20 Years of iMac: Steve Jobs iconic internet machine that courageously reinvented Apple

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  • Reply 41 of 53
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Would love to see Apple reinvent the iMac as a repositionable screen with multitouch, which would make working on video, audio, graphics and other programs so much more intuitive and direct. I think Apple could run circles around the Microsoft Surface and make the iMac a leading edge creative and design computer accessible to even more forms of interaction.
    Makes me wonder what would be left for the Mac Pro to do.
  • Reply 42 of 53
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Would love to see Apple reinvent the iMac as a repositionable screen with multitouch, which would make working on video, audio, graphics and other programs so much more intuitive and direct. I think Apple could run circles around the Microsoft Surface and make the iMac a leading edge creative and design computer accessible to even more forms of interaction.
    Makes me wonder what would be left for the Mac Pro to do.
    I suppose the “heavy iron” will still have a place for developers, people performing huge math problems, working with massive video or Photoshop files and so on. I gave up my Mac Pro more than ten years ago and bought my first 27” iMac. Best decision I ever made, even though it’s running pretty slow these days. I’m hoping to get a new or refurbished iMac to replace it in a year or two and would really appreciate having multitouch or Apple Pencil functionality. Who knows, maybe at some point “Apple Specs” may be high-rez and capable enough to replace a laptop or iMac as a virtual computing device.
    edited May 2018
  • Reply 43 of 53
    opa karlopa karl Posts: 19member
    Unless I missed it in the article, the iMac didn't actually ship until 8/15/1998. I still remember that day. The CompUSA I was working at sold 37 of them in one day, which was unheard of for any computer, let alone a Mac.
    Solifastasleep
  • Reply 44 of 53
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member
    An iMac with a curved monitor would look pretty amazing I think...

    But I suspect what they will do instead (consistent with their iTunes moves) is add HDR support to the existing flat monitors (not just the protocol, but the ability for the screen to go really bright in places).

  • Reply 45 of 53
    docno42docno42 Posts: 3,755member
    Soli said:
    That argument sounds exactly like the people who bitched about Apple moving to USB-A: "Serial and parallel ports are industry standards blah blah blah. How are pros suppose to work with this luxury port whine whine whine."
    [...]
    Maybe you shouldn't have gotten a MBP with USB-C ports if legacy USB is what you desperately need in order to do your work, but I'm guessing your comments are bullshit.
    lol - USB still rules the roost.  Apple couldn't even be arsed to produce a USB-C hub that could also charge the computer with only one port, and more than two years later there are still less than a handful of reliable choices.  That's just nuts.  And even on the MacBook "Pro" the lack of port selection is beyond annoying.  One USB-A would go a long ways towards bridging the migration to USB-C, aesthetics be damned. 

    If the USB-C marketplace had matured as quickly and nicely as the USB 1.0 marketplace did with the launch of the iMac, that would be one thing - but it hasn't.  It's rather disturbing how few choices there are after Apple has decidedly thrown "all in" with USB-C on their laptops.  I don't mind pushing boundaries - Apple does deserve lots of credit for establishing many standards that were taken for granted at one time - DIMMs, SCSI, ethernet, Wifi, USB even.  But USB-A is still viable.  Today's USB 3 is nothing like the original USB that shipped with the iMac 20 years ago - unlike serial, parallel and PS2 ports that went unchanged their entire life.  But here in the real world people still need to get work done and despite the hype, things still need to be physically connected - sometimes with <gasp> wires!

    For example: a high end MacBook Pro that takes more than 16GB ram.   Apple complains higher capacity lower energy RAM isn't available. So?  Who cares?  I'll plug the bloody thing in.  For a super high end machine it can be thicker than a piece of paper and it's perfectly acceptable to have more than a pittance and variety of "ugly" ports on it too.  Sleek racing yachts are nice, but sometimes I need an ugly heavy duty truck more.  

