Next-Generation iMac With SD Slot, Quad-Core, Possible Xeon? New Mouse and Remote in Pipeline?

[*LTD*]

Well if multiple surveys say Apple has the highest customer satisfaction rating, how is that BS?

And this is year after year. Apple has taken top spots in the bulk of surveys and reports done, from multiple sources. This is going back to even before 2006.

Unfortunately, when there is no argument to counter it (as there really can be none, anyway), the next thing to do is pretend they don't actually exist. Now if we're talking breaking from reality, that would ceratinly be it.

 

[yanquis]

Yeah, it's sort of like when creationists deny the fact of evolution..

you mean the guys who, instead of researching, testing, hypothesizing, & experimenting, subscribe full-out to one particular text & proceed to treat it as gospel for the rest of their life? sounds about right.

 

[jmpage2]

you mean the guys who, instead of researching, testing, hypothesizing, & experimenting, subscribe full-out to one particular text & proceed to treat it as gospel for the rest of their life? sounds about right.

Actually if you would take the time to read some discussions here instead of providing cannon fodder with your pathetic arguments you would find that many of the so called "fanbois" here are in fact highly critical of Apple when there is a problem with their products.

What they don't do though is spend all of their time moaning about how they could have gotten a $500 cheaper computer that's "faster" even though it has a crappy display, inferior chassis, noisy fans, runs a 2nd rate OS and has a crap-tastic customer service department based out of India.

 

[yanquis]

Actually if you would take the time to read some discussions here instead of providing cannon fodder with your pathetic arguments you would find that many of the so called "fanbois" here are in fact highly critical of Apple when there is a problem with their products.

What they don't do though is spend all of their time moaning about how they could have gotten a $500 cheaper computer that's "faster" even though it has a crappy display, inferior chassis, noisy fans, runs a 2nd rate OS and has a crap-tastic customer service department based out of India.

i do read the comments, & am impressed with how objective the overwhelming majority of people here are. thats why im particularly po'd with the route this discussion was/is taking. my 'pathetic' arguments -- wow. yeah, if only everyone in the world thought exactly like you do, they'd have a market share higher than 5%.

i've haven't had to use customer service in 10 years, & haven't had a virus problem in over 5 years now, because i'm not a complete idiot. also, vista is dead (& never should have been alive). do you REALLY not see how utterly desparete you are to justify the cost, instead of wondering why it isn't cheaper? apple customers are apple's best marketing team, and YOU pay THEM. their business model is absolutely amazing.

 

[jmpage2]

i do read the comments, & am impressed with how objective the overwhelming majority of people here are. thats why im particularly po'd with the route this discussion was/is taking. my 'pathetic' arguments -- wow. yeah, if only everyone in the world thought exactly like you do, they'd have a market share higher than 5%.

i've haven't had to use customer service in 10 years, & haven't had a virus problem in over 5 years now, because i'm not a complete idiot. also, vista is dead (& never should have been alive). do you REALLY not see how utterly desparete you are to justify the cost, instead of wondering why it isn't cheaper? apple customers are apple's best marketing team, and YOU pay THEM. their business model is absolutely amazing.

Yes, you sound utterly envious of the success they have, maybe you are Steve Ballmer's bitter brother in law or some such.

I have news for you, the vast majority of PC users DO have issues (seeing as I end up supporting all of my friends and families PCs since I have an MCSE I should know all about these problems). And it is not because they are idiots. It's because Windows DOES have problems with security, backups, etc.

Yes, it must just be foolish gullible people that pay Apple their premium price.

Funny how when I watch a show about engineering or science on National Geographic they are more likely than not to be using a Macbook, iMac or Macbook Pro to do their work or show demonstrations of their projects. These aren't artists, these people have doctorates in serious disciplines, but by your standards they are too stupid to realize they got duped into giving Apple a lot of money.

or........

