is iMac due to update?

Yes. Please search. Or look around. These threads are RIGHT BELOW yours.

http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=120195
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=119391

The iMac doesn't use the same chips as the MacBook family. The iMac uses desktop chips, which are also out now, I believe. They'll be updated sometime next month (gotta let the iPad halo run down).

And those threads were from after the release of the MacBook Pros.

I would imagine the iMacs will be updated by July. Possibly with the launch of LION OSX.

It's apple, so u never know, but they are due for an update. It could be in May. But if not, and you can hold out to July, I would.

Nope. But yes, it will be before. Likely next month. March is iPad month now.

That's an interesting call...in time for Lion?

iPad is March.
iPhone 5 is June.

Guess it's April, May or July.

Lemon Bon Bon.

iMac BEFORE LION, not with or after.

Before WWDC is likely. July is less likely. Developers'll get a near-final release of Lion at WWDC, have a few months to play with it, release in fall (I know Apple said summer; they're never on time).

At a local place that sells Macs(not an Apple store) my father was advised by the manager to wait a few days and a quad core 21" iMac would available(at the same price as the current model). Interesting for itself and that a) the manager would know about these things, and b) he informed a customer of that instead of selling him a current iMac to pare down inventory ahead of the upgrade.
'Course, it's been 3 days since then and no upgrade yet........\

Apple store employees are strictly forbidden to EVER comment or speculate on possible upgrades. It is a fireable offense. Apple sends spies into stores to test their employees. I have friends who work in the NYC Apple stores who tell me this. But I have tested apple employees myself, and TRUST me....their lips are sealed. Even if they KNOW they have palettes of new computers in the back, they will NOT comment or talk ANYONE out of a sale. Because not only would they be fired, but they also know that if anyone ever wants to return the older model, they still could if they want.

I am a total Apple head and keep up with all the rumors....and I KNOW the majority apple employees know the rumors too....even if they are kept in the dark by management. But they will NEVER let on EVER.

Anyway....having said that....There are strong rumors that the iMacs will indeed see an update soon. We have 3 weeks left in April....and it COULD happen one tuesday this month. I'm thinking May or June at the latest now tho.

But hey...I'm just guessing like everyone else. If you can hold out I would. None of us know the exact date, but they are coming....that much is fo' sho.

No, they can speculate away. It's just that they know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING at all until the night before release when they get the new machines shipped to them.


Anyone can do that up to 14 days after the new models come out, which is meaningless for the previously stated reason.


Again, sure they will. They just WILL NOT tell you about the new computers if it happens to be the day before launch and they're sitting in the back. They know absolutely nothing prior to this.


Won't be June, that's WWDC/iPhone month.

Dude. I have friends who work in several flagship Apple stores here in NYC...it's not just the Day BEFORE a release. The POLICY coming from Steve Jobs is to NEVER dissuade a customer from buying now because Apple this or that product is due for an update.

I was talking to a knowledgable sales manager at the upper west side store the other day who was not some dopey kid....about the upcoming iMacs getting thunderbolt....and he got all....Well we don't know that. Lol. Come on. OF COURSE some of the staff KNOWS about upcoming models and what is most likely going to be included.....but they will NOT comment and are specifically trained to change the subject back to what they DO have.

Because if they are caught telling customers that an update is coming, or speculating on what most likely will be included in the next update that ISNT in the current models in an attempt to dissuade a potential customer from buying now instead of waiting....THEY CAN BE FIRED.

My friend has seen it happen. Has read the internal memos and signed the employee rulebook which clearly states the above.

I've talked with some really cool Apple employees about all sorts of technology advances....but if the conversation steers towards potential upgrades and features of Apple products....they will change the subject quickly.

And YES....they are kept in the dark. But most of them are just as tuned into these rumor sites as we are....and they are also privy to info we are not from within their stores....like inventory, inter office memos, etc etc.

So you can say they are in the dark all you want....they know things we don't have access to.

No, of course not. Doesn't mean they don't talk about rumors with customers.


They know no more about upcoming products than anyone here.

