Why go back to the CRT "hood and glare screen days" of yesteryears when one can simply remove the iMac's glassy screen with a suction cup?
Underneath is a nice, cool to the eyes, matte screen.
The Lacie monitors look ugly, but functional for accurate color without stray light sources.
So stupid to have to buy something extra to fix a problem that wasn't a problem in the first place.
Matte is on all the best TV's, I can understand glossy being on small handheld touchscreen devices which one can quickly tilt to avoid the glare/reflections, but anything 13" or larger screen needs a matte option. You can have your glossy too, both can co-exist. PC's come with glossy or matte screens, it's just OS X won't run on them well or without hacking it somehow, that's the problem, lack of hardware choice with OS X.
Nothing looks worse than having a cheap ass PC matte monitor hooked up to your classy Mac. People automatically assume the name on the monitor is the type of computer you have.
Because not everyone likes matte? Why is this such a difficult concept? Glossy produces richer colors while matte prevents glare. It's all strictly a matter of preference. It's not any more difficult to reach out and turn a 13" laptop display than it is to reach out and tilt a 24" iMac display. To say one is better than the other is pointless as it is all personal opinion. Glossy is popular because people like it. If you've forgotten, the glossy screens are a relatively new offering, but very popular. Popular demand and consumer demand has forced manufacturer's to produce glossy to the point where it wasn't cost effective to keep both. If there wasn't a demand, they wouldn't be doing it. Calling it 'cheap' is just insulting to those of us who do prefer glossy.
Fantastic. I've been holding off buying a current gen iMac because I feared new models would be released within months. I'll be intrigued to see the new design and new features. When will they officially announce them though? I don't know of any Apple events until early next year.
actually you don't know of any Apple events early next year either. they aren't doing MacWorld anymore which was the only early year standing event. in part because now they can release things when they have something ready, not on someone else's calendar or paying them for the privilege of being there to draw a crowd in.
as for when they might release something on the desktops, logic says before holiday shopping is full swing. but don't expect a huge physical redesign. Apple seems rather happy with the current look so any changes will be subtle and/or internal.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Quadra 610
It makes one wonder why a a few people around these parts think Apple have put Macs on the backburner because they care more about iPhones and iPods. It seems to me that Apple is giving each of its key divisions plenty of attention.
yep, rather than slam folks with too much at once, they go in waves. last winter it was mainly software (I think there was a light upgrade/price drop to the imacs, etc), hit june with the back to school/laptop refresh, september for the ipods/itunes and then somewhere around oct-nov we get the family friendly desktops just in time for that "Christmas" shopping
Quote:
Originally Posted by shadow
Just to re-itterate the obvious:
[LIST=1][*]Apple (or SJ) believes that the customer does not know in terms of technical details what he or she wants. But the customer can make the choise when there are alternatives.
and they would be correct. the majority (and by that I mean the 85-90% that don't read and have never heard of sites like this one) don't know the difference and don't care. they want to know what they can do and how long it will take. period.
it's only the technogeeks that dig into the specs and debate if this or that graphics card is better and what's the speed difference between DDR2 and DDR3 etc
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aquatic
One thing I noticed about the flat iMacs with the "chin" in a computer lab is several of them had been moved forward and the power cord came out. And the stupid way the cord goes through a hole in the stand made it a pain to plug in. Don't know how to solve that, but they should look into that. Anyone else seen this happen?
nope. not at all. in fact I find that it's more a pain unplugging them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Frank777
Right now the Mac customer base is being force-fed the iMac or directed toward the laptop line, since the Pro is ridiculously expensive and the Mini is ridiculously underpowered.
your opinion and not a shared one. many folks think the Pro is priced just fine and the Mini is a great little machine for what they want to use it for (and they aren't trying to make it a Pro level tower in a small box)
Quote:
If HP or Dell can design a decent customer tower and Windows 7 is well received, things may improve on the Mac desktop side as well.
or not. at least not to your definition of 'improve' cause what you think is a must is probably not what the majority cares about.
also Apple has never been one to lock step to what the boys in the WinHood were up to. so don't ever try to play the "well if Dell is doing it, Apple will to" game.
