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Apple Announces Lighter, Thinner iMac Models with Fusion Drive

dennno said:
COST: And how much will it cost you to use BD-R discs for backup? MUCH more expensive than your average USB that's for sure, you also have to invest on a Blu-ray burner and on players that actually read that data.
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$1.50 for 25GB. I'm pretty sure that is at least 10 - 15x cheaper than a USB drive.

Not to mention, BD-R discs can last ~25 years in storage whereas a USB drive <10. Archival grade DVDs/BD-Rs can last 200+ years.



dennno said:
RELIABILITY/FLEXIBILITY/SECURITY: Using blu-ray as backup is a poor excuse today. There are literally thousands of online file sharing sites/cloud services that provide greater flexibility, security and durability. These services offer REAL backup measures superior to what any average consumer can come up with: such as fireproof rooms, rooms built to withstand natural disasters, anti-theft security, mirrored file servers etc. etc. You honestly think you can keep a more reliable backup on a blu-ray than companies that have invested millions of dollars to ensure such reliability for consumers?
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Where as you going to get 25GB for $2.50? Online file sharing is OK for small documents, but still not practical for 100GBs of home movies and photos.

dennno said:
MOBILITY & DURABILITY: Consumes much larger physical space and is more prone to scratches and damage that could potentially render all that precious data you backed up useless. USBs are far lighter, carry more space, are flexible in deleting/adding files and consume less physical space than your average candy and the internals are not exposed to damage from scratches.
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Optical media is fine for light use ... I have never scratched a disc before, so I don't know what the worry is?

USB connectors can break ... Flash memory can fail. Same thing.



Your arguments have some merit, but overall quite weak. Until online storage is pennies a GB and everyone has 100mbit+ upload links, I don't think online file storage is entirely feasible.
 
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No optical drive in new iMac

Who needs them anyway? This is a very old technology. Flash drives are now so cheap and have much greater capacity. Anyway, all the developments in computers seems to be in direction of non moving parts like SSDs. This is the future not old mechanical drives.
 
SB27 said:
You must be joking.

"You can't be too thin or have too much money"....

.....unless you are one of the Peanut M&M - eating whiners here on MacRumors complaining about such a beautiful piece of engineering...

You guys really need to get outside more often. Go to a museum. Look at some art work. Go to Best Buy (while they are still in business). Look at some of the really crappy PC's while you are there. Compare them to this beauty.

Seriously, people.

SB
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Too much money is a silly analogy. Yes it can be too thin, if making it thinner introduces worse reliability. Thinner is denser, which generally means more heat and less opportunity to dissipate it. And thinner on a desktop that's already plenty thin, has no value. It's not giving me any more space on my desk. Better to put the effort into making it more affordable, as opposed to increasing the price.
 
GiantOak said:
Completely agree, no increase in processor speed and minus optical drive. But its thinner, great, how much time to spend looking at your mac from the side anyway?
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More aerodynamic. Magic like this is sure to "Fly" off the shelves. LOL
 
I currently have a 2006 17" white iMac (2.0 GHZ upgraded to 3 gigs of ram with a radeon XT1600 128mb)
It has been holding up (somewhat) these past years. I CAN'T wait to upgrade to a 27 inch with 8 gbs of RAM, top of the line graphics chip, i7 processer!!!!
 
Jeffylew77 said:
I currently have a 2006 17" white iMac (2.0 GHZ upgraded to 3 gigs of ram with a radeon XT1600 128mb)
It has been holding up (somewhat) these past years. I CAN'T wait to upgrade to a 27 inch with 8 gbs of RAM, top of the line graphics chip, i7 processer!!!!
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I would guess that if you're currently using an 8 year old 6 year old Imac, you really don't need a 2012 quad core system....

Maybe a 2008 Imac would be a big jump for you - and much cheaper. If you want to spend big, get a used 2010 Imac.
 
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Fandongo said:
Though, given the nature of exponential technology... Computer age should be measured in dog years.
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Questionable...I write this from my 2009 Core 2 Quad (desktop, obviously) which still runs photoshop and the latest games (not on the greatest settings, but still). That processor, and the graphics card in it, are about 4-5 years old, and still run quite nicely.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, in response to the previous message (which I responded to), just because one has an old computer, doesn't mean they don't need the speed. That said, I will probably be migrating to the new iMac, given my disgust at Windows 8, and my gradual movement towards Mac-based computers as a result (my MBP will no longer be alone).

