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G5 iMac Specs?
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If your students can each afford a
$30 USB key, then they are a lot richer than mine here in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
I work in a "hard to staff" school with more than 90% of the students entitled to free breakfast and lunch. We are *not* networked, the only support is the technology teacher, who gets no free periods to actually *do* technical support. The only software available for the computers in our classrooms is what we get for ourselves. Since we have no network, computers without optical drives are useless. Our situation is not at all atypical in this -- and many other -- urban schools districts.
$30 USB key, then they are a lot richer than mine here in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
I work in a "hard to staff" school with more than 90% of the students entitled to free breakfast and lunch. We are *not* networked, the only support is the technology teacher, who gets no free periods to actually *do* technical support. The only software available for the computers in our classrooms is what we get for ourselves. Since we have no network, computers without optical drives are useless. Our situation is not at all atypical in this -- and many other -- urban schools districts.
The home desktop computer is fast coming obsolete
Lets face it, the home desktop computer is being replace by the laptop. I think I'm an average user, and usually the average is the majority. I can't think of a reason to buy an iMac now. I had many reasons a few years ago. The only computer I'm considering buying for the home now is a powerbook. It is just a lot more convenient to take work home or bring work to work. My 12 year old nephew wants a laptop, and he refuses to consider a desktop. I can see some gamers wanting a desktop with a big screen, but obviously the iMac doesn't fit that. Looking forward, I don't see the iMac sale going up, unless it can brake into the business world. As for the education market specifically from K to 12, I think sale will stay at the same level. Laptop is where is at; for most people and even for professional who may use a powermac at work. If this is the trend, Apple should spend a lot more effort into portable tools e.g. iBook and dare i say an electronic notebook (some call it tablet).
Chomo
Lets face it, the home desktop computer is being replace by the laptop. I think I'm an average user, and usually the average is the majority. I can't think of a reason to buy an iMac now. I had many reasons a few years ago. The only computer I'm considering buying for the home now is a powerbook. It is just a lot more convenient to take work home or bring work to work. My 12 year old nephew wants a laptop, and he refuses to consider a desktop. I can see some gamers wanting a desktop with a big screen, but obviously the iMac doesn't fit that. Looking forward, I don't see the iMac sale going up, unless it can brake into the business world. As for the education market specifically from K to 12, I think sale will stay at the same level. Laptop is where is at; for most people and even for professional who may use a powermac at work. If this is the trend, Apple should spend a lot more effort into portable tools e.g. iBook and dare i say an electronic notebook (some call it tablet).
Chomo
Chomolungma said:
Hmm, it's funny. Everyone says that, but I'm going the other way around 😀
I like having a keyboard and mouse. My PowerBook spent most of it's time attached to an external monitor/keyboard/mouse at home. I almost never took it into Uni. Maybe I was scared of breaking it 🙂 I just did the majority of my work at home.
I don't think it's time for the swansong of the desktop, maybe just something new. Removable screens with wireless links sound like the way things should go. Free the user from the desktop, but not the house.
Only Apple could bring that sort of innovation, and only on the iMac line could it ever happen. Maybe that will be the One Last Thing 😀
Chris
Lewisham said:
Right on. Had no desktop since 98, and now I want to get one (if the new iMac is nice). Real notebooks are still too heavy and inconvenient for me to take to campus. I just take my Newton, where the good thing is that I don't even have to check the charge before leaving, it has never run dry on me in three years. At home I now just want a powerful machine with a high-res screen that is cost efficient, and no worries about hinges, dead batteries and whatnot.
I can't believe they're using a GeForce 5200. That thing is a bandwidth starved, 64-bit memory bus, complete piece of underwhelming garbage.
people needs are different
I think you make a good point. To each his or her own, I guess. I have a keyboard and mouse at home, which i connect them to my powerbook. This set up seems to work fine for me. I have too many files, that I like to have at my fingertip, and keeping it in one place helps a lot. the current powerbook is certainly not ideal, but I think it will eventually be better e.g. lighter and longer battery life. I like the iMac too, however, I don't see a need for it in my lifestyle. Perhaps I don't look at a computer like most people i.e. a machine to which you try to operate it by its term. I computer should conform to me. i don't want to have to set up a desk specifically for it.
