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Macmamamac

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 21, 2015
217
205
My guesses are Apple will bring the iMac in line with the iPads and MacBooks and introduce a Pro model to the lineup.

The current lineup is a mess, with no clear distinction made between the top models and the budget models.

The 'Pro' tag will also allow Apple to play around a bit more with the iMac, and possibly even do the unthinkable and allow upgradeability to the CPU or GPU in a limited way. Of course this will only happen if they manage to find an extremely elegant way of doing it, akin to sim card changes in the iPhone.

More realistically however, is for the iMac Pro to have touch screen, be VR ready, have much better speakers, SSD's and probably much better Siri integration like the Amazon Echo where it is always listening even when in sleep mode.

Anyone else think iPad Pro is a probability, and if so, what will it need to earn the tag 'Pro?
 
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Macmamamac

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 21, 2015
217
205
Eww. Completely lost me at this bit.

why? Desktop touch screens already exist. They don't replace the usual navigation tools, like keyboard and mouse/trackpad etc, but complement them.

I can't see Apple not going touch screen as it opens up a lot of cool possibilities for a desktop.
 

Macmamamac

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 21, 2015
217
205
A touchscreen is absolutely no complement to a keyboard/mouse UI.

The mouse is an archaic way of navigating a desktop. It's click and point with no dexterity at all, the human hand, either on its own, or holding a pen, is the most natural and intuitive way of navigating because it's so much more precise.

A very basic usage would be ability to simply scribble on the desktop screen while working, like you would on a wall, or whatever. Pointless but many of the features are gimmicks like that.

The real benefit of a touch screen would come to designers and others who want to utilise touch over old ways of navigating. Of course, the iMac would have to have the ability to gracefully slide down to an angle similar to an architects desk. That would transform the desktop experience for many, many users.


The future is touch, and the desktop navaigation is stuck in the 70s. Limiting the experience massively.
 

keysofanxiety

macrumors G3
Nov 23, 2011
9,539
25,302
The mouse is an archaic way of navigating a desktop. It's click and point with no dexterity at all, the human hand, either on its own, or holding a pen, is the most natural and intuitive way of navigating because it's so much more precise.

Most people here would make mincemeat navigating their Mac with the trackpad gestures than even the daintiest pair of hands touching a screen can.

It's not natural and intuitive if it's on a UI designed for mouse and keyboard. It's natural and intuitive on a UI designed for touch only, like iOS is.
 

Macmamamac

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 21, 2015
217
205
Most people here would make mincemeat navigating their Mac with the trackpad gestures than even the daintiest pair of hands touching a screen can.

It's not natural and intuitive if it's on a UI designed for mouse and keyboard. It's natural and intuitive on a UI designed for touch only, like iOS is.


Yes, but I wouldn't want to navigate a full blown desktop with touch only. But as a designer, I am essentially using the same navigation functions as accountants.

The ability to lower the iMac and use it like a Cintiq, which is an inferior product all in all, would be a revolutionary experience. If touch/Pencil was intergrated, it would open up so many new possibilities for that massive screen in front of you.
 
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CWallace

macrumors G4
Aug 17, 2007
11,959
10,616
Seattle, WA
The mouse is an archaic way of navigating a desktop. It's click and point with no dexterity at all, the human hand, either on its own, or holding a pen, is the most natural and intuitive way of navigating because it's so much more precise.

Especially when the screen is over a foot away... :p

Seriously, we will probably eventually see a touch interface on macOS, but that will be when it's replaced with a version of iOS and Macs run A-series CPUs. And I don't expect to see that until well into the next decade when a more than critical mass of macOS productivity applications have been ported to iOS (for the 13" iPad Pro, I imagine) with equivalent functionality to their macOS versions.
 

LorenK

macrumors 6502
Dec 26, 2007
391
153
Illinois
Whether we like it or not, touchscreen is coming. I was killing time at a Costco, and saw a Wintel machine with a touchscreen and started swiping away, and didn't see any problem with it. Now, we might like a pristine screen, but a finger isn't the only means to use a touchscreen, so ready or not, here it comes, with your usual Apple bells and whistles to make it seem like they think they invented it.
 

Nermal

Moderator
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
20,595
3,934
New Zealand
The mouse is an archaic way of navigating a desktop. It's click and point with no dexterity at all, the human hand, either on its own, or holding a pen, is the most natural and intuitive way of navigating because it's so much more precise.
Yet when I use large (~1 metre) vertically-mounted touchscreens for a decent period of time I often begin to slightly miss the elements that I'm trying to touch. When the screen is horizontal all is well, but with vertical screens gravity quickly becomes a burden.
 

richinaus

macrumors 68020
Oct 26, 2014
2,358
2,104
The mouse is an archaic way of navigating a desktop. It's click and point with no dexterity at all, the human hand, either on its own, or holding a pen, is the most natural and intuitive way of navigating because it's so much more precise.