Quote:
Originally Posted by archer75
Notice where you said "I have no need". Don't start thinking you speak for everyone. Many people do have a need.
take your own advice as well. what you think everyone needs is not always the truth.
this is the dark side of boards like this. folks get up on the soapbox talking about systems have to have this, not having that is stupid blah blah. but they forget that they are among the elite, not the common man. and what they are calling must haves is really what they themselves want, not what the masses will buy. and the masses are where the real money is.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 4miler
I'm just hoping this update of the iMac and MacBook Pro will see the matte, anti-glare option coming back to the full range of Macs.
that call is easy. are the sales likely there.
with the laptops they had AG 15 and 17 in the stores. and they likely have numbers saying that the 15s didn't sell at all and the 17 barely did. so they dropped it. why waste the money (especially since the price was the same). there was screaming so they bring it back but now with an added cost and only one of the 3 15 models can be bought in store as AG.
if the sales of the custom item pan out, they will likely bring it back to the stores. with the imac and the display they could try the same game. make it a custom, slight cost item and see if it really sales. or if it is really just a very vocal 1% screaming about how AG is a must and most folks don't really care
remember at all times and in all things that this is a business and it is about making money.
take your own advice as well. what you think everyone needs is not always the truth.
this is the dark side of boards like this. folks get up on the soapbox talking about systems have to have this, not having that is stupid blah blah. but they forget that they are among the elite, not the common man. and what they are calling must haves is really what they themselves want, not what the masses will buy. and the masses are where the real money is.
Correct. But that doesn't mean they can provide options. No one product suits all. There are those with different needs. Why not provide more options so depending on your need there is something for you?
Correct. But that doesn't mean they can provide options. No one product suits all. There are those with different needs. Why not provide more options so depending on your need there is something for you?
Options cost money. Each additional option on a product line requires extra cost to provide. I would imagine that is why they ditched the matte option to begin with. Demand reached a point where it just wasn't cost effective to continue offering it. As the desktop continues to lose out to laptop models that may change.
Just keep in mind that your must have may not be all that important to the majority of buyers. You may find you're better served by another manufacturer's offerings. Speak with your pocket book as well...
Just keep in mind that your must have may not be all that important to the majority of buyers. You may find you're better served by another manufacturer's offerings. Speak with your pocket book as well...
When they say updgrades to MacBook in weeks do they mean just MacBooks or MacBook Pros as well. According to the Macrumors buyers guide the Macbook Pro is in the middle of the average model cycle, though I realize you never know.
Nice, but it is in back? Somewhat of a pain to get to.
I think that was kind of the idea: you could put an external hard drive back there and never see or think about it again. (I don't usually turn off my external hard drives, even when I shut down my computer. Is that bad?)
Overpriced, though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by coolmac
When they say updgrades to MacBook in weeks do they mean just MacBooks or MacBook Pros as well. According to the Macrumors buyers guide the Macbook Pro is in the middle of the average model cycle, though I realize you never know.
I think they just mean MacBooks, not Pros — but, you never know.
I was long-time believer that the tower form-factor is the best (performance, flexibility, you name it) and was kind of "forced" to buy an iMac. I wanted Mac OS and the towers are way too expensive. Now I like the iMac and hate the cables at work.
I understand that sometimes you may have reasons to want a [not-so-expensive] tower but if Apple releases one so many people will never know how good the All-in-one design generally is.
This feeling seems to be coming more common.
Quote:
Originally Posted by elroth
I will never use a laptop for my main computer - absolutely never. Never, never, never.
I have been using laptops since 1997 as my main machine, back when they very costly and very slow. I prefer the convenience and now I get that and more than enough speed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Frank777
Apple doesn't use mobile CPUs in the iMac line purely for fun. The size of the computer clearly limits the type of CPUs and graphics cards that can be used within it. Hence the use of the phrase 'limitations of the design."
Does anyone know if those low-power, desktop-grade C2D that Intel designed for AIOs are available yet?
Quote:
Originally Posted by charlituna
actually you don't know of any Apple events early next year either. they aren't doing MacWorld anymore which was the only early year standing event. in part because now they can release things when they have something ready, not on someone else's calendar or paying them for the privilege of being there to draw a crowd in.
I think Apple is doing the keynote at CES. Since the venue has a lot more people at it, especially ones that aren?t Apple customers already they already have a booth each year, and it?s in the same week it does make a lot more sense to just do the January release then.
The one thing that comes to mind is replacing the hard drive...there's a long, drawn-out process involving removing the front glass and display in order to access the hard drive. While it might sacrifice thinness, an easier access to the hard drive would be much more useful than shaving another bit off the dimensions.
I would like Apple to support this in the refresh -
1. New cordless mouse design. The mouse has always been one of Apple's weakest points.
2. Easy access to the hard drive. I really hated upgrading my hard drive by having to disassemble the screen.
3. Solid state drive option.
4. USB 3.0 with x2 extra ports.
5. A display without image persistence, gloss / matte option.
6. Faster DVD drive, maybe a Bluray option
7. Easy access to the video card.
Overall I would like to see Apple refresh their lineup with new components more frequently throughout the year, since tech specs go stale very quickly.
