iMac G5 Now Shipping

[wdlove]

Patience ? What's that ?

Isn't this the era of instant gratification ?

But seriously, I know I'll be happier in the long run by getting a custom configured iMac.

I just felt the need to vent some frustration.

Definitely those that have ordered the new iMac haven't needed the patience of those that ordered the dual 2.5 G5.

Yes, we have been in the era of instant gratification since the baby boom generation.

You should be able to get the custom order and not really have to wait any longer. Having it your way just makes it sweeter.

Has your frustration level been relieved since venting.

 

[stillwater]

Has your frustration level been relieved since venting.

Yes, I'm feeling calmer now.

I'll have to try that patience thing.

 

[Finrock]

I decided to take a trip to the Apple Store at International Plaza. They didn't have any 20" iMacs in stock but they did have two on display.

I got a chance to use it for about 15 minutes. After the first few minutes I was rather nonplussed. With 512 MB of ram (an identical matched pair - according to Apple System Profiler) I was hoping for a little more performance. I went to the System Preferences and saw that the processor speed was set to Automatic. I asked the friendly Apple Store Employee if she would be so kind as to change that to Highest.

Boy did that make a difference!

I was truly impressed with how fast and smooth everything felt, from GarageBand to iDVD, Safari to Word. I was amazed.

I still can't get over the screen size. I guess I've become so accustomed to my 12" iBook that 20" is almost unbelievable to my eyes. Overall the iMac looked a lot different than I thought it would in person. It is huge! It is very visually pleasing, though.

That being said, I'm excited that my very own 20" iMac will be here. One day.

(If I had some more time I would have done a few xBench runs but there were a lot of people there who wanted to see the iMac as well so I decided not to be greedy.)

 

[Elan0204]

Thanks for the report Finrock. Do you know if the store has sold out of the 20" iMacs, or did they just not have any yet?

It's interesting what a huge difference switching from automatic to highest does for performance of the iMac. Maybe the automatic setting isn't doing it's job properly. We'll have to see of OS X.3.6 changes anything with how automatic works on the new iMacs.

 

[Finrock]

Thanks for the report Finrock. Do you know if the store has sold out of the 20" iMacs, or did they just not have any yet?

Yes, the did have the 20" in stock yesterday. I called to see if they did and the friendly sales clerk offered to hold one for me in lieu of my credit card number. I chickened out. I've decided that patience will be good for me.

I still can't wait though!! This thing is huge... and fast!! If you have any other questions feel free to ask. I just wrote what came to mind.

-Finrock

 

[ToddW]

My iMac G5 story

So, after some deliberation I decided to give up the powerbook and the pc for an iMac G5. After selling computer parts and such for the past couple of weeks. I had half the money for a 17 inch iMac. Finally my wonderful wife last night let me get one. All through the week it has been wonderful seeing the pictures and reading the posts of people and their imacs. so, i loaded up my son and decided since there were probably not any imacs in Fort Worth, Tx i would go to the dallas apple stores. off to the knox st. store in dallas, waiting for them to open, tackling someone in the store to help me, no imacs. i did, however, play with the 17 and 20 inches. the 17 inch i thought was a little small, while the 20 inch was freaking huge.

after leaving i said what the hell i will just go on down the the fry's in arlington and pick up some ram and order my imac when i get home. fry's had some good ram for a great price.

so i arrived at fry's and before getting some ram i decided to go to the computer section just to see if they had one on display. low and behold the next thing i know there is a 20 inch g5 imac. i had the cleak check their inventory in their stores as well as others for a 17 inch imac. there was none, so i jumped the gun and bought the 20, which i am writing from you now. this thing is awesome and runs great with 2*512s in her.

absolutely amazing. time to give up my powerbook which i have had since april.

man i love macs.

 

[Trekkie]

I went to the Apple store in Durham, NC at Southpoint Mall today and drooled over the 20" iMac as a stop gap while I wait for my BTO one.

Beautiful. My wife looked at it and said 'that's how big the screen is??' She was shocked, guess she didn't realize what 20" LCD looked like.

