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Updates to Apple's iMac Line Reportedly 'Imminent'
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MythicFrost
macrumors 68040
Oh I really hope it they have Retina displays. I would fork out quite a bit of money for a 27 inch iMac with a 5120x2880 resolution IPS display (with less glare like the rMBP) and a 7970M 2GB, preferably overclocked.
G51989
macrumors 68030
So, you want a current gen Processor, a current gen, GPU, and a super high res display, from APPLE?!
Get ready to Fork over 20K, they must maintain 75% profit margins ya know.
And for people who think ODD needs to go? Name one way to back up super important data, thats private, 100% reliable, and cheap?
TONS of programs still come on optical media, optical media isn't dead, and it won't be for a decade.
Oh yeah. You can't, besides Optical Media.
The people who really think optical drives are dead are just falling for Apples ******** Kool Aid/
" Why have Optical Media, when you can buy everything over again for twice the price in the itunes store? "
Flash drives are not too bad, dvds are cheap if you need to give them to others, for personal data storage I have trust issues. Cheap for software downloads that require a disc.
Always like hearing others that are aware that it is not dead, it may be dead to others not for a lot of people, even less so if you use your computer for everything, including watching movies. And there is no way I am going to rent movies online for five dollars.
To add on to that, twice the price, lower quality and compressed, DRM (movies wise) no extras, no ability to trade, sell or give away. This is were digital really fails, it is just not appealing when I can grab blu-rays from five to ten dollars. Digital movies would have to be under five dollars for me to even think about it, and those would have to be high definition and I know that will never happen from anyone, I am just on another page completely when it comes to what I would pay for digital.
Personally I wanted to see a blu-ray drive in Macs, going the way of no DVD drive at all is not helping, however I could see having my main laptop and the Macbook Air, I can understand it with that and that is all.
Buying a costly streamline iMac to stick an external DVD drive kind of defeats the purpose.
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There is no reason for them to wait 500+ days for a 'spec bump'
That would have already occurred.
They are neither 100% reliable nor cheap. Optic disks deteriorate over time, are sensitive to wear and sunlight and hard drives are cheaper per GB.
This whole all in one, everything squeezed into a pretty little package is no good really for anyone who does anything worthwhile on their machine ... It is in fact just another mac toy and so so many of us have decided to move away from mac after the let down and attitude of the last 2 years
BYEBYE APPLE
BYEBYE APPLE
G51989
macrumors 68030
They are not 100% reliable, nothing is.
However, over the long term, they are more reliable than external hard drives, and more private than cloud storage.
Sensitive to wear? How? Nothing touches them besides the disc spinning spindle.
I have CDs from the early 80s that still work just fine.
Find a hard drive from the 80s with neat 100% reliability rate.
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Spoiled
macrumors member
G51989
macrumors 68030
Flash drives are ok, but I store massive files, and again. Optical media and tape media is more reliable than Hard Drives, Flash Drives, Cloud, or SSDs.
And DVDs for video are great, as they can easily be played anywhere.
Yes, its not dead. It won't be dead for a long long long time, eventually we'll see bigger and bigger and more reliable discs, Blu Rays have a LONG shelf life, MUCH longer than a SSD or hard drive, thats for sure. And I like OWNING my media, not putting it in the hands of a company like Apple ( Cloud ).
I'll pay 10 bucks a month for netflix, because thats all its worth.
Lets be honest, Apple isn't interested in Blu Ray, they are interested in you spending money in the itunes store for dumpster files.
They drop the DVD drive, and never go blu ray? I'm done with Macs. Because for me, that means the Mac has turned into a " give me more money " after purchase device.
I think some people on here don't realize that for the most part, optical media is more reliable and long lasting than a dumpster external hard drive or SSD, ( Blu Rays are supposed to have3 some pretty awesome shelf life ), and its more private than cloud storage. **** cloud storage, I don't want my personal files out on the net.
And as far as movies go? your ****** iTunes and Netflix movies are 100% crap compared to a blu ray.
Exactly, but you just said that they were (post #230), which is why I mentioned that they are not 100% reliable.
http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=641
http://www.loc.gov/preservation/resources/rt/studyofCDlongevity.pdf
MythicFrost
macrumors 68040
They did it with the rMBP and it's $200 cheaper than the sMBP with the same CPU, SSD and RAM. It would be more like 3k, with an SSD.
It's a waste of space in a modern computer though. An external optical drive can be bought if necessary.
Just buy a external. Technology changes. That's just advancement. Apple is going to do away with the ODD just like they did with the FDD. People adapted and people bought external FDD.
I mean really...it's a home machine. You can put the external in a drawer when it's not in use.
And I have a few friends with the MBP-R...they aren't complaining at all about not having an ODD in it. Everything is on drives or thumb drives now. And they carry a slim ODD with them. It doesn't bog them down at all nor make their backpack, carrying case, etc heavier or more bulky.
I mean really...it's a home machine. You can put the external in a drawer when it's not in use.