They are smart enough to realize that getting a rock solid computer that is easy to back up, hard to crash and runs a fantastic OS is worth paying a bit extra for due to the productivity gains that they realize by using their computer instead of having to manage their computer all the time.

I'm an MCSE, I can build computers blind folded and rebuild any flavor of OS while doing a few other things. What machine do I come home to at the end of the day? A Mac, because when it comes to my own home user experience I want the computer to work effortlessly without me having to waste hours every year dealing with the latest security patches from MS, buggy and unstable drivers, crappy backup solutions, etc.

 

[yanquis]

it is worth paying extra coin, & i am happy to do so! you're apparently treating me as some basement-dwelling customizer guy boogeyman & skewing my argument, & im sorry if im unwittingly doing the same to yours. it's just that there is a massive difference between enjoying apple products, & towing a company line almost verbatim. to me, it sounds like you are doing the latter. there are some SERIOUS holes in apples lineup, & YES, they do profit off of ignorant or wealthy people, much as they may satisfy the needs & wants of millions of other people. what they do could be done a lot better from the perspective of the average buyer. maybe not from their profit perspective. i mean if you honestly believe profit motive & buyer motive are perfectly insync at apple or anywhere else (i would hazard to say they are in fact farther out of sync at apple than most computer retailers, & yes, i understand that apple has 'earned' this by manufacturing a megabrand -- but i don't work for or own apple & i don't have or want to laud them for being able to rip me off to a greater extent than other companies do), well, i have a bridge etc.

 

[jmpage2]

it is worth paying extra coin, & i am happy to do so! you're apparently treating me as some basement-dwelling customizer guy boogeyman & skewing my argument, & im sorry if im unwittingly doing the same to yours. it's just that there is a massive difference between enjoying apple products, & towing a company line almost verbatim. to me, it sounds like you are doing the latter. there are some SERIOUS holes in apples lineup, & YES, they do profit off of ignorant or wealthy people, much as they may satisfy the needs & wants of millions of other people. what they do could be done a lot better from the perspective of the average buyer. maybe not from their profit perspective. i mean if you honestly believe profit motive & buyer motive are perfectly insync at apple or anywhere else (i would hazard to say they are in fact farther out of sync at apple than most computer retailers, & yes, i understand that apple has 'earned' this by manufacturing a megabrand -- but i don't work for or own apple & i don't have or want to laud them for being able to rip me off to a greater extent than other companies do), well, i have a bridge etc.

Give me a break. I have pointed out repeatedly Apples lack of a mini tower, etc.

As I said, almost everyone here is critical of Apple, but people like yourself would rather talk about how you never have an issue with your Windows PC and how overpriced Apple products are.

Apple products are expensive, but that's not the same thing as being over priced.

Consumers determine the value and I've given some stellar reasons why consumers will pay more for an Apple machine.

You on the other hand have stated that they are getting "duped" because they are paying too much.

Value is in the eye of the beholder. For the value conscious Mac user there is a great value in the form of the Mac Mini, etc. I have upgraded two of them for friends and they (both penny pinchers) love the machines even though they know they could have gotten a "better" PC for less money.

 

[SactoGuy18]

I do agree that the iMac is an excellent machine--nice q

 

[yanquis]

Give me a break. I have pointed out repeatedly Apples lack of a mini tower, etc.

As I said, almost everyone here is critical of Apple, but people like yourself would rather talk about how you never have an issue with your Windows PC and how overpriced Apple products are.

Apple products are expensive, but that's not the same thing as being over priced.

Consumers determine the value and I've given some stellar reasons why consumers will pay more for an Apple machine.

You on the other hand have stated that they are getting "duped" because they are paying too much.