Played around a little, but there was lines all around me so I got off it knowing I had already bought mine and there was one guy there trying to convince a friend about them because he bought a powerbook earlier by a few months.

The screen is nice. Was playing with some of the stock photos in photoshop they have there, the JPGs on the 20" show the compression artifacts... heh.

 

[anastatia]

Imacs that were shipped.

Just wondering if they are shipping in actual web order that they are placed.
mine is W93373XX(the x's are actual #'s i just blanked them out). What are some other peoples that have received them. Sorry i'm just very impatient. Also mines a stock 17"

 

[AndiePandie]

I went to the Apple store in Durham, NC at Southpoint Mall today and drooled over the 20" iMac as a stop gap while I wait for my BTO one.

Trekkie, did they say when they got their shipment in? I called earlier in the week and they didn't have them yet. I'm going to have to take a run down to the store and play around with them! Hopefully it won't make the wait for my BTO any harder.

 

[Johnkb]

Has anyone seen the 17 inch and 20 side by side? Is the space below the screen smaller on the 20? Does it look sleeker? Any photos of the two side by side?

 

[Elan0204]

Has anyone seen the 17 inch and 20 side by side? Is the space below the screen smaller on the 20? Does it look sleeker? Any photos of the two side by side?

I'm yet to see the 2 in person side by side, but it is pretty clear from Apple's photo's that the white space is the same size on both iMacs. This makes the 20" model look more proportional, since the white space is smaller as a percentage of the total area of the front of the iMac.

edit: Here is Apple's side by side picture.

 

[Trekkie]

Trekkie, did they say when they got their shipment in? I called earlier in the week and they didn't have them yet. I'm going to have to take a run down to the store and play around with them! Hopefully it won't make the wait for my BTO any harder.

Sorry, didn't ask. Checked it out a bit, liked the 20" size, then got my daughter a new Clifford learning game & some screen cleaner.

 

[Trekkie]

Has anyone seen the 17 inch and 20 side by side? Is the space below the screen smaller on the 20? Does it look sleeker? Any photos of the two side by side?

I didn't measure, but they looked the same length, just the 20" is wider because the screen is.

 

[Cyclops]

Definitely those that have ordered the new iMac haven't needed the patience of those that ordered the dual 2.5 G5.

It's becoming obvious that the Bluetooth module for our BTO IMacs is holding up some of us early birds. We can only hope that it doesn't turn into a situation anywhere close to the one the 2.5 G5 crowd has had to deal with. Or this thread will be much longer before it's over.

It's still 11 days BEFORE it was promised, so I'll continue to be patient...

Ordered 2 IMacs. 8/31/04 - 7:13 AM PST (On or before 9/29)

17" / 1.8 / 160 GB HD / 1 GB RAM 1 Stick / BT / AE
20" / 1.8 / 160GB HD / 1 GB 1 Stick / BT /AE

 

[kangaroo]

Looks...

From the pictures, (looking head on) the iMac is <eerily> similar to the eMac. For those who've seen it in person--how similar is it?

 

[kcmac]

From the pictures, (looking head on) the iMac is <eerily> similar to the eMac. For those who've seen it in person--how similar is it?

It looks nothing like an emac. It is very clean with no speakers, etc on the front.

If you are looking for similarities, it looks more like an iPod with the bottom chopped off.

After having our 20" since last Wednesday, it just keeps looking better every day. And I liked it from the start.

 

[adunwoody@dsl.p]

Just wondering if they are shipping in actual web order that they are placed.
mine is W93373XX(the x's are actual #'s i just blanked them out). What are some other peoples that have received them. Sorry i'm just very impatient. Also mines a stock 17"

I'm in the UK and my order number is W756703XX, ordered on 8th September and quoted to be before the 6th October. It's a 20" with 1GB, 250HDD, bluetooth, wireless so being BTO it will no doubt be back of the queue.
I assume that different countries will have different order numbers and dispatch dates?

Anyone know where/if these machines are built in Europe?

This is my first venture into owning a Mac after years of running Windows boxes, viruses, spyware, blue screens etc etc......................and from what I've seen of a G4 iMac I'm so impressed with the way it all just actually works and gets on with the job.

