What to expect from iMac 2012 - Discussion

[Sapien7]

Studious Newbee

I'm not yet a Mac owner but I used them at work and I own other apple products (iPhone4, iPad 1, TV 2). This is a real shot-in-the-dark opinion but I wonder if the new iMacs may have a multi-touch screen option. Consider the mileage Apple has enjoyed a a result of this technology on mobile devices. I know it may seem awkward to consider reaching across one's desk to manipulate items on the screen, but I dare say a great many iPad owners have tried it out of reflex. Isn't a knack for reflexive intuition part of what makes Apple successful?

I've been studying with the intent to purchase an iMac soon. I have the dough but I'm waiting. Based on historical trends posted here at MacRumors it looks like we are approaching the end of the average release interval.

Days since last release = 224 days

Average release interval since 04/2008 = 273 days

Historical--------Release
releases---------interval
05/2011----------280
07/2011----------280
10/2009----------231
03/2009----------309
04/2008----------265

 

[David085]

Would be useful to have a touch screen for the iMac also the next ACD since Windows 8 is on the way you can use it to touch the titles and stuff on win 8, would be useful for Bootcamp Windows Users IMHO.

 

[riotgeek]

I'm currently using an early 2007 MBP and it is well and truly on its last legs. I nearly upgraded before Christmas, but I'm waiting to see if there are any announcements at CES about an iMac 2012 refresh.

The waiting is killing me, though.

Would be useful to have a touch screen for the iMac

I'm unsure about this trend towards touch screen desktops. It seems like it would just be a big iPad.

 

[bobright]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

I'm not yet a Mac owner but I used them at work and I own other apple products (iPhone4, iPad 1, TV 2). This is a real shot-in-the-dark opinion but I wonder if the new iMacs may have a multi-touch screen option. Consider the mileage Apple has enjoyed a a result of this technology on mobile devices. I know it may seem awkward to consider reaching across one's desk to manipulate items on the screen, but I dare say a great many iPad owners have tried it out of reflex. Isn't a knack for reflexive intuition part of what makes Apple successful?

I've been studying with the intent to purchase an iMac soon. I have the dough but I'm waiting. Based on historical trends posted here at MacRumors it looks like we are approaching the end of the average release interval.

Days since last release = 224 days

Average release interval since 04/2008 = 273 days

Historical--------Release
releases---------interval
05/2011----------280
07/2011----------280
10/2009----------231
03/2009----------309
04/2008----------265

This was posted on Dec 13 so were even closer. The suspense is killing me.

 

[Santabean2000]

Realistically:
*IB
*USB 3
*GPU bump
*RAM ceiling lifted to 32GB (option though Apple Store)
*512GB SSD option
*3TB HDD option

Possible, but unlikely:
*Matte screen
*Chin removed

Not gonna happen:
*Desktop graphics
*New display size
*BR



ODD will stay, for now. And touch will stay away, for now.

 

[itsamacthing]

got a Mac Mini to tide me over

I'm waiting, and have been for 3 months. I am not going to buy a iMac unless it has:
USB 3.0
Apple provided SSD that is fast...the current Hitachi drives are terrible
OR
Easy to access drive bays for end users (never happen)
someone said SATA III, but they already have SATA III
Ivy Bridge is a given...altho the latest updates are saying maybe April or May and that would be the longest wait between refreshes

Siri is ok, but i'm not dying for it as I like to work quietly and I don't know if my staff will enjoy me saying: Open Mail! lol

TV integration would be interesting, but again, I use mine at work so maybe not that exciting for me

Thats what I'm expecting, so lets see what happens within the next 6 months!!!

Till then, I have a new i7 mini with an OWC SSD in and it flys...

 

[theSeb]

Apple provided SSD that is fast...the current Hitachi drives are terrible

Hitachi does not make SSDs. The Apple supplied SSD are usually Toshiba or Samsung and they are hardly terrible. I've proven this using a Mac Mini with a OCZ Vertex 3. Synthetic benchmarks are great, but in the real world the Apple SSDs do just fine. The so called "fast" SSDs have a lot of reliability issues and Apple won't use them until the situation improves. I, like Apple, would also err on the side of caution when it comes to SSD technology.

 

[cperry2]

What I expect to see:

- Ivy Bridge
- USB 3
- Dropped Disc Drive
- high-end hexacore option (esp if they end up dropping the mac pro)
- Bluetooth 4.0

What I hope to see, but somewhat/ highly unlikely:

- New form factor like the 2002 sunflower imac, allowing for easy tilt-adjustment from landscape to portrait - autorotation like the ipad. Maybe multitouch screen, similarly ergonomic due to the highly flexible screen orientation (could swivel down to a more horizontal plane like the HP all in ones). This would require a LOT of work on apple's part, however, in UI. It's something I would expect more for their next major OS revision, if at all.
- Standard 8GB RAM in 4 GB modules
- Desktop class GPU as a result of dropping the disc drive.
- Standard Small SSD boot drive (64-128GB) (SATA III) + 1-2TB media drive.



