Just a PSA, really: The newest iMacs are somewhat limited in their capability to be used as external monitors for your laptop. I’d consider the functionality to be a bonus to begin with, but if you were going to be relying on it, better make other plans. It seems that the DisplayPort on 27″ iMacs (there isn’t a video in on the 21.5″ ones) is a bit picky on what it takes an input from. Using various adapters, iFixit determined that at the moment, the only devices which can use the iMac as a secondary display are those equipped natively with a Mini DisplayPort.
I won’t editorialize here other than to say what’d you expect? Apple was going to ignore the chance to sell another accessory?
iFixit has torn up the new iMac to reveal the delicate inner workings of both the machine and its attendant Magic Mouse. Obviously the biggest issue here is removing the massive piece of glass on the front, a process that requires a spunger, suction cups, and a sense that life is futile and electronics should be destroyed on camera for the edification of an audience.
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I certainly don’t want to cause a panic, but EVERYBODY PANIC! APPLE DID SOMETHING!
Yes, new iMacs are here. For prompt shipping, please send your wallet to…
Apple
1 Infinite Loop
Cupertino, CA 95014
…with a Post-It note saying “Send iMacs! Please! Hurry!”
In return, you’ll get one of the following:
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I’m not about to knock myself out for noting the 800th iMac rumor of the past few weeks, so here’s the deal: people “close” to Apple now aren’t sure whether or not Blu-ray will wind up on the next iMac revision. Blu-ray may be on Mac Pros, and maybe then only as a build-to-order option, but that’s enough “maybes” to bore a slug.
Apple has apparently told its direct-sales partners like the Apple Stores not to order new iMacs or Mac Minis and don’t expect any more shipments either. This can mean only one of two things: Apple is going bankrupt or there are new models coming real soon.
There’s nothing solid on this, but the usual mysterious sources are whispering about an iMac refresh coming next week. We knew this was forthcoming, but the changes themselves are anybody’s guess. We expect upgraded CPU and GPU, possibly a slimmer design, and some people even suggest Blu-ray is in the cards. Those people aren’t right, though. If Apple was changing its mind about Blu-ray, it’d do so with more than an iMac refresh.
Now that the new iPods have been announced, it’s time for the next round of everyone’s favorite game, What’s Apple Got For Us Next? This time research firm Wedge Partners thinks that we will see new iMacs and new Macbooks “in the next several weeks.” O rly?
You know what’s a little more difficult than I first imagined? Upgrading the hard drive in my late 2006 iMac. I had initially wanted to upgrade the hard drive so I could finally dual boot between Mac OS X and Windows 7, since the old drive, a 250GB model, was pretty much filled to capacity. (Trying to run Mac OS X with only ~5GB of free space isn’t ideal.) And even though the iMac user manual clearly states that the only user-replacabable parts are the RAM, I figured, “Bah! I think I can handle a simple hard drive replacement.” I did, but not before wishing I had never so much had broken out a screwdriver.
And the award for the most long winded piece of dribble goes to AppleInsider! Thanks for the informative article on purported new features for Apple’s upcoming iMac refresh in which Kasper Jade says absolutely nothing about those new features. Why not just say, “Apple will unleash a “bag of hurt” on the upcoming iMac refresh,” rather than knocking out 577 words about nothing?
This odd Apple Education page seems to suggest a 17-inch iMac for $899. It appears in Apple’s enews but, as you see after jump there are only 20- and 24-inch models available. What a twist!
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iFixIt has torn up the 20-inch iMac, finding inside what appears to be a computer manufactured by Apple Computer. The coolest thing? The front screen is held in by magnets and can be removed with suction cups.
You might not have noticed this, but if you go to upgrade your RAM to 8GB in your new iMac, you’re going to be paying a pretty penny. Now, it should be noted that 4GB DIMMS are very expensive already, so it’s certainly not all Apple markup. It seems a bit strange that they’d even offer it in a consumer system like this. Sure, if you can afford a new Mac Pro you can afford that $6100 memory upgrade, but who’s getting an iMac and willing to drop an extra grand on memory?
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Apple just released a new batch of iMacs. And they’re relatively price conscious. Check em out!
Oh, and one more thing. (see what I did there) The latest, and hopefully last, rumor of the day is stating that Apple might release new iMacs and Mac minis tomorrow. That’s right, March 3rd, 2009 which would then leave the Mac Pro and Time Machine update for the also rumored March 24th event. What makes this rumor so special is that it comes packaged with ‘official’ specs.
In what may qualify as nostalgia overload, an enterprising Canadian has replaced the insides of an old all-in-one iMac with a Sega Dreamcast console. The end result is the iCast.
MacRumors has some info pointing to a 20- and 24-inch iMacs with NVIDIA graphics. While anyone with a printer could make these exciting marketing materials you see before you, another Swedish reseller had a weird page describing an unusual configuration as well, so there’s some hope that the update will come sooner or later.
Apple has informed retail partners that iMac availability is going to be strained in the coming weeks which might mean the company is slowing down production of the current lineup ahead of announcing new models. The iMacs are anything but outdated, but the model line definitely isn’t cutting edge either. Intel’s low power, quad-core CPUs should replace the Core 2 Duo processor along with an NVIDIA GPU architecture that the company seems infatuated with lately. A Blu-ray drive would be nice too, but that likely will not happen due to Apple’s stance on physical media in general.
The new line of iMacs due early this coming year are likely to sport some pretty serious upgrades, most notably (we reckon) a quad-core processor and new NVIDIA chipsets. Of course, this more powerful hardware will be producing more heat, and if Apple wants to keep the iMac and Mini lines trim and svelte, they may be putting a bit of work into a new cooling system.
AppleInsider is saying there will be “refreshed 20- and 24-inch” iMacs next month. Sucks if you just bought one, right?
People familiar with the company’s plans have said changes to the iMac family will largely consist of performance improvements and technology refreshes. And while there’s admittedly been few concrete details to go by since the August report, this week’s notebook overhauls offer a window into the future of the iMac line, which sports an architectural resemblance to the MacBook lines.
Before you go humping down to Best Buy to pick up a PC, let’s ask ourselves a few questions. The rise of desktop replacement laptops – laptops with full-sized processors, hard drives, and lots of memory – have essentially supplanted the desktop PC in dorm rooms every where. Why pay $500 for a big, noisy box when you can potentially drag your $700 laptop down the hall to watch a DVD in another room or even take it to class?
Then, we have to think about Mac vs. PC. We’re a bunch of Mactards here at CrunchGear, so we’re going to recommend seriously looking into Macs to folks on campus or in school. There’s something I like to call the “Day of Shame” when it comes to Windows machines. The “Day of Shame” starts out fairly normally – you install a new peripheral or try to format a disk drive and you end up trying various installations, reboots, and incantations in order to get the PC working again. This can happen to anyone – it used to happen to me pretty regularly – and it basically wastes a full day of troubleshooting before the PC miraculously fixes itself. I’ve never had that problem with OS X.
That said, here are our desktop picks for 2008. All pricing and specs are based on base configurations without add-ons. What are you looking for? Power and price. Most PCs are over 2-gigahertz right now and 2 gigabytes of memory is about right for the average user. The real draw is a bigger hard drive for movies and music.
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