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Next-Generation iMac to Offer Two 'Compelling' New Features?
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I'm not sure what you're basing that info on, but I'm pretty sure you're wrong.
https://buyersguide.macrumors.com//#iMac
I've been thinking of the possibility that, for the foreseeable future, Apple wants to keep multi-touch on the trackpad (or a multi-touch mouse) for Macs, while extending the iPhone OS platform for devices with a multi-touch display.
Yes. FW400 drives are hard to find and FW800 is quite rare and $$$, even in the apple stores.
Would it kill them to give us at least a little upgrade ability -- via expresscard slots or something like it. Of course that's doubtful now that they're vanishing from laptops as well.
To me, touch screen is nothing more than a nifty feature rather than a replacement (in the desktop environment).
I'm trying to think what I could do differently if my laptop was touch screen. I guess that could work, but I don't watch smudges all over my screen.
I'm trying to think what I could do differently if my laptop was touch screen. I guess that could work, but I don't watch smudges all over my screen.
I'd bet the cost of a 2 TB HDD that more than half of the external drives at Best Buy have FW 400.
I can't believe I forgot that one, too! I was just there the other day.
Love the avatar, BTW.
Interesting. I've had no problems finding FW400 and 800 external HDs w/case or just the cases by themselves.
As for the cost, you get what you pay for. I love my FW800 drives. They work great. The laptop ones only have a FW800 cable and I can daisy chain a couple of them. No power supply needed.
No overseas shipping - clear message to any potential customer to f**k off and never come back courtesy of the friendly staff at new egg.
A little harsh. Sometimes there are legal reasons that companies cannot ship products to certain other countries due to trade restrictions, import restrictions [like your country says no], contract issues with particular manufacturers, or they are simply not allowed to do business in a country until they are licensed or other requirements are met.
It is more than likely not New Egg's fault here.
I have an iPod touch, but I often find desktop-ish tasks like note-taking or Web browsing painful on my iPod. Then, at random times, I find myself doing the same things on my Kindle as I'm reading (or, um, lost in a new city and need to look up a Google Map) -- and that is precisely when I begin longing for my iPod and how nice it is to use.
But, definitely, some tasks/apps are better on a touch-friendly screen than a mouse/keyboard-driven interface and vice versa. (Although remarkably few are best on a four-way joystick with click...)
fail on them. cause yes the keyboard with the number paid is totally still being made. it just isn't the keyboard being boxed with the standard model anymore. you can however go online (I just looked at the NZ store) and order a custom machine with the full keyboard at no added cost.
i remember seeing something about a patent/mockup by a 3rd party for a touchscreen keyboard that would adjust according to the program being used. sounds very sweet
the two of you are talking about perhaps 5% of the total Mac user community. at this point, it might be a custom item but a standard one is less likely.
given that they are no longer waiting for things like MacWorld where they have to pay. and they have a pretty auditorium on the campus to do whatever they want, when they want, at no costs, there's no need to do one event.
also folks keep in mind something else. Back to School. I would imagine that releases during or right after said promotion cause a lot of headaches. enough that they might not want to play that game again. they might make sure that anything new comes up a good 30 days after the 'sale' is over (being sept 8). so they are past the official return period and any built in leeway time. at least in terms of ipods. desktops aren't probably a hot ticket for students. that's more laptops
one could say the same thing about your info. given that your 'source' is a rumor site article.
Touch screen on a desktop computer is largely just a gimmick - something that looks like a good idea in a daydream (or sci-fi movie), but is near worthless in the real world. So is voice recognition - an office full of people talking to their computers would be a nightmare!
You haven't thought this through very well. What UI improvements does touch-screen offer on a full-size PC? That's the basic question Apple will be addressing before doing any of these things you've mentioned. And so far, aside from a very few niche-y, geeky sort of ideas, I haven't heard any viable uses. Moving photos around with your fingertips or applying PS effects sounds OK, but not really any advantage over using a mouse pointer, actually a disadvantage in that a mouse if far more precise when doing editing.