-Chomo
Lewisham said:
I think you make a good point. To each his or her own, I guess. I have a keyboard and mouse at home, which i connect them to my powerbook. This set up seems to work fine for me. I have too many files, that I like to have at my fingertip, and keeping it in one place helps a lot. the current powerbook is certainly not ideal, but I think it will eventually be better e.g. lighter and longer battery life. I like the iMac too, however, I don't see a need for it in my lifestyle. Perhaps I don't look at a computer like most people i.e. a machine to which you try to operate it by its term. I computer should conform to me. i don't want to have to set up a desk specifically for it.
-Chomo
If this design is similar to what is on this link
http://apple.weblogsinc.com/entry/1128136479381114/
then I'm owning it like yesterday.
Specs are one thing and Apple has surprised us before and even given us huge long life with previous macs : case in points....The Macintosh all sales were spoken for all delayed shipments for 2 years after 1984!! If you're old enough to have even owned one I'm sure you remember the joy of that machine. specs didn't compare to what IBM or NEC was doing or was equal to but it was the only one in Color and could similate voice!! 2nd is the iMac THE BEST SELLING PERSONAL COMPUTER OF ALL TIME --you and ya grandma got one; NUFF SAID (specs vs usuability again usuability with OS came out on top). Now I think the Cube failed because of the ports orientation; just remember the attempt at the LC models being successful was due to the present competition lack of drive and resources as a collective juggernaut. Apple tried for years at a consumer version no screen tower in many iterations of the 8600 series PowerMac. albeit with help of the clone wars these hurt Apple to a tear. I for one never want to see that again.
http://apple.weblogsinc.com/entry/1128136479381114/
then I'm owning it like yesterday.
Specs are one thing and Apple has surprised us before and even given us huge long life with previous macs : case in points....The Macintosh all sales were spoken for all delayed shipments for 2 years after 1984!! If you're old enough to have even owned one I'm sure you remember the joy of that machine. specs didn't compare to what IBM or NEC was doing or was equal to but it was the only one in Color and could similate voice!! 2nd is the iMac THE BEST SELLING PERSONAL COMPUTER OF ALL TIME --you and ya grandma got one; NUFF SAID (specs vs usuability again usuability with OS came out on top). Now I think the Cube failed because of the ports orientation; just remember the attempt at the LC models being successful was due to the present competition lack of drive and resources as a collective juggernaut. Apple tried for years at a consumer version no screen tower in many iterations of the 8600 series PowerMac. albeit with help of the clone wars these hurt Apple to a tear. I for one never want to see that again.
Converted2Truth
macrumors 6502a
Now i would buy one of these! this is what the new iMac should be. Only complaint i have is that it should be larger... allowing for full length slots. This is only an artists rendition of what it should be. He's good, and IMHO should be working for apple 😀 This cube rocks! 😀
Notebook -v- desktop? I'm using a new 23" display next to a 2 month old 15" PB and I gotta tell you that the PB display, while great, doesn't come close to the 23". A very big factor with the iMac is the potential of a screen that is the same quality as the 23". I'll buy the 20" for home on Day One.
Don't like the 5200 GPU? Don't worry - from new reports of potential shortages of G5 chips you won't be able to get one until sometime next year if you spend too much time complaining about the GPU and too little time looking at ordering. At least the 5200 might push back the day when Apple starts the backorder list instead of delivering from inventory when an order is placed. I'm betting that the backorders will hit 2 - 4 weeks after the iMac is released and after getting one for Christmas will be difficult. There are going to be too many people (me included) who will place their order fast while others are moaning.
2 weeks to go. 😀
Don't like the 5200 GPU? Don't worry - from new reports of potential shortages of G5 chips you won't be able to get one until sometime next year if you spend too much time complaining about the GPU and too little time looking at ordering. At least the 5200 might push back the day when Apple starts the backorder list instead of delivering from inventory when an order is placed. I'm betting that the backorders will hit 2 - 4 weeks after the iMac is released and after getting one for Christmas will be difficult. There are going to be too many people (me included) who will place their order fast while others are moaning.
2 weeks to go. 😀
Bad Beaver said:
I agree too. I have had a powerbook G4 for the last year, and although I love it to death, I am looking forward to getting a G5 desktop with a bigger display. Ideally, I would love a G5 cube, although, yes, I know it will probably never happen.
*drool*
CmdrLaForge
macrumors 601
mata said:
I really don't understand your problem ! Why are you not just ordering the ones with the drive ?
Chomolungma said:
Yeah, having to SSH into my laptop to get files onto one of my comp lab's Linux machines and then being forced to use some substandard text editor was my biggest problem. It is a serious pain when you spend all day thinking "My Mac could have done this in half the time" 😀
And get Salling Clicker for your PB. I used my PB to deliver presentations. Whilst the other mugs had to walk over to their machine and click a button for the next slide, I just moved straight on.