Value is in the eye of the beholder. For the value conscious Mac user there is a great value in the form of the Mac Mini, etc. I have upgraded two of them for friends and they (both penny pinchers) love the machines even though they know they could have gotten a "better" PC for less money.

see, here is where you are flatout wrong. some apple products are expensive. the rest are overpriced. this is a reality at present, & i'm sorry if it is, for some reason, hard for you to accept.

a month or so ago i was thinking about getting a high-end mac laptop. for $3000, i could get a 3.06 ghz c2d, 4GB ddr3, & a decent graphics card. i am sure i could get a PC laptop, with isight equivalent, for half that -- tops. the differences would be twofold -- no OSX, & inferior casing. these are extremely significant & worth paying a premium for. they are however, positively, unequivocally, NOT worth $1500. charging that much makes it a ripoff, pure & simple. you can still buy the 3K MBP. you can love it after you do. you can never, ever, miss the money you spent on it. in NO WAY does that change the fact that YOU GOT RIPPED OFF, & apple just made a ludicrous profit off of you.

the problem with apple's current lineup is that their price is justifiable in two markets & two markets only, that of the entry user, & that of the professional user. for the average user, who wants an all-around great computer that will last a couple years, handle anything thrown at it, etc, you are either out of luck, or have to pay exhorbitantly for, eh, decent at best hardware. it really only makes sense to purchase a mac right now if you're ok with crappy hardware that will frustrate you within a few months, or if you're ok with paying tons of money for a lot of hardware you don't need (mac pro line) except in very specific pursuits or industries. the middle user is excluded. the reason i am so active on this thread is not because i hate apple or purely to complain, it is because apple can instantly fix this in a week with these new imacs -- and if they do i will be first in line to buy one.

 

[SactoGuy18]

I do agree that the iMac is an excellent machine--nice quality display, well-designed system case, and very quiet because the iMac uses no large-sized (and noisy) cooling fans to keep the inside of the case cool.

(Interestingly, my HP Pavilion a6400f is actually very quiet with its well-designed power supply fan; it's actually let down by the fact the hard drive on my system--a Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500 GB SATA-II drive--is quite audible when it does a lot of disk seeks.)

But I do really think that Apple needs to "get with the program" and offer as options better-quality keyboards and mouse pointers over what they offer now. They should offer as an option a Mac-specific version of the Logitech Coreless Desktop Wave, but in a corded version where the keyboard plugs into the USB port (and there is a USB port on the keyboard to plug in the mouse pointer) and keyboard functions assigned specifically for MacOS X 10.5.x and 10.6.x versions; the mouse pointer is essentially the Logitech LS1 laser-sensor model.

 

[jmpage2]

see, here is where you are flatout wrong. some apple products are expensive. the rest are overpriced. this is a reality at present, & i'm sorry if it is, for some reason, hard for you to accept.

a month or so ago i was thinking about getting a high-end mac laptop. for $3000, i could get a 3.06 ghz c2d, 4GB ddr3, & a decent graphics card. i am sure i could get a PC laptop, with isight equivalent, for half that -- tops. the differences would be twofold -- no OSX, & inferior casing. these are extremely significant & worth paying a premium for. they are however, positively, unequivocally, NOT worth $1500. charging that much makes it a ripoff, pure & simple. you can still buy the 3K MBP. you can love it after you do. you can never, ever, miss the money you spent on it. in NO WAY does that change the fact that YOU GOT RIPPED OFF, & apple just made a ludicrous profit off of you.

the problem with apple's current lineup is that their price is justifiable in two markets & two markets only, that of the entry user, & that of the professional user. for the average user, who wants an all-around great computer that will last a couple years, handle anything thrown at it, etc, you are either out of luck, or have to pay exhorbitantly for, eh, decent at best hardware. it really only makes sense to purchase a mac right now if you're ok with crappy hardware that will frustrate you within a few months, or if you're ok with paying tons of money for a lot of hardware you don't need (mac pro line) except in very specific pursuits or industries. the middle user is excluded. the reason i am so active on this thread is not because i hate apple or purely to complain, it is because apple can instantly fix this in a week with these new imacs -- and if they do i will be first in line to buy one.

