iMac G5 -- No Kensington security port

[ibjoshua]

Ok people move, move on. Nothing to see here. Just one old fart shooting his mouth off.
iMac G5 -- ultra portable, just walk in, unplug and walk out -- voila! Stolen!
The iMac G5 doesn't have a Kensington security port.
I guess you could drill a hole in the aluminium base or thread something through the cable hole but it wouldn't look too beautiful. Is this an oversight? Or is apple going to produce a special VESA mount for secure installations? Are there already appropriate secure mounting alternatives available that Apple expects customers to adopt? What do you think the deal is here?

i_b_joshua

Update
Seems I was wrong. But it doesn't seem to be documented:
http://www.danamania.com/temp/inside_low.jpg (below the power socket -- ta Andy)
http://www.apple.com/imac/specs.html (Specifications page)

 

[.Andy]

The iMac G5 doesn't have a Kensington security port.

Look a bit harder Chicken Licken - especially under the power cable.

 

[ibjoshua]

Look a bit harder Chicken Licken - especially under the power cable.

Is that what it is? It's not listed: http://www.apple.com/imac/specs.html
Ta
i_b_joshua

 

[Jo-Kun]

indeed its not listed... but if you take it for a spin in the QTVR section you can clearly see it on the back underneath the powerconnector, on that image it even makes more sense than what we can see when its open... because then it could be anything ;-)

J

 

[kgarner]

I even saw a picture of a demo unit in another thread somewhere that showed a security lock attached to it. If I get some time I might try to dig it up.

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

Given how the back of the iMac G5 comes off with the simple removal of three screws, how hard they will make it to get a replacement back? I hope very hard. Otherwise we'll hear of many theft reports.

 

[emw]

Given how the back of the iMac G5 comes off with the simple removal of three screws, how hard they will make it to get a replacement back? I hope very hard. Otherwise we'll hear of many theft reports.

Are you referring to people stealing the back off an unlocked Mac? Not sure why they would do that. If it's locked with a Kensington or similar, you can't get the back off.

 

[kgarner]

Given how the back of the iMac G5 comes off with the simple removal of three screws, how hard they will make it to get a replacement back? I hope very hard. Otherwise we'll hear of many theft reports.

These pictures show that the lock is actually part of the power supply and not just the back panel.

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

These pictures show that the lock is actually part of the power supply and not just the back panel.

Thanks, good to hear. At least someone at Apple was thinking that day. Good design, since you can't remove any internal parts either. Bravo.

 

[applejack]

kensington lock "security"

Of course, the usefulness of the Kensington lock itself is questionable, assuming the thieving community has access to bic pens..

http://www.applelinks.com/pm/more.php?id=2216_0_1_0

http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,64987,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_5

 

[Sayer]

If someone really wants to steal something, they will steal it. A pair of bolt cutters can cut through those security cables easily.

The point is to prevent casual theft/damage by people who should know better, but don't care or just want to be jerks i.e. stealing all RAM making the iMac impossible to boot up.

I also love the attitude that spawned this thread, specifically that there was no security slot at all and thus Apple Engineers are Stupid.

Then it's pointed out that there is a slot, but again the assumption is that its ineffective since it appears to only be part of the outer shell (because again no one actually LOOKED at the internal details on the website), Apple Engineers are still Stupid.

Finally someone who actually read the website for the iMac and not merely looked at one or two photos points out that the security slot is part of the power supply.

The verdict? Apple Engineers got lucky the day they added the security slot and made it part of the power supply, but its really easy to circumvent anyway, which makes the security slot feature just barely above being Stupid.

As I often say: If you all can come up with *real* designs better than Apple's people, why aren't you?

 

[edesignuk]

If someone really wants to steal something, they will steal it. A pair of bolt cutters can cut through those security cables easily.

A pair of regular wire cutters (normally used for electrical work) will cut through them (had to do it at work a couple of weeks back, dumb ass user lost their key )

 

[ibjoshua]

The point is to prevent casual theft/damage by people who should know better, but don't care or just want to be jerks...

Agreed. You should see some of the bike locks in Japan. It's basically a polite way to say that someone values this property -- so please leave it.

I also love the attitude that spawned this thread, specifically that there was no security slot at all and thus Apple Engineers are Stupid.

Now who's jumping to conclusions?

If you'd read the original post you'd see I gave Apple a bit more than the benefit of the doubt. I never said the Apple engineers were stupid, just asked what the reasoning for the (assumed) omission might be. Then when I was corrected, I updated my post and corrected myself.

I had been looking at the Cinema Displays and noticed that the Kensington port was listed under ports on the specs page. Not having remembered seeing one on the iMac I went and looked at the iMac spec pages only to find it missing.

Thats all. No big attack on Apple. I was just wondering why it was missing, and looking for inteligent discussion on the matter, (which I'd swear, we used to get more often around here). End of story. So unless you're a particularly sensitive Apple engineer, who's had a particularly bad day -- back off.

i_b_joshua