New iMac G5 Announced

[Dont Hurt Me]

So once again there is a fairly large group of people left in the dust. People who need the pro app but can not/ do not need a PowerG5. We are going to call those people the Prosumers. Oh sorry they are SOL. Apple has noughthing and I mean nouththing to brigde the massive gap in there market line up

Very true, its the same old game all in one nonsense or powermac. what consumer needs to have 2 cpu's? and since so many consumer are gamers they need a video upgrade once in the machines life. Its why i have a Alienware on the way. Macs are great for a lot of things but gaming. funny that Apple is do dead set on $16 fx5200 chips.

 

[savar]

Your joking right? I'm about as hardcore an Apple fan as there is, but come on. This is the same company that came out with the emate, the toilet seat ibook, the cube, System 7.5.3, the Pippin, etc.

Apple is a company, not a church. They make mistakes. And I'm pretty sure they thought they KNEW what they are doing even when the market tells them its a failure.

Were any of those released under the Job's regime? I don't think so...

Certainly they do make mistakes; you'd be a fool to say they didn't. Come on, who doesn't? But they're a lot smarter now than in the mid-to-late 90s.

BTW, what was wrong with 7.5.3?

 

[AidenShaw]

Were any of those released under the Job's regime? I don't think so...

BTW, what was wrong with 7.5.3?

Think again - the toilet seat iBook and "The Cube" are definitely the fault of Jobs.

 

[savar]

I think there are a number of male youth potential switchers who will want gaming power and be put off by the weak graphics card. How many, I guess in the USA it would be in the thousands.

Oooohh! Several thousand? That would prop up Apple's market share...oh .0001%?

Anyway, Apple should have included a BTO for a better card. We all know this by now. It's probably constrained by engineering problems. I expect it to be fixed in the Rev B which will be announced before/at the same time as Tiger next year.

Now can we return to the interesting things about this machine?

 

[savar]

I see, so what your saying is that your arrogant and a snob and enjoy looking down on "lesser" people that aren't as special as you because they don't own a mac or are too poor to afford the finer things? So sad...

Would a snob correct your grammar?

Anyway, I never said I would look down on others based on what they do or do not own, or consider them lesser than me, or that I consider myself special. Where you came up with all of that, I'm not sure.

All I was saying is that its not your God-granted right to own a Mac. Or whatever else you think the best computer might be. As long as I can afford them, and Apple can keep making them, I will keep buying them. As I said before: I appreciate nice things, and I'd rather have a few really nice things than a mountain of junk.

I suppose you might label this the same brand of minimalism that Apple is digging further and further into. It isn't a coincidence.

As somebody with a dual MDD G4, I'd have thought you'd feel the same way.

 

[savar]

http://homepage.mac.com/parisexpo2004

just got home from Paris and managed to get a long time playing with the new iMac. Man it Rules!

Ordering my machine from the UK store after posting this!

Are those pics that say "iMac G5 on stand" of the 20 incher??

Its making my 17" CRT look sooooo old.

 

[mac-lad]

Headless iMac... Again

Here's a thought:

Headless iMac --> iPod.

Sure, not this year, but with the advent of smaller and smaller components and the iPod's base for a monitor port, why not? The Pocket PC

 

[takao]

Oooohh! Several thousand? That would prop up Apple's market share...oh .0001%?

hm perhaps not in the US but in places where they are around 1,7% (after the best year they had second to 1997 _ever_)
from those 37.000 macs sold around the half were desktops..from the 19.000 desktops the half where imac/emac combined so it's around 5000 machines for imac or emac

so if they could pull out another few thousands of imacs they would be very happy ... at least in the german market

 

[Porchland]

I've looked at the specs and the VR on apple.com/imac, and I can't figure out where the AirPort slot is located. Anyone?

I saw the commentary on news.com criticizing Apple for not building wireless networking and BT into the box, and I'm inclined to agree. I'm sure Apple's research told them they needed to hit "X" price point and they were trying to stay on it, but wireless functionality was on its way to becoming standard across Apple's product lines. Now, it's not.

Hopefully it will be added as a standard feature for the January keynote.

 

[macidiot]

Hmm, funny, I've seen multiple posts in this thread from professionals stating that the 5200 does everything they need it to in terms of Photoshop. I guess these professionals must be Grannys writing letters to their grandchildren and browsing the Internet. I have never had one issue with my 5200 either, so I guess that must mean I'm 80 years old and only use Mail.

