Be silent and seize my funds
That was truly wonderful. Thank you, sir.
Just hope the Mac Mini will get some love too.. I still don't like the All-in-one throw-everything-away-when-one-part-breaks concept.
The Mac mini, like the iMac only has user-servicable RAM, just like the iMac. The only three things that you can replace on a Mac mini that you can't on an iMac are the screen, the speakers, and the now-external-only optical drive.
Had my iMac now for 6 years and nothing has broken. Much better than my PCs that ended up in the trash after 3.
Consider yourself lucky, my iMac of six years had to have both its hard drive and its optical drive replaced at the four year mark. And with the designs having gotten substantially worse since six years ago, the rate of failure has definitely gone way up.
Mountain Lion isn't even available on a disc.
I hope they axe the Disc drive. Such a waste of space.
We're talking about a freakin' desktop here! You don't need to axe things on a desktop to create space; that defeats the whole point of it being a desktop rather than a MacBook Pro hooked to a Thunderbolt display!
Still, that being said, if they insisted on keeping it thinner; using the current optibay cavity to instead house an extra fan would probably abate most of the heating problems with the current design.
The thing with axing the optical drive would be whether its actually worth it.
At the moment the iMac doesn't
need to get thinner etc because it's not portable so that argument is kinda silly. If they were to axe it then I would hope they replace it with something useful!
Rather than making the iMac a bit thinner give people something else.
I can't think of what else they would put in it though so it just seems a bit pointless axing the optical drive (to save themselves $5 off the cost of the build or whatever it may be!).
I do hope ssd/hdd hybrids throughout the line though
Would be amazing! Maybe start small on the low end 21" (32/64gb - so basically only OS potentially) and go up to 256gb standard on the top 27" with maybe 128gbs on the middle 2.
Where I am fundamentally opposed to the idea of no ODD in a MacBook Pro, let alone one that is supposed to serve as one's only Mac, let alone ones' only computer period, the idea of removing it from the iMac, doesn't bother me much as external drives are both faster and more reliable than the internal ones that Apple uses. You buy an LG external drive that uses a standard desktop "cup-holder" style tray-loader, and has its own power-supply and uses USB 2.0 for its connection, it is not only faster than Apple's own internal (and external too for that matter) optical drives, but way more reliable and much easier and cheaper to replace. Still though, I agree, it's an adequate solution to a problem that shouldn't exist to begin with.
Besides the standard wants, USB 3, Ivy Bridge, better GPU etc., I am hoping for a few things:
1. Either Matte option or much improved anti-reflextive capabilities. The current glass screens are way to reflective for where I would have it.
2. Full size BT keyboard option. I like a wireless keyboard but I still need a keypad!
3. User upgradeable memory AND drives.
1. Don't bank on it. At best, you'll see a glass panel akin to what the Retina MacBook Pro uses.
2. Don't count on this one either.
3. I'd love this one, but if history has been any indication, then (pre-iSight iMac G5's aside) this one will be like every other iMac and will thusly be a pain in the ass to do any of that sort of swapping.
Also, at this point, putting out an iMac with Ivy Bridge is more or less moot given that Haswell is due out in the earlier portion of the calendar year. I mean, an Ivy Bridge iMac would spend most of its refresh cycle running out-of-date hardware. Plus, in terms of marketing in Apple's terms, there's no difference between Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge; hell, you see "Sandy Bridge" nowhere on Apple's iMac pages.
So why not add a Floppy drive?
Because floppies have literally zero use in 2012, whereas optical media is still, in many ways, much more convenient than USB drives and downloadables. There is a difference, y'know.
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.
Says GizmoDVD? That's funny. The only good reason for axing the DVD drive in an iMac is to put in another fan to help with its myriad of heat issues. Otherwise, it already has more than enough room for everything that could possibly be needed. Lower price-point is a moot point seeing as Apple wouldn't drop the price with it axed. And it weighs next to nothing compared to the rest of the machine, so that's also a silly argument.
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.
Optical discs are also digital, didn't you get the memo? Some people need that stuff more badly than you want it gone. And on a desktop computer, there's no reason to get rid of it save for perpetuating an already ridiculous need for thinness and minimalism. My $2000 desktop should have a DVD drive; removing it just to keep a stupid design philosophy around is exactly that...stupid.
