"AppleInsider has learned that Apple's popular line of iMac personal computers are about to undergo a substantial facelift that will showcase striking new industrial designs..."
Does this mean that technicians who have to repair these iMacs would rather strike them with a sledgehammer than waste time with the difficult to service design and overly complicated disassembly procedures? And whose idea was it to place the serial number labels UNDERNEATH the base of the unit, requiring people to turn the iMac upside down to read it?
Many serial numbers are in difficult to read places. Many devices have them on the bottom, or even inside the unit.
Maybe they could turn the chin area into a multi-touch control surface? Then we could keep our pristine 24" screens free from unsightly fingerprints! Just a thought.
2. It's a great place to hang yellow sticky notes on occasion.
hmmm. You've seen my computer.
Something cooler is what we all hope for, but I still have nightmares of another ilamp or mac-cube. Having it a bit lighter would be nice. Carting the 20" to the store for repairs is no picnic. Read somewhere also Apple will be putting decoding/encoding chips into Macs - maybe we'll see them here first???
2004 was not the last redesign... When the iSight iMacs came out (G5's first, then put intel chips inside) they were MUCH lighter and skinnier. Very different. They removed the midplane to facilitate this. The backs were curved as opposed to the original iMac G5's, etc...
While a totally new redisign would be nice, I couldn't imagine how to make them smaller (leave it to Apple though!). As it is right now, it looks like a nomal LCD with a slot loading optical in it's side.
And before you think the prices are crazy: display prices are coming down, memory prices are coming down, and the next-gen graphics should cost somewhere in the ballpark of the old models.
Really, the iMacs are just giant white plastic squares, and the base completes the IKEA look...
I hope the redesign involves making them look more like a standard plasma tv, and less like giant plastic squares that you can clean with a garden hose.... (MacBook Pro finish, quality tv-style base)
I'd bet it will look like an ACD, with a small choice of colors like the iPod Nano. Metal is the logical choice, given it will act as a nice heatsink and it looks great.
The "fat" in the current design is in the fact that it was originally built around the smaller screens and a desktop processor. It has a laptop processor now, and much more area to distribute the cruft.
Visually, it does make the screens look smaller, and it makes things look downright goofy if you try to mount in portrait mode.
My hopes is in much more of a "floating" feeling from all angles, and a VESA mount option across the size range. Touch screen would be a waste, unfortunately.
Apple has got some really cool new products. I just went to www.insaneplayers.com, and they have apple products as there prizes you can win. The i phone is awesome. check it out.
Yeah they have the logo on. It is just really hard to see. I guess it is the new thing to have it be the same color. Have you seen the apple tv? I saw a preview of it in my members control panel on insaneplayers.com. It is sweet.... [
QUOTE=melgross;1057547]They will probably need somewhere to put the Apple logo, though. I can't see Apple entirely doing away with that prominent mark.[/QUOTE]
I posted earlier on about hoping the 17'' model isnt removed too soon. Does anyone have any ideas when this could possibly happen?
Apparently the next iMac wont have a 17" version is what I gather. Remember = Rumor Mill. Nothing is concrete until Steve Jobs says there is no more 17 inch model ever, and then there is still the possibility of one used for the educational market. So it's too hard to say anything at this point. .
So even if new iMacs are using the latest Intel chipset, I don't recall reading about radical reductions in power consumption/heat, so how do you make everything smaller without it melting?
It's not about the latest intel chips being less hot than previous. It's about the current case being designed for g5 chips. Apple was very wise in transitioning most of their computers to Intel without changing the case - it made people less nervous (on both sides of the fence). Now they are free to continue with new designs.
Lets look at Apple's laptops.
1) Apple could not put a G5 into a laptop because of heat/power consumption issues.
2) Apple was able to put a Core2Duo into a laptop (though it's warm).
... and the Intel-iMac is currently the same form factor as the original G5-iMac
Also, Steve said that the Intel chips had more power per watt - it was a big reason for switching.
Comments
I'm also waiting for a "new" iMac to come out.
