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Apple Announces New iMacs, Mac Minis, AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule

I am a little bit confused with the whole new dual-band support. I thought the whole point of having it was so that the n-networked computers or laptops wouldn't suffer performance drains from an a/b/or g networked computer joining the network... If this is true then why would apple write the following on their new updated page for the airport extreme?

"2. Based on a comparison with Apple’s 802.11g products. Comparison assumes AirPort Extreme network with 802.11n-enabled computer. Speed and range will be less if an 802.11a/b/g product joins the network. Accessing the wireless network requires an AirPort- or AirPort Extreme-enabled computer or other Wi-Fi Certified 802.11a/b/g-enabled computer. Actual performance will vary based on range, connection rate, site conditions, size of network, and other factors. Range will vary with site conditions."

That is a footnote included on the bottom of this webpage: http://www.apple.com/airportextreme/features/frequency.html
that is sourced in relation to the speed gains apple claims for n-routers over g... I mean, could it simply be that they just forgot to take it out, or does having a a/b/or g networked computer still slow down other networked n computers even with dual band?
 
zey said:
Mini low-end: In USA, USD $599. In Australia: 1049 Australian dollars = 674.6119 U.S. dollars.
Mini high-end: In USA, USD $799. In Australia: 1399 Australian dollars = 899.6969 U.S. dollars.

Currency conversions through Google, as at March 3, 2009. Roughly a 12.5% mark-up for Australian buyers. On top of that, add money to buy a new converter cable for the PAL telly (assuming it's supported).

Extremely poor value for money, after such a long wait.
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Pal cable?
 
New Mini?

At 599$ ($729 CND) w/o any obvious upgrades you'll need to buy to make it functional (RAM, new HDD), the Mini is very expensive. The AppleTV is still alive thanks to this new pricing, because everyone was talking about replacing their ATV with a 9400m Mini yesterday.

I think the best alternative I have right now is to recycle my "old" MBP (2.16Ghz C2D w/ X1600 gfx) for my HT instead of getting the Mini and get a new unibody MBP for my main computer.

What's funny is that Apple will actually get more money from me because of this underwhelming/pricey update, it's not fair. ;)
 
Gold89 said:
Yep, it's not Apple we have to blame it's Gordon the one eyed scottish moron:
graph120.png



:( :( :(

Welcome to the New Labour economy - bringing an end to boom and bust. :mad:
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That's still nothing. The Swedish Krona has lost 50% compare to the USD :)
 
price drops

I'm suspecting that apple will drop prices in few weeks or when SL is released. And then we'll have 100$ cheaper mini.
 
ju5tin81 said:
Attention to all those defending Apples UK pricing!

OK, not directly iMac related but I challenge anyone to find another company that ships a new £2499 desktop computer with less than 750GB HD.

Has Apple gone mad?

A 1TB HD in an external enclosure can easily be sourced for less than £100... Currency fluctuations or not, Apple is really pushing that distortion field straight into Dr Evil Territory. (A Miiillllion dollars!)

What next? Pay more for a spacebar? :confused:
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Pssst! Don't give them ideas....
 
That's a lot of moneys for a new graphics card and a few more ports, minus one Fw 400 port on the Mac mini. Nice to see it now supports up to 4 GB RAM. Since when is the remote extra? Finally the stupid combo drive got dropped.

Seeing how I've been using a Belkin USB/FW port (the sort that fits flush-ish under the mini, same foot print) since I had the G4 mini, upgraded RAM to 2 GB and recently installed a 320 GB, 16 MB cache, 7,200 rpm hard drive in my Fall of 06 mini, I'm somewhat un-excited about the refresh.
 
I see no reason to upgrade my iMac 24" white 2.16 GHz. My graphics have been acting up for a while, so I think I'll order in a new GPU and hang in for another year (or two). 3k + (in Korea) for the high-end unit is too much $$, especially since it's glossy only. Sorry Apple, your prices are too high and I hate the gloss. :rolleyes:
 
barkmonster said:
Apple are just not paying attention to what's out there in the PC world so far as consumer machines are concerned and those old 20" iMacs will probably be fetching near new prices as used systems because of all this.
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They're paying attention. They market their computers to rich people now (as well as the usual diehards and the completely clueless) and are counting on them not giving a f`ck about the specs so long as it has a nice big Apple logo they can show off to their friends. They get away with a huge mark-up, they stay in the black, the board and shareholders are happy, and they focus their attention on the iPhone and iPods.
 
OOOOOHHH!!! BUUURRRNNNNN on ALL of you who repeatedly called the mac mini spy shots fake!!!!!!!!!!
 
The low end Mac Mini is nice...it would be a steal if it was 499.

The high end Mini seems pricey for only 320Gb and 2Gb RAM. I mean you only save 25 bucks(if you were to up grade the low end with with BTO)


making the cpu in the high end Mini would go a long way to separate the two


If I upgrade my Mini(doubt it) I'd go 3rd party HDD and RAM.(of course)
 
Saroz said:
The worst part is you can't just get the cheap Mac Mini and upgrade the RAM yourself, since the memory on the graphic cards are not the same on the two version. Cheap one having 128MB, pricier one 256MB. So basically you are "forced" to get the more expensive Mini if you want the best graphics performance.
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I have a feeling since it is integrated, that they are just listing how much ram it will take up from system ram, based on the ammount of system ram. I would take a guess that it would take more memory if you upgraded the ram to 2 gigs.
 
emotion said:
A point I make to my colleagues when they see me with Apple hardware and accuse me of being a 'fan'. They are the best of a bad bunch.

