At a minimum iMacs should match the speeds of the DP pro towers. iMacs would still only be SP (and probably cacheless) machines. 867-1.25Ghz is not unreasonable in the least. In fact, if PPC's manage to get faster, then faster chips ought to be put into the iMacs in SP config while the towers get those same chips in DP configs.
A lot of people in macdom seem to suffer from lowered expectations when quite reasonable suggestions are routinely viewed as unrealistic. Apple has to do better, no one asking for the fastest G4's is out of line at all. The fastest G4's are just barely adequate versus the competition, and high-end iMacs are not budget computers by any means.
My Predictions for MacWorld. I think this is off-topic, but apparently, I should post them here.
---------------
eMac not updated
Voice of Reason: Wouldn't need to be with my iMac predictions
iMac 17" for $1199
800MHz G4 Processor, GeForce 4 MX, Combo Drive
Voice of Reason: Apple's supply of GeForce 2 MXs must be running thin, Read-Only drives have been dumped from the eMac range, current stocks of 800MHz G4 motherboards can find a place. Also, Apple doesn't have any 15" displays left, customers shun the 15" display in favour of the eMac because it is higher-res, so 17" is "low-end"
iMac 17" for $1699
1GHz G4 Processor, GeForce 4 MX, Super Drive
Voice of Reason: The G4 is getting fast and cheap (Dual 1GHz upgrades, rumored 1.83GHz next Power Mac). 1GHz is a conservative guess.
iMac 19" for $1999
1GHz G4 Processor, GeForceFX Lite, Super Drive
Voice of Reason: A $1999 needs something to justify it's price tag. How about a 19" Display (Thank you, Quanta Press Release) and GeForceFX?
iBook 12" Laptop for $999
800MHz G3 Processor, Combo Drive
Voice of Reason: It would be bad (from a marketing standpoint) to have faster G3s than G4s. So 800MHz. Again, Apple is getting rid of read-only (which never should have been used after the floppy was killed)
iBook 10" Tablet for $1199
800MHz G3 Processor, Combo Drive
Voice of Reason: It would be cool
iBook 12" Laptop for $1199
1GHz G3 Processor, Combo Drive
Voice of Reason: Faster! Faster! No Super Drive because it would take away from PowerBook sales
iBook 14" Laptop for $1599
1GHz G3 Processor, Combo Drive
Voice of Reason: Some people like having the choice of a larger display (for tired eyes)
iPhone Mobile Phone for $399
Full suite of PDA features (but read-only) USB and Bluetooth Sync, new interface for text-messaging
Voice of Reason: TradeMark, and Steve Jobs conceding to the NYT that an Apple Mobile Phone would be very good
iCam digital still/video camera for $799
FireWire 2 connection to iMovie/FCP.
Voice of Reason: There is a lot of buzz inside Apple (apparently) about this MacWorld. Barring an extremly unlikly Power Mac G5 debut, how about two Digital Devices? FireWire 2 will set this camera above the rest
FireWire 2 PCI card announced for Power Mac.
Voice of Reason: Something needs to interface with the camera (at full speed)
iGrabber application to "grab" news off the internet
Voice of Reason: This is the only iApp that I could think of which doesn't already exist, but should. Most people spend 30 mins to an hour on the internet doing "regular" searching of news sites. This would simplify it, and there are plenty of existing news grabbers for Apple to rip-off
Well, if you were going to 'ignore' it then why soddin' type it? (I'm sorry, 'Barto', the 'voice of reason'...better not disagree with his 'lowered' 1 gig expections or we'll get saddled with an 'ignore' sticker...)
Because I posted what I thought would be announced at MacWorld, then realised it was off-topic and started a thread for MacWorld "see how close you get" predictions.
ok, im going to go out on a limb here and say that Steve knows that a 1Ghz iMac after a year is a lame update....sooo...im going to say that the top end iMac will feature a 1.20Ghz G4 with 256k of L2 and no L3.
High MHz but not enough OOmph to completely destroy Tower Sales...
<strong>That whole iGrabber thing sounds like it should be an addition to Sherlock.</strong><hr></blockquote>
No, because unlike sherlock it would be automatically run in the background at a certain time. You would probably have a dock icon displaying the number of new news articles, and an interface letting you see "all articles", types of articles, from all or selected sources.