I suppose Apple will keep with the ricauculous custom hard drive found in the current iMac? This is the whole reason my OS X now wakes up to Z77x-UP5 TH in the morning.
Yeah, I wouldn't expect that to improve much; maybe the custom hard drives will be replaced by multiple mSATA blades, but that still doesn't help the proprietary-ness situation much. Frankly, all of Apple's desktops, for reasons like this are fundamentally stupid; I whole-heartedly support Hackintoshing for this reason.
new iPhone
iPad Mini
new iPods
new iMac
new iOS
5 releases?
#clingstofutilehopeoflogicalproductnaming
Hahaha...Man, I'm with you on that. I'm so sick of "iPhone 5"; it's the sixth generation iPhone, people!!! The 4S WAS the 5!
With dedicated hi-end GPU!
Not with a design that thin. It'll stick to the gamer-laptop-PC GPUs that it always has, if not switching to what the 15" MacBook Pro (Retina and non-retina) has. With thinner design brings WEAKER graphics cards, not better ones. At best, you have something like Kepler in which you are able to keep performance the same while reducing size.
EXACTLY. This is why I am so opposed to the Macbook Pro Retina line. To gain 3/16 of an inch in thinness, you give up the optical drive, wired ethernet, and the ability to repair anything under $1.5k. You end of up with a $2.5K to $4k paperweight after 1-3 years depending on if you buy $350 applecare. IMO, not worth the 3/16 of an inch. Good for Apples business though. You get the WOW factor and you sucker people into disposable laptops that they will come back to you for replacement quicker.
Yeah, this is exactly why I'm getting a 15" non-retina. Sad that said design has a one-year stay of execution and will likely disappear thereafter. Still though, I'm tremendously grateful for that stay of execution.
Apple, if you're reading this, please bring back the display IN feature of the 2009/2010 27" iMac. I greatly enjoy playing my PS3/XBOX 360 on my 27" iMac, and since you removed this ability with the advent of Thunderbolt, I haven't upgraded my 2009 iMac.
I'd like to, but only if you let me use my iMac as a display. Thank you.
(One can hope, right?)
Yeah, I don't quite get why Target Display Mode HAD to become a Thunderbolt-devices-only thing...but I did immediately have the same reaction you did. Though, that was roughly around the time that I realized how much iMacs are impractical machines to begin with, so my careface was accordingly low on the matter.
It's still a mobile graphics GPU (AMD Radeon HD 6970M)..hence the 'M' designation of Mobile. Doesn't matter that it's 2 GB...it's still not as powerful as the equal card that is not a mobile card.
So yes, it's still using a laptops GPU...and yes there are 2 GB mobile chips in laptops..like this one..
Alienware - Dual 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon HD 7970M - CrossFireX Enabled
So you are incorrect.
iMacs are laptops in a large case...otherwise they would not have to use a 'M' series chip.
Still, as is the case with both the iMac and the Alienware, these machines aren't simply using the same video chipset form-factor as what the 15" MacBook Pro uses; they're using a discrete board that, in and of itself, is more powerful than the GPUs you'd find of said MacBook Pros, but less powerful than what you'd find on a desktop. It's an awkward mid-ground. But yeah, desktop graphics these are definitely not.
As for removing the ODD, Apple shouldn't just yet. It's a dying medium but it's too soon. They're still in the MBPs which were just updated and if there were any machine that needed extra space, it would be those.
I only use it maybe half a dozen times a year but those times are the only way to get that data and without it I'd be SOL. I also still prefer CDs to iTunes because of the sound quality.
The non-retina unibody design of MacBook Pros was given a one-year stay of execution; I'd be completely shocked if it stuck around past this rev; Retina (and soldered RAM with Blade SSDs and unremovable batteries with exposed cells) are the way of the future for the MacBook Pro line; let alone the Apple notebook line as a whole. Apple is killing the optical drive whether we want it gone or not. And, to be fair, in most cases, it isn't needed. I'm with you, I want one. But if push really did come to shove, an external one would be just fine, albeit a trite bit inconvenient. Still though, replacing an external one (assuming you buy Apple's overpriced drive) is a good $100 cheaper than replacing an internal one and it doesn't require that you leave your computer at a repair shop for service.