You're assuming he's talking about an apple store, which he's not. Though you are correct, apple employees cannot say a word or even speculate to consumers.

Also I know a store employee(family) and he says they don't even know when anything is coming out until they actually get the shipment and are allowed to open it. They don't know any more than any of us and sometimes less as they tend to avoid the rumor sites.

[QUOTE=archer75;1844171]You're assuming he's talking about an apple store, which he's not. Though you are correct, apple employees cannot say a word or even speculate to consumers.

That's right, archer, this is NOT an Apple retail store, tho it could be under the same restrictions re this issue.

Very wide power line up with extremely good performance at the top end.

Oh it is nice that you guys used up half the thread to discuss something that was neve said!

In and event Sandy Bridge is so good I'd suggest waiting a day or a half year. Whatever it takes, because SB should be a significant performance boost.

They won't get Xeons. The E7 line is power hungry even relative to fast desktop chips, and even the base ones cost a bloody fortune. You should expect Sandy Bridge equivalents to the existing i3, i5, and i7 models.

It's not about the E7 series.

It's about the Xeon E3-1200 series that offer slightly different models from the desktop i5/i7-2000 series, at similar prices. Same socket.

I'm ready to upgrade my core 2 vintage imac. I'd apprecaite some opinions on the timing of this.
I do mostly database OCR and voice recognition work, very little video, no gaming.
I hate a slow machine and generally upgrade every 3-4 years.
I've been looking at the refurb 27" i7 units- in particular the mid 09 model. I don't feel I need the extra graphics hp for what I do.

My specific questions are:
when the upgraded imacs are announced do you think they will be further discounts on the older models?

Would the SB upgrades be worth waiting for even for the i3/i5 models?

many thanks for your advice

They look great, similar pricing, possibly a faster option for the 21" and integrated graphics is optional.

What's the catch?

Do they need mega expensive ram, or some other Xeon specific bits that would force the price of the iMac up?

The nice thing here is that I believe we will have SB cores without the GPU. Right now the SB GPU just wastes power in my opinion. Especially on the desktop where you will want more powerful graphics.

Honestly I can't say anything about timing as a simply don't know! However the products Apple needs are either on the market now or are coming soon. So I don't think an overhaul is that far off.

It is nice to be able to do that.

Honestly a refurb 2009 model isn't much of a step up over a 3 to 4 year old model.

Well some stock does get sent to the refurb store at lower prices.

That is a very good question. If Apple tries to bone us with a SB processor and no discrete GPU then no they won't be worth waiting for.

Note that the info here is an opinion it is not advice. Advice costs money, the meanderings here are free and worth all that is being charged for them.

As a side note with respect to the need for attention to the GPU in your future machine I think you discount the need for a good GPU to much. In a modern machine a good GPU goes a long way to making the machine feel snappy, especially a machine with a lot of pixels like the 27" model. Beyond that you need to know about GPU acceleration in WebKit and the use of OpenCL by developers. Unless you have very specific uses where you are absolutely sure you will never be running future versions of Mac OS, WebKit or other system software I'd strongly recommend more GPU horse power than Sandy Bridge provides. Especially if you intend to keep the machine for 4 or more years as your primary user machine.

You might see this as a none issue for you, that is you have yourself convinced a good GPU isn't needed. You may very well be right today or based on past experience, just realize that GPU's are becoming more important to overall system performance. Even things like Safari are getting GPU acceleration. Further it isn't always easy to determine if software you will be using in the next 4 years will make use of OpenCL. It may pay to research your current software suite and find out which vendors will be using GPU acceleration in the future or for that matter already are. If you do go the used/refurb route I'd go so far as to say a good GPU is even more important as the CPU is already dated.

I'm disappointed that there is still no announcement for the new iMacs I suppose I should keep waiting and hope there will be a 24" SB i5...

I have a PC that's barely hanging on and I've decided to go with a Mac. I need to make a purchase within the next few weeks. Hopefully something will be announced soon.

The iMac is imminent by the sounds of it. Always nice to see them get an update.