Having said all that, I'm still happy with my Macs. I've been a user / customer since 1990.
What Intel chips have come out that would be ready for these machines? I hope they finally add a 4x3 display to the trackpad.
Quote:
Originally Posted by frdmfghtr
The one thing that comes to mind is replacing the hard drive...there's a long, drawn-out process involving removing the front glass and display in order to access the hard drive. While it might sacrifice thinness, an easier access to the hard drive would be much more useful than shaving another bit off the dimensions.
This is Apple. Don?t expect an easier to access HDD unless it doesn?t interfere with the aesthetics.
Maybe the iMac will come in 2 flavors: 1 with SSD drives and one with the hard disk option. Would be nice to have two hard disks and be able to put those in a RAID 1 or 0 configuration with software RAID.
I would also like to see a Blu-ray or an SD card slot BTO option or both in at the same time.
MacBook - Upgrade the processor to the low end Pro and possibly replace DDR2 memory at 800 MHz with DDR3 at 1066 MHz. The glossy or matte would choice also works.
iMac - I think someone said a while back to "remove the chin", that would be all right. I'm not so sure it needs to be thinner as that it what the air is for. 4 GB of RAM should become the standard on all models. Glossy or matte choice if not already.
I'd like a lot of other things too; Blu-Ray, Radeon cards, etc. but that's for later I suspect.
I would think it would be a simple thing to put the hard drive near the edge of the case, much like the memory in an iMac. Easily accessible from the bottom by removing only a single screw.
All these posts about adding Blu-ray drives. I just don?t get it. Why call for BRDs in the iMac when the Mac Pro doesn?t even have it with its full sized optical drive bay or the fact that OS X won?t be able to play any DRMed Blu-ray movies?
All these posts about adding Blu-ray drives. I just don?t get it. Why call for BRDs in the iMac when the Mac Pro doesn?t even have it with its full sized optical drive bay or the fact that OS X won?t be able to play any DRMed Blu-ray movies?
Well they would have to add the DRM support. OSX already has DRM support built into itunes for it's own DRM.
Even if it wasn't an issue with playing the discs many people want to use them as a storage format. Or you could rip your movies to hard drive. Though I do my BD ripping in windows due to software limitations for OSX. Though it would still work for some.
I would think it would be a simple thing to put the hard drive near the edge of the case, much like the memory in an iMac. Easily accessible from the bottom by removing only a single screw.
I don't mind if it's a clip-panel on the back, but make it easy to get to.
An internal BD drive would make my ripping work easier as well. I haven't replaced all of my DVD players with Blu-Ray yet. I often rip BD's and convert them to DVD for the other players. I currently have to do this on an HP laptop, although I supposed I could buy an external BD-Rom drive for 100-200 bucks.
Comments
Your joking right?
Why go back to the CRT "hood and glare screen days" of yesteryears when one can simply remove the iMac's glassy screen with a suction cup?
Underneath is a nice, cool to the eyes, matte screen.
The Lacie monitors look ugly, but functional for accurate color without stray light sources.
So stupid to have to buy something extra to fix a problem that wasn't a problem in the first place.
Matte is on all the best TV's, I can understand glossy being on small handheld touchscreen devices which one can quickly tilt to avoid the glare/reflections, but anything 13" or larger screen needs a matte option. You can have your glossy too, both can co-exist. PC's come with glossy or matte screens, it's just OS X won't run on them well or without hacking it somehow, that's the problem, lack of hardware choice with OS X.
Nothing looks worse than having a cheap ass PC matte monitor hooked up to your classy Mac. People automatically assume the name on the monitor is the type of computer you have.
Because not everyone likes matte? Why is this such a difficult concept? Glossy produces richer colors while matte prevents glare. It's all strictly a matter of preference. It's not any more difficult to reach out and turn a 13" laptop display than it is to reach out and tilt a 24" iMac display. To say one is better than the other is pointless as it is all personal opinion. Glossy is popular because people like it. If you've forgotten, the glossy screens are a relatively new offering, but very popular. Popular demand and consumer demand has forced manufacturer's to produce glossy to the point where it wasn't cost effective to keep both. If there wasn't a demand, they wouldn't be doing it. Calling it 'cheap' is just insulting to those of us who do prefer glossy.
