Updates to Apple's iMac Line Reportedly 'Imminent'

[Supersonic]

One thing thats always puzzled me is how Apple have got away with producing all of the iMacs without having any workstation ergonomic features built in what-so-ever.

From the original Bondi Blue to the current 2011 iMac, not one can be adjusted for height. Plenty of horizontal swivel on the hinge, but for us in the EU, there are regulations around display screen equipment of which Apple kit just fails outright. You have to get a VESA mount kit for it or stack your mac on a pile of old Yellow Pages directories to raise it up a bit.

Design Style, 10/10

Design Ergonomics - 0/10 - Fail.

 

[SpyderBite]

They need their clip art! How else will people stumble upon their GeoCities website?

Heh. I lol'd.

I still meet people that continue to pay AOL monthly because they have their email address held hostage on AOL. What a racket.

 

[Ryth]

Um... yes, think I made it clear it can be done. EULA on those disc probably prohibits your storing that data (from the discs) on another "retrieval" system (just sayin').

You're also talking business where I'm sure you don't lay out the cost.

Yes, could easily by high capacity drives, but that requires at least 2 for back-up.
Back up to the cloud? Please find me huge storage at HD prices and arrange for my provider to not strangle my data pipeline AND please prove their long-term reliability. I'm still quite leery.

Give it a few more years when you can get worthwhile amounts of cloud storage for a reasonable price AND your service providers wont strangle you for using so much bandwidth.

EDIT: One more thing here. As to using external HDs or OODs. Think the whole point of the sleek, all-in-one iMac is to try to avoid all that clutter.

An external storage unit is not going to clutter up anything.

And the EULA? That's already been discussed through the courts. You have every right to back up your discs/data to another source.

 

[Jeaz]

Really hope this is true as I'm currently waiting on a new iMacs so I can replace my old one.

 

[GizmoDVD]

Heh. I lol'd.

I still meet people that continue to pay AOL monthly because they have their email address held hostage on AOL. What a racket.

You don't have to pay for an AOL email.

 

[gamrin]

One thing thats always puzzled me is how Apple have got away with producing all of the iMacs without having any workstation ergonomic features built in what-so-ever.

From the original Bondi Blue to the current 2011 iMac, not one can be adjusted for height. Plenty of horizontal swivel on the hinge, but for us in the EU, there are regulations around display screen equipment of which Apple kit just fails outright. You have to get a VESA mount kit for it or stack your mac on a pile of old Yellow Pages directories to raise it up a bit.

Design Style, 10/10

Design Ergonomics - 0/10 - Fail.

The "sunflower" iMacs had screens that could be raised and lowered easily. Just sayin'.

 

[skellener]

6 Core possibly? able to accommodate up to 48GB RAM??

 

[nerdflower]

Image

If only...

Looks like thin bezel doesn't look good with rounded corners though.

 

[alexexexex]

One thing thats always puzzled me is how Apple have got away with producing all of the iMacs without having any workstation ergonomic features built in what-so-ever.

From the original Bondi Blue to the current 2011 iMac, not one can be adjusted for height. Plenty of horizontal swivel on the hinge, but for us in the EU, there are regulations around display screen equipment of which Apple kit just fails outright. You have to get a VESA mount kit for it or stack your mac on a pile of old Yellow Pages directories to raise it up a bit.

Design Style, 10/10

Design Ergonomics - 0/10 - Fail.

the angle-poise?

[beaten to it]

 

[RadiDoc]

Image

If only...

With dedicated hi-end GPU!

 

[Meandmunch]

As brilliant as the design is I would love to see an update to the form factor.

Seeing all the amazing work done to reduce the size of Laptops and iOS devices I wonder why they can't reduce the mass of the iMac by at least 50%. It is looking a little fat and heavy these days.

 

[Flood123]

They need their clip art! How else will people stumble upon their GeoCities website?

This just made coffee come out my nose! Lol and ouch at the same time. Geocities website. You are killing me!

 

[JHankwitz]

Removing the OD drive would help in several ways.

1. Thinner. (Not that it really matters with a product like this, but thinner is nicer)
2. More space for other components
3. User-replaceable SSD/HDD?
4. Lower price point.
5. Weight (i.e. less to ship, carry, etc.)

Keeping the OD drive around for a few of the old folks is just stupid. By a $30 external if you need to use your precious discs. Mountain Lion is download only. I don't think Apple even sells disc-based software in their stores anymore. It's time to move on.

1. The iMac isn't a laptop, so thinner is not needed or better.
2. Since a desktop doesn't need to be thinner, there is potential space for most anything.
3. Apple would never allow you to put a cheap SSD/HDD in their products.
4. Component cost has very little impact on selling price. You charge what customers are willing to pay.
5. This is a desktop. If you plan on shipping or carrying, get a MacBook.

An OD is needed for more than software. Top quality, uncompressed audio and video is only available on disc. Having to use an external drive eats up way too much desktop space, not to mention needing more fricken cables and wires.

 

[Ryth]

I hate that I can't clean the insides of my iMac of dust so I love that the z1 opens up like that, however the price difference to the 27" iMac is significant, considering the lower priced models of the Z1 uses integrated graphics - Intel HD Graphics 2000, or the Intel HD P3000 which is a separate card but not particularly a strong performer. And it obviously won't take mainstream GPU cards.

For the iMac there are PCIe expansion over thunderbolt solutions out there like this one:
http://www.magma.com/thunderbolt/

Pretty expansive either case.

