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Happy 20th Launch Anniversary, iMac

nihil0 said:
Panic move? If it was a panic move they would just bump specs and leave everything as it is... the interior has been completely redesigned to adapt powerful CPUs and apart from MPBs I didn't read any wrong review about iMac Pro - those are really workhorses for pros
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... or useless, depending on the pros :)

Edit: Actually, I'm doing it wrong. I'm complaining that Apple only has a product that's partially useless to me (I could make it useful by hanging some extras off it). But this is not the right attitude.

I am the -ing customer, and Apple doesn't have a desktop product that I *want*. If they want my money, they should come up with one. Simple enough.
 
BlueParadox said:
And that’s my favourite “good” guy vehicle from Star Wars saga! Which LEGO model number is this, by the way? A quick look online shows the latest LEGO UCS Y-Wing Fighter model is: 75181, which has a darker cockpit window carriage compared with the shot you’ve provided.

And the iMac G4 “sunflower” was the best iMac design, in my opinion.
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You are correct the 75181 is the latest version and is more detailed that the original UCS Y-Wing, I grabbed the wrong photo, the picture that I showed was the Original UCS Y Wing. The new one is apparently better :)
 
asdavis10 said:
Arguably the most important product of Apple's lifetime.
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Financially at the time I agree. I thought nothing would ever eclipse the iPod as a device that changed so much, but the iPhone utterly trounced the iPod to the point that it's an irrelevant distant memory.

Older people like us think of Apple as the 'Mac company', but the majority of the planet think of them as the 'iPhone company', because that's what they are. Everything else is secondary.
 
Steve121178 said:
Older people like us think of Apple as the 'Mac company', but the majority of the planet think of them as the 'iPhone company', because that's what they are. Everything else is secondary.
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That's unfortunately true. Just a few days ago, Apple was mentioned in the news here as just "the cell phone manufacturer Apple".
 
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400 said:
Had a Tangerine one, threw it when it got beyond economical repair and upgraded to emac. Now iMac again. Previous the Tangerine iMac it was Amiga. Kept that for some reason.
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I bought a Strawberry iMac for my daughter when she was four. She used it to play edutainment games like Reader Rabbit and Pajama Sam. My son is seven years younger so when he was old enough he used it to play the same games. I repaired the hardware over and over again to keep that iMac running so it could keep them playing those games. It was only LAST YEAR that the optical drive gave out again and I scoured the Internet and literally could not find another replacement. The machine was held together with Bailey wire as it was and there was no guarantee if I found another drive it would fix it anyway. So after nearly 20 years of service I finally hauled it to the city dump. I thought about keeping it and making it into a lamp or something, but with shelf space at a premium in our house keeping it meant it would have just been a relic in the attic.
 
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My family was in the market for a new computer in 1999, as the LC was quite old by that point. I remember doing a bit of research and found the 266MHz iMac to be a suitable replacement. We toyed with the idea of a PC (which would have been great for a gaming teenager like myself), but we were Mac loyalists. I remember going into CompUSA to buy it and was surprised to find out that they'd JUST bumped the spec to 333MHz and it was the same price. So, we bought it (Blueberry) and the rest is history. It's currently boxed in my mother's attic and still functions. I've since bought another one, as I live quite far away. They made faster models in later years, but I was always drawn to the earlier 'frosted' plastic of the Rev A-D era. I feel like the Rev C and D were a decent update to the original Bondi model, though I remember lamenting its lack of Firewire when later models were released.
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Solomani said:
Interesting. Did that model have a user-accessible backplate (access door)?
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If memory serves, there were two screws at the base. Once you removed those, the whole back 'lid' popped off and you could access pretty much everything with ease. This is assuming we're talking about the G5 model.
 
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dilbert99 said:
A new mac design every 2 years from 1998 to 2009, then it dries up just like the screenless macs
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to be fair, there was a lot of room for improvement back then to computers than it is today. Kind of like how we moved from Blackberries to iPhones and by iphone 6 things kind of stagnated again. we hit peak.

none the less, macs stagnated more than reasonable time especially for a company that is mainly a computer company. I know iPhones make more money but, no Macs and no MacOS, I believe all other Apple products will fall.

green86 said:
No SCSI! No ADB! No expansion slots! No floppy!

USB isn't mature enough to really solely on it!

Steve Jobs wouldn’t have ever allowed this!


Oh wait...
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You are right I will give you that, Jobs did that, but...
I used computers before 1998, most people didn't have computers, those who did had 1 computer at home. Sharing files was not a thing. No one needed to move his 5GB files from his laptop to his desktop to edit, and then plug it in his TV to watch it. Most software was downloaded online or had a -CD- release. Games like Quake which might have been 10MB might required maybe 8 1.44MB floppies, let alone stuff like Command and Conquer which is like 50MB.

Unless you were in work environment or for school/college, I see very little reason back then to put files on a floppy and move files from one computer to the other. As we see here, this is a consumer computer, and I don't remember people doing their homework putting it on a floppy and taking it to the computer's school.

