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iMacs Freshened with 2.0 GHz G5, Bluetooth, WiFi
amichalo writes "Apple has updated the popular consumer level Mac, the iMac G5.
So better support the now standard Mac OS X Tiger, Apple has made significant improvements to all standard configurations including 512MB RAM, Radeon 9600 128MB graphics, and on 2.0 GHz models (17" and 20"), a slot-loading dual-layer 8x SuperDrive is standard. The 1.8 GHz 17" model includes a slot-loading Combo Drive.
Also standard are Apple's AirPort Extreme 802.11g WiFi and Bluetooth. Pricing remains at $1300, $1500, and $1800 respectively for 1.8 GHz 17", 2.0 GHz 17", and 2.0 GHz 20", though 2.0 GHz models include additional upgraded features.
These improvements are significant as this line has not seen a refresh in about a year and the upgrade to a Radeon 9600 graphics card will allow the new iMac to take better advantage of Tiger features such as Core Image, which is significant because the video card cannot be upgraded. Lastly, Apple is continuing the interactive chat and QuickTime support program for the iMac G5."
Must be Slashvertisement Day ..
It's not a lie. It's the truth with lossy compression.
Thanks for the ad, and all that insightful commentary about this important (and not at all incremental) development. Your creative (ab)use of the English language was also particularly entertaining this morning.
FreeiMacs.com go up?
A fresh end? Is that by using some form of intimate wipe?
Does it have that puzzle game with the apple logo? Best game on the mac.
What the hell is freshend? Here I am thinking this is a story about pr0n...
Freshened maybe?
my AdBlock doesn't seem to be working correctly. I still see ads on Slashdot.
Any tips or regexps I can use?
Freshend - is that like Freshmeat for your backend? Uh, wait, on second thought... that's really naughty...
In Soviet Rush, today's Tom Sawyer gets high on you.
just to clarify.
everyone rips into this Apple ad like the Star Wars Ad although I have a suspicion everyone will
foam at the mouth. Apple, Yipeeee. Star Wars boooo.
The unprofessionalism shown here is getting ridiculous.
they've also update the emac
Creationists are a lot like zombies. Slow, but powerful and numerous. And they all want to eat our brains.
is that it now comes with gigabit ethernet. It basically makes this machine usable in a variety of environments such as graphic arts and rich media where throwing around tons of data is a daily fact of life.
This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
"So better support the now standard OS X Tiger,..."
Or else!!
Can't run Longhorn?
Those bloggers from "Team 99" have nothing good to say about it?
Who'd ever buy one of these???
I ordered my iMac in September and it arrived in October. I wasn't the first, but I wasn't far off. OK, it may be 7-8 months since the line has been introduced, but isn't that statement a little 'glass-half-empty'?
Scared of flying, pointy things snce 1979!
I've been looking to replace one of my gaming machines with a Mac. How are the dual-processor G5s for World of Warcraft? Can I just slot an nVidia 6800 in there (standard AGP)?
Whell, I gess litteracie be over-reighted, these dayz. Who needz, it, huh? Seeing others miss-uze the langwidge, like me do, haz brightend up my day!
Am I missing something or is the PowerMac severely under spec'd and overpriced compared to the new iMac? I mean the iMac even comes with a display. I really wish they would take a look at improving the PowerMacs price / performance. It is sad when the iMac outpowers the PowerMac and comes in at the same price even after the recent PowerMac updates. These are the latest specs from the Apple store:
iMac $1,499.00
17-inch widescreen LCD
2GHz PowerPC G5
667MHz frontside bus
512K L2 cache
512MB DDR400 SDRAM
160GB Serial ATA hard drive
Slot-load 8x SuperDrive (double-layer)
ATI Radeon 9600
128MB DDR video memory
56K internal modem
PowerMac $1,499.00
1.8GHz PowerPC G5
600MHz frontside bus
512K L2 cache
256MB DDR400 SDRAM
Expandable to 4GB SDRAM
80GB Serial ATA
8x SuperDrive
Three PCI Slots
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
64MB DDR video memory
56K internal modem
What about DVI? Is it now part of the iMac? This is my personal long awaited feature. Without DVI it's only half the fun. A second display is always a good thing.
Why did I have to buy the mac mini? I want one of these guys instead!
Probably because you love the taste of Stevie's cock after it's been in your ass.
My problem with iMacs is the following: there is no separation between the monitor and the computer. Typically, my monitors are much better than the actual computers. My last monitor, a Sony, is on its 6th year and I am pleased with it so far. I spent a good chunk of money on the monitor itself. Good stuff lasts, so why not? Since I am picky about my graphics, I decided to go with a full blown monitor and get a computer with a moderate power only. My strategy paid off: I still have a kick ass monitor and I went through 3 computers so far.
Ultimately, I do not care about the speed of my CPU, because sitting in front of a computer is the last fucking thing I want to do after working 60 hour weeks. With iMacs, you seem to pay for both: a computer and a screen. Why bother? You can pick up a nice 20" LCD from Apple for $800 ($700 if you can get educational discount) and that is all I want. Having a computer that is hard to upgrade and that becomes outdated within a couple of years does not make any freaking sense. When I buy my next monitor, I would like it to last for about 7-8 years and I highly doubt that an iMac will be useful after 4 years.
