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New 20" iMac and Dual 1.8GHz PowerMac G5
joekra writes "Today, Apple released a new 20" iMac and a Dual 1.8GHz PowerMac G5. Both were accurately rumored at the last minute by the usual suspects. In fact, the Dual 1.8GHz G5 configuration was rumored back in July to shift demand away from the popular 2.0GHz PowerPC G5s." I'm holding out for a couple rounds of price drops, but I think a G5 is definitely in my future.
The currently Apple 20" flatscreen goes for $1299. You're paying $2199 for that attached to a 1.25GHz iMac... So in 3 years when the iMac is obsolete and the monitor is running fine, you can't attach that 20" flatscreen to anything. Hmm. Not good.
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If you're still having problems ergomically with a screen that can be manuevered into any position, the problem is not with the computer. It's with your chair!
Too many comments along the lines of "That there is a big monitor to just throw away when the iMac is obsolete!"
People who buy iMacs don't want to upgrade them every year. They're home users who expect to buy a computer, and keep it until it breaks or some amazing reason comes out to get a new one. They upgrade only when new applications require it, which is why Apple focuses a lot on new features and software innovation to motivate people to upgrade.
Take a look on eBay at used Mac prices sometime, then rethink the "wasting a monitor" idea.
I think Apple would say that if that's the sort of thing you're inclined to do, then the iMac is not for you. It;s for people who aren't too curious about what's under that dome thinggy. OTOH, there is someone who will muck about and hack just about anything.
Helium balloons want to be free.
I don't use CRTs. They're a dead technology, and IMHO they just generally suck! ;)
Do you have any reasoning behind this? LCDs are flat and easier on the eyes but you can't get anything above 1280X1024 resolution for under $1000. I have seen 19" CRTs with 1600x1200 for just over $100.
A side from the cost, LCDs/plasmas have a huge problem with displaying true black. Anyone concerned with image quality usually goes with a CRT.
You have price, image quality, resolution, better viewing angle vs space, style.
CRTs are far from dead.
Not everything is analogous to cars. Car analogies rarely work.
Ah, now the middle of the desktop is again clearly the best deal. I always buy from the middle of the line. The boost over the low end model is worth the price, but the difference between mid and high end is always a more severe premium.
Also, if you're going to buy the dual 1.8 GHz Mac, BUY IT NOW. You'll be happier this way. See, if the worst time to buy is just before a revision comes out, then you get further and further from that to the happiest point just after a revision comes out.
Start Running Better Polls
The idea behind the iMac is to fill in the middle niche in their product line. The Firewire 800 and all the fancier jazz, comes on the higher-end models (G5, Powerbook). The iBook and iMac are in the middle, and you can still pick up OS 9 compat. G4s and the eMac at the low end. So the idea is to appeal to people who probably will be completely happy with Firewire 400. If you're doing something that really needs 800, they want you in the G5 line or Powerbook.
It might sound crazy, but that's how they operate. Apple isn't just selling the hardware though. They tend to cut fewer corners in their hardware designs, and they are aware their hardware is more expensive. They are selling the OS, the reliability, and the longetivity.
I have two windows boxes, a linux, a BSD, and six Macs. I use OS X daily, but I can tell you all my old Macs are still in service, and going strong. I cant say that about my older Windows machines (linux has this sort of survivability though). Apple has an interesting market strategy, but I don't think that the computers are dead in 3-4 years. It's a facinating thing to watch.
It's only when we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything...
Ahh... The way computing should be...
We have an old 603e powerbook here used as a web and chat terminal for our exchange students.
There is a win 95 laptop upgraded to Win 98 in the dining room as an MP3 stream player for breakfast music (and settling dinnertable discussions).
A headless P3 functions as a household fileserver.
A shiny new Athalon 2.4 runs the bulk of our recreational programs, with a mobile P4 laptop for work.
I'm looking forward to replacing some of our static picture frames with the old Win 98 laptop when we finally have a replacement for it.
What do you do with old hardware? You keep using it. PDA too slow for anything modern? They make awesome alarm clocks... And great remote controls. An ancient I-mac sitting around? Throw on OS9 and a copy of Icab, use it in the kitchen for finding recipes. Old Laptop doing nothing? Replace that magazine bin in your bathroom.
The only old hardware that is obsolete is the kind that never functioned in the first place. The old Sparc Station sitting in the closet never did much beyond being a mailserver, and those NeXT boxs never got far beyond the industrial appliance phase. But whatever you buy now will continue to function in the future, doing what it does now, or other useful little tasks.
It may not be worth $1,000 to have an MP3 streaming station for your apartment, but it would certainly be worthwhile if you had a spare box lying around.
BTW, don't expect that "investment" in a monitor to retain its value any better than that computer. 21" CRT's can be had used for $100 without much effort, and by the time this Imac is "obsolete" a used 20" LCD will probably be worth about as much... if not less. While I respect Apple's choice of suppliers, at this point of the technology curve LCD's aren't very long lived and don't have as good an image quality as they will in the future. Welding it to a computer might be more of a problem of hobbling the CPU when the LCD finally dies rather than vice versa.
The ______ Agenda
"Why Spend $2199 on a Propreitry hardware when I can get a Cheap $600 Linux box"
Linux requires skill to keep running correctly. No matter how easy you think it is, it's not. Compiling software, dependencies, kernel tweaks to get functionality you want, and of course, less than easy to learn GUIs.