Dog years though, maybe not ;)
 
cnalaw said:
Who needs them anyway? This is a very old technology. Flash drives are now so cheap and have much greater capacity. Anyway, all the developments in computers seems to be in direction of non moving parts like SSDs. This is the future not old mechanical drives.
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Many people forget not everyone is living in an area with a really usable broadband-connection. If you live there and would like to use FCP X or get the latest album by xxx or you want a clean install of OS X I bet you'd be glad just popping a crappy old outdated piece of technology in your drive instead of having to wait for three days until your download is done.

Cloud and streaming is not accessible for everyone and as long as that, you will still need removable media.

(Yes, I know that could be a pen-drive as well, but most software or other media has been distributed on optical media)
 
yup fanboys getting hard over new toys

yup like i said before fanboys have become what the 1984 commercial was all about. So funny and unfortunatly so sad also.
 
dennno said:
Yes there are millions buying CDs but relative to the number of people using/buying/(pirating) digital services it's incomparable. Like I said retail stores have already started cutting stock for these years ago because they are old technology that will go sooner or later. Apple has pushed the button that ignites this change with this new iMac.

Why people bother to make it harder for themselves by still buying CDs baffles me. It can likely be attributed to psychological aspects associated with owning/buying a physical product. People like you just don't want to change yet despite the clear evidence there are superior, easier, more reliable services available for you. People are just uncomfortable of replacing the concept of CDs with digital.

I mean why do you buy music CDs/DVDs? To rip them and put them on your phone/tablets/desktop/mp3 players. Do people just find some kind of pleasure in wasting time to rip it themselves? A single click on a download button anywhere with 3G/WIFI (i.e. everywhere) will do the job. Why waste hours ripping every new CD.
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Because people like me actually hear the difference between a pristine PCM, a lossless file and dumbed don AAC or MP3.

Just because it doesn't matter to you (and granted - on loudness wars tracks it really doesn't matter that much) doesn't mean that there ain't a difference. Heard Slash's new album? Well - the dynamics are quite gorgeous on it. I refrain from even touching an AAC of that!
 
the8thark said:
So you'd still be happy with a Mac this fat and heavy:
Image
If it was super fast?
I would not be. I'm glad they are thin now.
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But at least it had a built in optical drive. :p

It takes me back to my old C64 days when you honestly could not fit a drive in a compact desktop computer. Feels like Apple are forcing a full design circle.

And please people.., do not bother me with the "how often do you use a drive" rhetoric, it only sounds silly as I (and many others) must obviously use my desktop in ways you do not.

But really, I think it is more to do with control not just design when Apple remove something like this.

No flash allowed = We want to champion HTML5 as we are at war with Adobe.

Remove optical drive = Try to enslave users to the MacApp store and iTunes and the hideous security time-bomb which is iCloud.

USB has been around for ages, same connector different speeds = Apple have changed from Firewire 400, 800 and now to Thunderbolt. I still have devices in all the formats yet only USB (the non-Apple 'propriety' / championed) connection is directly supported by a number of new Apple products.

Want to use the latest Apple device = Then they force you to 'upgrade' to the latest operating system (if your a loyal Mac customer), otherwise you can just use Windows XP... As Apple must concede in it's actions, is a far better OS than a previous Apple OS

And the list goes on...
 

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What do you think of a consumer desktop ten years from now?
I think it will be just a display that can connect to the internet and can connect to serious tower when you need power.
 
swagi said:
Because people like me actually hear the difference between a pristine PCM, a lossless file and dumbed don AAC or MP3.

Just because it doesn't matter to you (and granted - on loudness wars tracks it really doesn't matter that much) doesn't mean that there ain't a difference. Heard Slash's new album? Well - the dynamics are quite gorgeous on it. I refrain from even touching an AAC of that!
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Amen brother!

Some people just don't get it. Apple clearly doesn't care. At the very least, leave one high end model of the MacBook Pro and iMac that have an optical drive. I still buy CDs, and although I'll rip them for portability if it comes time to listen to them at home....esp classical music I'll go to the disc every time! Sorry, but lossy formats just don't cut it for me.

Also glad, to hear people touting the mixing & mastering job done on modern albums like Slash's ....some artists still get it and don't allow mastering engineers & producers to ruin their mix w/ over compression. I know the bassist quite well and yes the album is expectedly (and refreshingly) dynamic.