A very basic usage would be ability to simply scribble on the desktop screen while working, like you would on a wall, or whatever. Pointless but many of the features are gimmicks like that.

The real benefit of a touch screen would come to designers and others who want to utilise touch over old ways of navigating. Of course, the iMac would have to have the ability to gracefully slide down to an angle similar to an architects desk. That would transform the desktop experience for many, many users.


The future is touch, and the desktop navaigation is stuck in the 70s. Limiting the experience massively.

There is no way I would ever use the touch screen and I am a designer who uses the ipad pad pro daily to draw. It is a huge pain to use with all the smudge marks on the screen and I am constantly cleaning it. It drives me mad and will be relegated to a pencil only desktop tool as soon as the new MBP comes out.

I would say touch is a limiting experience using pro apps. It would be very interesting to see how the icons would be integrated in to the design for fat fingers, when there are so many of them [totally different to a ipad app].

They can integrate it if they want but I wont be touching it anytime soon.
[doublepost=1475184352][/doublepost]
Yes, but I wouldn't want to navigate a full blown desktop with touch only. But as a designer, I am essentially using the same navigation functions as accountants.

The ability to lower the iMac and use it like a Cintiq, which is an inferior product all in all, would be a revolutionary experience. If touch/Pencil was intergrated, it would open up so many new possibilities for that massive screen in front of you.

This is a fine way to work as a dedicated display for drawing, but for your only computer a big nightmare unless you want to be cleaning a 27" display several times a day.
I am not trying to be negative here, as would love a cintiq type device but not on my main display. The ipad has taught me that one.
[doublepost=1475184462][/doublepost]
It's funny because I use my iPad with a keyboard most of the time now and sometimes on my MBP I find myself reaching to toggle between fields out of habit.

And does it do your head in reaching for the display to scroll etc? I find it very annoying to be reaching rather than a trackpad.
Works fine in a tablet mode, but as soon as in a keyboard, the mode of working deteriorates with a vertical screen for input with touch
 
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RootBeerMan

macrumors 65816
Jan 3, 2016
1,472
5,259
A touchscreen is not something on my current wish list. If I want that I can use my iPad. I want an upgraded iMac and sooner would be better than later.
 
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richinaus

macrumors 68020
Oct 26, 2014
2,358
2,104
A touchscreen is not something on my current wish list. If I want that I can use my iPad. I want an upgraded iMac and sooner would be better than later.

A specced up imac pro with faster CPU an graphics options would be something I would order. If they redesigned the case to allow for higher wattage chips would open up lots of opportunities.

I am in the same boat though, sooner rather than later would also suit me fine. I was close to getting one last year, but have held out on my 2014 15"mbp and TB display and am ready to upgrade [all pro design use and have set aside the money to go for it]
 
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danielwsmithee

macrumors 65816
Mar 12, 2005
1,135
410
The biggest limitations of the current iMac design to keep it from being a "Pro" computer it is designed around a ~100 Watt CPU and a ~125 Watt GPU. Just redesign it for a a 150 Watt CPU and dual 150 Watt GPUs and it would be fine.

The other thing that would be nice is user accessible storage. I'd like to see it have multiple M.2 slots that can be accessed by the end user like the memory.

I think it is pretty much a given that will get TB3, a Pro may be good to have more than two TB3 ports though. It looks like the MBP will have 4, the Mac Pro has 6. 4 ports on an iMac Pro should be good enough.
 
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mollyc

macrumors 604
Aug 18, 2016
7,759
46,574
I would hate a touchscreen for an iMac. I am a photographer and use a Wacom tablet for editing in LR and PS. I have a 27" screen and need to keep it a fair distance away from my body for ease of viewing. Having to jam it closer to me and then smudge it???? No thank you.
 

shaunp

Cancelled
Nov 5, 2010
1,811
1,395
A touchscreen is absolutely no complement to a keyboard/mouse UI.

Touch screen does work, but only in limited cases. I bought an XPS 15 and it came with a touch screen. Didn't think much of it at the time, it's just standard on the 4K screen, and I wasn't planning on using it. However I was going threw a few things with a colleague (PDF's and Visio diagrams) to explain how something worked. The touch screen is useful in this case, like a mini Smart Board if you've ever seen those. But I agree it makes a mess of the screen and I certainly wouldn't want to do it for very long.
[doublepost=1475191481][/doublepost]
The biggest limitations of the current iMac design to keep it from being a "Pro" computer it is designed around a ~100 Watt CPU and a ~125 Watt GPU. Just redesign it for a a 150 Watt CPU and dual 150 Watt GPUs and it would be fine.

