Updated iMac and eMac in April?

[MacSA]

Good to see that the eMac should still be around a while longer - I wonder if Apple decided not to update it because of the new iMac last year and the new Mac mini earlier this year?

Was hoping for some rumours about new iBooks - maybe we won't be seeing anything new for quite a while ?

 

[Squire]

As for the price drop, again, would be nice, although the new iMacs came in at a lower price point than their predecessors to begin with, and I don't know if LCD prices have dropped significantly enough to allow Apple to do this without cutting into their margins.

I think that might be Apple's new game plan, to be honest. Take a slight hit in the margin department and sell more stuff. The comments made by their CFO recently (yesterday?) support this.

Squire

 

[~Shard~]

I think that might be Apple's new game plan, to be honest. Take a slight hit in the margin department and sell more stuff. The comments made by their CFO recently (yesterday?) support this.

Squire

Actually that's true - I remembered reading/hearing that Apple's margins on the iPod shuffle and Mac mini were very tight - perhaps this will be a new strategy on Apple's part - if so, let's hope they can execute it properly without hurting themselves.

 

[itsa]

ThinkSecret reports that Apple will be bringing updates to both the iMac and eMac line in April.

The iMac, code-named Q45 C/D, is expected to come in at 2GHz but with few other changes.

A faster eMac upgrade is also expected with speed bumps possibly up to 1.5GHz, and video upgrades. The eMac's future has been in question with the recent release of the Mac Mini. Some reports had indicated that the eMac was being phased out, but apparently may not be the case.

With the new imacs ,why would anyone want an emac? Would it not be better for a school to just get imacs?

 

[Plymouthbreezer]

This would be great news if it's true. The eMac needs an update, and this would help keep the line fresh for a few more years. The iMac, while fine now, would stay ahead the competition with speed bumps and a better graphics card. I also hope they don't raise prices with the updates...

Standard Bluetooth on the two higher end iMacs would be nifty, as well as more RAM.

About overlap with the PowerMacs - I think this might mean they are due for an update.

 

[Squire]

With the new imacs ,why would anyone want an emac? Would it not be better for a school to just get imacs?

That's why.

Squire

 

[Burai]

While I agree that doing too much to the iMac line might take away from the Powermacs I also think there's a market for a "pro-sumer" line. Now the iMac is sorta there anyway but it would be nice for them to offer a built to spec iMac where you could choose the video card.

I really think there's a market for it. There's a lot of people like me that have a Powermac now and realize they could go to a higher end iMac and be very happy. I just don't have the room for another PM.

I think you've hit the nail on the head as to why the Pro/Consumer divide is nonsense when it comes to graphics.

I, personally, would like to play World of Warcraft and find it absolutely absurd that there isn't a consumer machine currently available that will run it in any sensible way and I cannot justify the budget or find the room for a G5 tower and screen just to play one game.

Yet on the other hand, you've got the pro who needs a 30" display on which to edit his films or make his images or to lay out his Reason boxes being forced to spend an absurd amount on the fastest gaming graphics cards available in spite of the fact that he'll NEVER run any games on the thing.

There are some features that will remain very much in the realm of the professional. I have no desire for a fibre channel network card to connect an iMac to an Xserve cluster with Xsan, for example, nor do I have the need for any PCI/PCI-X slots, gigabit ethernet, 8GB of RAM, Firewire 800, RAID or optical audio in or out, nor do hardly any other home users.

But better graphics are not a feature solely desired by professionals.

It's not just consumers that get hurt by this either. It's the games developers too. After all, who's most likely to make spur of the moment games purchases? The home user with the iMac for the family or the pro user editing movies on a PowerMac? Who's most likely to buy The Sims 2 when it's released? The father of two girls in their early teens or the guy desperately trying to get his client's website finished before the deadline?

Yes, the consumer Macs are designed for those who want to write letters, send emails, edit their home movies, sync their iPods and browse the Internet, but to suggest that they don't fancy playing a few games every now and again is just silly and something even Apple wouldn't agree with.

I'm not saying to make the Mac into a serious games machine with all the benchmark tools and willy-waving you get with that on the PC. Just something that could play the likes of WoW or Doom 3 in something resembling a sensible way.

