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17-inch flat-Panel iMac Dead
EnlightenmentFan writes "Apple plans to stop production in June of the iMac with flat-panel 17-inch display, according to this article at Asian tech-news site Digitimes. As with the now-history 15" flat-panel iMac, sales started strong but stalled once the early-adopter crowd had bought in. Probably-not-unrelated story (also posted today): Chungwha Picture Tubes is boosting the price of its 17-inch LCD monitor panels."
I will give them that. The real problem with that pariticular form factor is that youc cannot really upgrade the display easily and think that hurt the overall sales. It is hard to upgrade when the monitor is bolted to the chassis. But who wants an iMac when you can get a Dual G4 with one of those really pretty cinema displays. I would trade an appendage for that. I will just have to make do with my BRAND SPANKING NEW powerbook G4. Oh baby. Santa is my friend.
Apple normally doesn't throw out this kind of information, and if so, they do it quietly.
But if the information is true, it's really not an indication that the iMac is disappearing, but being revised. The iMac is still a very popular computer and is not a failure in any instance. The 15" systems were discontinued only because the 17" systems arrived.
Count on the new iMac with the same 17" display, but with improved processor speed, and optimized for Jaguar.
Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
The 15" iMac is alive and well. Tis only the 15" standalone LCD display that has been discontinued.
If this story is at all true, it simply means that 17" iMacs are impinging on the sales of G4 towers, and the iMac will remain 15" only for the time being.
IIRC, there were a lot of problems with the 17 inch studio display. People were reporting "popping" sounds coming from their monitors. This usually means static discharge.
When you hear those sounds, it normally means your monitor is about to crap out. The problems I heard of had all occurred, conveniently enough, after Apple's 1 year warranty had expired. The cost for out-of-warranty repair for those studio displays is around $300. A friend of mine had to get repairs done on his for some reason (it wasn't static discharge) and that was the price they quoted him.
the byproduct of years of oppression by the white man
If this is true, it probably means the PowerPC 970 is going to be ready to ship in Macs for MWNY.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
First of all, it wasn't the "iCube". It was just the Cube, or more commonly, the G4 Cube.
Speaking as someone who is posting this from a G4 Cube, it wasn't and isn't that great a machine. All it has for a video connector in the back is an ADC connector, so unless you want to buy an adapter, you're stuck with expensive (but nice) Apple monitors, like the 15" Flat-screen CRT that originally came with the Cube, which is what I'm using here. Not that it's a crappy monitor, it's just a pain.
Also, it isn't as space-saving as you might believe. It was kept silent and cool by taking the power supply and moving it outside to a large, unwieldy power pack.
The speakers are crappy and there's a wierd USB-connector for them. No regular speaking connection, you've got to use the provided ones.
The "cool" touch-sensitive power button (using, I assume, the same technology as laptop trackpads) is, like those laptop trackpads, more trouble than it's worth. You have to be EXTREMELY careful when moving it around, because any light touch will send the machine into sleep mode immediately, even during the boot process. This is a serious pain when you're moving it around, as plugging it in to the power supply needs to be the last item on your list, and most people by habit do that first "to make sure it works". My cat puts it into sleep all the time, sniffing at the computer.
The access to USB ports, power ports, network ports, and the like is very shoddily done, all underneath the computer, with very little leeway, which means you generally need to put the machine on it's side to plug in a network cable, USB cable, firewire, whatever. Doing this, even for people like me who've been working with a Cube for awhile, means the first thing you do is put your hand in the most convenient place to flip it on it's side, or on it's back, which means you either slap the power button with your hand, or the table or some other object on your desk does it.
All in all, it's a cast iron pain, and one of Apple's biggest design blunders.
The 17" iMac, however, is a great thing. Hopefully, they won't become a collector's item, and I can get my hands on an inexpensive one.
Speaking also as a Cube owner, I have to refute a few of these points.
- The Cube CAME with an ADC to VGA convertor. You didn't have to buy one. I used mine with a Sony VGA monitor during the time it was my primary desktop.
- Wow, so the power supply is big. When it's on the floor, way the hell out of the reach of my feet, under the desk, somehow I find myself not caring.
- Yes, the speakers aren't that hot, but you can use any speakers via the Griffin iMic, which gives you a standard 1/4" speaker output. I used Monsoons that way.
- I really never found the power button to be THAT sensitive. Maybe it's because they improved it in later revisions, but your account of how annoying it is really bears no resemblance to the experience I've had with the power button on my Cube. Of course, I don't have pets, either.