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AppleMark said:
Remove optical drive = Try to enslave users to the MacApp store and iTunes and the hideous security time-bomb which is iCloud.
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Bingo! Follow the money. This is where the story begins and ends. Removing the optical drive removes choice. Now vendors will be forced to sell large software suites in the App store or by flash drive. So blatant.
 
dennno said:
Yes there are millions buying CDs but relative to the number of people using/buying/(pirating) digital services it's incomparable. Like I said retail stores have already started cutting stock for these years ago because they are old technology that will go sooner or later. Apple has pushed the button that ignites this change with this new iMac.

Why people bother to make it harder for themselves by still buying CDs baffles me. It can likely be attributed to psychological aspects associated with owning/buying a physical product. People like you just don't want to change yet despite the clear evidence there are superior, easier, more reliable services available for you. People are just uncomfortable of replacing the concept of CDs with digital.

I mean why do you buy music CDs/DVDs? To rip them and put them on your phone/tablets/desktop/mp3 players. Do people just find some kind of pleasure in wasting time to rip it themselves? A single click on a download button anywhere with 3G/WIFI (i.e. everywhere) will do the job. Why waste hours ripping every new CD.
Click to expand...



I buy CD's and rip them. You don't see several points that – for me – are an advantage:

-With CDs I get to choose the source where I buy them. I'm (thankfully) not american, so I have a different perspective on that matter. I can go to Sweden, Japan, Poland and buy Music by local artists from those countries without restrictions. I cannot however buy most of that stuff from my local (the swiss in my case) iTunes store. It's just not available there. Which brings me to my next point.

-40% to 50% of the stuff I buy isn't even available on iTunes, Amazon mp3 or other services at all.
Occasionally I do find things there which I can't find anywhere else but that is rare. Those are the only instances I (reluctantly) buy from those sources.

-CDs give me the best quality (I rip in Apple Lossless) and an archival backup. I do have the speakers for it (Dynaudio) and I wish, as a matter of fact, that Apple would care more about audio quality in their hardware design.
 
mrgreen4242 said:
Well, that's what I'm saying. Someone will probably release an application that tricks the computer into thinking it has a Fusion drive installed - like TRIM support in SSDs and some of the old tricks like that.

I'm using the ATI 5xxx drivers from a particular year of iMacs to drive the GPU in my Mac Pro, for example. It's all there, just had to make the OS see it as a compatible part.
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I agree, it's just a mater of time for a 3rd party app to do this for DIY SSD HDD combos as many of us have in MBPs these days. It's reminiscent of the days we used various 3rd party RAID software on Mac Pros to create our own RAIDs from bare drives and enclosures in digital video studios back in the days of SCSI.

To the folks continuously whining this is the same as existing hybrid drive set ups available on bare drives such as from Seagate ... according to all the tech sites it isn't. Plenty of in depth articles out there now so need to re litigate here. Just accept it is not simply a cache system. As to how well it would cope with a Mac used in HD video editing I'm not too sure, perhaps not a good use for them there. Excellent for the average user though I'd imagine.
 
steve119 said:
Apparently you can use a SuperDrive on a laptop as a networked drive.

Ive got my 13" mbp so That's me saved a few pounds for a while on a external writer then and no extra clutter on the desk:D
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But can you connect a superdrive or any other usb drive to a Time capsule and make it work as a remote disk?
 
nubero said:
I buy CD's and rip them. You don't see several points that – for me – are an advantage:

-With CDs I get to choose the source where I buy them. I'm (thankfully) not american, so I have a different perspective on that matter. I can go to Sweden, Japan, Poland and buy Music by local artists from those countries without restrictions. I cannot however buy most of that stuff from my local (the swiss in my case) iTunes store. It's just not available there. Which brings me to my next point.

-40% to 50% of the stuff I buy isn't even available on iTunes, Amazon mp3 or other services at all.
Occasionally I do find things there which I can't find anywhere else but that is rare. Those are the only instances I (reluctantly) buy from those sources.

-CDs give me the best quality (I rip in Apple Lossless) and an archival backup. I do have the speakers for it (Dynaudio) and I wish, as a matter of fact, that Apple would care more about audio quality in their hardware design.
Click to expand...

Any post that has such a ridiculous comment as 'thankfully I'm not American' is worthy of being banned. As someone with British and American citizenship I feel qualified to take offense. Your points maybe well put but you disqualify yourself as worth taking seriously after such a stupid remark
 
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