The other thing that would be nice is user accessible storage. I'd like to see it have multiple M.2 slots that can be accessed by the end user like the memory.

I think it is pretty much a given that will get TB3, a Pro may be good to have more than two TB3 ports though. It looks like the MBP will have 4, the Mac Pro has 6. 4 ports on an iMac Pro should be good enough.

And put some decent cooling in there so it doesn't sound like an aircraft taking off. That's the main difference between the nMP and the iMac when they are pushed. Sure the iMac hand hold it's own in performance terms for short while, but once it gets hot it throttles the CPU and makes a ton of noise. The nMP just remains quiet and the performance is constant.

Maybe if it wasn't so thin it would actually work better. Who needs a thin desktop anyway? Thin doesn't get the job done quicker!
 

richinaus

macrumors 68020
Oct 26, 2014
2,358
2,104
Touch screen does work, but only in limited cases. I bought an XPS 15 and it came with a touch screen. Didn't think much of it at the time, it's just standard on the 4K screen, and I wasn't planning on using it. However I was going threw a few things with a colleague (PDF's and Visio diagrams) to explain how something worked. The touch screen is useful in this case, like a mini Smart Board if you've ever seen those. But I agree it makes a mess of the screen and I certainly wouldn't want to do it for very long.
[doublepost=1475191481][/doublepost]

And put some decent cooling in there so it doesn't sound like an aircraft taking off. That's the main difference between the nMP and the iMac when they are pushed. Sure the iMac hand hold it's own in performance terms for short while, but once it gets hot it throttles the CPU and makes a ton of noise. The nMP just remains quiet and the performance is constant.

Maybe if it wasn't so thin it would actually work better. Who needs a thin desktop anyway? Thin doesn't get the job done quicker!

It just needs the casing size to be increased to allow for the higher watt chips and airflow and all will be well. I love the look of the imac but would also be fine with a change in the design if it made it more productive. I would think there is hardly anyone who would be bothered if it increased in size to allow 'pro' specifications.
 
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294307

Cancelled
Mar 19, 2009
567
315
Yes, but I wouldn't want to navigate a full blown desktop with touch only. But as a designer, I am essentially using the same navigation functions as accountants.

The ability to lower the iMac and use it like a Cintiq, which is an inferior product all in all, would be a revolutionary experience. If touch/Pencil was intergrated, it would open up so many new possibilities for that massive screen in front of you.

They will not add a touchscreen to a Mac when the operating system it runs is not designed to be used that way. Any desktop computer with a touchscreen might sound fancy and impressive, but it is just a gimmick when you consider what you could possibly do with a touchscreen display that's vertically positioned away from you. Even if Apple wanted to add a touchscreen to their Macs - which they don't - they will make themselves look like absolute idiots by doing so.

Other companies might have touchscreens on some of their computers but generally only because it's a feature that can be advertised to try and sell it. One of my old Dell AIOs with Windows 8 had a touchscreen - not by choice, it just happened to include one. I only really ever used it from time-to-time to quickly launch apps from the Start screen. I thought it was otherwise a gimmick, and still do.

A couple years ago manufacturers soon realised AIOs don't need touchscreens to sell, and I think you'll find many Windows 10 AIO computers available today without a touchscreen for this reason. Many consumers either don't want them or just don't care. Certainly not the same as a tablet or laptop convertible though, where the use cases for a touchscreen make sense with the right software and UI - and OS X is certainly not suitable. Apple knows that, we know that. It's a desktop operating system designed around mouse-based input. And there is nothing wrong with that.

There are people that would want a touchscreen on an AIO, but I don't think that represents the majority of consumers.
 
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varian55zx

macrumors 6502a
May 10, 2012
748
260
San Francisco
The mouse is an archaic way of navigating a desktop. It's click and point with no dexterity at all, the human hand, either on its own, or holding a pen, is the most natural and intuitive way of navigating because it's so much more precise.
C'mon. Even you don't believe this

The mouse isn't an archaic way of navigating a desktop, it is the way one navigates a desktop.

I personally swapped the Magic Mouse out that came with my iMac for a high end desktop mouse, and I am very happy with the experience.

It even has extra buttons that I've programmed features like mission control and cmd+h to.

If Apple released an iMac that called for the use of a touchscreen (on the screen??) I really believe that would be the end of the iMac. You'd look preposterous arching yourself onto your desk to tap your iMac screen.

Previously I have been very happy that Apple hasn't attempted a touch screen desktop.
 
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