Slashdot Mirror
Flat-panel iMacs in Apple's Future?
WinkyN writes: "A story on Yahoo! is claiming Apple might release a flat-panel iMac for release in early 2002. Analysts for Morgan Stanley who cover Apple say the computer manufacturer has placed orders for component parts to build such a machine (in fact, build about 100,000 of them a month). Perhaps Steve Jobs will announce this at Macworld Expo in January?"
You could upgrade the imac's monitor the same as any other computer; buy a new monitor and plug it in.
So, with the price of LCD panels dropping, it's the obvious next step... but it just isn't a breakthrough (except getting it done at a price suitable for iMac).
The trouble with LCD iMacs is the education market. Schools don't buy iMacs just because they are cheaper than iBooks, they buy them because they are more durable.
The abuse that a computer takes in a school setting is enough to make me cringe.
Still, I like the idea of having a LCD iMac. It would be cool for me, I'm just not sure that it will work in the education market. (Yeah, I know. Maine just bought 38,600 iBooks. Still, most schools buy iMacs.)
That which does not kill me only makes me whinier
Apple Insider has a story on this, as well.
It's true that this has been rumored for quite some time, and nothing has come of the rumors. The key reason that Apple Insider seems inclined to believe it this time is essentially that:
It's no surprise that a major change to the iMac is coming. What has been difficult to nail down is exactly what will be changed, and when these changes will occur. What has precluded this product from being introduced is component availability and prices: AppleInsider sources have revealed, however, that the prices of key components has reached an acceptable level at which Apple can sell the new iMac at a price palatable to consumers and still retain profitability on its most popular line.
We'll see...
* * *
It is a dada story -- it has no moral.
Why does someone have to do this everytime there's an article on Macs?
I just configured a low-end Dell Dimension at their website. The main option they left out that I had to add was Ethernet:
Dell Dimension 4300S: $873
1.4 GHz Pentium 4
128 MB RAM
20 GB HD
15" monitor
16 MB ATI Rage graphics card
CD-ROM drive
10/100 Ethernet + Modem
Free Lexmark printer
iMac w/128 MB RAM: $849
500 MHz G3
128 MB RAM
20 GB HD
15" monitor (integrated)
CD-ROM Drive
16 MB Rage 128 Ultra
10/100 Ethernet + Modem
Firewire
So it seems to me that for the same price as an iMac you can get a Dell with a faster processor, that's it. The iMac has a better graphics card plus FireWire, the Dell comes with a bundled printer. The 1.4 GHz P4 is hardly twice as fast. Considering the 1 GHz P3 beats the 1.4 GHz P4 on most benchmarks, and the 500 MHz G3 is nearly as fast as the 1 GHz P3, they're not all that far different.
Sure, you can go down to your local cheap computer dealer and get more bang for your buck, but then you'll probably end up with cheap components that won't run Linux, may crash under Windows more often, and you won't get any support from the manufacturer. People pay a premium for Dell for the same reason they pay the premium for Apple.
You may not like Apple, but there's just no truth to the price/performance argument. The iMac costs a little bit more for the same stuff, that's it. A little, not a lot. For a lot of people, the MacOS makes it worth it.
> And a floppy drive being "useless" is debatable.
... you're just making noise, not telling anybody anything useful. You don't know, but you think you know. But you don't. You actually do not know. Either find out or shut up.
> As a tool for updating a BIOS
Updating the "BIOS" on a Mac involves downloading and running a firmware updater file. After a reboot, a graphical meter informs you of the progress of the firmware update and then reboots the computer. It's basically the same as the way an old Compaq that I had worked, except you don't have to put the file onto a floppy to make it work. How you think this is a knock against Apple, I don't know. If you want the update on a disk, write it to a CD-R, CD-RW, or DVD-R. It's as easy to make one of those on today's Macs as it was to make floppies in the past. The only difference is that when you eject the disc, you're asked if you really want to burn your data onto it. You say yes, and then the disc is burned and pops out. Easy.
> or as an easy R/W boot device it is unequalled.
You have got to be kidding. An easy R/W boot device on the Mac is an iPod or any other FireWire storage. You can get a FireWire hard drive enclosure for $80 and put any hard disk in it that you please and boot any Mac from it. It's been a while since you could boot a Mac system off a floppy, and the same is true for Windows. There was an article on MacSlash recently by a guy who works at three different locations on three different Macs, but keeps his system on an iPod so that it is the same no matter where he works and he can carry the iPod between jobs on his bike. That's what you're looking for if you like to put systems on floppies.
And, as if that weren't enough to kill floppies on the Mac platform, every Mac comes with a free iTools account, which gives you a free 20GB storage "disk" on Apple's servers. It appears as just another hard drive on the Mac, so you can copy stuff there and get it later from another machine.
Finally, a utility called DiskCopy, which is included with both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X makes "virtual disks". If you had Mac floppies at one time, then you have long since converted them to "virtual floppies". Basically, you have disk images that you can double-click and they mount, as if the original media were present.
> Why? because there is an equally unbalanced
> community that will support ANY move by Apple
Here you are talking absolute bullshit about why you think that the Mac platform should have floppy drives, and you are saying that Mac users are unbalanced? You don't know anything about it, yet you want millions of perfect strangers to embrace magnetic 1.4MB storage that they have no need for? Take a moment to get a clue, man. The 3.5" floppy debuted on the Mac in 1984. It was retired in 1998. It had a pretty good run. We're over it.
Consider for a moment how ubiquitous PC's are. Mac users are not sitting there using Macs because they don't know Windows exists. We have all pretty much used both. Still, we are passionate and vocal about the advantages of the Mac, and we're very proud of the technological artistry and leadership that comes out of Apple because it has saved us time and money and hassle in the past. If you haven't used both, then you ought to shut up