And I have a few friends with the MBP-R...they aren't complaining at all about not having an ODD in it. Everything is on drives or thumb drives now. And they carry a slim ODD with them. It doesn't bog them down at all nor make their backpack, carrying case, etc heavier or more bulky.
How much space can it really waste in a desktop? And the point is most people do not wish to buy a desktop and then add an external drive to it, I know I would rather not, feels it misses the point, more so on a machine like the iMac, there is zero harm in just leaving it in there.
That is one handy thing for dvds, should be able to play them with ease just about anywhere. It took four dvds to to create the restore software for this computer, I could have used a flash drive it was just cheaper to use dvds at this time.
I also imagine it being around for years to come, some talk about the floppy drive, that was not the same thing, music and movies do not come on it for one. One thing about that is Apple removed the floppy drive in 1998, I did not even start using one until 1999 when I finally had a computer so I can see that was based on those who were very up to date with current tech, I had to use the floppy drive for awhile because of the camera I had, happy to be rid of it now as it hardly held any data.
Not huge on the cloud either, I see it as a offsite backup, that is all, I perfect my files with me not in the cloud where I must have the internet to gain access, just not something I see a point in when it is just as easy to have all my files with me.
Agreed, There is enough content to view where it is worth that much and mostly for a few television shows, their movies are hit and miss, streaming has a long ways to go.
Streaming that is priced well that is, five dollar rentals? No, two dollars or less in 1080P? Most likely.
I like a few of Apples products, however their attitude can annoy me at times, acting like blu-ray and dvd drives are dated and old when they are still being used by many. Of course to me this translates into - We want you to spend lots of money on overpriced digital downloads and I know that is not just Apple, everyone is over changing for digital.
Digital book - $9.99
Hardcover - $8.99
Doing it wrong!
The only thing the digital has on the one you have more control over is ease of access and it saves space.
I WANT to like an Apple computer however the further we go I can see they really are not looking to meet the needs I require from a computer, if I am spending that much I cannot feel like it is a limited system. The Mac Mini is often used as HTPC and people cannot even load a dvd into the newer ones, very odd. And tossing an external drive on top just completely defeats the purpose. Even if people went all digital most still own optical media from before, the past just does not go away.
G51989
macrumors 68030
The rMBP starts at 2100 dollars for a VERY underpowered laptop with a high res display, my Alienware might not have the super high res display a rMBP does, but it takes it to school in every other category,
And thats a 15 inch screen, a 27 inch screen is much larger and more expensive.
How is it a waste of space? A ton of software still comes on optical drives, all movies still come on discs, unless you want garbage compressed iTunes or netflix movies. Optical media is far from dead.
The idea that optical media is dead doesn't have any actual facts behind it, its just Apple wanting you to re buy everything in the iTunes store.
G51989
macrumors 68030
Your right. I ****ed up on that one. I cave.
However, ( I'm not reading the links, they look like PDF,s not opening that garbage ).
Hard drives and SSD's are simply not as reliable as a DVD or Blu Ray disc. And the cloud?
Yeah, random people looking at my data? No thanks.
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It will only waste Apples profit margin, if they get rid of the ODD.
Im willing to bet actual money that the new iMac will be thinner for no reason, or have a big empty space where the ODD was. And they'll call that empty space " profit margin zone ".
There is harm for Apple leaving it in there, less people will buy ****** iTunes movies 😛 Less profit for them.
I'll keep my DVDs and Blu Ray, I find it HUGELY amusing that a standard DVD, for the most part looks better than " 1080 P " streamed content.
I miss floppy drives myself If im honest, freshmen year of college, there was no better way to trade Roller coaster Tycoon Parks 😉
I had computers way before 99 at a young age, and floppies were a good thing at the time.
They are useless now, but optical media is not.
Personally, I see the cloud as overpriced garbage, that doesn't really promise anything. I'lll take my personal sever, and Blu Ray Backups.
I think Netflix is awesome for general TV episode and season viewing, tons of choices, cheap as hell to. The quailty is terrible. But meh.
5 dollar rentals? No thanks.
Apple only acts like that so they can sell more horrible iTunes content.
Apple computer? Dead. My iMac 2011 will be my last, the high end PC is the last true Prosumer/Pro machine left. Macs are just consumer garbage now.
I have not gotten into blu-ray for storage, now sure of the current costs, I imagine it could work well for many things.
I love it, Blu Rays are supposed to have a MUCH longer shelf life than CDs....and I have CDs from the very early 80s ( Im not that old, but I buy lots of random old CDs ) that work perfectly.
I love it to, I have an HD DVD player to...whoops.
But, Blu Ray/HD DVD/Hell Standard DVD is so far beyond garbage streaming I don't get it.
Get rid of the ODD? I'm gone from buying new Apple products.
I don't think people realize how terrible online content really is.
If you have a audio/video system worth its weight. You'd NEVER stream. Real media blows it away.
