browser would be a good idea. You're showing off a website, not an iMac.
2-buttoned mice is the way to go too, many will be more comfy with it. Yet, you know you can have both connected at once...newbie computer-users might prefer 1 button. If you don't wanna connect it on the side of the leyboard(big chance of being stolen), the new iMac have 3 USB ports in the back...
Try finding a white 2-button mouse. The last thing you want it for the mouse to ruin the harmony of the iMac and therefor also the site. If you can't find a white one, the blue Logitech MouseMan Wheel(optical) will do. It looks just about as cool as the Mac itself. No drivers needed...
However, if a pro user(or at least a knowlegable) should show, he'd want out of IE and see the site with OmniWeb, Opera, iCab, Mozilla, Netscape and maybe even Chimera...I suggest you make sure the HTML looks as good in others as it does in IE.
 
Thanks for the suggestions (keep 'em coming too).

About the site design and making sure it looks good in non-IE browsers… I know I can (and should) do better in that area. The sad fact is that the vast majority of potential customers of our site run on Windows IE. So, cross-browser compatibility was put at the end of my to-do list.

That said, I will see what I can do for browser checking in the future. :)
 
Also, put IE into full screen mode by pressing Command-B, which i assume you're using. Boy, I wish I was running a stand.

It was funny, when I went to MWNY last year, my friend was most excited to see a cube, rather thqan the new quicksilvers, PBG4 or iBook, all of which he had never seen before (yes, i know the quicksilver was new.:D)

So mabey if you could get that sheilded SE/30 you could start making crazy business?:p
 
Well, Apple shipped our iMac yesterday (April 18). Looks like it was made in Taiwan. Anybody have any idea how long it takes to get to Minneapolis from Taiwan? I seem to remember 2-5 days from shipping date?

Also, in response to the suggestion of filling the screen with my web browser, Command-B simply removes the Button Bar, Favorites etc. This doesn't seem like "full screen", but it'd probably be just fine.
 
Well, the show is running now, and I just wanted to let everybody know that the iMac is performing wonderfully. We actually had a some problems with some of our equipment, and it was nice to get a cell phone call from my dad letting me know that everything I was involved in worked out great. (New booth and all).

We set it up without the keyboard and kept the original one button mouse. We also setup a custom screen saver using Apple's built-in screen saver module. One frustrating thing about that was the minimum 5 minutes to activate it (short of moving the cursor to a corner). Testuser solved this for me with a command-line hack of sorts, and I shortened the activation time to 60 seconds. 30 seconds probably would have been a better choice.

One nice thing that worked out was saving the JPEG images of the slideshow in a folder and dragging those images down into the fully magnified dock. So if a certain slide caught the eye of a passerby, he could walk over and click on the image in the dock, Preview would open it up and he could ask more questions (or peruse the website for more details).

I think the iMac's greatest strength in this case is its looks. There is a certain amount of glitz and glamour that even the most boring trade shows want to attain. Some booths give out free beer, others have good-looking models handing out fliers. Well, we've got the most stylish computer in the world, and it is working out great! :)
 
Hey! We're doing that too!


I think...


I think we're getting the 800MHz G4 w/SuperDrive and we're gonna use it as a demo machine (along with a work machine when it's not in demo)

It's for a real estate agency and it will have our website hosted locally on it (since it's a big site... thinking about that, i gotta get started on moving it to CD-R) along with our 6 commercials that they can watch (should have no problem watching it in QT)

and since i didn't have to ask, thanks guys for your suggestions! :p

btw... mdlarson... you got a pretty cool office building there :D

also, the iMac goes well with our office's whole new strategy of "We're where YOU want to be!" and our office's colors (white and blue)
 
Originally posted by BlingBling 3k12
btw... mdlarson... you got a pretty cool office building there :D
Click to expand...
Thanks! A little Photoshop work can go a long way… ;)

Actually a little fun thing I did a while ago… I took a picture of a bright yellow Viper and stuck it in our parking lot (in the same picture on our homepage). It got old though.

Anyway, that's cool about your iMac idea too. Maybe we can make this thread into a little "ideas on how to make your Mac a show computer" or something!
 
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