- Yes, the port location sucks; this is why I ended up having a FireWire cable or two always plugged in, even if it wasn't connected to anything, since it was far easier to just plug it into the other end of the cable, knowing the cable itself was always connected to the machine. As for USB, well, my monitor had a built-in hub, so I didn't have to mess with the USB ports on the machine itself much.
Overall, though, I found the Cube to be a great machine until it just got too slow to keep up with OS X and my demands on the hardware. I still run it 24/7 as an OS X Server box -- with no fan and a small footprint, it's perfectly suited to be a home server.
--- Why yes, I am the webmaster of Microsuck.com
Well if the article is right, then Apple will be releasing new models at MWSF right? This in itself is a bit of a scoop, you wouldn't expect them to have an all new iMac since the this model has only been out for a year or so and the point in which sales dropped off would not have given them enough time to design an all new iMac (esp considering how long it took for them to come up with the latest one). I assume then that they are simply retiring the current line and coming out with different screen sizes with tweeks in configuration.
;)
Either that, or they have strengthened the arm enough to stick a 19" crt on it
If these rumors are true, I'm betting they're discontinuing the line just so they can bring out a series of colored iMacs. The current white line is very polarizing - you either love it or you hate it. I can see Apple announcing a line of non-white machines, most likely black, magenta, and navy, before then, maybe during Mac World New York. The line's just too successful to think otherwise.
Marxism is the opiate of dumbasses
I give a shit, because Apple makes some cool shit.
Even if I never buy anything, I like looking at the latest whiz-bang wild-ass thing Apple's done, because even when they miss, it's at least because they're trying something new. The G4 Cube was such a beast... it missed the mark completely, but it was a cool lookin' box. Better than beige, better than bling! art.
It's like going out and test-driving cars when you don't even want a new car -- you do it just to see what's out there, and because it's fun.
If you need an explanation for this sort of thing on the other hand, why are you here?
I purchased my iMac (15") on eBay from a reseller for about 1300 less than retail...
What unit of currency are you talking about? Because a really expensive 15" iMac will run you about $1,500. If you managed to get one for $1,300 less than list price, you're one lucky son of a bitch.
I write in my journal
Go to the Apple Store at Apple.com.
Click on the iMac.
Notice that not only is the 17" iMac for sale, but so is the "defunct" 15" model.
Just another tribute to the Slashdot school of journalism.
Most Mac-rumor sites seem to think that Apple is going to drop the 15inch iMac in favor of the 17inch. I highly doubt Apple is going to stop selling both the 15in and 17in iMac. The LCD iMac does not seem to be another "cube" for Apple... this product has sold a -lot- better.
Slashdot needs to leave stuff like this up to macrumors.com, macosrumors.com, or thinksecret.com
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
Used Cubes still command very high prices on eBay. I'm likely to be getting a used 466 or faster G4 because Apple doesn't sell what I need at a price I can afford.
Being that I do print media on the Mac, I prefer the color of Trinitron phospors. I don't want the puny, flat-panel, expensive 17-inch widescreen (maybe they're dropping the widescreen format and will go with a cheaper, common-ratio 17 inch) because 90% of print media is vertical. I use a 21-inch high-refresh tube and only 512mb of memory. Since 'Desktop Publishing' software is mature, high-speed CPUs don't impact productivity all that much.
"Only in their dreams can men truly be free 'twas always thus, and always thus will be."
--Tom Schulman
look, it's a fairly different prospect to design your own mobo, software and case to simply buying them in from the Taiwanese and MS. Apples cost more because they COST more. Many of us would gladly pay to keep Apple independent, and thereby innovative. Apple isn't making monopolist profits - see MS for THAT. Anyway, admitting that you want OSX on Intel is admitting that the Linux movement has FAILED - GNU/Linux has the potential to provide an OSX like experience on commodity hardware, that it has failed where Apple has succeeded is significant indeed.
That was classic intercourse!
"I have had fewer Win2K crashes since 1999 than I have with OS X since 2001."
From this post, I can limit the possibilities to two:
1.) You're full of crap.
2.) You only used Win2K for about 5 seconds.
Win2K, even on a "properly assembled" or "optimized" (or whatever the Windows people call it these days) machine bears the true mark of any Windows OS -- buggy and unstable. I work with Win2K machines every day. I also work with a MacOS X-running iBook every day.
I've been running OS X since 10.0. I've been running Win2K since mid-2K. Guess which one has never crashed? (Not once.)
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