    Apples outright obsession with thin at all cost and damn every other consideration has been out of control for the last 7 years.  I'd be perfectly happy with an iMac the thickness of a G5 iMac if it meant they actually put flipping desktop parts in because then they would have enough space to do some decent thermal management.  Even in using lower wattage Xeons and under clocking them in the iMac Pro, the CPUs still thermal throttle under load.  Simply unbelievable and thankfully someone woke up and realized that the iMac Pro would still leave a significant hole in their line.  Although their emphasis on "modular" with the still to be delivered Mac Pro makes me pessimistic that they will once again fail to deliver a simple utilitarian workhorse that the high end of the market needs and the enthusiast like myself really wants, but some other "bold" design focused on things that people who need performance above all else don't care about.  I hope I'm wrong - I would love to be wrong - but the longer it takes, the more I think about reading up more on building a hackintosh.  

    If designing utilitarian machines are so against their current ethos than just farm the low volume high end stuff out to companies that will meet the needs.  This crap about "it's only a relative handful of users who need X" or "just bravely embrace the brave new world instead of clinging to your old ports" is a cop out - Apple owns the whole ecosystem so it's on them to meet all of the ecosystems needs.  What really gets me is there have to be lots of people within Apple's own ranks for which a machine with more umph and internal expandability than the iMac Pro is also needed; but you can tell the dumb ass higher ups on the design side of things are probably overriding them.  

    How many Corvetts, Acura NSX's or Nissan GTRs do you think each car manufacturer sells compared to all their other vehicles?  A pittance.  But they are still important in setting a tone, generating buzz, etc. even though the vast majority of their customers will never look at them, let alone own them.  Similar thing here.  

    And who knows - Apple's been naval gazing at thin crap for so long maybe there's a way bigger market out there than they realize.  Conventional wisdom thought the iPhone X an outrageously expensive extravagance and lo and behold it's their most popular model.  I don't think the Mac Pro will ever outsell the iMac; Mac vs. iPhone isn't a direct comparison.  But I do think the lack of real high end options on their laptops and desktops has a far greater impact than just a few lost direct sales of units.  There's a steady increase in stories in various markets about people giving up on waiting for Apple and moving to other platforms that do meet their needs.  That's huge!  For every one of those there's probably at least 5 to 10 others that will move with them; it's consolidation in the wrong direction.  And doubly frustrating after living through the 80's and 90's to have been experiencing in the 2000's Mac gaining while Windows was stagnating and then shrinking.  Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory!
  • Reply 46 of 53
    docno42docno42 Posts: 3,755member
    fastasleep said:
    USB-C is an industry standard.
    Until it's more widely adopted and there are more native peripherals, it isn't nearly as useful - that's what really matters.  

    Firewire was adopted as an industry standard but was only native on Apple and Sony products with any regularity.  Far superior to USB in many respects too.  But not nearly as useful since there was far less stuff for it.  

    Being industry standard isn't enough. You could have the greatest port in the world but if what you need to plug into it isn't available (inexpensive and reliable hub that can also charge a MacBook for starters) then it's not an advantage but a liability.  
  • Reply 47 of 53
    fastasleepfastasleep Posts: 6,408member
    docno42 said:
    fastasleep said:
    USB-C is an industry standard.
    Until it's more widely adopted and there are more native peripherals, it isn't nearly as useful - that's what really matters.  

    Firewire was adopted as an industry standard but was only native on Apple and Sony products with any regularity.  Far superior to USB in many respects too.  But not nearly as useful since there was far less stuff for it.  

    Being industry standard isn't enough. You could have the greatest port in the world but if what you need to plug into it isn't available (inexpensive and reliable hub that can also charge a MacBook for starters) then it's not an advantage but a liability.  
    What do you mean, “native peripherals”? All USB-A/B devices are compatible — just get a USB-A/B to USB-C cable if you don’t like adapters. 