Fantastic. I've been holding off buying a current gen iMac because I feared new models would be released within months. I'll be intrigued to see the new design and new features. When will they officially announce them though? I don't know of any Apple events until early next year.
actually you don't know of any Apple events early next year either. they aren't doing MacWorld anymore which was the only early year standing event. in part because now they can release things when they have something ready, not on someone else's calendar or paying them for the privilege of being there to draw a crowd in.
as for when they might release something on the desktops, logic says before holiday shopping is full swing. but don't expect a huge physical redesign. Apple seems rather happy with the current look so any changes will be subtle and/or internal.
It makes one wonder why a a few people around these parts think Apple have put Macs on the backburner because they care more about iPhones and iPods. It seems to me that Apple is giving each of its key divisions plenty of attention.
yep, rather than slam folks with too much at once, they go in waves. last winter it was mainly software (I think there was a light upgrade/price drop to the imacs, etc), hit june with the back to school/laptop refresh, september for the ipods/itunes and then somewhere around oct-nov we get the family friendly desktops just in time for that "Christmas" shopping
Just to re-itterate the obvious:
[LIST=1][*]Apple (or SJ) believes that the customer does not know in terms of technical details what he or she wants. But the customer can make the choise when there are alternatives.
and they would be correct. the majority (and by that I mean the 85-90% that don't read and have never heard of sites like this one) don't know the difference and don't care. they want to know what they can do and how long it will take. period.
it's only the technogeeks that dig into the specs and debate if this or that graphics card is better and what's the speed difference between DDR2 and DDR3 etc
One thing I noticed about the flat iMacs with the "chin" in a computer lab is several of them had been moved forward and the power cord came out. And the stupid way the cord goes through a hole in the stand made it a pain to plug in. Don't know how to solve that, but they should look into that. Anyone else seen this happen?
nope. not at all. in fact I find that it's more a pain unplugging them.
Right now the Mac customer base is being force-fed the iMac or directed toward the laptop line, since the Pro is ridiculously expensive and the Mini is ridiculously underpowered.
your opinion and not a shared one. many folks think the Pro is priced just fine and the Mini is a great little machine for what they want to use it for (and they aren't trying to make it a Pro level tower in a small box)
If HP or Dell can design a decent customer tower and Windows 7 is well received, things may improve on the Mac desktop side as well.
or not. at least not to your definition of 'improve' cause what you think is a must is probably not what the majority cares about.
also Apple has never been one to lock step to what the boys in the WinHood were up to. so don't ever try to play the "well if Dell is doing it, Apple will to" game.
Notice where you said "I have no need". Don't start thinking you speak for everyone. Many people do have a need.
take your own advice as well. what you think everyone needs is not always the truth.
this is the dark side of boards like this. folks get up on the soapbox talking about systems have to have this, not having that is stupid blah blah. but they forget that they are among the elite, not the common man. and what they are calling must haves is really what they themselves want, not what the masses will buy. and the masses are where the real money is.
I'm just hoping this update of the iMac and MacBook Pro will see the matte, anti-glare option coming back to the full range of Macs.
that call is easy. are the sales likely there.
with the laptops they had AG 15 and 17 in the stores. and they likely have numbers saying that the 15s didn't sell at all and the 17 barely did. so they dropped it. why waste the money (especially since the price was the same). there was screaming so they bring it back but now with an added cost and only one of the 3 15 models can be bought in store as AG.
if the sales of the custom item pan out, they will likely bring it back to the stores. with the imac and the display they could try the same game. make it a custom, slight cost item and see if it really sales. or if it is really just a very vocal 1% screaming about how AG is a must and most folks don't really care
remember at all times and in all things that this is a business and it is about making money.
take your own advice as well. what you think everyone needs is not always the truth.
this is the dark side of boards like this. folks get up on the soapbox talking about systems have to have this, not having that is stupid blah blah. but they forget that they are among the elite, not the common man. and what they are calling must haves is really what they themselves want, not what the masses will buy. and the masses are where the real money is.
Correct. But that doesn't mean they can provide options. No one product suits all. There are those with different needs. Why not provide more options so depending on your need there is something for you?
Correct. But that doesn't mean they can provide options. No one product suits all. There are those with different needs. Why not provide more options so depending on your need there is something for you?
Options cost money. Each additional option on a product line requires extra cost to provide. I would imagine that is why they ditched the matte option to begin with. Demand reached a point where it just wasn't cost effective to continue offering it. As the desktop continues to lose out to laptop models that may change.
Just keep in mind that your must have may not be all that important to the majority of buyers. You may find you're better served by another manufacturer's offerings. Speak with your pocket book as well...