Touchscreen is a great compromise when using a small portable device because A. you can reconfigure a small screen in an infinite number of ways to improve usability, and B. stylus pens are a PITA and people don't like them. Also, a 3.5" screen is easy to wipe off on your shirt. The problem is that the benefits of a small touchscreen on a portable device don't scale up to a large desktop PC. A 24" iMac constantly covered in grease and streaks presents more of a problem. Your horizontal iMac idea is an ergonomic nightmare: you're sitting with your neck bent 45-90 degrees down from where it should be, and at the same time doing repetitive, expansive movements on a large screen, for what? Using a touchpad or mouse reduces the amount of motion required to accomplish the same task, and is more efficient and productive, and ergonomically is far better.
Large touchscreens are a gimmick.
touch on a iPhone was great because it allowed a great amount of variation and usability on a small area, in a quick/convenient manner as a phone should be. Plus a few gimmicks for the toys for mobile entertainment.
To implement such a system on an actual computer is just ... foolish - any
monotonous or detailed task is made clumbersome and annoying.
A particular thought when i imagined the netbook idea - a device that for my thoughts is for quick notetaking at conferences etc - a touch screen version would eliminate the mid-level touch typing - surely a vital part of the gimmick of the market
Would you paint a picture with fingerpaints or write an essay with your fingertips?
(keyboards don't count)
To implement such a system on an actual computer is just ... foolish - any
monotonous or detailed task is made clumbersome and annoying.
A particular thought when i imagined the netbook idea - a device that for my thoughts is for quick notetaking at conferences etc - a touch screen version would eliminate the mid-level touch typing - surely a vital part of the gimmick of the market
Would you paint a picture with fingerpaints or write an essay with your fingertips?
(keyboards don't count
)
actually that's not entirely true. I have a HP glossy 24" hooked up to my MacBook pro. It also came with hdmi connection. Apple still behind the times. Anyway, while 24 is nit raging large, I do audio/ editing and compose for a living, 24" is large enough when it's right in front of you and when I am viewing HD TV, I can tell 720 from 1080i, (the HP is a true 1080p viewer), and 720'looks much sharper than 1080i so Incan only imagine how sharp blue Ray will look. If I get one, it would probably be a gaming system that also burns. While not an avid game player, HD games will look awesome and having blue Ray to archive and watch movies is a perk. BR is here to stay. It will only be replaced when they sort out high speed streaming and or other storage. That said, much cheaper to daisy chain some FW or esata hard drives. In fact, I have 10.5.x and another partiotion with the latest OS just to test before comitting. What I want to see is the laptops become more desktop friendly, ie dual drives, and am glad I got the 15" with the express slot as many DSP manufactures make devices that reduce the CPU load. Add a quad core, two express slots and fast graphics and the desktops are all but dead. And add a i7 mid range headless mac w/o ecc memory and non server CPU with 8!cores at half the price and the gamer, prosumer video/audio market, much larger than the iPhone base, would make apple a lot of money.
What I find compelling
1.
Upgraded CPU, Apple have to offer at least the same generation of CPU's as PC's does. Perhaps Core i5, I don't believe the iMac will ever see a core i7, onfortunately
2.
Better GPU, Apple could sell more iMac's if they fitted the "top of the line BTO iMac" with either a PCI slot, or at least a powerfull GPU, say 750-1024 MB RAM. Maybe some of the newer ATI cards could do?
I think that at least some people is hesitant buying an iMac as they want to game, if not seriously, then at least at above 30 fps at high resolution.
Also remember Open CL.
3.
LED display, preferred OLED, but I know it's far to early for that to happen any time soon.
I don't think that the current design is that ugly, it's just that the iMac has looked the same for some years now, so a redesign would be nice.
Futhermore i don't see touchscren as a very usefull, neither compelling feature. Even though I'm sure Apple would do a lot better HP, the HP Touchsmart convinced me that a touchscreen desktop is far from usefull or compelling regarding everyday use. It's a whole other thing in a Tablet though, there it would make sense.
Conclusion: A slightly redesigned iMac with LED and upgraded CPU (i5) and GPU would be nice, of cours these features should only be in top of the line iMac
1.
Upgraded CPU, Apple have to offer at least the same generation of CPU's as PC's does. Perhaps Core i5, I don't believe the iMac will ever see a core i7, onfortunately
2.