I also will guess people were happy to abandon the ADB and SCSI for the plug and play USB, which I can't say the same for the USB-C which to most is just a different shaped port that does the same thing.

You are right but lifestyle was different though
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mac1984user said:
My family was in the market for a new computer in 1999, as the LC was quite old by that point.
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The whole family looking to buy a computer, 1 computer for all of them, those were the days..
 
usarioclave said:
I have my mom's lamp mac with speakers, it's truly a classic design.
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It's my favorite design of all the iMacs.
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CmdrLaForge said:
Happy birthday iMac. So sad to see the Macintosh desktop line in such a bad shape.
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I think it's in great shape. I use iMacs for heavy neuroscience computing, image editing, and all sorts of other tasks. No complaints on my end.
 
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James Craner said:
Agreed, its amazing - I posted earlier that I bought a 2003 USB2 17" iMac on eBay and upgraded it. So its now 15 years old. The condition is excellent, the arm that holds the screen is a thing of beauty in itself - This thing is 15 years old, and just like Steve demonstrated when the design was first released you can move the screen with a finger and it does not wobble and is still held firmly in place. would be difficult to achieve now with the 27" 5k screen due to the weight, but a testament to the timeless design. Also discovered today that iTunes (running Leopard) can connect via Airplay to my Homepod's. It thinks that they are  TV's but hey if it works I am not complaining.

View attachment 776197
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One thing that stands out in this pic is the HORRIBLE yellow tinted player at the top of the screen. I never knew what Apple kept it looking that way for so long.
 
I have a stupid question. Why not keep the 2009 design and make it easier to repair and upgrade imacs with the added benefit of better heat management? I mean the 2009 model doesn't look ugly or outdated at all. I can see why it's important to have a thin laptop, but imac are not meant to be carried, are they?
 
iop said:
I have a stupid question. Why not keep the 2009 design and make it easier to repair and upgrade imacs with the added benefit of better heat management? I mean the 2009 model doesn't look ugly or outdated at all. I can see why it's important to have a thin laptop, but imac are not meant to be carried, are they?
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Not stupid at all and I entirely agree I have the mid 2011 iMac the last with that design. Better ventilation, entirely user serviceable and an integrated SuperDrive.

Yes some of us do have uses for DVD+/- discs if you are listening Apple.
 
az431 said:
Not even close:

1. iPod
2. iPhone
3. Apple IIe
4. MacIntosh (original)
5. iMac
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Revised by value/impact to the company:

1. iPhone
2. iPod
3. iPad

4. iMac
5. Apple IIe

The top three products are also the top 3 consumer electronic products of all time, and there is a vast revenue gap between the top 3 and #4.

Original 1984 128K Mac was by comparison a failure, it sold only 50k units in its first quarter, less than 250k overall and ultimately led to Jobs removal. The Mac Plus, offering real expansion capability in 1986 became the longest running Mac in history, until October 1990. As important and loved as they are, all told their revenue is tiny compared to the top 3.
[doublepost=1534455520][/doublepost]One thing I haven’t read about was the really cool iMac experience of being at MacWorld San Francisco 1999.

Steve Jobs did his “one more thing“ at the Keynote, and he showed off the five delicious flavors of iMac. Tangerine, blueberry, grape, strawberry and lime were the offerings. The coolest thing however, I have not seen written about. When we exited the hall after the Keynote there were two rows of buses in front of Moscone Center. From talking to an Apple employee they had been hidden out in an aircraft hangar in the desert and brought in so they would be outside the hall after Steve made the announcement. They were the shuttle buses to take attendees of MacWorld to and from the different sites. Sadly, I have not been able to find a picture of the actual buses from that event, they were a different model than the one I’m showing in the pictures below. One of the most impressive marketing displays I’ve ever seen.

When I got home I had the kids pick out a grape for the family. They loved that computer. Of course these units also held the distinction of having the worst mouse ever designed, a hand cramping hockey puck of a design, albeit it was also grape, and that was quickly replaced.

For the next year, Apple had Santa Clara transportation decorate some of their busses with a similar skin.



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James Craner said:
You are correct the 75181 is the latest version and is more detailed that the original UCS Y-Wing, I grabbed the wrong photo, the picture that I showed was the Original UCS Y Wing. The new one is apparently better :)
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No worries. Thanks for that.
 
James Craner said:
View attachment 776065

Old(ish) and New(ish) iMac - 2003 iMac (17" 1.25GHz USB2 ) that i recently acquired and replaced the Hard Disk with an SSD, added a Airport Extreme card, added BlueTooth for the Magic Mouse and upgraded the RAM to 2GB. The iMac on the left is a 2016 5K iMac. I always loved the 'Globe' iMac and the 'Lick-able' Aqua UI.
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Love the old iMac's do they work with the trackpads or is it only mice ?
 
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