Comments
A lot of people in macdom seem to suffer from lowered expectations when quite reasonable suggestions are routinely viewed as unrealistic. Apple has to do better, no one asking for the fastest G4's is out of line at all. The fastest G4's are just barely adequate versus the competition, and high-end iMacs are not budget computers by any means.
---------------
eMac not updated
Voice of Reason: Wouldn't need to be with my iMac predictions
iMac 17" for $1199
800MHz G4 Processor, GeForce 4 MX, Combo Drive
Voice of Reason: Apple's supply of GeForce 2 MXs must be running thin, Read-Only drives have been dumped from the eMac range, current stocks of 800MHz G4 motherboards can find a place. Also, Apple doesn't have any 15" displays left, customers shun the 15" display in favour of the eMac because it is higher-res, so 17" is "low-end"
iMac 17" for $1699
1GHz G4 Processor, GeForce 4 MX, Super Drive
Voice of Reason: The G4 is getting fast and cheap (Dual 1GHz upgrades, rumored 1.83GHz next Power Mac). 1GHz is a conservative guess.
iMac 19" for $1999
1GHz G4 Processor, GeForceFX Lite, Super Drive
Voice of Reason: A $1999 needs something to justify it's price tag. How about a 19" Display (Thank you, Quanta Press Release) and GeForceFX?
iBook 12" Laptop for $999
800MHz G3 Processor, Combo Drive
Voice of Reason: It would be bad (from a marketing standpoint) to have faster G3s than G4s. So 800MHz. Again, Apple is getting rid of read-only (which never should have been used after the floppy was killed)
iBook 10" Tablet for $1199
800MHz G3 Processor, Combo Drive
Voice of Reason: It would be cool
iBook 12" Laptop for $1199
1GHz G3 Processor, Combo Drive
Voice of Reason: Faster! Faster! No Super Drive because it would take away from PowerBook sales
iBook 14" Laptop for $1599
1GHz G3 Processor, Combo Drive
Voice of Reason: Some people like having the choice of a larger display (for tired eyes)
iPhone Mobile Phone for $399
Full suite of PDA features (but read-only) USB and Bluetooth Sync, new interface for text-messaging
Voice of Reason: TradeMark, and Steve Jobs conceding to the NYT that an Apple Mobile Phone would be very good
iCam digital still/video camera for $799
FireWire 2 connection to iMovie/FCP.
Voice of Reason: There is a lot of buzz inside Apple (apparently) about this MacWorld. Barring an extremly unlikly Power Mac G5 debut, how about two Digital Devices? FireWire 2 will set this camera above the rest
FireWire 2 PCI card announced for Power Mac.
Voice of Reason: Something needs to interface with the camera (at full speed)
iGrabber application to "grab" news off the internet
Voice of Reason: This is the only iApp that I could think of which doesn't already exist, but should. Most people spend 30 mins to an hour on the internet doing "regular" searching of news sites. This would simplify it, and there are plenty of existing news grabbers for Apple to rip-off
Barto
[ 12-31-2002: Message edited by: Barto ]
[ 12-31-2002: Message edited by: Barto ]</p>
Well, if you were going to 'ignore' it then why soddin' type it? (I'm sorry, 'Barto', the 'voice of reason'...better not disagree with his 'lowered' 1 gig expections or we'll get saddled with an 'ignore' sticker...)
Lemon Bon Bon
Then it got locked.
Barto
800MHz G3 Processor, Combo Drive
Voice of Reason: It would be cool<hr></blockquote>
I don't see that happening anytime soon.
[ 12-31-2002: Message edited by: EmAn ]</p>
High MHz but not enough OOmph to completely destroy Tower Sales...
Possible Line up. all with 256k l2 and no l3
Fast: 867Mhz
Faster: 1Ghz
Fastest: 1.20Ghz
[ 12-31-2002: Message edited by: PowerPC ]</p>
1 GHz G3+ Processor
CD-RW Drive
No Fan
etc,etc,etc
<strong>That whole iGrabber thing sounds like it should be an addition to Sherlock.</strong><hr></blockquote>
No, because unlike sherlock it would be automatically run in the background at a certain time. You would probably have a dock icon displaying the number of new news articles, and an interface letting you see "all articles", types of articles, from all or selected sources.
Barto