Thats a facile argument. Using Photoshop as a benchmark for the useablity of a graphics card is laughable. Photoshop is 2D and is heavily dependent on the CPU, NOT GPU. Photoshop performance is all about your CPU and your ram.

Why not say the 5200 is fine because Logic runs great with it? wtf.

 

[macidiot]

Er, no, a gamer needs a better graphics card. Name one Pro app which will run on a screen no more than 1680x1050 which requires a better graphics card. As has been proven, the iMac runs Motion. It runs Final Cut Pro. It runs Shake. Please tell me why a prosumer system needs a better card. One example would be fine. Just one would be enough.

As far as I can tell, a Motion/FCP/Shake-running system is pretty much definable as prosumer. Hell, it's definable as "pro" for most uses.

Maya.

 

[louis]

iMac G5 or 17" PowerBook G4???

Hy guys I'm new here I hope you welcome me.
I have a question for you: as of now what do you think is better between???

 

[macidiot]

OK, sorry to ask these questions yet again (I posted them twice before, but to no avail), guess they're still drowning in all the barking about the graphics card, other PC's and/or Macs, sigh..... So one final try.

Personally I like the design really very much and it fits well to my needs, but two things are not yet clear to me:

1. Noise levels. It seems to be a quit design, but has anybody actually heard one of these in Paris and reported on the noise levels?

2. Responsetime of the display. Is this the new 16 ms or the old 25 ms, anybody know? I can live happily with the FX 5200, but 25 ms would be a big disappointment. I could not read it on the apple site, which worries me a bit.

Thanks for any help on these questions.

From what I can tell, the iMac display is not as good as the ACD(20" vs 20"). I don't know if its because its a different display or just de-tuned. I couldn't find any mention of response time on Apple's site, which is worrisome, like you mentioned. Since the iMac is inferior to the ACD in most other performance categories, one could infer that the response time is also inferior. But until someone tests it, or Apple posts the info, can't know for sure...

As for noise levels, who knows? Even if you were next to one at the Expo, there would be too much ambient noise to accurately judge the noise level of the iMac.

 

[CholEoptera36]

Matty P, great pics.
From this picture you can easily see how the Airport Extreme car is missing, although the iMac does allow the card to be installed by upgrade.

 

[macidiot]

OK, thanks for your opinion (you too Postal).

Well, I'm not a gamer, but I do plan to watch DVD's on the 20" iMac G5. Would de 25 ms be noticable in fast action scenes for example? If the displays were of the new 16 ms type, I would feel better.

Guess we'll have to wait for more in depth reviews...

Well, I've never seen a dvd on a 25ms lcd, so I can't comment on that. But I have played a couple of dvd's on my 20" acd. There is ghosting and there are artifacts. Color and sharpness are great though. Personally, I saw enough to not really want to watch dvd's on my acd. But it might be fine for other people.

 

[mpw]

I have no opinion on the graphics card!!

Would like to have seen;
a) TV tuner and 'iMedia Centre'
b) Apple BT remote
c) AirPort & BT as standard
d) A couple of channels or grooves on the underside of the foot as a cable guide for the keyboard and iPod dock to complete the clean look.
(that last one wouldn't even have costed a $, £ or €)

However I really do like what there is and will be buying one asap

 

[oingoboingo]

From this picture you can easily see how the Airport Extreme car is missing, although the iMac does allow the card to be installed by upgrade.

Yes, and there is no real way I can see to fit an Extreme Car (I'm partial towards the BMW M5 myself) into the back of that thing anyway, be it from the Airport, the Bus Terminal, or even the Ferry Wharf. I'd say we'll see a new model announced in a week or two with a garage attachment on the back for the Airport Extreme Car.

(sorry, couldn't resist).

 

[macidiot]

No, they DON'T. There will be games that run absolutely stellar on the iMac G5 and there will those that don't. They have to meet people with the most advanced technology they can while maintaining certain costs and certain price points. Don't you GET IT? A lot of people LIKED the "Lamp" iMac but felt it was too pricey. Apple had to do several things in introducing this new unit (1) stay true to "the soul of the imac"; (2) better specs; (3) more innovative design; (4) lower price... and in my opinion (and many people that will speak with their wallets), they succeeded.