Wow, I wonder where you are shopping for your Mac products. In July we purchased for my wife a 17" MBP with anti-glare screen, 2.8ghz C2D Extreme and very good graphics card (9600 GT) for $2250. Comparable PC laptops are not 1/2 the price, they are a few hundred dollars less.

And they don't have an LED backlit display, single milled aluminum chassis, 8 hour battery, etc.

Not to mention OS X.

You are flat out wrong.

 

[yanquis]

interesting, but i don't buy from chinese pirates.
www.apple.com

MacBook Pro, 17-inch, Aluminum
RemoveMove to Saved Items
Ships: 1-3 business days
Part number: Z0GW
Configuration
3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2X2GB
500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
MacBook Pro 17-inch Hi-Resolution Antiglare Widescreen Display
Backlit Keyboard (English) / User's Guide
Accessory Kit
$2,899.00

 

[jmpage2]

Yes, nevermind the fact that you spent $400 on upgrade options that the majority of users would never need or want. Why don't you check out the price of an aluminum chassis comparable PC with LED backlit screen and 8 hour battery before you contnue to cry foul about how apple is trying to rip you off. Oh ya, such a PC DOESNT EXIST, but you knew that already.

 

[yanquis]

www.dell.com

Studio 17 Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9600 (2.800GHz/1066Mhz FSB/6MB cache)
Operating System Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Service Pack 1 64 Bit
System Color Option Graphite Grey with Blue Trim
Memory 4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 800MHz
Built-in Keyboard Options Back-lit Keyboard
LCD Panel Glossy widescreen 17.0 inch display (1440x900)
Video Card 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650
Hard Drive Speed: 500GB SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) with Free Fall Sensor
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 9.0
Combo or DVD+RW Drive 8X Slot Load CD / DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)
Sound Card Soundblaster X-Fi Hi Def Audio - Software Enabled
Wireless Networking Cards Dell Wireless 1397 802.11g Half Mini-Card
Camera Module Integrated 2.0M Pixel Webcam
Office Productivity Software (Pre-Installed) Microsoft® Works 9
Anti-Virus/Security Suite (Pre-installed) McAfee SecurityCenter, 15-Months
Battery Options 85 Whr Lithium Ion Battery (9 cell) [9 hour]
Service 1Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis
Datasafe Dell Online Backup 2GB for 1 year
Dial-Up Internet Access No ISP requested
Bluetooth Option Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Internal (2.1)
LCD and Camera Glossy widescreen 17.0 inch display (1440x900) w/ 2.0M pixel Camera
Processor Branding Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor
Labels Windows Vista™ Premium
$1,354.00

i know its not exactly comparable, but its the result of 2 minutes of work.

edit -- oh deary me, it's not made of aluminum. surely that's worth an extra 1000 -- i'm assuming they put diamonds around the frame. and yes, you'll have to forgive me for having the nerve to customize my mac the way i wanted it.

btw, someone posted a dell i7 laptop w/ OLED screen for $1400 just the other day. 2.0 megapixel webcam, 15.6" screen, 1920x1280 resolution. i'm sure i could do much better than what i posted, but i just clicked the first thing that popped up. anyway, enjoy your next dividend, i certainly hope you're getting one.

 

[Maserati7200]

LCD Panel Glossy widescreen 17.0 inch display (1440x900)

1440x900 @ 17 inches? ew.

 

[jmpage2]

1440x900 @ 17 inches? ew.

Exactly. He configures a MacBook with every option imaginable to get the highest price he can and then tries to compare it with a Dell with a slower CPU, far inferior display. Not to mention battery enclosed, etc

sort of blows the whole "apple costs double the money for the same machine argument" right out of the water.

This guy needs to read the news flash. We know there are cheaper options available, but they are not apples to apples comparisons.

 

[danielwsmithee]

The Studio is a fat POS. At least compare it to a Lattitude.

 

[SactoGuy18]

However, the native 1920x1200 resolution on the 17" MacBook Pro is nearly unreadable unless you have really good eyes, a current eyeglass perscription, or a good pair of reading glasses. 1440x900 is MUCH easier on the eyes at that same 17" resolution.

