New eMacs for September?

We know it's a little early to be thinking back to school, but Apple Insider's got it on authority that Jobs & Co. are hammering out a new replacement for their gone-and-mostly-forgotten eMac all in one line. Whereas we can only assume it'll be Intel-based, AI has it that the new eMac will shed the CRT in favor of an LCD monitor, and be based, however vaguely, on the iMac design (though we prefer our own crappy mockup above) -- though if ever there was a Mac machine destined to have an Intel Core Solo, integrated graphics, etc., it would be this supposed budget education machine. So, until WWDC (when we'd imagine this thing would be announced), have a great summer, kids!

[Thanks, Floris]

[Jonathan Keim @ May 27th 2006 10:58AM]

I don't think that this is possible unless it was a crt. It will have to be a little more then just a slower processor. Why wouldn't they just use the same form factor and make a lower imac machine?

[monmin @ May 27th 2006 11:04AM]

Stupid question...

Whats the difference between an imac and an emac?

Thanks

[MacCrazy @ May 27th 2006 11:16AM]

I think engadgets mockup is teh sex. The difference between an iMac and an eMac is that the eMac is like the mac mini but with a screen. It was designed as a cheap capable computer for education market. Where as the iMac, especially in recent years is a high-end consumer Mac.

[jabar @ May 27th 2006 11:17AM]

emac=CRT and imac=LCD..imac is actually more powerful too, idk whay apple would even bring back out dated tech.. and the new slim tubes have not been perfected yet for long time use..

[ECM @ May 27th 2006 11:17AM]

eMac would be a bottom-of-the-barrel, desktop Mac. It'd be behind the current Intel-based iMac and whatever Apple is cooking up for their high end boxes as far as features/horsepower is concerned, i.e. it's cheap and underpowered.

[duke @ May 27th 2006 11:26AM]

fugly

[Austin @ May 27th 2006 11:26AM]

Interesting. I'm currently running on an OLD CRT eMac, and all I can say is that I hope they use an LCD in it, because the tube in this thing makes it noisy as HELL.

[John Hinds @ May 27th 2006 11:37AM]

If the new eMac is going to be below the current iMac then it would just be a Mac Mini with a screen.

Which isn't a bad thing I guess.

[bob @ May 27th 2006 11:49AM]

i have an emac (for my folks) and have used many, they are far from noisy, i think you should get yours checked out austin!, they are good cheap machines, the only problem i ever had (over than the fact im used to using a dual g5) is the intergrated speakers are shit and on full whack can interfere slightly with the screen.

[Nick @ May 27th 2006 11:58AM]

The eMac is targeted at the education market, but the education buying season is over by September. That release date wouldn't make much sense. School districts buy right now, not at the beginning of the school year.

[dan @ May 27th 2006 12:01PM]

does anybody else think this will fill the gap being named simply "Mac" as being the lowest so the Mac Pro will actually be the Pro of something else

[Intrepid @ May 27th 2006 12:02PM]

Hang on... won't Apple try and arrest you guys for this post? :P
I think people looking at these eMacs should look at real computers... ones with names that don't start with a vowel.

[Ryan @ May 27th 2006 12:03PM]

Ugly but neat, My dad has had one since they were released to the public, he loves it and has never had a haerware problem with it. Our school just replaced all the teacher computers from blue imacs to emac and they look much slicker, and work much better I am also sure. If you want a mac and you don't care about space portability (larger than original iMac), but want moderate speed and graphics (runs Halo fine =D ) emac is a good choice.

[bob @ May 27th 2006 12:09PM]

". Hang on... won't Apple try and arrest you guys for this post? :P
I think people looking at these eMacs should look at real computers... ones with names that don't start with a vowel."

yeah, cause apple are the police and can arrest people and computer names obviously make then better, how bout something like vaio, makes sense aye, what an idiot post intrepid

[Justin @ May 27th 2006 12:11PM]

intrepid,

you'll need those vowels when you're cursing out your Dell. dude, you're getting a migraine!

