The only way you could send compressed PostScript to the wireless monitor is for the video card to route the video signal back to either the GPU or the CPU for compression, then send those packets off on a network card. Trying to compress video is a lot harder then it sounds, and the current architecture couldn't do it very well, if at all.
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New iMacs in Early 2004?
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I like the look of the iMac. I like the all-in-one idea. (I currently have a G3 iMac I am typing on right now).
I just think it is horribly overpriced right now for what you get compared to the PowerMac line. When the flat panel iMac came out the high end had an 800 MHz chip and cost $1800. At the same time, the PowerMac was around 1 GHz and around $2500. So by the time you bought a monitor the prices were similiar and the processing speeds were not that different.
I think there used to be a lot more value in the iMac.
micropop said:
I know this would be a longer wait than you probably want to, but I would wait until the World Wide Developers Conference in the first part of June. If they don't announce any new iMacs by then, your probably ok to get one without have Apple announce a new iMac in the near future.
I keep saying to other people that Apple has to have a new iMac this year sometime. The question is when? I'm almost positive that it will have a G5 in it and because of that I'm also positive that it will probably have a form factor change. I hope its a mini version of the PowerMac G5. Then you can get any display you want with it. You'll have a little more expandability, have twice the power as the previous iMac G4's, and when you want to upgrade your iMac in a couple of years you can just get a new tower instead of having to give up that beautiful 17 or 20" display everytime.
Now...I don't work for Apple (but I would love to!), and I really don't know what Apple is going to announce, but these are just my feelings and I feel that Apple will announce new iMacs this year with a G5 and a new form factor change.
Wants vs needs
After Apple introduced the G5 last year, I've visited the Apple Store several times (7-8) to spend 10-20 minutes on each G5 model. I am currently on an 800 mHz G3 iBook; needless to say I am speechless at the G5's performance. I have also tried going from the 'lowest' G5 to the highest G4-based iMac & PB. There's no question about it: why spend money on a system with an old chip? I was told a long time ago by my parents, "never go back, even to get greater impulse." True I am on a G3-based machine; and what I use it for it's adequate. I *DO* however, want to get into making 'archival' copies of my DVDs, and higher-level digital photography, learn Photoshop, etc. This cannot be done effectively with a G3, and the G4 is reaching the end of its power for these tasks.
I have put my order in, and cancelled a G5 system twice already, all because of trying to justify the cost involved. I recently took vacation in San Francisco, and the iBook was a great traveling companion. Fired it up in flight on the Atlanta-San Francisco leg. After every day of shooting about a hundred digital pictures with my new Canon Powershot G5, I uploaded the pictures to the iBook. But after I got back, I noticed that iPhoto is *very* slow.
That being said, I'd love a 15" or 17" PB, albeit with a G4 as my sputnik, and know that at home I have a G5 with a 20" Cinema display. I may not be a scientist, graphic design artist, whatever...I crave the power. Some may cringe saying, "that's a waste of money for that sucker who's not a 'professional' to buy a G5, he's depleting the world of G5 for someone who ACTUALLY needs one."
iMacs are good, but why buy one if it uses 'older' technology? I will keep with my reasoning and when the G6's, G7's, and G8's are released, I will say the same about the previous models.
Today's technology is tomorrow's trash-heap.
After Apple introduced the G5 last year, I've visited the Apple Store several times (7-8) to spend 10-20 minutes on each G5 model. I am currently on an 800 mHz G3 iBook; needless to say I am speechless at the G5's performance. I have also tried going from the 'lowest' G5 to the highest G4-based iMac & PB. There's no question about it: why spend money on a system with an old chip? I was told a long time ago by my parents, "never go back, even to get greater impulse." True I am on a G3-based machine; and what I use it for it's adequate. I *DO* however, want to get into making 'archival' copies of my DVDs, and higher-level digital photography, learn Photoshop, etc. This cannot be done effectively with a G3, and the G4 is reaching the end of its power for these tasks.
I have put my order in, and cancelled a G5 system twice already, all because of trying to justify the cost involved. I recently took vacation in San Francisco, and the iBook was a great traveling companion. Fired it up in flight on the Atlanta-San Francisco leg. After every day of shooting about a hundred digital pictures with my new Canon Powershot G5, I uploaded the pictures to the iBook. But after I got back, I noticed that iPhoto is *very* slow.
That being said, I'd love a 15" or 17" PB, albeit with a G4 as my sputnik, and know that at home I have a G5 with a 20" Cinema display. I may not be a scientist, graphic design artist, whatever...I crave the power. Some may cringe saying, "that's a waste of money for that sucker who's not a 'professional' to buy a G5, he's depleting the world of G5 for someone who ACTUALLY needs one."
iMacs are good, but why buy one if it uses 'older' technology? I will keep with my reasoning and when the G6's, G7's, and G8's are released, I will say the same about the previous models.