 

[yanquis]

Exactly. He configures a MacBook with every option imaginable to get the highest price he can and then tries to compare it with a Dell with a slower CPU, far inferior display. Not to mention battery enclosed, etc

sort of blows the whole "apple costs double the money for the same machine argument" right out of the water.

This guy needs to read the news flash. We know there are cheaper options available, but they are not apples to apples comparisons.

right, sorry for not researching a hypothetical computer with exacting specs i dont want to find the best price to prove a freaking point on a message board. that TOTALLY invalidates my point. jesus. if i wanted to i could find something far better than the listed MBP (which is actually LESS than i DID want, so **** about how i 'loaded it up' or whatever), for cheaper, very easily. i took 2 minutes to illustrate a point. quit being completely ridiculous & take the freaking blinders off your head.

 

[yanquis]

my 'loaded' macbook, btw, was a default 17 inch MBP with upgraded processor and 7200 (ie, basic) 500GB harddrive. that's it. two clicks. i think the real issue here is that jm bought one of those black market stolen macbooks for his wife, & is trying to cover his tracks.

 

[CQd44]

I thought everyone knew about the Apple tax on their products?

They charge a premium for their OS and form factor.

As a PC user, the closest I could get to a Macbook's advertised battery life is with either a netbook or some sort of Thinkpad.

 

[SmugMac]

The posts of people saying how the Dell laptop is comparable to a high end MacBook Pro is a comedy! They are not comparable at all. Also, what's with 17-inch display running at 1440 x 900 That resolution is fine on my 15-inch MacBook Pro but at 17-inch - no, lol just no. Then there is the superior build and design of the MacBook Pro - it's worth ever dollar to me.

 

[jmpage2]

my 'loaded' macbook, btw, was a default 17 inch MBP with upgraded processor and 7200 (ie, basic) 500GB harddrive. that's it. two clicks. i think the real issue here is that jm bought one of those black market stolen macbooks for his wife, & is trying to cover his tracks.

The point is you still picked the two most expensive upgrade options to try to make your point instead of acknowledging that you can get a 17 MBP for a lot less. The one I bought had anti glare, and like a lot of people I got a Corp/student discount for 8% off of the list price. I get a similar discount on Dell, but as I previously pointed ou. My lattitude sucks donkey balls compared to a MBP.

 

[yanquis]

The point is you still picked the two most expensive upgrade options to try to make your point instead of acknowledging that you can get a 17 MBP for a lot less. The one I bought had anti glare, and like a lot of people I got a Corp/student discount for 8% off of the list price. I get a similar discount on Dell, but as I previously pointed ou. My lattitude sucks donkey balls compared to a MBP.

well, you're mistaken -- i wasnt customizing it to make a point. i was displaying the exact mac i outfitted a month ago (actually, cheaper, because i probably added some stuff). that said, the upgrade to 3.06 ghz is definitely not worth it. still, that's $2599, when i wouldn't go over $1499 for that model at the moment. (of course i realize in this instance apple can't sell it for that low & that's just me, mostly because i want updated processor architecture + gfx card). but $600, say, is an awfully hefty premium for OSX + aluminum siding.

 

[MorphingDragon]

well, you're mistaken -- i wasnt customizing it to make a point. i was displaying the exact mac i outfitted a month ago (actually, cheaper, because i probably added some stuff). that said, the upgrade to 3.06 ghz is definitely not worth it. still, that's $2599, when i wouldn't go over $1499 for that model at the moment. (of course i realize in this instance apple can't sell it for that low & that's just me, mostly because i want updated processor architecture + gfx card). but $600, say, is an awfully hefty premium for OSX + aluminum siding.

The only thing useful to come out of you two's argument is a higher post count.
Macs are expensive, Evolution is a theory and fanboy's are annoying. Get over it.