[anon @ May 27th 2006 12:23PM]

To those that are saying an eMac would be a Mac Mini with a screen...

Not true. a Mac Mini is a laptop without a screen. It uses micro-motherboard and a notebook size HDD. These things are more costly than their larger brothers.

[Fortyseven @ May 27th 2006 12:38PM]

You'd think having Unix under that fancy OS of theirs they'd know not use the name "emacs"... ;)

[Adam @ May 27th 2006 12:50PM]

Let's hope Apple is going back to school (literally) to see how schools/teachers/students really use computers.

Space.
The old eMac was eating up space and creating a nest of cables, power, network, keyboard, mouse, camera, scanner, printer. Making for a dusty, dirty mess.

Durable.
They need durable, easy cleaning keyboards in sensible colours (not gleaming white) with indestructible mouses. The display should not be a dust trap and should be easily cleaned by anyone -- clean an eMac a few times and it gets drips inside, it gets gritty and scratched and looks like junk.

Easy Login.
Built-in biometric login would make sense, especially when there's 200-400 kids that want to log into any of the computers in the room and some of them are a bit young to remember to type their login ID -- sliding a thumb seems to make a lot more sense for a five year old to get going instead of struggling with a login and remembering a passwd.

Grades.
The eMac needs a layer of security and customisation designed for age groups of students. The presentation to a five year old needs to be easier than for a third grader. There should be a clean-up process to remove the clutter and junk without losing work and files.

And on and on.
Putting OS X in front of a kid is not as easy as Apple would have you believe when you see kids playing games in the Apple Store. Students work to a curriculum and work in multiple languages. They're not usually sitting down to a computer to choose something at random and play. A teacher wants each student to work on a curriculum and steady complete tasks with the necessary resources without distractions.
I don't think a classroom setting should require that the school require a lot more software once they get Macs. The eMac should understand that students have a daily schedule and a curriculum for the year. It should support the teacher, presenting student activity in a "monitor" to the teacher. etc. etc.
I'd also like Apple to ensure that an eMac arrives in an ergonomically suitable set up for kids. I'd even go so far as to encourage a cut and break from the existing QWERTY layout to something much more friendly to their hands. Why not give them a new layout and why would they ever need to struggle with something invented last century to slow typists down to the speed of a mechanical typewriter?

[Russ @ May 27th 2006 12:55PM]

#15 - don't freak out the fan base with that edumacation of yours!!!

I went to an Apple store once and pulled up a terminal, and started doing some simple universal comments like 'ls -al' or 'ps -aux' and the sales guy did everything but label me the unibomber.

I'm pretty sure Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS) is their creed. Which isn't necessarily an insult, but it makes me wonder if there is an Apple cult somewhere that actually explores the BSD portion of the OS.

[Mike @ May 27th 2006 1:17PM]

I'll bet you that the new "eMac" will just be an "iMac for Education" which is only sold to educational institutions.

If history is any indicator, it will most likely be a 17" iMac without an 80gig drive, Intel graphics chip, core solo or duo processor (possibly CTO), 512mb ram, and an optional optical drive. They will almost certainly exclude the iSight as a cost-cutting measure.

It also wouldn't shock me if bluetooth and wireless were CTO options as well.

Pricing will probably be in the $800-900 range.

[bob @ May 27th 2006 1:34PM]

Russ, not everyone in an apple store is a mac specialist - some are just till monkeys (an affectionate term) try http://www.apple.com/opensource/ or macdevcenter.com, theres plenty if you look hard enough, quite an interesting side to osx my linux cousins ;)

[John @ May 27th 2006 2:20PM]

Heh, and how they can enjoy summer when they will learn news about eMac? :)

[DC @ May 27th 2006 2:41PM]

We've had an eMac for a while, and its been really reliable, I think due to its design to be marketed towards schools, it has some of the fewest problems of all Apple computers. You think Engadget could come up with something a little more original then just cutting the back half off of the eMac. haha Industrial desginers usually view this as a chance to innovate not to rehash a new screen the same existing facade. Alas..

