New iMac - Coming Soon
http://www.appleinsider.com/news.php?id=222
So Apple Insider has foretold a big revision to the iMac. This most likely means a change in the shape as well as the processor. I'm betting we see a G5 in there!
But does anyone know or want to predict what size monitors it will have...
I'd like to see a 23inch flat screen version.
So Apple Insider has foretold a big revision to the iMac. This most likely means a change in the shape as well as the processor. I'm betting we see a G5 in there!
But does anyone know or want to predict what size monitors it will have...
I'd like to see a 23inch flat screen version.
Comments
At most they might go 19", thus making them smaller than the smallest stand-alone display they sell.
Just dreaming.
Originally posted by Chinney
A Cube, with a detachable Arm - sold with our without Arm and/or monitor (your choice).
Just dreaming.
I still say they need to bring back the cube. It has reached legend status, they would sell tons and tons if they brought it back.
Originally posted by DMBand0026
I still say they need to bring back the cube. It has reached legend status, they would sell tons and tons if they brought it back.
I was not talking about just bringing back the simple Cube. I am talking about creating a Cube/iMac hybrid.
I think that there is still a big market for the AIO computer. The iMac helped breath new life into Apple and it should not be abandoned, even if the current iMac is only doing so-so. A fair number of Apple?s customers are attracted by the simplicity of the AIO design and don?t need or want a portable. Plus, you have to like the ?Arm?.
At the same time, I think that there would be a good market for a headless iMac, for those who want greater flexibility.
So, why not design the ?iMacCube? so that it could be ordered with or without the Arm and monitor. If ordered with the Arm, it might have to come with some ingenious detachable stabilizing device, because of the small footprint of a Cube. Price it right, give it some limited expandability, and Apple would sell lots, both headless and with the Arm and monitor. Also, doing it this way, rather than designing a separate iMac and Cube, would provide better economies of scale for Apple.
If anything, I'd expect the iMac to be made less expensive (sub 1k for the low-end). This could open up the $1200-1500 area to a G4 ( or slow/single G5) minitower/megaCube.
Well, that does it for my weekly trip to FH. Thanks for the quality thread.
Originally posted by murbot
[BThanks for the quality thread. [/B]
Mmm Quality street : nice
Originally posted by MacsRGood4U
Why this Cube thing? It was a failure for many reasons. One of the biggest is that people didn't like the way it looked. It had a brick for a power source on the floor. It developed cracks in the casing, etc. The optical drive was a problem. (Remember SJ saying a vertical drive for the current iMac was considered to be a poor idea- ummmmmm!) One thing any company learns, if they have any kind of smarts, is not return to a failure and try to re-invent it. The next iMac design, when it comes in mid-2004 or thereabouts, will not be a Cube in any stretch of the imagination. Apple doesn't have a death wish.
Wrong, people LIKED it for the way it looked. However, it was too damn expensive. That was everyone's bitch, that and expandability. The looks are what made it cool.
Originally posted by Keda
I don't buy the new iMac rumors. This machine has only been out about 2yrs. Given the amount of engineering that must have gone into this computer, I don't think Apple would be getting a good return on their investment if they killed the current form now.
I've looked at the guts of an iMac, and I don't think that there is enough room for a G5 in the current design. Right now the price/performance ratio on the iMac is terrible, and Apple really needs to get G5s in them as fast as possible.
I'm fairly sure that Apple knows that it needs to get a G5 in the iMac to boost its slumping sales, so I expect we will see a G5 in the iMacs next revision.
Originally posted by Res
I've looked at the guts of an iMac, and I don't think that there is enough room for a G5 in the current design. Right now the price/performance ratio on the iMac is terrible, and Apple really needs to get G5s in them as fast as possible.
I'm fairly sure that Apple knows that it needs to get a G5 in the iMac to boost its slumping sales, so I expect we will see a G5 in the iMacs next revision.
I agree with you on this, the current design can not support the current version of the G5. It is huge! Also, all of this talk of a Cube revival would have the same problem. Where in the hell do we put the processor?
I don't mean to be quite so loud about this, but everyone seems to have forgotten that little factiod. In order to do an iMac G5 (which I believe they will do), they must first conquer (sp?) the PowerBook G5. I predict that won't happen until WWDC 2004, minimum.
Originally posted by Mike Eggleston
[B]I agree with you on this, the current design can not support the current version of the G5. It is huge! Also, all of this talk of a Cube revival would have the same problem. Where in the hell do we put the processor?
The 970 is the same physical size as an MPC7447, and it's smaller than a 7457. Sheer physical size isn't the problem here. Heat - not just the 970's, but the high-speed bus', and the companion chip's - is the problem, and specifically a lot of heat coming from a small area.
In order to do an iMac G5 (which I believe they will do), they must first conquer (sp?) the PowerBook G5.
