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New iMac Tidbits: Headphone Jack on Side, Ethernet Port on Power Adapter, Spatial Audio and WiFi 6 Support, No SD Card Slot

mnsportsgeek said:
The headphone jack on the side makes sense for headphones, but will be annoying for speakers.
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True, but at least it's there - and these days I'd probably run speakers via USB (and I guess others will use wireless). Apple are hyping the internal speaker quality and, given their track record with previous iMacs and the iPac, I'm confident that the internal speakers will make the typical cheap'n'cheerful multimedia speakers redundant...

If you want something a bit more "audiophile" - or are doing audio creation - #1 on the shopping list will probably be an external audio interface anyway which may have a better DAC. Plus there are plenty of nice monitor speakers which plug into USB.
 
PrecisionGem said:
As someone who uses a real camera every day, and transfers images, plugging in the SD card is more convent than plugging a cable into the computer and then into the camera. I would think most people would rather have two times as many ports on the back of their computer than what is currently being offered. A sleek looking machine with a desktop cluttered with adapters and cables doesn't interest me.
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The side of the machine having at least 2 extra slots that the target market would not even use is less eye pleasing than the few that need a card reader to have their specific reader stuck to the side, under the desk, in a drawer, or at the side of the machine.
 
ruka.snow said:
Well putting in a CF Express reader would eat up what could be a TB3 port for a minority. Adding a SD slot in 2021 when the industry has moved on is equally daft. Maybe they'll put out a two pro photographer models with a calibratable screen and one model having CF Express A for Sony shooters and the other having CF Express B for Canon, Nikon, and everyone else.

And the an external reader isn't a dongle, it is an external reader. And as the past has shown the external reader is always markably faster than the internal.
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Maybe you moved on from a camera using an memory card, but the industry certainly has not. I don't know ANY professional photographers or serious photography enthusiasts. who shoot with telephones.
 
MauiPa said:
seems like apples (haha) to oranges when comparing displays. You can get a mini LED display with these specs anywhere near the price you mention. So your premise is you can downgrade stuff and save money? True, you have a point
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You sound like the ex-mac guy when arguing about wintel is better, because it has touchscreen. Or android users when babbling about hz-es and megapixels I don't care at all about those. Same with the 4.5K 23.5" display.
 
macwant said:
I said nothing about SD cards or USB A. I said the iMac has since it’s inception had white bezels until they switched to Intel chips. What about white bezels lacks modern convenience?
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I wasn’t specifically talking about you with my comment about SD cards. I’m talking about the general tone of some of the comments defending the iMac.
 
PrecisionGem said:
As someone who uses a real camera every day, and transfers images, plugging in the SD card is more convent than plugging a cable into the computer and then into the camera. I would think most people would rather have two times as many ports on the back of their computer than what is currently being offered. A sleek looking machine with a desktop cluttered with adapters and cables doesn't interest me.
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But "the future" something.. Timmey said.

Joking aside, that's too courageous sorry.
 
I’m surprised they even included an Ethernet option. Figured you’d use a dongle. So now we need a dongle/hub for Dual Ethernet, SD card, USB A, FireWire, DVD/CD Writer, Digital Audio, Sound Input, VGA, SVideo, HDMI, Thunderbolt 1/2 and Serial Port. Who knows about eGPU and lack of memory and disk expansions. :rolleyes:
 
stockseer said:
I got the DELL curved 4k black thin bezels and brushed aluminum (smooth but plastic); and it's excellent. Was on sale for under $400.
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This is the point. Yes, I may not be able to get a 1 to 1 set-up with an iMac, but it isn’t too difficult to build a system that is comparable for less money. It‘s easy to find decent 4K monitors for under $500. Combine a $400 monitor with a Mac Mini and you’re only looking at about $1,100. The iMac with the 8 core GPU starts at $1,500. I can upgrade the Mac Mini to 16GB and a 1TB SSD for only $1,299. Granted not everyone wants to build there own system, but, as a former iMac owner myself, the value proposition of this new iMac is much lower than in the past.
 
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PrecisionGem said:
Maybe you moved on from a camera using an memory card, but the industry certainly has not. I don't know ANY professional photographers or serious photography enthusiasts. who shoot with telephones.
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My cameras all have CF Express type B and every pro camera of the last two decades has had CF, XQD, CFast, or now CF Express in either A or B variants.

But we aren't talking about pro's we are talking about a consumer computer and consumer format. Consumer DLSR's and point and shoot cameras died now that (to the user) you can get a comparable image on your smartphone. Even then it is arguable if the user of a Canon Rebel wouldn't just plug their camera directly into the computer over USB.

Pro's never used the built-in SD reader, our cameras at that era used CF right up to the Canon 5D Mark IV. Nikon were a wee bit ahead of the curve and pushed XQD in the D850 and D5. But even the D5 came in dual CF or dual XQD versions. Canon's 1-series line had dual CF, CF+CFast, and now dual CF Express type B.
 
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I think a lot of people are forgetting that the iMac is a consumer computer. With the colors and design, it’s clear that Apple has gone back to the iMacs roots. Look at the bondi iMac, Flower Power or Blue Dalmatian, they didn’t look professional because they weren’t. I’m sure that Apple has a prosumer machine coming soon, we just have to be patient.
 
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Orange Bat said:
This is the point. Yes, I may not be able to get a 1 to 1 set-up with an iMac, but it isn’t too difficult to build a system that is comparable for less money. It‘s easy to find decent 4K monitors for under $500. Combine a $400 monitor with a Mac Mini and you’re only looking at about $1,100. The iMac with the 8 core GPU starts at $1,500. I can upgrade the Mac Mini to 16GB and a 1TB SSD for only $1,299. Granted not everyone wants to build there own system, but, as a former iMac owner myself, the value proposition of this new iMac is much lower than in the past.
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It is easy to find a 4k screen for $500, but not a decent one. 21.5 and 24 inch models are very few and far between so you end up with a naff 27-30 inch thing that isn't as bright, clear, nor crisp as the Apple displays. That may not be important to you, but I feel it is rather off to compare two screens that are in completely different classes and suggest the cheeper one matches up.
 
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ruka.snow said:
It is easy to find a 4k screen for $500, but not a decent one. 21.5 and 24 inch models are very few and far between so you end up with a naff 27-30 inch thing that isn't as bright, clear, nor crisp as the Apple displays. That may not be important to you, but I feel it is rather off to compare two screens that are in completely different classes and suggest the cheeper one matches up.
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These classes only seem to exist when Apple hasn't worked hard enough.
 
Nice colours. Wifi 6 is good to have. Magnetic power cable 👍. Should be like MagSafe
 
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Orange Bat said:
I wasn’t specifically talking about you with my comment about SD cards. I’m talking about the general tone of some of the comments defending the iMac.
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No, you were generalizing about him/her by conflating all positive comments with all negative comments and then using the “hypocrisy” to dismiss everyone. It’s a common internet logical fallacy.

I personally believe that every connectivity decision made on the iMac 24” is based on the current M1 SoC and it’s limitations.

1. no sd card slot - would require a controller not on board
2. 16GB max memory due to M1 design limitations
3. 2 thunderbolt ports - M1 can’t handle more

The ethernet is handled by the network/wireless controller, the headphone jack is connected to the sound controller.

Until an M2 SoC, this is all that can be done.

I expect the M2 to support more memory, more i/o, more cores.
 
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