That's all I can think of, really. Anything else would truly be a (hopefully pleasant) surprise. I'm about to get a 2011 baseline 27" via fed ex any minute now - don't regret it at all based on speculation/ expectations for 2012.

I just hope the Thunderbolt market opens up sooner than later!

 

[Yinmay]

Ivy Bridge desktop quad core
32 GB ram max
32" screen option
Built-in Siri / Apple TV functionality
Radeon 7970M
128GB SSD + 1 TB HDD standard, 256GB SSD + 2 TB HDD optional
No optical drive
No USB3 (but a USB3/Thunderbolt adapter will be released at some point)

 

[beosound3200]

Ivy Bridge desktop quad core
32 GB ram max
32" screen option
Built-in Siri / Apple TV functionality
Radeon 7970M
128GB SSD + 1 TB HDD standard, 256GB SSD + 2 TB HDD optional
No optical drive
No USB3 (but a USB3/Thunderbolt adapter will be released at some point)

why is it so hard for people to understand, ivy bridge has INTEGRATED usb 3 support, so if theyll have ivy bridge, theyll also have usb3, and no, thunderbol and usb dont compete, they supplement each other according to intel..

 

[bobright]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

Ivy Bridge desktop quad core
32 GB ram max
32" screen option
Built-in Siri / Apple TV functionality
Radeon 7970M
128GB SSD + 1 TB HDD standard, 256GB SSD + 2 TB HDD optional
No optical drive
No USB3 (but a USB3/Thunderbolt adapter will be released at some point)

why is it so hard for people to understand, ivy bridge has INTEGRATED usb 3 support, so if theyll have ivy bridge, theyll also have usb3, and no, thunderbol and usb dont compete, they supplement each other according to intel..

Can somebody explain to me what's so special about USB 3 and what it does? I see it constantly mentioned

 

[beosound3200]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)



Can somebody explain to me what's so special about USB 3? I see it constantly mentioned

its faster a lot

 

[Yinmay]

why is it so hard for people to understand, ivy bridge has INTEGRATED usb 3 support, so if theyll have ivy bridge, theyll also have usb3, and no, thunderbol and usb dont compete, they supplement each other according to intel..

Yes Intel will support it but my prediction is that the iMac will not sport USB3 ports out of the box.

 

[beosound3200]

Yes Intel will support it but my prediction is that the iMac will not sport USB3 ports out of the box.

yes, i understood that from the first post..
and why is that so?

 

[jertronic]

I have a USB3 question also. Do you plug standard USB devices into USB3 and it works faster? makes your usb devices faster? Or, is USB3 a whole separate deal?

Connectivity seems on the verge of spiraling out of control. VHS or Beta anyone?

 

[gagaliya]

I could care less about all the form factor and bell/whistle changes. below is what I want.

1) Better GPU - the current 6970M is a GIANT step in the right direction for imac and historical, it is the first time imac took gpu seriously and went above & beyond. Hope this trend continues with next version.

2) Much better SSD - this was a big step backward, if apple wants to make custom hdd upgrade difficult/impossible fine but give us the option to choose a good SSD, the apple ssd included is crap and a complete ripoff given the much better SSDs available at the time and at lower price. Even more so now. Either that or stop locking up the panel and let us upgrade ourselves.

I will be very pissed if apple continue to tackle on some expensive outdated SSD as the only hdd upgrade option, it will be a deciding factor to go imac or not.

3) Bluray drive - almost zero chance..but not that big a deal.

4) Touch screen - will be a nice feature but not critical

That's it, whatever incremental cpu/memory upgrade is fine. People keep focusing on the little cpu/memory differences but in reality it's the gpu (for games) and hdd (everything else) that has the most significance impact on performance.

 

[beosound3200]

I have a USB3 question also. Do you plug standard USB devices into USB3 and it works faster? makes your usb devices faster? Or, is USB3 a whole separate deal?

Connectivity seems on the verge of spiraling out of control. VHS or Beta anyone?

usb 3 has backwards compatibility, but usb 2 device wont work any faster

 

[gagaliya]

Hitachi does not make SSDs. The Apple supplied SSD are usually Toshiba or Samsung and they are hardly terrible. I've proven this using a Mac Mini with a OCZ Vertex 3. Synthetic benchmarks are great, but in the real world the Apple SSDs do just fine. The so called "fast" SSDs have a lot of reliability issues and Apple won't use them until the situation improves. I, like Apple, would also err on the side of caution when it comes to SSD technology.

give me a break, those "reliability" issues are not better or worse than any other ssd including the toshiba apple is using. And they ARE worse (slower + much more expensive) than the SSD sold currently on the market.

It's nothing but laziness and indifference on apple's part to upgrade the hdd.

 

[jertronic]

Being fairly new to mac, and using fairly lightly, I bought the base model 21 inch in November.

My wish is that the base model came with a 1Tb HDD, instead of the 500Gb. I fear that I will fill the drive within a year or two. (2/5 full now) Yes, I have an external HDD for time machine, but I like to keep things as streamline and simple as possible.