 

[arnegp]

prcessor speed was set to automatic? where do you change this?
just curious. i have a powerbook 1ghz and if this baby can do any
better, i really would like see that. i know its not imac related, but
if someone could tell me how to do it.
i want to know how to when i get my iMac 17" 1.8 gHz.

 

[Alex Duggan]

I'm in the UK and my order number is W756703XX, ordered on 8th September and quoted to be before the 6th October. It's a 20" with 1GB, 250HDD, bluetooth, wireless so being BTO it will no doubt be back of the queue.
I assume that different countries will have different order numbers and dispatch dates?

Anyone know where/if these machines are built in Europe?

This is my first venture into owning a Mac after years of running Windows boxes, viruses, spyware, blue screens etc etc......................and from what I've seen of a G4 iMac I'm so impressed with the way it all just actually works and gets on with the job.

My Standard 20" was shipped direct from China (well it hasnt actually moved yet, but still!) to come to the UK.

Most desktops though are customised and shipped from Cork I believe, imagine it will be the same with the iMac when demans stabalises a bit and are more than enough to go around!

 

[Alex Duggan]

prcessor speed was set to automatic? where do you change this?
just curious. i have a powerbook 1ghz and if this baby can do any
better, i really would like see that. i know its not imac related, but
if someone could tell me how to do it.
i want to know how to when i get my iMac 17" 1.8 gHz.

Sorry for the double post (this thing needs a feature like IPB's multi quote!!)

Is in the Energy Saver section of System Preferences. Just turned this to Highest on my iBook G4 800Mhz and has made a huge difference!

Must remember to turn it back off though when I take the power cable out (edit: jjust realised there are different settings for running on battery power, will leave it as it is then!)

 

[arnegp]

thanks alex duggan!
great!

who would've thought that my powerbook could be any better?

 

[Finrock]

I understand why Apple configures its computers at Automatic, laptops conserve battery power and desktops run cooler, but don't you think they'd set their demo machines to Highest in their stores? It makes a significant difference.

I'm also surprised that more people don't know about this. Maybe its because I've owned mostly iBooks and PowerBooks.

 

[gatorron]

A few thoughts on patience

Apparently KeareB, Trekkie,MacinDoc, Stillwater, Finrock, myself and others are all in the same boat due to BT.

I'm beginning to think there's a problem -- with no evidence, just speculation.

Of course Apple would process the orders more or less sequentially. More or less being the key. Those of us who added BT were sorted out for a separate run through the assembly line.

Now, what if Apple was waiting for a certain group size before making the separate run? What is the critical number? "Are we there yet, Dad? Are we there yet?"

Since the Ives "single cord" design is a major selling point, are there so few people choosing this? I can't believe it. And (w/employers discount) the BT plus KB, Mouse option was a mere $93 upgrade, that cannot be much of an obstacle.

Finally, have they not assembled a single machine w/BT yet? Of course they have. Perhaps the machines aren't working properly, thus the assembly run delay.

Maybe -- since BT is basically a radio receiver/transmitter -- and it is placed in a space crammed with other electronics which no doubt generate RF noise, tests w/the wireless KB and mouse and maybe other devices have been problematic.

I sure hope not, but this brings me to the title: I planned on buying a 20" G4 in May, but a rep urged me to wait until the end of June, when the new G5 would be released. So I waited. When it wasn't released, I could no longer buy the G4, so I waited two more months. I ordered at 3:05 AM PST 8/31, and I'm still waiting.

This is not about instant gratification. My patience has been -- well, some would say admirable.

I....want...my....friggin'...computer....NOW!

 

[andyblac]

Apparently KeareB, Trekkie,MacinDoc, Stillwater, Finrock, myself and others are all in the same boat due to BT.

i too am still waiting for BTO (w/BT) 20" iMac G5. i am from the UK anyone else ?

 

[AndiePandie]

Add me into that group, gatorron! The only thing I did to the 20" I ordered was added the BT option, everything else is stock. It does make me wonder what's going on. I'm hoping to at least hear something by this coming Wednesday regarding ship dates (no real reason just my guestimate).