DC

[Smoke Tetsu @ May 27th 2006 3:03PM]

The last eMac had a better video card than the Mac Mini and also faster desktop hard drives. I can't help but think if they put integrated graphics in the new eMac replacement that it is a downgrade! Argghhh! I can already hear people making up excuses as I type this.

[Michael @ May 27th 2006 3:34PM]

#11 - When you say "real computers" - I hope you're not talking about all of that dell/hp trash...

Its just sad to see that even the cheapest apple computers (ie mac mini) have bluetooth, wireless, firewire - everything STANDARD, while you take some of the most expesive computers dell/hp offers, which cost 10,000+ dollars, and hell, wireless comes OPTIONAL only on the laptops, an bluetooth and firewire... well, maybe sometime within the next 20 years they'll find out that such things exist...

...I dont blame them or anything, seeing as how piss-poor Windows is, not like there's even a point in adding anything good...

PS: Speaking of Windows.. Vista, am I the only one who noticed that each and every single feature that Vista will offer, existed on macs for the last many many years...

instant search - check
eye candy - check
security - check
better performance - check
less problems - check

PPS: Quick poll - Do you think Microsoft will release Vista to the public any time by the end of 08? - seems like it keeps getting time and time again...

[the_awakening @ Nov 19th 2008 5:32PM]

seriously. its ignorant people like you that piss me off. do some research. if you build a dell with the same specs as some of these macs, they are a fraction of the price. and your vista spiel is completely unjustified. "eye candy, security, less problems" sounds like ignorance to me. would you like Microsoft to make their OS ugly?? security was good on xp too...its called antivirus...and macs dont get viruses because their macs, its cause they use a unix system. guess what, a PC with a Unix system doesnt get viruses. lastly, you said it shows how "piss poor windows is". Windows is the operating system champ, not the thing that is responsible for the "10,000+" computers.

[Steve Larson @ May 27th 2006 4:28PM]

Oh, MS will deliver VISTA alright. It will be an improved interface with a lot of common items placed in hide-and-seek locations, it will be a bitch to configure and people will still spend 2 or more weekends a year re-loading and troubleshooting their machines w/o whining because "that's the price of using a quality OS". Whatever.
If anybody has seen DaVinci Code, these are the Silas' of the computing world.

[Michael @ May 27th 2006 4:45PM]

It would also be smart to let consumers buy this also. Take a 15"/14" LCD + iSight + mac mini solo and then make it Bondi Blue for that old school feel.

[Leo @ May 27th 2006 4:52PM]

I'd say the number one priority for these emacs would to not ship with the username root, with password administrator, hidden to all users.

I was just playing with the emacs at school...trying different logins in the shell...

root:administrator...

ROOT ACCESS

and the account doesn't show up in any of the other accounts in the user manager.

It may of been fixed since, the school runs 10.2.

Leo ^_^

[Steve Larson @ May 27th 2006 5:44PM]

One more thing. These computers will be robust, reliable and schools can run Mac OS or MS Virus on them!

[niv @ May 27th 2006 7:42PM]

That design reminds me of the monorail. What's it called? Monorail!

[Alex @ May 27th 2006 8:42PM]

I agree that it might well be in an enclosure of a current iMac, but with Mac Mini specs (use 3.5" 7200RPM HD and maybe take away BT). Pricing for the Mac Mini has to change a little, so it may become something like this:
Mac Mini: 599 and 749; eMac: 849 and 999.

That way, Apple can tell people they're basically paying $250 more to get a screen plus a faster hard drive with their Mac Mini.

[Michael @ May 27th 2006 8:43PM]

#29 - LOL! - MS Virus - I'm saving that one :D

[Jeffler @ May 27th 2006 10:58PM]

"Hang on... won't Apple try and arrest you guys for this post? :P
I think people looking at these eMacs should look at real computers... ones with names that don't start with a vowel."

Mmmkay.

Macbook, Macbook Pro, Mac Mini, Power Mac.

Owned.