A couple of weeks tops?

I just see an evolutionary spec bump.

Thunderbolt will be nice.

But until there's 6-8 cores, 8 gigs of ram standard and a decent GPU that can throw around the 27 inch resolution? Doubt we'll see 6-8 cores on an iMac until next year. And I expect this year's gpu to underwhelm as it has done for the last several revisions.

*Shrugs.

It will be 'nice.' But hardly essential update. I guess it upto the individual.

Lemon Bon Bon.

I'd stretch that machine for at least a couple of more weeks. Indications are that iMac inventory is being drawn down, this is one of the better signs of a coming update.

Even if we end up with the same number of cores we should still see a significant boost in CPU performance.

Well it is a well established platform, pretty much anything they would do would be evolutionary. Especially considering that Thundrbolt has already been introduced.

You never know. However Apple can only ship what intel has to sell

There is really no such thing as an essential update.

I am excited for this update. I need to replace my dying early 2006 iMac. Does anyone know how long it usually takes for new models hit the refurb store from the release date? Also, has Apple allowed refurbs to qualify for the annual back to school iPod rebate?

1-3 months.


Absolutely not.

IMAC is due. Only question is how soon and logic would dictate that somewhere around the release of LION (unfortunately apple doesn't use logic). In any case it should be soon and hopefully that besides a sandy bridge chip and a Thunderbolt port we see some other nice features like a standard configuration with an SSD.

Not to much to ask is it?

New iMac between May and July probably... If you can wait, wait. If you can't, don't.

With SB and TB the new iMacs should be worth waiting for! As to your projections I'm thinking in terms of weeks or less. Mainly because of the big indicator which ia the inventory drawdown.

Before. They'll come with Snow Leopard.


Sure they do... "Ship products with the current OS to make people pay for the upgrade like everyone else."

Hopefully the Mini update will come with it. I wish they wouldn't hold the Mini back just so people don't go and spend their money on it first though. It uses laptop components so it should be updated whenever the 13" MBP gets a refresh. Not that this one will be a great upgrade with just dual i5 and HD 3000 graphics. NVidia seem to be pondering external graphics solutions:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/d...portunity.html

While Thunderbolt isn't ideal for running a high-end GPU, it can still run the highest-end GPUs at 85% of their maximum performance. If they brought out a $100-200 GPU specifically designed for this, I think they'd have a decent market. Imagine a Mac Mini with a small external GPU that has maybe a 35W GT 540M inside it with its own small PSU and hooked up to a 1080p TV via HDMI. It'll play most modern games on high quality.

The iMac models will likely match the MBP line in that it will be dual-core in the smaller screen-size and quads in all the higher models. This at least means getting a quad-core 27" should be more affordable and will probably kill sales of the highest model.

There is if you waited ten years for it.

As for shipping what Intel or other companies have to offer.

A comment dripping with irony.

Apple could have had quad cores across the board in the imac range. They're cheap enough. They could ship better gpus but they don't. They could make a more affordable tower but they don't.

There are cheaper and more affordable cpus and gpus than the ones they choose. They could offer more choice. But they don't.

Apple. Does a lot of things well. But they play the politics of greed with their line up.

I'd call it cynical. But hey, the shareholders are happy, I guess.

*Looks at UK prices of the desktop range. A cosmic joke.

Thinks back to when the entry iMac cost £675 inc VAT. Now it's £995?

Pfft.

I'll upgrade when I can buy my 'essential upgrade' in a sale in 3 years time.

Lemon Bon Bon.

Apparently, Nvidia are 'evaluating' the external GPU market for laptops. I guess that would include the likes of the iMac and Mac Mini as well. No firm plans as yet.

Imagine being able to buy the latest hot (heh) Nvidia gpu and plug it into a thunderbolt iMac or laptop?

Lemon Bon Bon.

Looks like a reasonable chance of a refresh next week.

I have my finger crossed...

Myself I have to cross fingerS.

Ok enough with the funnies. I can't imagine the new iMacs being much farther off than a couple of weeks. Let's hope they live up to our wishes.