Until today, the eMac G4 could outperform the iMac G5 due to some low level issues, see http://www.macintouch.com/perfpack/comparison.html .
If it hasn't been fixed, the eMac may still give better bang for buck. If this matters to you then hold off buying until you see an accurate performance comparison.
I'm very pleased to see they have finally started shipping 512 Mb RAM as standard as this has to be considered the minimum to see OS X in its full glory. The prices to go to 1GB are much better, $125 extra for 1GB using up both DIMMs and $175 for the memory in one stick, leaving you free to buy the additional elsewhere (if you need it on this level machine).
It leaves me puzzled why they are still shipping 256 Mb on the Power Macs (why, why?). However, this looks like a very sensible feature improvement which should provide the perfect all in one home machine and stop the iMac from having their sales canibalised by Mac Minis at the lower end. Sadly my previous generation iMac, which is now 4 years old, is still running perfectly, especially now it has Tiger, so this may still be a hard sell to buy this year.
OSX Tiger is now standard? Didn't it just come out a week or two ago? There are probably tons of mac users running earlier versions of the OS. It seems to me that the standard is whatever the majority of people are using at that time. I know some people rushed to upgrade but i'm sure most haven't yet.
The cool thing about this imac is that the bluetooth, airport extreme and ethernet card are all included in the base price, which was not the case previously.
You will never have experience until after you needed it.
A new /. troll named As Seen On TV will post ~20 posts to this story claiming insider knowledge of all things Apple and will subsequently get modded up as +Insightful or +Interesting. Apple fanboys will blast anyone who dares to question anything this troll has to say.
Furthermore, the Apple faithful, afraid of the truth, will mod this down as -Flamebait. That is all.
Make a better double-sized Mac Mini now!
2GHz PowerPC G5
667MHz frontside bus
512K L2 cache
512MB DDR400 SDRAM
160GB Serial ATA hard drive
Slot-load 8x SuperDrive (double-layer)
ATI Radeon 9600
128MB DDR video memory
56K internal modem
Sam
Anyone else disappointed w/ the iChat/Codec performance in Tiger? Hardly the 4x improvement touted for 1 on 1 chats advertised and multi-person chat quality, while usable, is quite poor. The Apple demos were obviously performed w/ a serious pipe. For mere mortals w/ more modest bandwidth the results aren't nearly as stellar.
Tip: If you're getting awful 1 FPS performance in iChat, make sure you've completely eliminated any vestiges of Virex and related processes, use the disk doctor "repair permissions" function, and reboot.
... The stuff that should have been built-in in the first edition (wifi,bluetooth) are now built-in, and the base memory isn't a joke.
The video chipset is still a bit jokey, but this whips the Powermac refresh like the family pig.
Still, I'm pretty sure I'm building a new box by hand this time 'round, I don't feel like waiting another year for Apple to get its PCIe act together...
As there are loads of International users who do not speak english fluently and there are also differences between US english and UK english I do not see it as very important unless the point the comment is trying to make can be interpreted wrong.
i'm tired of fucking dumb ass macs.. i dont care how good they are, i'm not paying $1300 for a Mac that isn't even CLOSE to their higher end models..
I just think of the AWESOME kind of PC I could build for $1300.. jesus.. its ridiculous..
someone answer me the question, what exactly do you BUY for $1300 thats actually worth it?? what can you POSSIBLY do that you CANNOT do on a regular PC for $1300 ?? NOTHING.. NOT A FUCKING THING AND YOU KNOW IT!!!
- Hi I'm Linus Torvalds and I pronounce Linux, Lih-nix..
Popular consumer level Mac updated to Radeon 9600 and the video card cannot be changed?
As a PC gamer i wonder why did they put obsolete video card in their new pricey machine? What are the most popular Mac games currently, and how do they compare to PC versions?
I have the opposite problem. My mac is ~6 yrs old, but my monitor is brand new. I'm glad I bought a PowerMac, or I'd have been stuck with a CRT.
On the other hand, if I'd bought an iMac I'd probably have replaced it by now, and I'd have a faster computer with a better monitor, and the same overall expenditure over the last 6 years since powermacs are so expensive. So, it really does work out well to buy the iMac.
Besides, if you don't care about CPU, why not just buy the Mac Mini?
Well, goodbye slashdot, it was a good few years. Now that ads are appearing as front page stories, Im on to find my 'news for geeks' elsewhere.
Adios.
"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." - Thomas Jefferson
We've had several of these things go bad after 3 to 4 months of use. Apple claims there is no problem with them. Google for it and you'll find lots of unhappy iMac owners:
http://helicon.macbay.de/iMac_problems/iMac.html
http://www.macintouch.com/imacg5part07.html
Reminds me of the defective G3 iBooks...
http://www.apple.com/support/ibook/faq/
Apple refused to admit a problem with those either until they were threatened with a class action lawsuit... then, magically, they admitted the defect and began repairing them... beware of anything from Apple that starts with an 'i'
Just wondering out loud...does this release deliberately coincide with the release of the long-awaited NIN album With Teeth? Myself, I was up at 5:30 this morning downloading and burning it off iTunes.
Mr. Reznor did release The Hand That Feeds Garage Band tracks, a first, and a nice Apple marketing ploy to boot. Again, just wondering...
Also, this morning I realized that the only damn reason to keep Windows now that I've discovered Ubuntu is iTunes.
Currently bidding on sig
as for mac monitors they tend to be the finest quality you can get so there's no issue about compromise there. And as for matching the longevity of the CPU and monitor, well mac CPUs historically have much longer service lifes than winboxes so they are infact pretty well matched.
if your worried about a monitor death clippling the CPU then you have two solutions. First think for a second, what would you do if the monitor blew out on your component system? well you'd buy a new one to replace the old one and you'd still have two components right? Well just buy a new monitor and plug it into the mac, since it mirrors the display your all fixed up. Only change is you now have a two component system rather than an all in one. The other solution is to buy an applecare policy for three worry free years, then sell it. Since macs retain there retail value after three years you'll get a lot of money for the sale, and shipping that all-in-one is cheaper to boot. Your winbox wont be worth poop for re-sale in 3 years.
News is "Apple releases G5 Powerbook" or "Apple releases new operating system" not "Apple bumps the processor speed and makes a few optional features standard equipment". I don't get it.
Yes I care. I'm an apple user and my powerbook is the item I own that gets the most use each day, but apple doing a routine feature bump (hint: every product line gets one every nine months) is the stuff of thinksecret and macrumours, not slashdot.
Is this really 1/12 of the interesting news for the day? Is there no other article of value that could have been posted? Come on.
ha HA hA h a aaaaah
My child, it is a pleasure to lend you some of my wisdom
You didn't list the price. How does ~$1,000 sound?
parent tells it like it is.
Who cares what apple's doing regarding system upgrades. I don't care what sad sales push they have on this week or any week. Why is this stuff news ?! The same goes for the Alienware garbage.
peetoose
nt
oh yeah i see you didn't forget that
hahahahaha
Mods: it's a joke. Montreal is a city in Canada. Sad that I had to explain that to (hopefully) avoid being modded "Flamebait".
My child, it is a pleasure to lend you some of my wisdom
jezzball?
Tharkban (It is a signature after all)
Apple's computers are closed systems and that is a Good Thing(tm) because they can excercise controll over the entire system to ensure reliability.
PC's use open standards and, as such, any old crap can be used in them, making them less reliable.
Microsoft's (and many other software companies) programs are closed systems and that is a Bad Thing(tm) because the software is a blackbox limiting your ability to make beneficial changes
Linux (and other GPL'd software) uses open standards, and, as such, anyone with programming wherewithall can customize things to suit their needs, (or make the system less stable because it could break something else)
Now if only my relatives would listen when I tell them to buy a Mac, instead of insisiting on buying a PC and getting an unusable spyware ridden box in 2 months they want help with because they of course, use Internet Explorer and open BirthdayCard.vbs.exe the Outlook Express attachment.
Photoshop :-)
To break existing 800 MHz iMacs! Those damn things just keep running!!! How is a self-respecting hardware junkie supposed to talk his wife into letting him purchase the latest and greatest from Apple, when they just keep working :-(
We have two matching 17" LCD, 800 MHz iMacs, purchased in November, 2002. They have run 24x7 since we purchased them, with the exception of the power outages caused by the hurricanes in September of 2004.
No matter where you go... there you are.
Would it kill you to proof read your summary befor posting? GEEZ the T and S keys aren't even next to eachother...
Are you proud of being a narrowminded dumbass?
All it informs me about is that "peetoose" is a pig ignorant loser living in his parent's crawlspace, and cannot comprehend anything beyond his own foreskin. He's just another living atrocity that views the word as WhatILike=Good and EverythingElse=Stooopid.
Are mod points only given to the trolls these days so they can mod up other trolls?
I bought a 3.6 GHZ PC a month ago with a 17 inch screen, 1.25 GB of RAM an 80 GB HD and a dual layer DVD drive, all with built in Wi-Fi G. What's the big deal here?
Do the new models ship with turtle-shell rimmed glasses and pompous hipster attitude? The other models only came with mildly revolutionary bumper stickers so my level of Mac-induced techno-pretense is at a minimal level. =(
Now Apple needs to do something about the Mini. 256MB of ram is an insult, especially if they start shipping them with Tiger in the near future. It wouldn't suck to update the video to the 9600 too so CoreImage can be better utilized. Go ahead and leave the drives smaller and the CPU 2.0, but at least take care of the memory issue.
A "sub $500" mac looses it's luster real quick when you have to stuff memory on top of it just to get decent performance. When they almost never leave stock 1.25/Gh/40Gb models at 256MB in the Apple stores, Best Buy, and Comp that says something about the performance.
Enoguh with you "why was this posted" dumbasses, already! If the headline doesn't interest you, move on. No one on the planet gives a flying rat's fuck if you think the article is somehow unworthy the wonderful glory that is you. Get over yourself. You are nothing.
is the max. ram size still 2 gigs? i like these imacs, but this is not enough for a lot of bioinformatic tools i have to use :( (hm, or better for the bad tools i write ;) )
This is a common problem:= 665&pid=25 29
http://www.sudhian.com/showdocs.cfm?aid
I don't think they were using "quality" capictors.
I also have an entire series of imacs where I work that almost every one has had a hard disk failure. Granted they are 5 years old, purchased in 2000 and are only 400mhz. But started failing one by one after we purchased them, 1 or 2 every month until almost all 60 had hard drives replaced.
Both Xserves I had purchased has had bad slot loading cdrom drives that I had Apple replace. I tried the firmware update that supposidly fixes the problem, but the drives still did not work.
Powerbooks with the same type cdrom seemed to be having similar problems. Ended up sending the drives in to be replaced.
We have had several other Macintosh Computers that could not keep time even after firmware resets and battery replacements.
I have had lots of bad memory, capicitors, and power supply failures -- much higher than all other computers combined (PCs, PPC IBM Servers). Failure has increased with newer models.
Apple used to produce quality computers back in the early 90's that would last for years. Now they are on par with emachines or packard bell.
We purchase many computers and it is not uncommon to see entire series of Macintosh Computers to have to same failure again and again. That does not mean a consumer can see this because he or she may have the "lucky" computer that is not the lemon.
APPLE, PLEASE GET BACK TO QUALITY!
Does this use Firewire 800 or just 400?
No indication on their site anywhere that I can see.
You don't understand the attraction of the Macs, because you are a human turd. It's really quite simple, as others have responded, but you simply are too stupid to understand anything outside your own extremely limited experience. You are utterly useless. Congrats. You have entered the class of the unwashed masses.
Don't we need to update the iMac icon?
Either the new design iMac or, at least, the original 'classic' iMac would better represent it, surely?
Honestly, you don't make any points for your side with this apporach. I know two people who went with a Mac recently. They got the initial nudge by observing the unvelievable and incoherent vitriol by low grade intellects such as yourself. They followed the rule that if X is stirring up such irrational bile in group Y, then X must be doing something right, especially if group Y is composed of narrowminded losers incapable of expressing themselves without vulgarity.
Dude! You're getting your ass handed to you here. Bail out and change your username. "Comet69" is now the laughing stock amongst anyone with more than one brain cell. Not that "comet69" wasn't a idiotic name in the first place. Ooooo! You have "69" in you name! Wow! That is so BOLD and CLEVER! Heh heh heh... sex and stuff, Beavis!
macgamestore.com, there are several other games. I read this piece of news from mac world this morning.
There is a spark in every single flame bait point.
I totally agree with your basic point, but to be fair, the argument of "XP Pro" being MUCH closer to OS X than "XP Home" is usually moot.
The only real significant difference between XP Pro and Home is the fact that Pro is required to authenticate against a server in a domain and support "roaming profiles" from said domain server. It's exceedingly rare that I find a home user who actually needs his/her machines to join a domain, instead of simply do peer-to-peer workgroup type sharing.
For that matter, if a business uses Novell Netware, they'll find that installing Novell's client for Windows on an XP Home box gives them all of those capabilities via Netware anyway. (Novell states on their web site something about XP Home being "unsupported", and recommends XP Pro - but that seems to really only be relevant for folks trying to use Microsoft's built-in Novell connector support rather than loading the free Novell client.)
If Apple was willing to shave even another $25 or so off the price of OS X for a version that couldn't work with NT/2000/XP domains and only handled workgroups, I imagine quite a few Mac users would opt to save the money and go with that one....
So stop fucking them.
But seriously, ever think people are tired of ignorant little trolls with the communication skills of stillborn fetuses? How old are you? 12?
I had been putting off getting the new iMac due to the 64mb graphics. I would like to play Generals, Rise of Nations, WoW and Rome Total War. Will this graphics card meet my needs, gaming is only a secondary requirement and the iMac fully meets all my other needs. I currently have a 800Mhz 15" FP iMac and have costed out a PowerMac and the saving between that and the new iMac is a thousand pounds for my required configuration.
Hey - did anyone else notice that the Powerbook base price is out of sync? On the main Apple Store page, it says "PowerBook from $1599", but on the Powerbook page, it says the cheapest model is $1499. Did I miss a rumor somewhere? Is there an update to the line coming sooner than October?
:P
Sorry, just possibly in the market for a Powerbook, and listening for every scrap of news I can get about them right now. (Anyone also hear if they've fixed their non-Synaptics touchpad yet?) Stupid jitters from watching every site (e.g. Amazon recently) for an unintentional slip.
And no, I'm not trolling for the illusive "G5 Powerbook" upgrade. Please don't post that silly crap.
The high end power mac can handle 8G byte RAM. Search "8GB" in this link.
There is a spark in every single flame bait point.
... of Doom 3 on the iMac G5, and the Quartz Extreme changes in OS X 10.4 outlined by John Siracusa over at ars technica, one wonders if the G5 iMac is now a credible gaming machine -- at least for OpenGL games.
It seems like the hardware should be up to the task, and now, with OS X 10.4, the software can properly use the hardware.
fuckin' mor-on.
Now I want lunch, and it's only 8:49am. Goddamn it. :P
10 Dell PowerEdge 1750 servers. Dual Xeon, gigs of RAM.. 2 were DOA.
I've had caps on supposedly "quality" PC motherboards blow, from Soyo, Abit, and Asus. I've had ECS boards die. We've gotten hardware from Sun that was defective.
To say that Apple is on par with Packard Bell or eMachines is just ridiculous. Computer stuff can and will fail.
We've had excellent luck with the Apple stuff.
I just configured a top of the line PowerMac with a 30" display! Nearly $10K... It's like the days of the Mac FX! Only, you know, with a thirty inch display, and two 400 gig hard drives.
Would have been nicer if earlier iMacs had received this upgrade so that those buyers could reasonably upgrade to Tiger someday.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Oh, how bourgeois! This is an Apple Macintosh! The FreshenD feature would never be used to exude a smell of something so crass as pine! Macintosh users expect and demand more, and the FreshenD daemon delivers--a light, ethereal scent with notes of jasmine and citrus, evoking memories of a mountain lake after a spring rainfall.
Maybe you're thinking of Microsoft's SmellMe feature (which is rumored to be included with Longhorn). It's a shame--they throw all this money at this cool new feature, but it winds up smelling like a freshly cleaned toilet.
Your mind is squeezed by a blast of pain!
Wow! Not only the most powerful processor, but also bluetooth. And the BEST operating system EVER. (Aqua theme is so fantastic that it has increased my productivity.) We must be dreaming. We haven't seen such a good series of products from other corporations in decades! Give me a reason why shouldn't everybody buy an iMac.
Unfortunatelly, I still want "Instant Delivery". If you don't give me instant delivery, I will not buy your shitty products. Oh. And kiss my ass too. Otherwise shove it.
I have a website. It's about Macs.
How about some real news? How about stuff that matters?
/ 15 1102;_ylt=Aot9RHNyXNIacvOaiPsI3EIjtBAF;_ylu=X3oDMT BiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl>
http://story.news.yahoo.com/s/zd/20050503/tc_zd
A number of "quality" capacitor manufacturers have been having problems recently. There wasn't much Apple could do about it.
0 207018535.htm
0 3/ncap.html
References:
http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2003Feb/bch2003
http://home.earthlink.net/~doniteli/index27.htm
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/resource/feb
I just bought an iMac G5 (updated RAM to 2GB) and the keyboard that came in the box was good enough (NO mushy keys, bad angle, missing/small keys and very cramped) that I have used the new keyboard and put away my old keyboard since.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
mod parent up please
I got a full XP pro, and Office Pro was on a special deal from work $20 for the whole thing. Nero sucks, I bought another better package for about 70$ and Adobe Acrobat and Photoshop round out the beginings of what run on the machine.
Plus, there are many more packages available for Win XP than there are for the Mac, and the performance is better and always will be.
As for being Modded a troll, I expected that fromt he bigots on this site.
I tried Unix years ago. Yuck, what a horrible OS.
Vi - Virtually Impossible. The most user HOSTILE editor ever written.
At the Apple shareholders meeting Steve Jobs said there making most of there money on there consumer products. (this was after he was asked about slugish powermac sales)
They might just be catering to the market thats bringing in the cash.
I'd like a PowerMac G5, but the 1.8GHz is underpowered compared to the iMac, so the cheapest worth getting is the dual 2GHz. Unfortunately I'm not sure I have that kind of money just now.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
I mostly read the second one - where yes he said it was a not a deaamon because he thought of deamons as more servers, instead of just any non-interactive program. Seems kind of reasonable opinion to me if you're used to old-school deamons.
At any rate it's hardly "misinformation", which is what you seem to be going for.
I've read a few of ASOTV posts and they do all seem actually informative. If you find one that's not, please let us know. In the meantim you might also try out an ID for size so people would take you seriously.
Personally, I'm pretty sure you're the one trolling. Trolls always latch onto actually useful posters and try to ride the coattails of greatness as it were.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I was annoyed that Apple was artificially restricting the performance of iMacs with 100 mb ethernet, as gigabit chipsets don't cost much more than the others these days. Doing anything serious with network drives requires gigabit and an iMac can't be upgraded. Now that that's fixed, they're a computer I would consider buying.
The video chipset seems a bit weak, but it's enough for anything I'll do with it.
One thing I'd like to see is a laptop card slot for upgrades, but I know that'll never happen.
I rarely criticize things I don't care about.
But being a sound, usable design seems to be a minor concern for Apple's product strategy. The big selling point with all iMacs, starting with the original candy iMacs, is that they look cool. Once familiarity has blunted the coolness factor, an iMac design is discarded -- no matter how good it is.
Pretty sad. When the pedestal iMac came out, I rather hoped that competitors would imitate it. Not its overall appearance -- Apple is notoriously intolerant of that kind of imitation. But the more general idea of a pedestal computer. Alas, nobody did, and now even Apple has lost interest in the idea. It's all about branding these days, not usability. And though Apple's designers are the best, they only live to serve that purpose.
Mmmm, a pedestrian black plastic box. Plus a matching beige monitor. So color coordinated!
r e/h541.jpg
http://www.milegroup.com/store/imgitems/667.gif
http://www.itreviews.co.uk/graphics/normal/hardwa
Compare to that ugly iMac:
http://www.apple.com/imac/design.html
The most recent release was Doom3, and it will be OK for that (obviosuly not set to highest settings).
Other than that the most popular is probably World of Warcraft right now, and that already runs just fine.
Consoles are a good enough replacement for me for games that don't make it to a Mac quite yet - after all they don't even come out for the PC first anymore either!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Dell
2.8ghz 512Ddr2
ATi x300 128 video
17" LCD
$972
Or you can wait for a sale/coupon and get same computer for $700 with a 19" lcd. Or upgrade to $24" lcd for $750(with coupon).
Have you ever been to a turkish prison?
Mostly it seems like it will get cleared up in short order, only VPC users will have to wait very long. Mid-May is not bad for a Cisco fix which is probably the majority of users having an issue now.
In general Slashdot could have a story of Tiger incompatibilities but that seems a little off-target for Slashdot. Those kind of stories are more a thing you'd go to Macslash for, or mentuion it in the context of some other article as you've done.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The PC's might start off with Raw Power. But after you put firewalls and firus scanners on 'em they are definatley not in the domain of Raw Power any longer.
I have a 28GHz PC at work, and a dual 1.8 G5 at home. The g5 feels MUCH faster for day-to-day use. Especially comparing finder to explorer, which is sadly bogged down in network shares. I use a few network shares at home but at least Finder only slows down a bit when you're using the shares, not for general operations on local drives.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
better support the now standard OS X Tiger.....
Ok the existing G5 iMac would not run Tiger?? Ok whatever.
... in the habit of signing their name to their words, at least he had the guts to do that.
But lets not dwell on the snide tone of your comment. Have you ever tried to get work done on a Mac vs. Windows/Linux PC? I have done serious work all three and I rate the OS.X as first (and it took a major step forward with Spotlight), Linux comes in as a quite close second (largely because it is a bit chaotic and less polished than OS.X) and Windows comes in at a distant third and it's saving grace is mostly the fact that it has a larger and more varied flora of applications than the former two.
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
Apple designs throw away computers.
I paid $1800 for a B/W G3 450mhz box in 1998 and used that sucker for desktop publishing and even DV editing until mid 2004. Then I finally bought a G4 powerbook and retired the G3. Mac OS X (everything up through Panther) ran fine for me on that G3 and I never noticed a bottleneck in terms of the video card nor did I upgrade any internal components other than memory and hard drives. Six years on the same computer does not sound like a throw-away product to me.
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
The G5 iMac was initially announced last September (8 months ago).
System Shootouts does a more realistic comparison between processor lines.
Worth bookmarking.
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START
We were able to post the truth before the mac fanboys started their circle jerk comments!
But now prepare for them to mod all these comments down, or dismiss them and get an instant 5+.
I must disagree with you here.
If you're excited about "minimizing desk footprint", the iMac G5 has the iMac G4 beat, hands down. The new foot sits flat, so you only have a narrow band of metal where it turns up. You can put papers directly *under* the iMac G5. And the iMac G4 had its ports around the outside of the base, at desk level, so they took up even more room on my desk -- the G5 has them on the back, above the desk, pleasantly out of the way.
Ergonomics is improved with the slot-loading drive. I've often reached to put a disc in, remembered the drive isn't "out", then had to reach back to hit "eject" on the keyboard (I've seen many other people do this, too -- or even not know where the eject key *is*). It's also mounted high on the case, so again, you can pile stuff around your iMac G5, where on the G4 you'd have to clear a space around it. Saving a couple seconds may sound trivial, but if you're inserting a lot of CDs (like, say, ripping into iTunes), a couple seconds times a lot is a lot. Also, if you have a cup of coffee in your other hand, it's *much* easier to do.
Oh, and the stereo speakers are built-in now, so it takes up still less desk space than the G4 did. (And if you turn the display, the speakers turn to face the same direction. This makes getting ready to show a movie even easier.)
True, it doesn't swivel quite as much as it used to. But in practice, I never saw anybody move it forward-and-back much in normal usage. If you want to move it left or right, it's not hard to just turn the whole computer. Harder than the iMac G4, true, but still far easier than any CRT. If you need to do this a lot, you can get a standard (VESA) mounting stand for your iMac G5, something the G4 couldn't use at all: if you were in a lab or other place where you required *zero* desk footprint, you were just plain screwed with the iMac G4.
It also has lots of other little benefits: easier to pack and ship, easier to push up against the wall if I want to use my desk for something else, and easier (possible!) to open and replace parts myself.
I consider this the first step on the path to the "ideal" desktop form factor: one that looks pretty much like an Apple Cinema Display -- just a thin display.
It sounds like you're just upset because you think the G5 isn't as pretty as the G4. Can you explain specific problems you think exist with the iMac G5 design? It seems to be better in virtually every way.
To be honest, I'm not sure this is a bad thing anymore. Being able to upgrade stuff was all good and well when that stuff was increasing power at a breakneck pace, but now that everybody, including even Intel, has realized that clock speed doesn't equal penis size, and DVD burners are standard, why do I need to upgrade that often? If all I am going to do is surf, write e-mail, chat, and write a bit, a Mac Mini should be just fine for years and years. Gamers will be gamers, but they're not out there buying Apples anyway.
This way, Joe Averages like me are at least not led into temptation to get the Next Great Thing I don't really need -- a P4 2.4 GHz after a P4 2.0 GHz or whatever. You mentioned video cards: My current card has 32 MByte (it's an iBook G4) and doesn't support Core Image. And you know what, Mail and Firefox and NeoOffice/J work just fine anyway, so big fat stinking deal. If I want my computer to get faster, well, Apple has given me that with every update of the operating system so far. I realize that is not true of all operating systems out there (cough) -- but Tiger is probably worth more than a few MHz more. Can't wait to see what they do for OS X 10.5 "Felix" or whatever it will be called.
On the financial side, I'm not sure if upgrading piecemeal over three years (roughly my cycle) gives me that much more of a savings than a totally new computer once you factor in the high resale value of Macs. Go on eBay, check out the prices for a last generation iMac, and subtract that from the new price, and you're a good way there. And lastly, since a lot of us own iBooks or PowerBooks rather than iMacs -- laptops are never really updated anyway even in the PC world. No difference between my iBook and a ThinkPad here.
Think of what all that extra network bandwidth could do for a Beo...ah, forget it.
...I've got a 450MHz G3 iMac that's still running. Give me an excuse to upgrade already, dammit! ;-)
--R.J.
Electric-Escape.net
"...larger and more varied flora of applications than the former two..."
That's not necessarily a bonus when 90% of them stink to high heaven...
BS -- That's what I'd expect Longhorn to smell like.
I'd expect an Apple to smell...well... like an apple.
When Apple ships 256MB memory, people complain that it is not enough (even though you can easily upgrade your option through the web site).
The other major complaint is that their memory is too expensive.
Surely, if their memory is too expensive, isn't it better they simply ship less of it, so you can fill in 3rd party memory yourself?
I'm a bit confused.
Why won't Apple enable ECC memory support on any of the G5 models?
I don't want to use a large noise Xserve as my 3D graphics workstation just to get ECC memory support. I want a dual CPU G5 Powermac WITH ECC MEMORY. I can't replace my existing intel and alpha workstations until they include this critical feature.
Apple, are you listening?
I wonder why nobody notice that the 2005 ver of 20" iMac G5 is $100 cheaper than the 2004 ver one.
My Mac doesn't have a floppy drive!
kybred
the other significanct difference is in home is that they disable the network secuity features and force you to use "simple file sharing" mode.
which essentially means open access to everyone on your network read only access to everyone on your network of no access at all to your network.
to put it bluntly the network features in XP home are far far worse than those in 9X which it replaced and basically mean you either have to totally trust your network or not use it at all
iirc there are cpu count support differences too (though theese won't effect most users)
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
Tax Deduction.
you can write it off as a business expense.
A lot of Mac users are individuals or small firms who use their computers for work. And, quite a few will buy a new one annually to both upgrade to the latest and greatest and to write off the expenses.
Now, you could do the same with your $400 Windows PC, couldn't you?If you only play games on that PC, you probably can't deduct the expenses for it. But, with a $3000 PowerMac, plus $800 monitor, you can maximize your investment in numerous ways.
That could be part of the reason Mac users have said for years:
It Just Works!
They use the box they own TO work.
Macs, eMacs, and iMacs are designed to be consumer products. You buy it - you use it. No mucking around with the parts inside. Think of your new shiny toaster. Just use it. Don't stick a butter knife in it.
The macs are not about technology, they are all about packaging and target marketing customers. PowerMac users most likely will not want a mini or an eMac. Mini users have no need for a PowerMac, nor do they have an understanding of all the parts inside their shiny new little computer box, they got to go with their iPod.
If your new to macs, skip the eMac and the iMac, just get the more powerful Mac Mini, upgrade it's RAM as much as you want, and toss on a 20" flat monitor.
In a little over a year, you can decide if you want the new Mac Mini 1.5 GHz G5, or the new PowerMac Quad Processor running @ 3 GHz, to go along with your 100 GB iView MP3, Photo, Game and Movie watching device.
Never, Ever buy the top of the line.
Buy second from the bottom, unless someone else is picking up the tab. (Billable Hours counts here too...)
I work for Apple. You're out of line, Coward.
... then why are you posting about how much you hate them?
I think the answer is that you *do* care, and being a PC fanboy, you hate the fact that Apple are making real strides and doing things that Microsoft can't seem to (like stick to their OS schedules).
Realistically, this doesn't impact you in any way whatsoever, as you've got your PC, and you're probably happy with what you paid for it.
So why do you hate the concept of the Mac so much?
Is it because you hate anything *different*?
Is it because it threatens to invalidate your choices?
Face yourself - you care, and the proof of that is in your post. You're coming across as someone who's upset about something that really shouldn't affect you.
Oh - to your 'point'... I'll go out on a limb and say that most Slashdot readers know about technology - where it's been, where it is now and some vague idea of where it's going next. Most people are reasonably well educated around here. They're capable of making their own choices, and they're capable of making informed choices.
Apple are gaining a lot of mindshare around here because they're doing a lot of things right. OS X is the best OS out there, and is actually innovating. People can read the source code for Darwin if they like, and contribute to it if they want to. Macs are easier to use than ever, and people like that.
What can we do on our Macs that you can't on your PC? We can forget the computer and use the things as the tools they are. I don't have to screw around on my iBook to get things working, or to maintain the system integrity. The OS takes care of that for me. I don't have to worry about it. I can get on and just use the apps to get stuff done.
I've used computers since 1981 (when I was 10), and I've seen pretty much everything that's happened in the industry. I've used Windows since 3.1, and before that DOS, CP/M, Amiga-OS and others. I know what I'm talking about. In my view, OS X is the current pinnacle of operating systems. People are noticing it, and people are buying Macs.
If you don't like it, you'll have to learn to live with it.
Why are so many people finding him annoying? I don't find him arrogant or deceptive at all. He's entertaining and usually quite insightful. And often makes some of the posters around him look like idiots (because they were in the first place).
Furthermore, the use of the royal "we" is something I often do when referring to my employer in writing (even publicly).
As for calling him a "self-appointed mouthpiece", that really sounds like sour grapes. Just ignore him if you don't like it, you come across as almost jealous otherwise.
-Stu
Sure, sure. I remember distinctly how poor drivers ground my PC to a halt when formatting a floppy under Win 95's "semi-co-operative almost-pre-emptive" multitasking. Macs at least were honest about the machine not letting you do anything when formatting. :)
"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid, it is true that most stupid people are conservative."
I don't think he's ever claimed to be an official spokesperson, he doesn't have the air of sanitized PR anyway. He seems like either an employee seeking to set people straight at the grass roots, or a non-traditional PR plant, or a non-Apple employee with some reasonable knowledge and ability to craft entertaining prose. Or a bit of all three.
The worst accusation you can make at the guy is over-use of the royal "we". Which is generally fine, I do it all the time when referring to my employer (BEA), though i'm careful to add a disclaimer when I'm making a statement of opinion.
Why does his identity matter? Or whether he's paid to do this or not? I'm not seeing a lot of obvious spin going on in his posts, if there were more, these things may carry more wait.
-Stu
People do this all the time, in message boards and on blogs, usually with a standard disclaimer that opinions expressed are not of their employer.
There are so many examples of this... Look at how many Microsoft employees have blogs like Scoble or Don Box, or Oracle's Tom Kyte, or IBM's Kyle Brown, or BEA 's David Orchard (I work for BEA as well) , or Google's Bosworth.. Do you really think these people are vetted by PR? How many employees post to newsgroups or public tech support forums... I see people get into public flamewars too.
On the other hand, there is a problem here with what constitutes a company's "voice". Bosworth, for example, gets into controversy for people confusing his opinions with Google's (or BEA's , previously).
Frankly, I tend to side with the cluetrain. As long as you don't claim to hold the "official" position, and don't talk about internal confidential information, it's beneficial to the company, its investors, customers, and prospects for employees to engage in open and honest dialogue with others.
I guess it depends on how paranoid you are about your company firing you for speaking your mind. Generally I don't get too concerned about it, if they did such a thing, I wouldn't want to work for them anyway.
-Stu
Screen spanning hack
Keep your monitor, buy an iMac, have double the screen real estate. Tasty.
As for Apple not making a Mac for you... sorry? They can't make a product for every single combo of desires. They're just the one company, where the PC market has a thousand trying to make a buck catering to individual whims.
They sell their computers to the people who want them and they make money. I'm not sure they even look at market share as a reasonable goal anymore. They just sell stuff. You buy it or you don't.
Most people who actually make the switch find that the amount they gain from it is so huge, any niggling grumps over the exact specs of a machine are wiped out by the saved time.
Are you just trying to be obstinate?
"The iMac G5 had to be redesigned because they couldn't fit a PPC970 with all its cooling requirements into a tight little box. "
This one fact nullifies your whole argument. The pedestal was not abandoned because it was passé. The venerable sunflower was abandoned because the G5 and its giant heat sink couldn't be quietly cooled inside the same footprint.
"Wrong. I'm one of the philistines who considers a computer just another appliance -- something you'd know if you taken any care reading my previous post. I admire the pedestal iMac for its usability and ergonomics. I could give it shit that it looks cute."
Right, so now that we agree that the iMac G5 doesn't have a pedestal because it can't we'll have to address the usability and ergonomics with a $200 arm and some elbow grease. That's the trade-off: enjoy some order of performance improvement at the cost of the dead weight in the base to anchor a built-in arm. I guess they could have just shipped the iMac G5 with a leaded base (or a big brick with a chromed arm) to the same dimensions as the sunflower pedestal (or is that too obviously lame?). Since it's fuck-all to aesthetics I don't see why one wouldn't drill a whole in one's desk to mount an arm.
See: http://www.lcdmonitorarm.com/lcd_arms_3.htm
Anyway, it's a tough call to live with. Using a G5 for a while makes me notice the difference in a G4. Does usability include how fast you can get work done? Nothing personal. Cheers.
Read Heinlein's 1953 Revolt in 2100, now more than ever.
Well there is that $60 steak dinner. I can get a pretty good steak dinner for $30. And a not so good one for $15
Doesn't that only prove that you can't patronize the best restaurants or that you live in an area with a significantly reduced cost of living? I mean what does saying "I can get a good-enough steak at Outback" really prove?
Oh, oh, I know, it's like how everyone hates that bourgeois elitism! Damn you Mac owners and your expensive restaurants and foreign cars!
Read Heinlein's 1953 Revolt in 2100, now more than ever.
Yes, it appears you're correct - although most home users I encounter make absolutely no use of security restrictions on their home LANs anyway.
The biggest concern they tend to have is making sure outsiders (on the Internet) can't view/access their local shares - and this is usually accomplished by a decent firewall/router.
Even on my own LAN at my house, all of my computers have full access to whichever resources I've chosen to share. In a controlled environment such as one's home or apartment, you typically don't have concerns such as "Will one of my employees run off with my confidential data I keep in folder X?"
XP Home is just as it says, a version of XP appropriate for most *home* applications.
http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/
...if my Rev A is any guide. It finally went tits up this summer - power supply? So you'll be cursed for a few years yet. Or you could try talking her into getting a refurb...I just got a dual 2.5 refurb for $2300. I got a couple more gigs of ram for it, and another 160 gig hard drive in a striped raid, and omfg is it fast.