The audience:
😱
Chris
csubear
macrumors 6502a
msilsby said:I agree too. I have had a powerbook G4 for the last year, and although I love it to death, I am looking forward to getting a G5 desktop with a bigger display. Ideally, I would love a G5 cube, although, yes, I know it will probably never happen.
*drool*
Sorry there will never be a cube 🙁 . Its going to be that 17" display in the picture with a G5 straped on the back of the display.
And i just went and looked that the new apple displays. The VESA mounts that they use can rotate, and can rotate like the current I-macs.
Converted2Truth
macrumors 6502a
A cube is exactly what the apple community needs. The only reason it didn't work before was because Jobs got the pricing really screwed up. I'd buy an upgradable cube w/o an LCD over an iMac w/LCD even if both were the same price. Bottom line is... apple needs a single processor line-up that's upgradable... for the mac gamers and the mac users that aren't stupid.csubear said:
Lepton
macrumors 6502a
OK, here's my official prediction, and it's based on the rumor.
First, release a new display, a 17" size that looks like the others. As we know, all displays are flat, thin, with a standard mount in the middle of the back and a single cable connector, with other handy connectors on the side. The standard mount is attached to a nice stand, but it is removeable to allow for other mounts, such as a VESA standard one.
Now, imagine a box the same size as the new small display, about 17" diagonal, about 1" thick. This is the new iMac. On the front side of the middle of the box there is a mount that can attach very nicely and snugly to the mount on the back of the 17" display. The middle of the box also has a connector that mounts snugly to the single wire connector coming out of the back of the displays. And on the back of the box is another mount. You can attach the display's stand to it, or some other mount, such as a VESA standard one.
Together, we have a single, two-layer box about 17" diagonal and two inches thick. We simply added another inch to the thickness of the display, and turned our display into an iMac. Some additional connectors, and an optical disk slot is on the thin side of the unit.
You have 1) A sleek iMac that looks similar to the display line. [And kinda like the rumor that started this thread] 2) You can slap this on the back of the 20" or 23" displays just as easily. 3) You can mount the thing on your desk upright using the stand from the display, or remove the stand and put it flat on your desk, or replace the stand with a VESA or other mount, to HANG IT ON A WALL. 4) You can buy the normal 17" display/iMac box bundle, or bundled with bigger displays, or with no display at all for use as a HEADLESS MAC.
A thing of beauty.
First, release a new display, a 17" size that looks like the others. As we know, all displays are flat, thin, with a standard mount in the middle of the back and a single cable connector, with other handy connectors on the side. The standard mount is attached to a nice stand, but it is removeable to allow for other mounts, such as a VESA standard one.
Now, imagine a box the same size as the new small display, about 17" diagonal, about 1" thick. This is the new iMac. On the front side of the middle of the box there is a mount that can attach very nicely and snugly to the mount on the back of the 17" display. The middle of the box also has a connector that mounts snugly to the single wire connector coming out of the back of the displays. And on the back of the box is another mount. You can attach the display's stand to it, or some other mount, such as a VESA standard one.
Together, we have a single, two-layer box about 17" diagonal and two inches thick. We simply added another inch to the thickness of the display, and turned our display into an iMac. Some additional connectors, and an optical disk slot is on the thin side of the unit.
You have 1) A sleek iMac that looks similar to the display line. [And kinda like the rumor that started this thread] 2) You can slap this on the back of the 20" or 23" displays just as easily. 3) You can mount the thing on your desk upright using the stand from the display, or remove the stand and put it flat on your desk, or replace the stand with a VESA or other mount, to HANG IT ON A WALL. 4) You can buy the normal 17" display/iMac box bundle, or bundled with bigger displays, or with no display at all for use as a HEADLESS MAC.
A thing of beauty.
titaniumducky
macrumors 6502a
Lepton said:
You've got something there...
The only thing is at 1", I doubt a G5 could go in there (unless it's the rumored dual-core G4 😀).
Besides the G5 problem, such an iMac would probably be limited to laptop parts (making it more expensive and less powerful (for the price)).
Portable iMac G5?