Today's technology is tomorrow's trash-heap.
micropop said:
Yep, an new iMac is likely to be on the way. When...well its overdue, the old model is underpowered and current sales are poor - so the sooner the better. Maybe Steve will release new Macs for all the lines at the end of June WWDC.
aswitcher said:Yep, an new iMac is likely to be on the way. When...well its overdue, the old model is underpowered and current sales are poor - so the sooner the better. Maybe Steve will release new Macs for all the lines at the end of June WWDC.
I hope your right aswitcher, Apple needs to refresh its consumer desktop line fast. Also, a headless G5 iMac would be great as it would be cheaper and may help people switch.
The timing is right - bring on the PM G5 updates, and then slap some 1.6 GHz G5s in a new iMac! This will allow for both models to have G5s, yet due to the speed differences (and obviously many other hardware differences), this will still allow for adequate product differentiation.
Can't wait to see the new G5 iMac design when it is released!
Can't wait to see the new G5 iMac design when it is released!
Lloyd Intalan said:I hope your right aswitcher, Apple needs to refresh its consumer desktop line fast. Also, a headless G5 iMac would be great as it would be cheaper and may help people switch.
Agreed, but Apple seems intent on the consumer line having an attached monitor, which I think is too bad. Perhaps they'll change their minds - I, for one, hate thinking that my iMac monitor is effectively obsolete once the iMac gets to be too slow for everyday use. Too bad, because the monitor itself is pretty nice (not as nice as the 20" ones, but not too bad, either).
everyday obsolescence
What defines "everyday" computer use? If necessary, my ~10-year-old Sun SPARC systems are still capable of being used for a majority of "everyday" sysadmin work I'd do. And easily functional as servers for personal mail, web, and other services. The 20" CRT monitors for those systems now seem as "obsolete" as the systems themselves. So those are essentially all-in-one configurations, which is pretty much irrelevant now.
I see plenty of old G3 iMacs still in everyday use so to think a G4 iMac will be be obsolete any time soon seems a rather unresourceful viewpoint.
But I'm sure you'll find some use for it, like that IIci of yours?jsw said:
What defines "everyday" computer use? If necessary, my ~10-year-old Sun SPARC systems are still capable of being used for a majority of "everyday" sysadmin work I'd do. And easily functional as servers for personal mail, web, and other services. The 20" CRT monitors for those systems now seem as "obsolete" as the systems themselves. So those are essentially all-in-one configurations, which is pretty much irrelevant now.
I see plenty of old G3 iMacs still in everyday use so to think a G4 iMac will be be obsolete any time soon seems a rather unresourceful viewpoint.
sjk said:But I'm sure you'll find some use for it, like that IIci of yours?
What defines "everyday" computer use? If necessary, my ~10-year-old Sun SPARC systems are still capable of being used for a majority of "everyday" sysadmin work I'd do. And easily functional as servers for personal mail, web, and other services. The 20" CRT monitors for those systems now seem as "obsolete" as the systems themselves. So those are essentially all-in-one configurations, which is pretty much irrelevant now.
I see plenty of old G3 iMacs still in everyday use so to think a G4 iMac will be be obsolete any time soon seems a rather unresourceful viewpoint.
I agree - for my needs, my 1.25 GHz 17" iMac w/ 1 GB RAM will last me for a long time to come. And even after I buy a new G6 in a few years, my iMac will still be just as good as it is right now for everything I need it to, as I am by no means a "power user". Calling it obsolete in the near future is a bit extreme in my opinion.
~Shard~ said:
Oh, I agree that it'd take a while to truly obsolete the iMac. But, on the other hand, if the iMac body and monitor were separable, I'd be MUCH more likely to buy a new iMac body in the near future than I am now, since I'd connect the current one to an older monitor.
Hey, I still use a 400MHz G3 PowerBook. I know Macs stay useful for a long time. I'm just saying that Apple might sell more systems if the upgrade cost were less.
sjk said:But I'm sure you'll find some use for it, like that IIci of yours?
Yeah, give it to my 3.5-year-old to play with, just like the ci. Of course, by then, she'll be old enough to complain that the system's too slow. Now, she just has fun with it.
What is wrong with the current G4 iMac? I just joined the Apple side of the fense 3 weeks ago and have since bought 2 macs. This thing is anything but slow!
Nothing's "wrong" with the G4 iMac and I don't think it's slow (I'll trade ya for my 2.5-yr-old 600MHz G3 iBook ). Sure, it has some limitations (e.g. one user-accessible SO-DIMM slot) but if they really mattered I think you'd have looked elsewhere. You're satisfied, right?