This I agree with. Unless Apple plans to take the iMac in a wildly different direction than it's taken for the last 5 years, the problem of putting a 970 (+ fast bus + companion chip) in a PowerBook is basically the problem of putting it in an iMac. Once IBM's gnomes figure out a way to keep (some variant of) the 970 under 20W peak, Apple can start using it in constrained spaces. Unless, of course, they have a real rabbit to pull out of their hats.
Originally posted by Amorph
The 970 is the same physical size as an MPC7447, and it's smaller than a 7457. Sheer physical size isn't the problem here. Heat - not just the 970's, but the high-speed bus', and the companion chip's - is the problem, and specifically a lot of heat coming from a small area.
G4 machines would also have the same issues, just with slightly different things. Ie, the old Powerbook G4 had to deal with L3 cache, a 200 MHz 64 bit DDR L3 cache bus, and companion chips as well.
Once IBM's gnomes figure out a way to keep (some variant of) the 970 under 20W peak, Apple can start using it in constrained spaces. Unless, of course, they have a real rabbit to pull out of their hats.
Apple will have no choice but to design high performance laptops with heat dissipation and power budgets in the 30+ Watt range in the future. They've been going up every generation for a very long time now. Powerbooks used to use 5 Watts chips, then 10 Watt chips, then 20 Watt chips, and in the future I wouldn't be surprised if they used 40 Watt chips.
The x86 side has long past blown past any pretensions of using low power chips in their highest performance latops. I don't Apple has much but to follow soon.
Originally posted by THT
G4 machines would also have the same issues, just with slightly different things. Ie, the old Powerbook G4 had to deal with L3 cache, a 200 MHz 64 bit DDR L3 cache bus, and companion chips as well.
Yeah, but this is a bigger jump.
The x86 side has long past blown past any pretensions of using low power chips in their highest performance latops.
They've also long since blown past any pretensions of calling them "laptops." Aren't some of them up over 12 pounds now?
Appropriately enough, they have a different platform for actual laptops that's low power, at least by Intel standards.
Originally posted by Amorph
[B]The 970 is the same physical size as an MPC7447, and it's smaller than a 7457. Sheer physical size isn't the problem here. Heat - not just the 970's, but the high-speed bus', and the companion chip's - is the problem, and specifically a lot of heat coming from a small area.
I didn't know that about the physical chip itself. The only thing I was basing this off from was the heat sink box on the G5 tower itself. That thing is huge!
Originally posted by MacsRGood4U
Why this Cube thing? It was a failure for many reasons. One of the biggest is that people didn't like the way it looked. It had a brick for a power source on the floor. It developed cracks in the casing, etc. The optical drive was a problem. (Remember SJ saying a vertical drive for the current iMac was considered to be a poor idea- ummmmmm!) One thing any company learns, if they have any kind of smarts, is not return to a failure and try to re-invent it. The next iMac design, when it comes in mid-2004 or thereabouts, will not be a Cube in any stretch of the imagination. Apple doesn't have a death wish.
I am not talking about the same Cube, but something new based on the current iMac design. If you look at the current iMac base, what do you see but a 'Cube' in a different shape.
In reality, I am just talking about an external physical redesign of the current iMac to make the Arm detachable and to make the base make sense as a small stand-alone if people want to buy it that way (the current shape of the base would not make much sense that way). If Apple could bump up the speed and decrease the price (especially the headless version) then they might have something. Whether they will be incorporating a G5 in the next iteration I don't know, but I am assuming that G4 development is not dead (because, if it is, the iMac is dead until it gets a G5).
For all of you worried so much about heat, I suggest that you take a look at all of the small form factor PCs flooding onto the market from various motherboard and/or case manufacturers. We're talking about small cases with hot Athlons/P4s running in them, so G5s shouldn't be a problem.
Not to mention the extremely cool small form factor ITX boards:
http://www.mini-itx.com/
I agree that the case design for a new iMac will likely be different for a variety of reasons, but I wouldn't recommend expecting something even half as big as the G5 towers being required.
also, saying that they won't redesign it because they haven't gotten a return on the investment is just crap. they're not getting returns on the product right now so they need to change. the current design is too expensive for them and they have to pass that down to consumers. they need a design that is cheaper and easier but just as cool and i would expect them to pull a rabbit out of their hat because they've done it before, followed by pulling out a dog, warthog and a couple of large cats.
i'm also betting that the new imac will be a g5 because the second major redesign took it from a g3 to g4 and apple likes to repeat history like this. i can't remember a time when a new case didn't mean a new processor... also, they can put a g5 in an imac before they put one in powerbook simply because it's a desktop. the design doesn't have to get smaller, it can go back to the size of the emac and still be a great design.
i'm guessing that we'll all be pleasently surprised
Like a Cube. It doesn't have to look like a Cube, or like a flat panel iMac. I'm sure Apple will come up with something really cool eventually. For now, the flat panel iMac fills that category but it has to be more powerful, cheaper, or both. Sometime when I have more money I'll get one like that, but for now I'm sticking with my plenty fast (but boring) eMac.