"AppleInsider has learned that Apple's popular line of iMac personal computers are about to undergo a substantial facelift that will showcase striking new industrial designs..."
Does this mean that technicians who have to repair these iMacs would rather strike them with a sledgehammer than waste time with the difficult to service design and overly complicated disassembly procedures? And whose idea was it to place the serial number labels UNDERNEATH the base of the unit, requiring people to turn the iMac upside down to read it?
Many serial numbers are in difficult to read places. Many devices have them on the bottom, or even inside the unit.
2. It's a great place to hang yellow sticky notes on occasion.
hmmm. You've seen my computer.
Something cooler is what we all hope for, but I still have nightmares of another ilamp or mac-cube. Having it a bit lighter would be nice. Carting the 20" to the store for repairs is no picnic. Read somewhere also Apple will be putting decoding/encoding chips into Macs - maybe we'll see them here first???
- J
new design coming.
heck it could just be 'black'. This says nothing.
Agreed. They could have saved a lot of type space and just said "New iMac design coming".
While a totally new redisign would be nice, I couldn't imagine how to make them smaller (leave it to Apple though!). As it is right now, it looks like a nomal LCD with a slot loading optical in it's side.
Can't wait...
My quick call on specs:
17-inch 2GHz
1GB of RAM
Intel GMA X3000 graphics
DVD/CD-RW Combo drive
No Bluetooth or Front Row remote
$999
20-inch 2GHz
1GB of RAM
256MB ATI X2600 graphics
Superdrive
Bluetooth + Front Row
$1299
24-inch 2.2GHz
2GB of RAM
256MB GeForce 8500 GT grpahics
Superdrive
Bluetooth +Front Row
$1799
And before you think the prices are crazy: display prices are coming down, memory prices are coming down, and the next-gen graphics should cost somewhere in the ballpark of the old models.
Edit: 200th post.
$999 for a system with on board video is a joke.
I hope the redesign involves making them look more like a standard plasma tv, and less like giant plastic squares that you can clean with a garden hose.... (MacBook Pro finish, quality tv-style base)
$999 for a system with on board video is a joke.
Joke_the_dragon
Visually, it does make the screens look smaller, and it makes things look downright goofy if you try to mount in portrait mode.
My hopes is in much more of a "floating" feeling from all angles, and a VESA mount option across the size range. Touch screen would be a waste, unfortunately.
QUOTE=melgross;1057547]They will probably need somewhere to put the Apple logo, though. I can't see Apple entirely doing away with that prominent mark.[/QUOTE]
Kris
insaneplayers.com
Joke_the_dragon
I posted earlier on about hoping the 17'' model isnt removed too soon. Does anyone have any ideas when this could possibly happen?
Apparently the next iMac wont have a 17" version is what I gather. Remember = Rumor Mill. Nothing is concrete until Steve Jobs says there is no more 17 inch model ever, and then there is still the possibility of one used for the educational market. So it's too hard to say anything at this point. .
So even if new iMacs are using the latest Intel chipset, I don't recall reading about radical reductions in power consumption/heat, so how do you make everything smaller without it melting?
It's not about the latest intel chips being less hot than previous. It's about the current case being designed for g5 chips. Apple was very wise in transitioning most of their computers to Intel without changing the case - it made people less nervous (on both sides of the fence). Now they are free to continue with new designs.
Lets look at Apple's laptops.
1) Apple could not put a G5 into a laptop because of heat/power consumption issues.
2) Apple was able to put a Core2Duo into a laptop (though it's warm).
... and the Intel-iMac is currently the same form factor as the original G5-iMac
Also, Steve said that the Intel chips had more power per watt - it was a big reason for switching.
So certainly the iMac could be made smaller.
So I hope Apple will at least give us an iMac that will...
a) have an upgradeable video card (ha ha ha...yeah I know)
b) have a thin bezel like the cinema displays
c) more USB ports
d) give us the ability to use the internal display as a secondary monitor (ie. with a laptop).