    I didn’t have any problem finding FireWire drive enclosures, scanners, audio interfaces, cameras, etc and still use many of those today. I can’t wait to recycle all this old FW stuff and switch to USB-C based USB 3.1 gen 2 enclosures and what not. There are adapters for anything I need to continue to use, such as my old Cinseam Displays until they release new ones. I really think most people are making a bigger deal out of this than is reasonable. “But I need HDMI because I give presentations all the time” — then be a professional and pack an adapter with you along with your power supply whatever you need to do your job. It’s a bunch of handwringing and it’s unnecessary. We’ll move forward and soon enough nobody will be worrying about the antiquated USB-A port and we’ll all be better off for it. 
  • Reply 48 of 53
    HuskerHusker Posts: 1member
    I've been a Mac user since 1986 - the original 128k Mac, for what it did, was the most expensive Mac I ever bought and I upgraded it to 512k very quickly. Since then, I've kept up with the new models, although a couple turned out to be nothing but expensive door stops.
    Never been tempted to buy a laptop, though - I prefer the desktop.
  • Reply 49 of 53
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    ascii said:
    An iMac with a curved monitor would look pretty amazing I think...
    Apple should buck the trend and curve their display on the Y axis. Doing so would be just as useful as the X axis curves, after all.
  • Reply 50 of 53
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member
    Not a fan? I don't think there's value in the curve as such, the value is in the extreme width (for displaying long video editing timelimes or really anything someone might use a dual monitor setup for). The curve just allows you to have that extreme width not take up so much desk space. And it would also be something fresh for the iMac. And it would also be a technical challenge for Apple because I don't think most of those curved display are HiDPI.
  • Reply 51 of 53
    Great article. One statement made brings to mind how Apple has gotten a little too big for its pants,

    “The new Apple, with Jobs at the helm, was laying out a new strategy that sought to boldly attract attention while being technically competent, and at the same time also pragmatic, affordable and accessible to regular people.”

    What happened to “pragmatic, affordable and accessible to regular people”? They want us to keep buying their products on a regular basis, yet they price them too high.

    I love OS X and iOS, it’s the cost of the hardware that keeps me upset.
  • Reply 52 of 53
    fastasleepfastasleep Posts: 6,408member
    Great article. One statement made brings to mind how Apple has gotten a little too big for its pants,

    “The new Apple, with Jobs at the helm, was laying out a new strategy that sought to boldly attract attention while being technically competent, and at the same time also pragmatic, affordable and accessible to regular people.”

    What happened to “pragmatic, affordable and accessible to regular people”? They want us to keep buying their products on a regular basis, yet they price them too high.

    I love OS X and iOS, it’s the cost of the hardware that keeps me upset.
    Hmm... have you seen their recent earnings results?
  • Reply 53 of 53
    taddtadd Posts: 136member
    What happened to “pragmatic, affordable and accessible to regular people”? They want us to keep buying their products on a regular basis, yet they price them too high.

    I love OS X and iOS, it’s the cost of the hardware that keeps me upset.
    Not all of their hardware is crazy expensive.  But I'm using an 8-core Xeon Mac Pro that I bought in 2008.  I'm pondering a replacement even as I type.  I keep hoping for a new not-all-in-one computer to replace the Mac Pro.  This computer has cost me under $1 per day since I bought it.  I consider that a reasonable price for a computer, especially since it is what it is.  The only reason I want a new box is that this one isn't supported with the latest OS, doesn't do "continuity" or Thunderbolt.  Aside from that it's going quite well.  
    So... the question is.. how much is too high?    Cellular service costs $1/day for many people.  Would you spend that much on the hardware to run it?   That's $365 a year.  If my device lasts 3 years, then that's an iPhone X?     iPhone X is a very nice item.  I like it.   My last cellphone lasted 3 years. That was an iPhone 6.  Before that I had a iPhone 4S.  So my "high end" computer and communications with a Mac Pro and high end iPhone costs me, in total, maybe $4/day.   But check this out.  Cable TV with sports channels and 2nd tier Internet costs $3/day.  My TV expenditures, just replacing them when they break, has cost me about $2/day including set top boxes and two TVs.  So, $5 for TV and $4 for iPhone X and Mac Pro?   I'm MUCH happier with my Apple purchases than I am with my TV purchases!     Ok... now look at transportation and housing expenses.  No..... lets not.   You see where I'm going?  Apple is not all that bad, compared to the rest of middle-class life.  
    fastasleep
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