Apple Store Shipping Dates and Buyers Guide Recommendations

[JGShort]

Three iPhone Problems

The iPhone is a pretty cool unit.

It is almost more than I can stand. The iPhone is compact and cool and I want one now (or at least for Christmas)! but I have three problems with it:

1. Its price - The phone itself is somewhat expensive, but I would be over that in a couple of months, after the bills were paid.
2. The costly monthly two-year contract - This is an ongoing expense that requires some evaluation and planning to fit it into my budget.
3. The built in camera - I am sure that I am not the only potential buyer out here who works at a defense industry firm where cameras are absolutely not allowed in the facility. Although it could most likely be hidden in my bag and brought without being discovered. If it were discovered, I would have a strong risk of being fired. Besides, if I had something as cool as the iPhone, I would most certainly want to "show off" a bit to my peers rather than to keep it hidden.
   

I think it would be helpful to Apple's business and customers if they could offer an iPhone without that built-in camera. I have heard of options for removing the camera, either do-it-yourself or for a fee, but this would risk breaking a costly device and also voiding the warranty.

Please, Apple, offer an iPhone without the camera, and I will buy at least two of them.

 

[nhexima]

im going to say what other have been afraid to post on this thread:

i want the iMac to update at MWSF!



seriously, even if it's just a minor bump like the MacBook recently saw, that's all i need to get in line for one.

You said it! I'm constantly gritting my teeth these days to see if there will be an iMac update. There probably won't be, and I'll regret having waiting another month... or maybe even... they will announce another update, and it won't come out for 3 months . So close to ordering a refurb 24' from the online store...

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Sadly, the quest for a new Mac is over for the moment for me. I waited over 6 months for a Mac with a 'decent' GPU. No such beast surfaced.

Basically, for around $650 total, I got an AMD Athlon X2 4000+ dual-core with 2Gig of DDR2 low-latency ram, an Nvidia 7900 GS video card (hardly state-of-the-art, but considerably faster than the standard 7300GT the Mac Pro comes with), a 320 GB 7200RPM Seagate Sata hard drive, a 20x DVD-RW drive with Lightscribe and Windows XP Home Edition plus reused my Hercules Game Theater XP sound card and breakout box. I'm thinking of selling him back the 4000+ for one of his own older computers to upgrade and ordering a 6000+ or 6400+ which will plug right in the same motherboard for $175-185 or so and are faster than several of the Intel Core 2 Duos (not the top ones, of course). I just reused my old ATX case and bought a new 430 watt power supply and one of my older 40Gig drives as a 2nd scratch drive for use with Photoshop and my OTHER 40Gig drive will go into the PowerMac, which I mostly use for secure Internet and disc burning.

Now I'm in no way saying that machine is as fast (cpu wise) as some of the newer Macs with Intel Core 2 Duos (although given most of them use laptop versions, they're not exactly top of the line to begin with) and it's not a high-end SLI gaming rig either compared to high-end Windows machines, but I feel what I'm getting for $650 compared to what I'd get for $650 from Apple (basically a Mac-Mini with ultra-slow laptop parts and a totally UNUSABLE for 3D integrated graphics unit) flat out blows the Apple option away. This thing will play all the latest Windows games (no DirectX 10, but not much uses it nor will for some time and I don't like Vista as it is now). Everything is super snappy and far more reliable (big step up from 98SE anyway). I'd prefer to have OSX with XP running off Parallels or boot camp for a game, but the lack of GPU options on the more reasonably priced Macs was a major major put off and with Apple it's either the hardware they offer or nothing at all. I'm not a huge gamer, but I want to be able to play TODAY's games and expect to play future games for at least a year or so. Macs (running Boot Camp) are barely running today's games, let alone tomorrow's. This $650 machine will undoutedly do better than a stock MacPro for gaming and it costs almost 4x as much.

I guess if I'm going to take the "don't need 3D" route, I can just keep on using my PowerMac G4 for word processing and Internet. Certainly I could pop a 1.5 GHz G4 card in there for a few hundred bucks and get snappier performance from non-game apps (I don't do video production, etc., so that's a non-issue). I guess what I'm saying is Apple needs to start thinking long and hard about its low and mid-end options if it wants to attract new customers or keep customers that have one of each. I WANTED a Mac this time. But Apple didn't want me when they decided what GPUs to use. I don't understand why they constantly keep up with the latest and greatest CPUs (in their class at least), but don't 'bother' when it comes to graphics. Weren't Macs once KNOWN for their graphics? It's kind of sad, really.

I'll be looking at a laptop some time next year. I hope they can sort out the keyboard and yellow-tint LED issues on the MBP with the next upgrade and/or get a decent GPU into the regular Macbook and I'll buy an Apple. Otherwise, I'll have to rethink that too. I need a good screen, keyboard and GPU more than I need something like Firewire 800, for example.

 

[snowleopard]

Sadly, the quest for a new Mac is over for the moment for me. I waited over 6 months for a Mac with a 'decent' GPU. No such beast surfaced.

As much as I hate PC's, I hear you. MacRumors has had the Mac Pro in their buyers guide as "Don't Buy. Updates soon!" for what seems like months and months now. With what seems like eternity since an update from Apple, I think a lot of people are just sick of waiting.

 

[silentfink]

MBP - Refurb?

Thank you all for the insight regarding the next incarnation of the MBP. If you were in the market for a refurbished MBP, when would you purchase it? I don't need a ton of power - I'm buying it mostly for screen real estate. Right now the Apple online store has them listed at $300 less than a new one. Is $1699 the lowest I'll see or could you see them get as far down as $1599 or $1499 prior to or soon after any big announcements?

Thanks again for your help. I really appreciate it!

 

[macPunk]

Mac mini?

What do you think?

 

[JBaustian]

Well, I have a G4 400 that's eight years old. It still works perfectly, but is too slow to do much of what I want it to do.... my computer is obsolescent.

My mom's G4 was replaced by a Mac Mini this Christmas... also long overdue.

Not all Mac enthusiasts want or need to be on the cutting edge. I've found that four years is about the limit, based on my own pattern of upgrading about every four years:
1987: Mac Plus (an upgraded 512k, 8 mHz)
1991: Mac IIci (25 mHz)
1995: Mac Performa 630 (80 mHz?)
1999: Mac G3 (350 mHz)
2005: Mac G5 (Dual PPC 2.5 gHz)

note: suffered way too long with the G3

Based on what I've seen with the Intel dual-processor models, I'll be ready for one in 2009... but I doubt that I'll have to throw away the PPC G5.

 

[takao]

What do you think?

i would like it ... too bad it isn't going to happen anytime soon with the current "more gadgets... we need more gadgets" apple attitude

but hey others have waiting years for a cheap headless mac and in the end it finally arrived so never rule out everything

 

[Roy]

i would like it ... too bad it isn't going to happen anytime soon with the current "more gadgets... we need more gadgets" apple attitude

but hey others have waiting years for a cheap headless mac and in the end it finally arrived so never rule out everything

Are you talking about the Mac mini?

 

[macPunk]

too bad it isn't going to happen anytime soon with the current "more gadgets... we need more gadgets" apple attitude



I agree, but a single core2 with a micro atx form factor and a actual upgradeable video card would be a wonderful system that could easily be under a grand. Why do we need two Xeon server processors Apple went from underpowered to overkill in 1.5 years. I'm buying a used dual G5 because thats the closest thing right now to "mid level"