Is USB3 much faster than FireWire? Will FireWire be dropped is USB3 is added?

 

[theSeb]

give me a break, those "reliability" issues are not better or worse than any other ssd including the toshiba apple is using. And they ARE worse (slower + much more expensive) than the SSD sold currently on the market.

It's nothing but laziness and indifference on apple's part to upgrade the hdd.

Issues and failures on the sand force based drives are common and well documented. Do you have any proof or statistics for failures of Apple drives. Again, in the real world these speed differences are minimal and I can prove it if you want with REAL WORLD tests.

Agreed that Apple overcharges on the SSD prices, but they overcharge on every upgrade.

 

[django696]

Being fairly new to mac, and using fairly lightly, I bought the base model 21 inch in November.

My wish is that the base model came with a 1Tb HDD, instead of the 500Gb. I fear that I will fill the drive within a year or two. (2/5 full now) Yes, I have an external HDD for time machine, but I like to keep things as streamline and simple as possible.

Is USB3 much faster than FireWire? Will FireWire be dropped is USB3 is added?

yes it is

 

[TwoBytes]

I'd like bigger SSDs. Not buying until they are much larger. What's the point running audio/video projects and have large iTunes library's run on SSD unless you can FIT them on there?

 

[Glen Quagmire]

I could care less about all the form factor and bell/whistle changes.

"couldn't care less", not "could care less". Saying that you "could" care less means that you do care, even a little.

On a caring scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is not caring at all, and 100 is full-on caring:

"couldn't care less" = 0
"could care less" > 0

 

[Yinmay]

yes, i understood that from the first post..
and why is that so?

I predict there won't be USB3 ports for the same reason the iMac doesn't have HDMI ports. They could have easily put one or even two on the iMac. But they chose not to.

I'm not saying I agree, I'm just trying to give an as accurate prediction as possible based on their past habits.

Besides, Ivy Bridge is not a prerequisite for USB3, it just makes its adoption easier for OEMs. If they wanted USB3, the 2011 revision of the iMac could have already included it, but again, just as HDMI ports, they chose not to.

Thunderbolt to USB3 adapter is the most probable outcome, just as Mini DP to HDMI.

Also I honestly believe all these Apple TV sets rumors won't happen in 2012. I think/hope they'll start with an iMac 32" in 2012 with Siri and Apple TV functionality. Then if successful, they might consider releasing in 2013 or 2014 42" and bigger TV sets.

 

[beosound3200]

I predict there won't be USB3 ports for the same reason the iMac doesn't have HDMI ports. They could have easily put one or even two on the iMac. But they chose not to.

I'm not saying I agree, I'm just trying to give an as accurate prediction as possible based on their past habits.

Besides, Ivy Bridge is not a prerequisite for USB3, it just makes its adoption easier for OEMs. If they wanted USB3, the 2011 revision of the iMac could have already included it, but again, just as HDMI ports, they chose not to.

Thunderbolt to USB3 adapter is the most probable outcome, just as Mini DP to HDMI.

Also I honestly believe all these Apple TV sets rumors won't happen in 2012. I think/hope they'll start with an iMac 32" in 2012 with Siri and Apple TV functionality. Then if successful, they might consider releasing in 2013 or 2014 42" and bigger TV sets.

hdmi is nowhere near the usb3, it just doesnt have the same use, the same functionality

why would apple put hdmi in iMac? what use would it have? they already have thunderbolt which incorporates display and data, hdmi is only video (display), nothing more

apple is all about less is more (minimalism) why would you have two different ports (hdmi + thunderbolt) when you can have all in one (thunderbolt) and they knew this from the beginning...

but usb is a whole different story, and usb3 is natural evolution of usb ports, and apple doesnt have to do anything aside implement ivy bridge to support it, even intel says that thunderbolt and usb3 supplement each other, hence why there'll be support for it in ivy bridge...

usb is already there, they just need to upgrade the standard, from 2.1 to 3.0, like they will be doing with thunderbolt when optical cables arrive, usb 3 is not a new port, its just an evolution of the port that already exists, and they were waiting for support from intel so they dont need to put 3rd party accessories to support it, again very apple-like - less is more

im willing to put a 1000 dollars that macs with ivy bridge will support usb 3, and im also pretty sure that all of the usb ports will be 3.0 standard, if i could make money on this kind of things i would already be a millionaire

really, usb3 is a no-brainer, its 100% if they implement ivy bridge, agree?

if you wanna look at past habits, look how fast they implemented usb 2, that should provide some insight

and thunderbolt to usb3 doesnt make sense, thats why they dont exist yet, and i dont think they ever will, why would you want to hook up your usb key to usb3 - thunderbolt adapter?

and imac 32' wont happen, the reason they discontinued 30' cinema display is because they thought its too big, if you want bigger, you can have 2 cinema displays, hence thunderbolt, more people will buy 27' than 30' for a computer, and thats all that matters, don't you think?