Goofy analogy. You're still stuck on the processor & video card. Again, Apple could've intro'd an iMac that would fit your gaming desires, but guess what?... you would have to PAY for that beefed up hardware. And EVERYBODY (including YOU, Yvan) would've pitched a bitch. Again, this computer is not aimed at you. Go get a PC. Nobody's stopping you. In fact, I challenge you to go and put together a list of your DREAM GAMING PC, along with actual costs associated with Video Card, Ram, etc. and POST IT HERE. I would love to know what you deem to be GAME-READY actually costs. And be honest as I'm sure there will be plenty of people ready to flame you if you cheat on price points.

I like Games and Playtime as much as the next guy, but THERE IS WORK TO BE DONE the other 95% of the time and I feel the iMac G5 definitely will meet more needs than not... and I also think Apple's about to sell a lot of these new computers.

I really don't get why you think that upgrading that video card would make the iMac cost thousands more. We're talking about $25 more to go to a 9600. I don't think anyone here is bitching about the cpu. And, again, if there was a BTO option, or if the gpu was user-upgradeable, this would be a non-issue. People who want to save a few bucks can stick with the 5200 and people who want more can spend more.

FYI, I think the new iMac would be very game ready if it shipped with a 128MB 9700 and 512MB ram. I actually don't care that the iMac ships with 256MB ram, since its cheaper to buy elsewhere.

So...additional cost to make the iMac "game ready" and quiet all the detractors...about $100

Additional cost to the consumer if they made the GPU upgradeable... ZERO.

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

Will the new Imacs be able to run Adobe CS Suite ok??

Maybe in some what n=better than my PB rev. B 12" at 1ghz.....

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

I bet you can get a small quick-release unit that fits BETWEEN the unit and any VESA mount, too. And I bet someone soon makes one to let you use the iMac's own foot the same way.

these are great options, but I am looking for a "quick release" for the VESA mount. I have yet to see something that allows for the G5 iMac to be useed as a "semi" portable.

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

Eww. Please tell me that's sarcasm.
1) Pug-Fugly.
2) You could do that yourself with an iBook and creative use of 3rd party accessories.
3) Laptops are not meant to fly.

Looking at it from a "retail" perspective, I would hope that Apple could have come out with something better looking. Given that the new G5 iMac is "close" to a notebook; they could have saved some money combining the two IMO.

 

[mpw]

Sorry to be DIMM but having never opened a PC case...

...Could someone explain RAM options. On the BTO options on Applestore online the iMac is listed with 256MB of RAM to upgrade to 1GB 1DIMM costs +£350.01 (.01?) but to upgrade to 2GB 2DIMM's costs +£750. Isn't that 1GB DIMM @ £350.01 + another 1GB DIMM @ £350.01 = £700.02

Who gets the other £49.98? And what's with the pennies?

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

Dell made the same mistake with their early LCD screens - i.e. no height adjustment. So now they have stands that pivot and go up and down.

Obviously this was no issue at all with the G4 iMac.

I know that you can attach these G5 iMacs to third party stands - but how much is that going to add to the price?? We bought one for a Dell monitor 18 mths ago and it cost us 15% of the cost of the original PC package.

If you're buying these iMacs for the office but need better ergonomics (height adjustable) will you be prepared to pay the additional 15% to get a height adjustable stand?

Oh well - at least I'll know where my phone books are...

This is my greatest concern with the new design. The last iMac gave great flexibility in terms of use, This new one misses the mark. I know that my store is is relooking at the iMac as a retail POS (Point-of-sale).

 

[Mudbug]

Simply because this thread isn't long enough - I've updated the frontpage with the info about the $1099 Edu model iMac which is in fact reality - sporting a GeForce video card and lacking an optical drive. This seems to be a available ONLY to educational institutions, and not to individual education customers.

 

[oingoboingo]

Simply because this thread isn't long enough - I've updated the frontpage with the info about the $1099 Edu model iMac which is in fact reality - sporting a GeForce video card and lacking an optical drive. This seems to be a available ONLY to educational institutions, and not to individual education customers.

Wahhhhhhh!!!! I won't be able to get 90 FPS in UT2004 on that GF4-MX equipped educational iMac. Crap on a stick! Maybe that's the point!

Now the kids will have to waste time at school playing Civ3 or something.