Just keep in mind that your must have may not be all that important to the majority of buyers. You may find you're better served by another manufacturer's offerings. Speak with your pocket book as well...
Oh I completely agree.
Nice, but it is in back? Somewhat of a pain to get to.
I think that was kind of the idea: you could put an external hard drive back there and never see or think about it again. (I don't usually turn off my external hard drives, even when I shut down my computer. Is that bad?)
Overpriced, though.
When they say updgrades to MacBook in weeks do they mean just MacBooks or MacBook Pros as well. According to the Macrumors buyers guide the Macbook Pro is in the middle of the average model cycle, though I realize you never know.
I think they just mean MacBooks, not Pros — but, you never know.
I was long-time believer that the tower form-factor is the best (performance, flexibility, you name it) and was kind of "forced" to buy an iMac. I wanted Mac OS and the towers are way too expensive. Now I like the iMac and hate the cables at work.
I understand that sometimes you may have reasons to want a [not-so-expensive] tower but if Apple releases one so many people will never know how good the All-in-one design generally is.
This feeling seems to be coming more common.
I will never use a laptop for my main computer - absolutely never. Never, never, never.
I have been using laptops since 1997 as my main machine, back when they very costly and very slow. I prefer the convenience and now I get that and more than enough speed.
Apple doesn't use mobile CPUs in the iMac line purely for fun. The size of the computer clearly limits the type of CPUs and graphics cards that can be used within it. Hence the use of the phrase 'limitations of the design."
Does anyone know if those low-power, desktop-grade C2D that Intel designed for AIOs are available yet?
actually you don't know of any Apple events early next year either. they aren't doing MacWorld anymore which was the only early year standing event. in part because now they can release things when they have something ready, not on someone else's calendar or paying them for the privilege of being there to draw a crowd in.
I think Apple is doing the keynote at CES. Since the venue has a lot more people at it, especially ones that aren?t Apple customers already they already have a booth each year, and it?s in the same week it does make a lot more sense to just do the January release then.
What are the problems caused by thinness?
The one thing that comes to mind is replacing the hard drive...there's a long, drawn-out process involving removing the front glass and display in order to access the hard drive. While it might sacrifice thinness, an easier access to the hard drive would be much more useful than shaving another bit off the dimensions.
1. New cordless mouse design. The mouse has always been one of Apple's weakest points.
2. Easy access to the hard drive. I really hated upgrading my hard drive by having to disassemble the screen.
3. Solid state drive option.
4. USB 3.0 with x2 extra ports.
5. A display without image persistence, gloss / matte option.
6. Faster DVD drive, maybe a Bluray option
7. Easy access to the video card.
Overall I would like to see Apple refresh their lineup with new components more frequently throughout the year, since tech specs go stale very quickly.
Having said all that, I'm still happy with my Macs. I've been a user / customer since 1990.
The one thing that comes to mind is replacing the hard drive...there's a long, drawn-out process involving removing the front glass and display in order to access the hard drive. While it might sacrifice thinness, an easier access to the hard drive would be much more useful than shaving another bit off the dimensions.
This is Apple. Don?t expect an easier to access HDD unless it doesn?t interfere with the aesthetics.
I would also like to see a Blu-ray or an SD card slot BTO option or both in at the same time.
MacBook - Upgrade the processor to the low end Pro and possibly replace DDR2 memory at 800 MHz with DDR3 at 1066 MHz. The glossy or matte would choice also works.
iMac - I think someone said a while back to "remove the chin", that would be all right. I'm not so sure it needs to be thinner as that it what the air is for. 4 GB of RAM should become the standard on all models. Glossy or matte choice if not already.
I'd like a lot of other things too; Blu-Ray, Radeon cards, etc. but that's for later I suspect.
:P
Show me a cheap ($700 - $800) iMac computer and you will get my business! Otherwise I am content with what I have.
All these posts about adding Blu-ray drives. I just don?t get it. Why call for BRDs in the iMac when the Mac Pro doesn?t even have it with its full sized optical drive bay or the fact that OS X won?t be able to play any DRMed Blu-ray movies?
Well they would have to add the DRM support. OSX already has DRM support built into itunes for it's own DRM.
Even if it wasn't an issue with playing the discs many people want to use them as a storage format. Or you could rip your movies to hard drive. Though I do my BD ripping in windows due to software limitations for OSX. Though it would still work for some.
I would think it would be a simple thing to put the hard drive near the edge of the case, much like the memory in an iMac. Easily accessible from the bottom by removing only a single screw.
I don't mind if it's a clip-panel on the back, but make it easy to get to.