since it's saturday, the response here might be a little slow. I bet someone has more experience with this than me, but anyway;
The imac does not accept a second monitor out of the box. Only a mirroring of the display for use with a projector through the VGA port. Like the ibook. HOWEVER, the graphics card is strong enough to support a two monitor spanning, and there are hacks to make this happen on the net. Even some applications I think. So I believe you can get a secondary VGA display working with a little effort, but NOT a DVI display.
Why the hell does Apple cripple the iMac like this anyway. I mean, on the iBook it's understandable given the competition with the pb line, but on the iMac? It's like they don't want to sell monitors.
Why the hell does Apple cripple the iMac like this anyway. I mean, on the iBook it's understandable given the competition with the pb line, but on the iMac? It's like they don't want to sell monitors.
It's the same thing. They don't want it to compete with the PowerMac line. Apple doesn't want to sell the iMac as a workstation. It's a bit stupid, but understandable from a marketing point of view.
But lots of home users, like myself, want a second monitor without turning it into a "work station".
Purposely crippling a computer just so users will buy the higher grade model is annoying.
Yeah, it's insulting for a $1500-1800 machine. The $999 iBook I can almost understand, but for 1800 bucks you should be able to get full use from a second monitor out of the box. That said, the spanning "hack" is very easy - just a couple of clicks - and works nicely.
Yeah, it's insulting for a $1500-1800 machine. The $999 iBook I can almost understand, but for 1800 bucks you should be able to get full use from a second monitor out of the box. That said, the spanning "hack" is very easy - just a couple of clicks - and works nicely.
Actually, it's an insulting limitation for a product line that ranges from $1000 to $1300 given that it costs twice as much as a basic notebook. I'd understand it if the iBook was priced at $600.
well I suppose that they have to differentiate their product lines somehow; it's just disappointing that this is how they do it. I mean, we all know that their hardware is mostly, well, underfeatured, given the competition (especially laptops), but you'd think they could find better ways of differentiating rather than crippling the low end (and the iMac isn't even low end).
Comments
The imac does not accept a second monitor out of the box. Only a mirroring of the display for use with a projector through the VGA port. Like the ibook. HOWEVER, the graphics card is strong enough to support a two monitor spanning, and there are hacks to make this happen on the net. Even some applications I think. So I believe you can get a secondary VGA display working with a little effort, but NOT a DVI display.
List of supported machines
Picture
Spanning forum
Just remember that it is an analog output when picking your second monitor.
reg
Originally posted by mynamehere
Why the hell does Apple cripple the iMac like this anyway. I mean, on the iBook it's understandable given the competition with the pb line, but on the iMac? It's like they don't want to sell monitors.
It's the same thing. They don't want it to compete with the PowerMac line. Apple doesn't want to sell the iMac as a workstation. It's a bit stupid, but understandable from a marketing point of view.
Purposely crippling a computer just so users will buy the higher grade model is annoying.
Originally posted by Tidelwav
But lots of home users, like myself, want a second monitor without turning it into a "work station".
Purposely crippling a computer just so users will buy the higher grade model is annoying.
Yeah, it's insulting for a $1500-1800 machine. The $999 iBook I can almost understand, but for 1800 bucks you should be able to get full use from a second monitor out of the box. That said, the spanning "hack" is very easy - just a couple of clicks - and works nicely.
Thanks for the help guys.
Originally posted by Towel
Yeah, it's insulting for a $1500-1800 machine. The $999 iBook I can almost understand, but for 1800 bucks you should be able to get full use from a second monitor out of the box. That said, the spanning "hack" is very easy - just a couple of clicks - and works nicely.
Actually, it's an insulting limitation for a product line that ranges from $1000 to $1300 given that it costs twice as much as a basic notebook. I'd understand it if the iBook was priced at $600.