Sorry if this has been covered in the past 20 or so pages of this thread, but thinking that the pizza-box all in one could be cool for portability. I'd prefer to have a desktop, but if this thing were compact enough the 17" or 20" version could fit in a nylon bag with the keyboard, mouse and power block and voila, portable G5 ready to take to a buddy's house. IMO - That would be very handy. 🙂
Sorry if this has been covered in the past 20 or so pages of this thread, but thinking that the pizza-box all in one could be cool for portability. I'd prefer to have a desktop, but if this thing were compact enough the 17" or 20" version could fit in a nylon bag with the keyboard, mouse and power block and voila, portable G5 ready to take to a buddy's house. IMO - That would be very handy. 🙂
CholEoptera36
macrumors regular
After reading the first 10 pages of posts I've obtained enough about the topic to put my two cents in...
A few points about the configuration posted:
1) I just bought a combo drive eMac at 1.25GHz and it came with 10.3 Panther. I didn't buy any greater memory than 256MB to keep the price down, but it's evident that I have to upgrade asap because it's rather sluggish. Even if all I'm doing is running firefox, iChat, and iTunes at the same time it's slow. I wish Apple would up the minimum requirement of memory on the new iMacs although not likely. Considering that in 4-5 months everybody's going to Tiger, 256MB memory might create that same sluggish performace I have with Panther. Imagine trying to do that whole water ripple with desktop widgets on Tiger when you only have 256MB of memory... I'd like to see them upgrade the minimal memory a notch, perhaps to 512MB. Maybe it's just me but I think 256MB of memory on almost any new system now days is rather outdated. It isn't a huge deal, but it makes me wonder how well the system will perform on the upcoming Tiger with only 256MB of memory. More memory as a standard would be refreshing.
(I'm not saying it won't work on 256MB memory, of course it will. It'll just be slooooooooooooooow...needing an upgrade later like many eMacs and iBooks bought on the standard 256MB memory).
2) The processor at least needs to be G5, and atleast running at 1.6GHz for the low end model like stated in the original configuration post. That's only 450MHz more than what my G4 eMac has... so atleast that much. I'd rather see all iMacs move to 2.0GHz and up to start the transition out of the 1.xGHz range from here on out for the at home user. That's not really beyond reason to me, considering the 1.6GHz G5 was released this time a year ago. If we're still stuck in the 1.xGHz processors then atleast we know we can expect to see something outrageously innovative about the new iMacs. Apple most likely won't fail in that catagory. No matter what the configuration is we know we can expect it to have kool features no other mac has.
The processor speed increase and total upgrade from G4 to G5 architecture will do wonders for individual tasks... but I think for multi-tasking it's about time that the standard memory is a little higher than 256MB. New iMacs with better processors AND more memory, yeah that's more like it. In some cases I would take more memory over more megahertz...
Just some thoughts.
A few points about the configuration posted:
1) I just bought a combo drive eMac at 1.25GHz and it came with 10.3 Panther. I didn't buy any greater memory than 256MB to keep the price down, but it's evident that I have to upgrade asap because it's rather sluggish. Even if all I'm doing is running firefox, iChat, and iTunes at the same time it's slow. I wish Apple would up the minimum requirement of memory on the new iMacs although not likely. Considering that in 4-5 months everybody's going to Tiger, 256MB memory might create that same sluggish performace I have with Panther. Imagine trying to do that whole water ripple with desktop widgets on Tiger when you only have 256MB of memory... I'd like to see them upgrade the minimal memory a notch, perhaps to 512MB. Maybe it's just me but I think 256MB of memory on almost any new system now days is rather outdated. It isn't a huge deal, but it makes me wonder how well the system will perform on the upcoming Tiger with only 256MB of memory. More memory as a standard would be refreshing.
(I'm not saying it won't work on 256MB memory, of course it will. It'll just be slooooooooooooooow...needing an upgrade later like many eMacs and iBooks bought on the standard 256MB memory).
2) The processor at least needs to be G5, and atleast running at 1.6GHz for the low end model like stated in the original configuration post. That's only 450MHz more than what my G4 eMac has... so atleast that much. I'd rather see all iMacs move to 2.0GHz and up to start the transition out of the 1.xGHz range from here on out for the at home user. That's not really beyond reason to me, considering the 1.6GHz G5 was released this time a year ago. If we're still stuck in the 1.xGHz processors then atleast we know we can expect to see something outrageously innovative about the new iMacs. Apple most likely won't fail in that catagory. No matter what the configuration is we know we can expect it to have kool features no other mac has.
The processor speed increase and total upgrade from G4 to G5 architecture will do wonders for individual tasks... but I think for multi-tasking it's about time that the standard memory is a little higher than 256MB. New iMacs with better processors AND more memory, yeah that's more like it. In some cases I would take more memory over more megahertz...
Just some thoughts.