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Apple Offers eMacs To All
pinqkandi writes "Apple released the cool and cheap eMac a few weeks ago -- but for educational purposes only. Today, they announced that it is now available to everyone, for only $1099, making it the cheapest G4 Mac ever. I'll buy one." I won't, but I am glad people who want to buy it, can. It's a nice little machine. I guess Apple doesn't see it cutting into iMac G4 sales, but I wonder if iMac G3 sales (starting at $800) will suffer.
It can do 1152x768 and 1280x960. The back has a video out port for a second monitor, but it does not support dual monitors (only mirroring).
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OS X itself == more opportunities for UNIX on the desktop.
Just so everyone knows:
DON'T BUY RAM THROUGH APPLE!
They are forced to pay a very high price for it and in doing so are forced to charge a lot for it. When you get a computer from Apple get the least amount of RAM possible and buy the rest seperately.
sin(6cos(r)+5A)
Actually, just over $900 ($909, as I configured it. Remember, the Dell defaults to a CD-ROM). This makes a few assumptions -- for example, I chose Dell's cheaper 17" monitor, even though the one for $60 more is likely more comparable to the one in the eMac.
So regardless, our price premium stands at $150-$200. Include the fact that Dell charges real shipping costs to make up for their slim margins (around $100 on a machine like this, although they do offer free shipping specials) whereas Apple ships free always, suddenly the difference is more like $100. whooptidoo.
My point? The original poster was trolling, and I called his bluff. The price difference between comparable machines is no where near as dramatic as Wintel bigots often claim. Even though I'd never buy one, the eMac represents a fine value for someone who wants a ready-made, integrated, easy-to-use system.
...of course, we both know that 15 minutes spent on newegg.com or wherever would give us a system that blows either away for half the price, but that's a different comparison entirely.
I did just what you suggested on both my iMac DV SE (Jan 2000) and iBook (Sept 2001). Both of them have 128 megs RAM and Mac OS X 10.1.4.
With Mozilla and Finder running I started Terminal. I got a prompt at the end of "3 hippopotamus" on both machines. Earlier when I had a few more programs open in the dock (BBedit, Help Viewer, System Preferences) it went up to "5 hippopotamus". Not great (and my 'stopwatch' sux), but not exactly forever.
I'll take your tip and get some more ram when I have the chance.
My father is a blogger.
The only potential problems are firewire stuff and the modem. The firewire controller might be supported, but the devices probably won't be.
The modem in new iBooks and Powerbooks anyway are essentiall "MacModems" in the "WinModem" sense. Hardware interfaces for software synthesis of modem noise.
God save our Queen, and Heaven bless The Maple Leaf Forever!
Time for dadragon to compare the feature to feature price of the new consumer eMac to the old student eMac. Prices for students come from the University of Saskatchewan's computer store (ccs.usask.ca), consumer prices are from Apple's online store (Canada) All prices are Canadian Dollars.
Student:
Combo dvd/cdrw drive
128mb ram
40g HD
Firewire
Geforce2MX 32mb
$1979
Consumer:
CDRW
128mb ram
40gb HD
Firewire
Geforce2MX 32mb
$1794
Well, the difference is $185. An external DVD reader costs more than $185, but an internal one is less. I think the consumer model is a better value, but the student model will likely go down in price at the next price update, so I think this will be my next desktop.
God save our Queen, and Heaven bless The Maple Leaf Forever!