Personally I'm thinking of trying non-Apple solutions from now on. At the very least I'll have my faith renewed. At best I'll be a few hundred quid better off :)
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Ditto.

What alternatives do you think you will try?
 
I don't have time to read through 10 pages of comments, but my personal opinion on the new Mac mini.

The good:
- no Atom CPU (that would have been extremely stupid)
- finally has a SuperDrive on the low-end model (and about time too)
- the RAM is now DDR3 and up to 4GB
- Not only did they keep FireWire, they upgraded it to FW800 (awesome)
- Another USB port (can never have too many of those)
- nVidia 9400M (yeah, the Mac mini GPU is finally decent and even in line with the MacBook and low-end iMacs)

The bad:
- the price went up everywhere except in the USA. Except that the Canadian price, while higher than the previous Mac mini, is still under the current exchange rate.

The not-good-but-not-bad:
- small CPU speed bump (it's fast enough IMHO, though I can understand the people who don't want an iMac but can't afford/don't want a Mac Pro).

The WTF:
- do I understand that the new Mac mini supports two monitors?! That's crazy! (but w00t!, eh?)

The please-stop-mentioning-these:
- The Mac mini is not sold as an HTPC, stop talking about a Mac mini/:apple:TV merging.
- The Mac mini is not sold as an HTPC, stop talking about Blu-Ray drives. You want Blu-Ray, buy an external drive.
- The Mac mini has more USB ports than the iMac. Not really. The iMac has a built-in iSight and most switchers won't have a USB hub in their keyboards, so they need two ports to connect their keyboard and mouse. Why five: keyboard, mouse, printer, webcam, iPod.
- The Mac mini still is the old same design as the G4 version. So what? It's clean-looking and I'd rather have the same old design with a Core 2 Duo than a smaller/flatter version with an Atom CPU inside. Not to mention all of the Mac mini-sized accessories out there, such as the miniStack or mounts, can still be used with the new Mac mini. The only thing that kinds of surprise me is to see the Mac mini still has a white cover, I was expecting to see a black one. Maybe Apple's inventory of white covers was too big. ;)
 
Gold89 said:
Welcome to the New Labour economy - bringing an end to boom and bust. :mad:
Click to expand...

Although I understand your sentiment, a global recession is hardly the fault of any 1 political party is it ?

anyway, politics are usually best left out of forums like these.
 
MasterNile said:
Um...if the problem is/was OS X how could the Mac Pro support 32GB of RAM? obviously they put in an artificial limitation.
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I was thinking the same for the same reason, but on Apple's support forum, they were claiming it was OS X and the OS X on the Pros had some update that allowed for more RAM. Sounds far fetched, but Apple probably didn't want to admit they have an artificial limitation put in place to limit the amount people can upgrade their iMacs.
 
Pricing is fun

So, if you max out both the low and high end mac minis, the low end one is more expensive. Am I missing something? I'm guessing I'm missing something. :)
 
jackfrost123 said:
From the Apple shop, can a techie here explain what this means? Isn't wifi n de facto on the 2.4 ghz?
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802.11a uses the 5Ghz bands, which allows for better penetration, doesn't get absorbed by water, and is subject to less interference. It has much better range. B and G use 2.4Ghz bands. 802.11n can use either 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz.

Note that this isn't the same to when we use Ghz in CPU clock frequencies. In CPUs, it's the frequency of the internal clock which makes operations happen. For communications, it's just the frequency of electromagnetic waves. Higher frequency doesn't necessarily mean better speeds (although it can do. Data is transmitted through changes in the wave. More oscillations means a higher resolution to make and detect data changes in).

My bank account will take until next month to agree with a time capsule purchase. What an ass.
 
After the initial burst of excitement and then trawling through the thread, it seems there are two problems:

Price
Now it seems that apple are only charging the UK about 3-5% more than the US after currency conversion/tax are taken into account, but the question is - are our American friends finding the update too expensive? The main question is whether it's sensible to have this pricing structure in a recession - would you rather sell less machines at higher profit or gamble that more people would buy at a lower profit?

Upgrade
The main thing I'm annoyed about is the aspects of the upgrade. The same graphics card as before (but cunningly renamed), paltry increase in hard drive size, more memory. In this day and age I can't believe they couldn't shoe-horn in a quad-core option somewhere. I think the prices are reasonable IF the upgrade had been worthwhile (quad-core, LED screen, better graphics, bigger hard drives).

I was debating whether a MacBook should be my entry into the world of Apple as my PC is 5 years old (and groaning), but decided an iMac would be better. Looks like I'll be going back to the Macbook and then see if an i5/BluRay iMac appears in time for Christmas.
 
depends on...

AlexisV said:
You're right about the monetary reasons, but a 30% increase in one day on some models IS too high.

An £8000 car has increased by £250 due to economy in the last couple of months. Not £2400.
Click to expand...

1. where your factories etc are based... and how your costs are translated.
2. thats why GM, Ford and Chrysler are about to fail as a business model.
 
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