Yep, its the basic 'flaw' of the iMac. No way to upgrade the GPU. And who knows...maybe now no way to upgrade the RAM or SSD/HDD.

To this day, I still hate Apple for not having a SFF machine that has the power of the top of the line iMac/lower end Mac Pro and the ability to upgrade the video cards, RAM, SSD/HDD, etc and hook up to your own monitor.

 

[AppleInLVX]

I agree.

And:

iMac ≠ Mac Mini ≠ Mac Pro ≠ MacBook

I've been on the internet pretty much since the Earth cooled and I STILL don't know how to create special characters on the highly remote chance that I'll need them. I just pick from the available options.

//get off my lawn.

 

[reden]

Can we please have a thunderbolt display with USB 3.0?

 

[xgman]

If this is simply a 'refresh', that damn ODD will stay. If it's a redesign, I hope they remove it. .

I wouldn't put it past Apple to simply spec bump it, but that would really signal a lack of interest of the line on their part. Just the bare minimum to keep it alive. I'm hoping for something more though.

 

[imageWIS]

My hairdresser told me this morning she bought a 27 inch iMac yesterday from the local Apple Store. Unlucky

But this is good news Retina displays maybe?

Don't count your chickens before they are hatched. A retina 27" display is going to be really expensive.

 

[GadgetDon]

One thing thats always puzzled me is how Apple have got away with producing all of the iMacs without having any workstation ergonomic features built in what-so-ever.

From the original Bondi Blue to the current 2011 iMac, not one can be adjusted for height. Plenty of horizontal swivel on the hinge, but for us in the EU, there are regulations around display screen equipment of which Apple kit just fails outright. You have to get a VESA mount kit for it or stack your mac on a pile of old Yellow Pages directories to raise it up a bit.

Design Style, 10/10

Design Ergonomics - 0/10 - Fail.

I'm not sure I'd give it a zero, but yeah, an adjustable height would be good. (Worse, I've got it connected to a monitor also without an adjustable height - and they're different heights.)

I'm somewhat surprised that design work just froze on the iMac since the G5 iMac. Oh, some aesthetic tinkering, made thinner and such, but they're all "thick rectangle with a metal stand holding it up".

I'm not expecting a revamp this time - but it would be a pleasant surprise.

 

[xgman]

1. The iMac isn't a laptop, so thinner is not needed or better.
I think it would look nicer on the desk.

3. Apple would never allow you to put a cheap SSD/HDD in their products.
done all the time.

4. Component cost has very little impact on selling price. You charge what customers are willing to pay.
not true at all.


An OD is needed for more than software. Top quality, uncompressed audio and video is only available on disc. Having to use an external drive eats up way too much desktop space, not to mention needing more fricken cables and wires.


Understand, but external burner for those needs seems reasonable. I do believe optical media hasn't much life left. I really don't think all that many people use it these days on imacs.

.......................................

 

[dponte]

Don't count your chickens before they are hatched. A retina 27" display is going to be really expensive.

Agreed...$$$$!

I've been in discussions where people believe that Retina is really just a transition/phase and Apple is working with others on new graphics processors (although, it sounds like this may be a while off) to come up with a 4K X 4K type resolution mode.

Interesting, if true. Although, one can assume we always head toward better resolutions in general...if Retina is not around for more than a few years, don't be surprised.

 

[Scrub175]

Got a tweet reply From the fox news guy and he said that I or anyone can parse imminent any way we like. In later tweet he said imminent to him means within a few weeks like October not tonight or anything.

 

[mohsy90]

Quote from Clayton Morris at Fox:
"A few things we can count on in the new iMacs are new Ivy Bridge processors, improved graphics chips, USB 3.0, and expanded SSD capacities. Also look for a new slimmer design with Apple finally removing the optical drive from the side.

It is possible that the iMac announcement could happen at the rumored October iPad mini announcement, but I’m not holding my breath for that. Apple has been known to update the desktops without much fanfare."


Seriously, they're removing the optical drive? I'm all for a slimmer design, but to remove the optical drive from a desktop computer sounds like a stupid idea.

 

[GadgetDon]

As brilliant as the design is I would love to see an update to the form factor.

Seeing all the amazing work done to reduce the size of Laptops and iOS devices I wonder why they can't reduce the mass of the iMac by at least 50%. It is looking a little fat and heavy these days.

Maybe the design could be to move the guts to the base - so you can have a more flexible stand. Would kill the "you can mount it to the wall" concept, but does that really happen?

Or maybe, just playing around with ideas - an all-in-one that isn't. You've got a base that's a lot like the Mac Mini, but a bit bigger for more horsepower and yes, keep the optical drive. The monitor on the stand is actually detachable, there's a second thunderbolt connection.

So, out of the box, it's an all in one like the current iMac, base is bigger, monitor part is thinner, connector between base and monitor supports height adjust as well as angle and tilt. Remove some bolts and disconnect a cable, the monitor is mountable, can be connected to a better stand, etc.

Won't happen. It'll be the same old form factor, but would be nice.

 

[janderson0719]

Spend $30 and buy an external disc drive. Or $50 a get a 1TB drive.

Why are you being so selfish and requiring an ancient device be included with all iMacs that not only costs Apple money but consumers as well so you can keep your clip art? Apple is digital.

All this coming from someone with DVD in his name. Funny.