Better GPU, Apple could sell more iMac's if they fitted the "top of the line BTO iMac" with either a PCI slot, or at least a powerfull GPU, say 750-1024 MB RAM. Maybe some of the newer ATI cards could do?
I think that at least some people is hesitant buying an iMac as they want to game, if not seriously, then at least at above 30 fps at high resolution.
Also remember Open CL.
3.
LED display, preferred OLED, but I know it's far to early for that to happen any time soon.
I don't think that the current design is that ugly, it's just that the iMac has looked the same for some years now, so a redesign would be nice.
Futhermore i don't see touchscren as a very usefull, neither compelling feature. Even though I'm sure Apple would do a lot better HP, the HP Touchsmart convinced me that a touchscreen desktop is far from usefull or compelling regarding everyday use. It's a whole other thing in a Tablet though, there it would make sense.
Conclusion: A slightly redesigned iMac with LED and upgraded CPU (i5) and GPU would be nice, of cours these features should only be in top of the line iMac
Unfortunately, the i7 CPU isn't some profoundly new version of silicone that's suddenly twice as efficient as other silicone chips.
As all chips do, when its running, it consumes power, and as a consequence, it produces heat.
Yet you also admitted to a value of $315 - $143 = $172 (before inflation) before you started changing & ignoring assumptions so as to make your claim of:
Sure ... if its only run at a ~3% utilization rate, and today's electrical rates never go up a penny, etc, etc. YMMV.
But since you still want to duplicitously argue, you're back in the killfile for another stay.
But this wasn't the point being made here, in this different thread. The point being made here was:
Either the i7 isn't 'power hungry' and thus can easily live within the thermal limits of the current iMac enclosure ... or its not, and can't.
AFAIC, some posters who say that the i7 unfortunately produces too much heat for Apple to put it into the current iMac form factor, whereas your "negligible difference" claims functionally contradict with that.
My observation is simply that both of you can't be right.
-hh
Intel's TDP for the current Core i7 is about 100 watts more than the laptop chips - and gee, didn't I just point out that the XPS+monitor was about 100 watts more at peak than the current iMac?
Whether Apple designs a thermal solution for the current anorexic case, or whether a new case design comes out for an "Imac Pro" with a little more space for cooling a better class of CPU and GPU, they could improve the performance of the iMac.
My observation is that a 100 watt difference in the worst case chip heat output must be accomodated in the case design, but since over the course of a year the typical system will spend most of its time idling or sleeping, the annual electricity cost difference for the typical user isn't very large.
Let's keep the TCO discussion in the other thread, though.
+1
I would also add a wish for a SD card reader, an extra FW800 socket, and perhaps an eSATA socket (though I would not expect Apple to add such a useful socket).
+1
I like the monitor to be close to the desk and the 24inch just looks too huge with the big ugly chin beneath it. Plus, if Apple ever scale up to 26 ot 27 inches then they will have to address the issue of the computer looking just too visually opposing.
If they move to LED backlight, then perhaps they can use the gained space to move components to behind the screen rather than beneath it. Afterall, isn't it thin enough already?
So Fudzilla says the iMacs will have Blu-ray BTO, iTunes 9 will have Blu-ray support, and an iMac update is not likely to happen this year.
http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/14989/1/
http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/14989/1/
Someone mentioned HD-DVD here, correct? I can't remember.
Anyways, Engadget says Toshiba, the company behind HD-DVD, has applied for Blu-Ray Board of Directors admission.
HD-DVD really is dead now.
Engadget also has pics and specs on the Core i5. Might that make it into the iMac? Sorry for the digression, I'm kind of excited. I'd have the following lineup: Mac mini, MacBook have Core i3. iMac, "xMac" (tower) have Core i5. Mac Pro, MBP have Core i7.
Anyways, Engadget says Toshiba, the company behind HD-DVD, has applied for Blu-Ray Board of Directors admission.
HD-DVD really is dead now.
Engadget also has pics and specs on the Core i5. Might that make it into the iMac? Sorry for the digression, I'm kind of excited. I'd have the following lineup: Mac mini, MacBook have Core i3. iMac, "xMac" (tower) have Core i5. Mac Pro, MBP have Core i7.