Forum users tend to be more critical and opinionated than the remaining majority of Mac users, for better or worse.
Anyway, congratulations on getting two G4's and diving into OS X... enjoy!
). Sure, it has some limitations (e.g. one user-accessible SO-DIMM slot) but if they really mattered I think you'd have looked elsewhere. You're satisfied, right?Forum users tend to be more critical and opinionated than the remaining majority of Mac users, for better or worse.
Anyway, congratulations on getting two G4's and diving into OS X... enjoy!
According to MacOS Rumors
iMac G5 to follow new PowerMacs, at or before WWDC. The latest from Cupertino: iMac G5s are nearly ready to roll and the only things holding back the new PowerMacs are supplies of new motherboards and higher-clocked PowerPC 970FX CPUs.
If the new PowerMacs ship on schedule in mid to late April, sources believe that a new iMac family with 1-2 G5 models and 2-3 G4 models will follow 5-8 weeks after that -- definitely no later than Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference at the end of June. More details soon...
iMac G5 to follow new PowerMacs, at or before WWDC. The latest from Cupertino: iMac G5s are nearly ready to roll and the only things holding back the new PowerMacs are supplies of new motherboards and higher-clocked PowerPC 970FX CPUs.
If the new PowerMacs ship on schedule in mid to late April, sources believe that a new iMac family with 1-2 G5 models and 2-3 G4 models will follow 5-8 weeks after that -- definitely no later than Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference at the end of June. More details soon...
cschilderink said:
Yep. Its the one design that prompts names from its shape...Sugar...Rubix...D (as in D6)...Orac...Ice...
Borg3of5 said:
You might want to look into buying the newer and faster iPhoto if that's your main concern. Apparently it's been significantly optimised. For $50 you'll get the whole iLife suite, etc.
Pulling the trigger
Thanks for your replies.
I'm going to go ahead and order the iMac today. My rationale is that it's for my father, and it's not a big issue for him to have the very latest version, and it'll be plenty fast for anything he needs to do. If someone was able to cite a specific date for a new release, it would have been a more complicated decision - it's just that no one really knows - it could be December for all we know! I appreciate everyone's input!
Thanks for your replies.
I'm going to go ahead and order the iMac today. My rationale is that it's for my father, and it's not a big issue for him to have the very latest version, and it'll be plenty fast for anything he needs to do. If someone was able to cite a specific date for a new release, it would have been a more complicated decision - it's just that no one really knows - it could be December for all we know! I appreciate everyone's input!
micropop said:
Excellent decision! Even if new iMacs are announced, it could be months before they are available. I doubt your Dad spends his days in Apple Stores or at apple.com, so he won't likely notice - or care if he does notice - anyway.
The latest iMacs are great - my brother has a 20" and loves it. My 18-month-old 800MHz 17" one works fine. Yes, it is slow. But not too slow, and not for most people doing non-gaming/non-development work.
Plus it looks cool. It will always look cool. The old Apple PowerBook 170? Too slow to do anything at all on now. But, man, it still looks good. The iMac's a fellow classic design. And it's fast enough to do anything your Dad will do for years to come.
he only practical solution there is to have a monitor in port to use the whole base+monitor as just a monitor.
I was readign thru the old posts in this thread and that idea stuck out to me... (it was refering to having the iMac keep its attatched monitor, but having a pass thru mode to plug in a newer system to).
This'd be great! Imagine being able to setup your old iMac as a web/file/print/whatever server, and use its 17 or 20" display for your new powermac or whatever. Not to mention using it as a compiler/video conversion/number cruncher/etc (all the tasks that just take time, but you don't need done as fast as possible) while not bogging down your PM as you play a game of Halo ;-). Also being able to quickly switch the display over to the iMac so that you could easily troubleshoot problems with it would be nice.
Anywho, seemed like a neat idea. Would be a worthwile/profitable hack if someone could figure out how to do it...
I was readign thru the old posts in this thread and that idea stuck out to me... (it was refering to having the iMac keep its attatched monitor, but having a pass thru mode to plug in a newer system to).
This'd be great! Imagine being able to setup your old iMac as a web/file/print/whatever server, and use its 17 or 20" display for your new powermac or whatever. Not to mention using it as a compiler/video conversion/number cruncher/etc (all the tasks that just take time, but you don't need done as fast as possible) while not bogging down your PM as you play a game of Halo ;-). Also being able to quickly switch the display over to the iMac so that you could easily troubleshoot problems with it would be nice.
Anywho, seemed like a neat idea. Would be a worthwile/profitable hack if someone could figure out how to do it...
mrgreen4242 said:
This would be a nice feature on the new iMacs, but, of course, you can always use Apple Remote Desktop, or something similar, to make it seem like the iMac is the display for the other Mac.