When you buy a mac you get BSD stability, famously awesome hardware, and an awesome intuitivly easy GUI. Aside from an isolated problem, I have never had any issues with Apple computers. Although, in my wasted days of Linux, I had more issues than I could shake a stick at.
That being said, my desktop is running FreeBSD on a P3-1.2Ghz. Cheap, reliable, and perfectly set up for productivity. The hardware for this box cost me about $300 USD at the time. My TiBook cost me $1200. But, my TiBook was nearly ready to use straight out of the box. Do the dock shuffle, configure my shell, and away I went. My FreeBSD box on the other hand, is the culmination of years of learning. Even at my current level of knowledge, it take me an evening of downloading, configuring, compiling, and beating my head against my desk to arive at a workable unit.
Point being, time is money. My time is worth money anyways, if yours is not, I am sorry to hear it.
Pretty Pictures!
Yea, the BLADE may be $1,700, but the chassis to put it in costs $12,000, and the modular power supply costs another $2,000. These are not the real prices, but guesses based on my previous experience with purchasing blade based components.
Article X: The powers not delegated... by the Constitution...are reserved...to the people
Acutally there are two reasons why CRTs are still not dead, and the true black is not one of them.
:)
a) Resolution, i.e. CRTs have an easier time displaying multiple resolutions whereas LCDs can only display properly their native resolution. Plus CRTs have finer dot pitches.
b) Refresh rates, certain LCDs may have great image quality for STATIONARY images, but when displaying moving images your refresh rate may not be high enough due to bandwidth issues.
For those reasons, oh and price, the CRTs will be far from dead for a while.
Oh, and the whole LCD color matching better than CRTs is quite bogus, I take you have not been into a serious print shop ever have you?
You never see them posting about the latest Dell models do you? You missed the Slashdot tag line: "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters."
Retired PC's generally consume less power than modern ones... P3's under 800 Mhz can be run fanless in winter months. Fileservers are generally built on the latest and greatest computing platform and have little respect for noise. Ever walk into a room populated by rack-mount servers? As for webservers? Unless you are going to co-lo a machine, that is the proper solution.
A CRT iMac may or may not fit in a kitchen, depending upon the configuration. My apartment in the city, for example, would be hard pressed to fit one. However, my mother's house in the suburbs has plenty of counter space... and she would love the ability to catch up on the news while cooking (with a capture card, not included). I'd hardly consider any kitchen with adequate ventilation to be a "harsh environment." Grain milling plants are a harsh environment. Africa is a harsh environment. 6' away from a flame the size of your pinkey is within operating parameters.
A PDA in a cradle won't consume much more power than an alarm clock, and will do so without creating the toxic waste of AA batteries. It will also allow you to set alarms based upon your full day's schedule, can be synchronized with your "real" palm pilot automatically, control your PC to play music remotely, and can program in your own varying alarm sounds (my alarm is loud enough to wake me up, but quiet enough that my girlfriend stays asleep.)
Keeping a machine out of a landfill is a good reason. Serving a purpose in your life that wouldn't be economical through the traditional consumer means is a good reason. As I mentioned, we have retired 2 NeXT slabs, a NeXT cube, and a Sparc Station because they didn't make sense in terms of money, time, noise, or power requirements. However, many old machines can still eek out a profitable life somewhere if you break out of the "throw it in three" mentality. An old P2 Laptop is a perfect e-mail machine for my mother, for example. My work keeps an old Dell around so that guests can surf / check their mail while waiting.
Don't look for ways that old machines can replace other old machines... If all you want is the exact functionality provided by a traditional alarm clock you're welcome to it. Look for ways that old machines can improve your situation. Thinking of spending $400 dollars + $10 per month on a tivo? Buy a huge HDD and a video capture card for your old machine and roll your own for $200. That's economical, easy, and makes the world a cleaner place.
The ______ Agenda
"Why Spend $2199 on a Propreitry hardware when I can get a Cheap $600 Linux box running Mandrake."
When you first get into Linux, everything is cool and exciting. Linux's inconsistencies, the plethora of weird and wonderful configuration files, the ever-changing procession of desktop environments, all of this is a challenge. It's something new to learn. You feel you're expanding your horizons.
Skip to about ten years after my first Linux installation, and the novelty has decidedly worn off. I just don't find it very interesting any more to have to think too much about my computer. The time I spend thinking about my computer is time I could be spending thinking about the things I want to do with that computer. I think JWZ summed it up when he said: 'If you made a Venn diagram, there would be two non-overlapping circles, one of which was labeled, "Times when I am truly happy" and the other of which was labeled, "Times when I am logged in as root, holding a cable, or have the case open."'
My 17" flat-panel iMac was the second-best computer investment I've ever made (with the best being my 15" TiBook). The iMac doesn't waste any space, it's incredibly quiet, it looks great, and it's several orders of magnitude less frustrating to deal with every day than my succession of Linux boxen. As someone who works with computers, I spend an inordinate amount of time in front of the damn things every day, and I consider the "luxury" spending to make that a more enjoyable and productive experience to be very, very well worth it.
If you want to save the money, if it's not a priority for you, that's entirely your prerogative. Just don't stand outside the window of the restaurant, munching your cheeseburger and muttering "Fillet steak? Who'd waste money on that?"
Charles Miller
The more I learn about the Internet, the more amazed I am that it works at all.