Would I be happy with the current revision A iMac with a 128MB 9600 Pro thrown in for an extra ~£50? Very happy indeed, quite frankly and judging by the reaction in this thread so would a fair few other people.

 

[Plymouthbreezer]

Folks, school NEED eMacs. Let me tell you, an LCD will not last in a classroom full of 3rd graders!! If some adults don't know that LCD's can't be poked, I'm sure as hell most kids don't.

If Mac drops the eMac, they can kiss the education market goodbye.

 

[fanbrain]

Is there any word on if the new iMacs will have FW800? That's the only thing holding me back from buying one now. That and maybe the GPU.

A Powermac is a tempting but expensive option right now, and the iMac fits better into my budget. I just want it to have FW800 for video editing storage. I also want Tiger. And a million bucks.

 

[mklos]

I would too like to see a better graphics card in the iMac G5. An ATI Radeon 9600XT would be great. It all comes down to a heat issue. There's no room for a real heat sink on a graphics processor in an iMac G5. I just bought a 20" 1.8GHz iMac G5 and it gets really hot. You take the G5, give it 200 more MHz, increase the FSB a little to match the 1/3 processor/FSB speed ratio, putting a faster optical drive in there, and you're adding even more heat as it is. I think thats the main reason why you don't see a better graphics card in an iMac. So an ATI x700/x800 is certinally out of the question unless you want to see some melting plastic. Maybe Apple can figure out a way to include the liquid cooling system into the iMac to keep it cooler. I don't see Apple putting a large processor in the current enclosure down the road unless they can adopt some kind of liquid cooling system for the processor.

Before anyone comments, unless you've used an iMac G5 for a long period of time you don't actually know how hot iMac G5's get. I mean its not so hot that it will degrade the life of the G5, or the iMac itself, but I can feel the heat radiating off the front just sitting in front of it just to give you an idea of how hot they get.

 

[Yvan256]

With the new imacs ,why would anyone want an emac? Would it not be better for a school to just get imacs?

eMac = lower price, CRT, sturdy, heavy.
iMac = higher price, LCD, could easily fall off since it's balanced on a small leg.

I'd rather have kids poke their fingers at a CRT rather than an LCD. Easier to clean up too.

 

[aswitcher]

The graphics card is the Achilles heel of the iMac. I was going to buy one but the graphics card is just too lame and not enough RAM.

Now I am prepared to pay extra for the "iMac G5 DOOM3 Special Edition", (or even better, the iMac G5 Half-Life 2 Special Edition!) with a faster graphics chip and say 128 Meg VRAM.

Yeah I agree Apple need a deluxe/mac royale iMac for both the 17 and 20 with upped hardware specs.
20" 2x 512Meg sticks, 160gigHDD/option 250, 128VRAM, BT, AE...

And on the issue of better graphics cards, the PBs have the same on the logica board graphics cards and options were available for the 2nd rev, so why not the iMac...

 

[~Shard~]

With the new imacs ,why would anyone want an emac? Would it not be better for a school to just get imacs?

Further to Squire's excellent picture, the main problem with using iMacs would be the LCD. I would love to take a stopwatch into a class of kids and time how long it takes for one of the screens to get damaged by some kid poking at the screen.

 

[Plymouthbreezer]

Further to Squire's excellent picture, the main problem with using iMacs would be the LCD. I would love to take a stopwatch into a class of kids and time how long it takes for one of the screens to get damaged by some kid poking at the screen.

Like I said, most adults think it's okay to poke an LCD. Will kids be any better?? Nope.

I'm in 9th grade and see how messed up the computer get in my high school. I know for a fact, LCDs won't work in schools.

 

[dsharits]

Is there any word on if the new iMacs will have FW800? That's the only thing holding me back from buying one now. That and maybe the GPU.

A Powermac is a tempting but expensive option right now, and the iMac fits better into my budget. I just want it to have FW800 for video editing storage. I also want Tiger. And a million bucks.

Not too hard to satisfy, are you?

Daniel

 

[~loserman~]

Further to Squire's excellent picture, the main problem with using iMacs would be the LCD. I would love to take a stopwatch into a class of kids and time how long it takes for one of the screens to get damaged by some kid poking at the screen.

Or using his/her pen/pencil to try to write on the screen.

 

[rdowns]

I would too like to see a better graphics card in the iMac G5. An ATI Radeon 9600XT would be great. It all comes down to a heat issue. There's no room for a real heat sink on a graphics processor in an iMac G5. I just bought a 20" 1.8GHz iMac G5 and it gets really hot. You take the G5, give it 200 more MHz, increase the FSB a little to match the 1/3 processor/FSB speed ratio, putting a faster optical drive in there, and you're adding even more heat as it is. I think thats the main reason why you don't see a better graphics card in an iMac. So an ATI x700/x800 is certinally out of the question unless you want to see some melting plastic. Maybe Apple can figure out a way to include the liquid cooling system into the iMac to keep it cooler. I don't see Apple putting a large processor in the current enclosure down the road unless they can adopt some kind of liquid cooling system for the processor.

Before anyone comments, unless you've used an iMac G5 for a long period of time you don't actually know how hot iMac G5's get. I mean its not so hot that it will degrade the life of the G5, or the iMac itself, but I can feel the heat radiating off the front just sitting in front of it just to give you an idea of how hot they get.

My experience with my 20" iMac is very different. Very quiet and doesn't get very hot. I reach around to the slot on the back a lot to see how hot it is and am surprised that it is not.

As for a better video card, I don't see it happening. The only time my fan ever comes on is with heavy graphics web sites or playing a game. Seems to me the heat problem is video card generated.

 

[iPlm]

It's nice Apple would continue the eMacs. There should be a Mac for every person (responding in style and needs...)

Apple really should upgrade graphics on low-end Macs. The iMac is a fast computer and deserves better graphics, and so does the iBook and eMac. At least put a nVidia FX5600 Ultra or something like that(Radeon 9600 non XT). After all it's not so much more expensive than a FX5200 Ultra and Radeon 9200.

 

[Paul O'Keefe]

SMU firmware upgrade

No one has answered or elaborated on this. What is an SMU firmware upgrade?


Anyway, here is my predictions about changes with the iMac revision:
• faster processor (up to 2 GHz) and faster front side bus
• faster optical drive (the same as new powerbooks)
• one firewire 800 port
• gigbit eithernet
• Tiger OS X 10.4
• iLife 2005

And of the new video features of Tiger won't go beyond a need for 64 MB VRAM. Most of the new powerbooks only ship with 64 MB. Heck, I bet the Mac Mini's 32 MB VRAM could use these new effects.

Expect the iMacs to follow whatever technology is used in PowerBooks when it comes to optical drives and graphics capability.

 

[~loserman~]

And of the new video features of Tiger won't go beyond a need for 64 MB VRAM. Most of the new powerbooks only ship with 64 MB. Heck, I bet the Mac Mini's 32 MB VRAM could use these new effects.

I doubt it. THe mini doesnt have enough vram to even support all of Panthers effects.
Have you tried a switch user on a mini. Instead of the screen rotating it just flashes from one desktop to another

 

[~Shard~]

Or using his/her pen/pencil to try to write on the screen.

That's funny cuz it's true...

 

[dsharits]

I doubt it. THe mini doesnt have enough vram to even support all of Panthers effects.
Have you tried a switch user on a mini. Instead of the screen rotating it just flashes from one desktop to another

Not true. The iBooks have the same video chip and RAM as the Mini, and they execute the cube transition between users flawlessly. 32 MB is enough for the visual effects in Panther.

 

[~loserman~]

Not true. The iBooks have the same video chip and RAM as the Mini, and they execute the cube transition between users flawlessly. 32 MB is enough for the visual effects in Panther.

Must be screen resolutions then cause they don't work on my mini.
I'll try a lower resolution.

Yep that was it. It works at 1024x768 mea culpa

 

[dsharits]

Must be screen resolutions then cause they don't work on my mini.
I'll try a lower resolution.

Yep that was it. It works at 1024x768 mea culpa

I'm not able to try it at any higher resolution, with 1024x768 being the highest for the iBooks. I'm not complaining though. It's infinitely better than the 800x600 clamshell days.

 

[gekko513]

Must be screen resolutions then cause they don't work on my mini.
I'll try a lower resolution.

Yep that was it. It works at 1024x768 mea culpa

It works at 1280x1024, too, on my Mac mini.