Now, look at alienware, a company known to be a "real" computer company by you fools.

All 3 desktop brands start with an A (a vowel, in case you didn't know) - Aurora, Area 51, and ALX.

2/4 laptop brands start with an A. (Aurora-M, and Area 51-M).

The Media Centre box I can't speak for.

5/8 Alienware boxes with a vowel leading it off.
2/6 Apple.

I'll be here all week, folks.

[swh @ May 27th 2006 11:25PM]

CRTs offer another advantage in public spaces besides just being cheap. since they're bigger and heavier, they may deter someone from trying to walk off with it.

of course you can do plenty to secure a smaller system or even a laptop...

but a bulkier computer might keep someone from even considering it.

[Intrepid @ May 27th 2006 11:45PM]

The one advantage Apple has always had is good marketing - not significantly better products (take the iPod for example). When the competitors catch up in marketing, then Apple will have to start thinking outside the square again... instead of using the same ideas over and over...

[Eric @ May 27th 2006 11:54PM]

12. I think people looking at these eMacs should look at real computers... ones with names that don't start with a vowel.

*cough* INSPIRON *cough* OPTIPLEX *cough*

[Motoi @ May 28th 2006 5:09AM]

eMacs are primarily education based. Don't think that Apple is aiming for gamers or business professionals. This computer is consumer based for education purposes, or most likely new computer buyers looking for a great computer without hassle

[Intrepid @ May 28th 2006 5:24AM]

*cough* INSPIRON *cough* OPTIPLEX *cough*

I said real computers...

[ch424 @ May 28th 2006 6:33AM]

eMacs are terrible. They're noisy (I can hear the one in the next room over my computer), unreliable (compared to iMacs and Dells) and as pointed out above, have terrible screens that are impossible to clean. Also, turning the volume up causes the screen to flicker.

I hope Apple completely redesigns them for this release.

[Justin @ May 28th 2006 11:10AM]

intrepid,

last i checked, both of those computers start with vowels. you're losing your edge, dellmaster.

[Jeff @ May 28th 2006 4:00PM]

28 (Leo):

The root account is disabled by default, ostensibly for security reasons probably to keep the noobs from f*cking up their computers. Root can be easily enabled, but you need the administrative password to enable it. You can perform all administrative functions without an active root account.

[Chris @ May 28th 2006 5:04PM]

Adam, I hate to say this but it has to be said. There is a company here in the UK which does all of the things which you specified in your post. Unfortunately that company uses Windows because the majority of people in the world use Windows and thus would make it more suitable for education. This company is called RM and can be found, I'm sure, by googling them.

Just thiught that I'd offer the real Windows alternative.

PS NOT a Windows fanboy... Neutral being!

[S.A. @ May 28th 2006 8:22PM]

emac = economical mac (i.e. mac for cheapasses)

imac = the expensive and sexy mac

[jeffsters @ May 28th 2006 11:49PM]

Agreed! The school buying season is almost over. Schools order in May/June for July/Aug delivery. Often using July 1 dollars. Computers need to be installed and loaded BEFORE schools starts NOT after. I'd fire the IT guy that tried to do a system refresh in the middle of the start of a new school year. This is why it was important to ship the MacBook when they did.

[ira @ May 30th 2006 5:56AM]

Its not hard to figure out the specs.

apple will use iMac case and motherboard (to save design costs)
in Imac CPU is socketed, so apple will just put 1.5 core solo or 1.66 core duo in it.
17" LCD
80-160 GB HDD
integrated graphics
combo drive
no wireless and blue tooth.

[Mickael @ Dec 24th 2008 11:07PM]

what kind of camers work on a eMac do digitrex work on them

[buster's mom @ Dec 29th 2006 5:51AM]

We had an HP for years and always hated it, always had some kind of virus or glitch. We've had our eMac for a year now and just love it! I do have a question though, What kind of 3 in 1's are compatible with the eMac? We had a Samsung but it shot craps and could never get the scanner to send to the computer. Need something before spring semester and would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks!