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The $899 Educational iMac
Valthan writes "Macsimum news has just released news about a new version of the iMac that is being touted as an educational machine. It seems to be a nice setup, and has the cheapness that us university students strive on, I think they just may have a winner here to get people on the Mac. Now if only JCreator worked on it ..."
From the article "Featuring a 17-inch widescreen LCD display, the iMac for education includes a Combo drive for burning CDs and reading DVDs, 512MB of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM memory expandable up to 2GB and hard drive storage capacity up to 160GB. Every iMac also includes a built-in iSight video camera, built-in 10/100/1000 BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet for high-speed networking, built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11g WiFi for up to 54Mbps wireless networking, a total of five USB ports (three USB 2.0) and two FireWire 400 ports."
I'm very happy to hear that college kids strive on cheapness.
And the Pre-installed Spyware and Adware was FREE too!
Don't worry, that's still the norm. I dunno what TF poster is talking about, I dug my laptop out of the tech graveyard. The keyboard flips out sometimes, but you can't beat free...
But I've switched to Ubuntu.
You never know who will get one.
does it run a Lin... I mean, imagine a Beowulf clust... ah, crap, I choked.
There are a few options: 1) Beg parents 2) Get job, or...
3) That's why God gave you blood plasma and spoo. Sell it.
4) Failing that, find some lubriderm, a rubber glove, and a busy intersection.
Wouldn't an SCO box be $666?
How much is tuition these days? 20K-35K? not to mention living expenses are probably another 10-20k. The computer is cheap relatively.
All the kids will want a computer. The real question is why get this when you can get a portable, bluetooth, macbook for only $200 more?
Yeah, because it really costs $450 to reformat the hard drive and install the OS of your choice. Or you could take the less extreme approach and uninstall all the "trial versions" and such that come with it. Nah, I'd rather pay an extra $450 to have the pretty Mac logo on the case so everyone knows I'm hip. Especially if I'm on a tight budget.
</sarcasm>
If you can read this sig, you're too close.
... because if they had actually ASKED a few students, the students would probably have said:
a) "What ? No DVD burner ? How the hell am I supposed to earn beer money by pirating things I've downloaded on school internet ?!"
b) "No remote ? GTF out of here, now how am I supposed to cycle through my slideshow of err.. botany pictures from bed with one hand ?!"
Good on them for trying, but I think this machine is basically a decoy so that they can say the iMac line-up "starts at $899", because taking out something like a dvd writer is just going to make everyone want the next model up. This machine is more likely to find a home with housewives who want to browse the web without all the spyware and virii.
$899 = 1.83MHz Core Duo iMac with 17" screen and not enough RAM.
$899 = 12-pack bottled Guinness Draught x at least 50.
So, an iMac or 600 bottles of Guinness. College student unimpressed.
And don't anybody say "B-B-B-BUT THE GUINNESS DOESN'T COME WITH ILIFE" or I will rip your fucking head off and shove it up your ass.
Dell is cheap? More like eBay is cheap.
Son,
is that you? You'd better not be playing f%$&ing games with your tuition money!!!
sincerely,
dad
sigs are for losers (except to point out that sigs are for losers)
B-b-b-but the Guinness doesn't come with iLife!
Specialist Mac support for creative pros, Melbourne