I want amazing picture, and amazing audio. Right now, only Blu Ray can do that. The crap you get online? Sucks!
inscrewtable
macrumors 68000
G51989
macrumors 68030
HP and Gateway already have touch screen AIOs out. Can't wait till Apple brings out a AOI iMac and sues HP and Gateway 😉
Most likely, thin is good for phones, tablets, MP3 players ect, it should not be as much of an issue for a desktop system.
I have had overall good luck, sometimes cable or streaming in general can become blocky.
Ah, memories of Roller Coaster Tycoon and blowing stuff up.....playing the game. 🙂 I had a floppy because of a digital camera, I was not able to keep up on all the latest tech, could not drop a hundred here or there for a camera or new system back then. I had to use what was cheaper for quite some time.
I had to start with WEB TV, now that was painful, finally had a real computer in my late teens.
I do have 50GB free, only reason I would use it for the right type of files, nothing I would pay for, there is enough to pay for each month, rather not may more just to storage data off site.
It is under nine dollars so that is why I have it, there are a few shows I may want to watch the entire series of. Quality is kind of blah, sometimes that is not a huge deal for the price.
That reminds of of another matter, I know there are times I like to purchase CDS because they are the same price as the digital download and higher quality or I find music for a dollar each for entire albums, I would want a way to load said media onto a computer. I am a thrifty shopping, I rather not pay too much for anything if I do not have to.
Which is too bad, for awhile now I was waiting for blu-ray to arrive and I have known that was unlikely to happen for some time now. I could have an all in one system blu-ray, Mac OSX and Windows 7 on one system.
Apple is often living so far in the future they forget about the past and present, the things people are still doing.
As long as they are kept safe it could be possible to have them stored and looked at twenty years later and it will work perfectly fine.
I had a Blu-ray HD-DVD combo drive in my computer, current on a laptop which just has a blu-ray drive. Took a little bit to find a laptop for under four hundred with a blu-ray drive and a screen that was at least 1600x900.
And often people will say, get something that suits your needs, yes, of course, the issue is we WANT to be able to buy an Apple computer that does what we need it to do.
Along with spending inflated prices for it.
I have a simple 42" television and a nice blu-ray movie looks really nice on it. Looks great on my laptop as well.
Moccasin
macrumors 65816
I doubt that iMacs will have a major update this year but am happy to be proved wrong. I understood they were hinting at a major refresh next year with the MP?
I also heard somewhere yesterday that Haswell won't be available from Intel until Q4 next year. If that's true, then I suspect they have may been happy to extend the life of the current iMac to equalise the time between refreshes.
I'm still in two minds about whether I need a desktop. I'm not doing much with my MBA at the moment (for various reasons) and it seems like an indulgence. I might go for a Mac Mini with my current rather basic monitor and upgrade to a TB display whenever that gets updated. 27" is a bit too big though, so the 21" iMac is still an option.
Has the problem with the screens on the iMacs been fixed yet? Is that what the mooted screen laminating is supposed to fix?
I also heard somewhere yesterday that Haswell won't be available from Intel until Q4 next year. If that's true, then I suspect they have may been happy to extend the life of the current iMac to equalise the time between refreshes.
I'm still in two minds about whether I need a desktop. I'm not doing much with my MBA at the moment (for various reasons) and it seems like an indulgence. I might go for a Mac Mini with my current rather basic monitor and upgrade to a TB display whenever that gets updated. 27" is a bit too big though, so the 21" iMac is still an option.
Has the problem with the screens on the iMacs been fixed yet? Is that what the mooted screen laminating is supposed to fix?
On another note...
How bout mini? It needs some love too. Maybe the reason why they're holding up on them is to launch it simultaneously with 13" Retina Macbook. Mini's usually have internals from 13" Macbooks (except the server version) so it makes sense they want to put the newest stuff in it.
It's strange though, what else they could add? Regular 13" Macbook was updated in June with Ivy, HD4000 and USB3. Maybe wi-fi AC? Newer integrated GPU or newer mobile GPU for mid-range model? Double TB ports? (would make sense since it's on 15" RMBP).
One can guess. New iMacs are a good sign for mini users too, I think one could expect for them to come out in 2-3 month window after iMacs.
How bout mini? It needs some love too. Maybe the reason why they're holding up on them is to launch it simultaneously with 13" Retina Macbook. Mini's usually have internals from 13" Macbooks (except the server version) so it makes sense they want to put the newest stuff in it.
It's strange though, what else they could add? Regular 13" Macbook was updated in June with Ivy, HD4000 and USB3. Maybe wi-fi AC? Newer integrated GPU or newer mobile GPU for mid-range model? Double TB ports? (would make sense since it's on 15" RMBP).
One can guess. New iMacs are a good sign for mini users too, I think one could expect for them to come out in 2-3 month window after iMacs.
d0nK
macrumors 6502
I hope you're being sarcastic.
This June, 685 days since the last model was released, the Mac Pro got the lamest spec-bump in spec-bump history.