Updated iMac lineup rumored for near-term release
By Darren Murph 
posted September 24th 2009 3:01PM
posted September 24th 2009 3:01PM
posted September 24th 2009 3:01PM
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Or at least make it easy to access the component that will definitely fail, the hard-drive.
This is just what I was hoping for.
I want a new i7 processor within it. Lower price is always good. Better graphics card.
As far as "something that was previously not there" Hell...they can add a butler all I care. Just as long as the technical specifications are on point. I have no need for anything else.
Only Apple product I would buy is an iMac. Seems to be the only thing worth the price.
The current iMac with a 3GHz DUAL core is $2200. That's worth the price? I don't get how people think any desktop Apple makes is worth the price. A RAM upgrade from 2x2GB to 2x4GB is $1000. $1000 for an extra 4GB of 1066MHz DDR3 memory? HA.
The day I'm unable to buy 2 or 3 comparable PCs for the price of an iMac is the day I actually buy an iMac.
I bet there Core i7 models will be starting at $3000+
Anyone that pays the full price for a memory upgrade from Apple is on crack - you can get 4GB mem kits for ~$100 and install it yourself.
And which iMac is $2200? The 24"? Be specific if you want to bandy about pricing and compare to a PC.
Actually...a comparable all in one HP, with slightly lower processor specs is just below that. And I'm sure if you add the processor, the price would equal. So yes...it's around the same thing.
And this is with 1TB HDD, 4GB RAM, 2.8GHZ processor.
and the price is 2019.
The same setup (except having a 2.93 processor) is 2099 for an iMac.
Soooo....yeah. Not that big of a difference.
I agree price wise the imac is equal to the HP all in one but you forgot the bluray player and multitouch display, two big features if you ask me
The HP TouchSmart (Yeah, forgot to mention the touchscreen, right?) also includes a TV Tuner, along with the previously mentioned multitouch display and Blu-ray drive. They're also much more easily upgraded for an all in one.
My bet is touchscreen.
This is good for competition. Will help bring cost down and content up in the XPS One
Maybe they'll ship iMacs with a reasonable price this time around.
For the All-in-One computer market segment which they're in (and is stil very much a niche market), spec for spec they are reasonably priced.
The people who compare them to the old desktop/tower & monitor model and complain they're overpriced fail to realise the AIO computer is a niche product. You're gonna have to pay a premium for that convenience/design, its the same with tablet PCs, high-end audio/home-cinema etc.
Until more manufacturers start making them and introducing competition in that market, prices will remain high.
Yes we're seeing companies like MSI release AIO touch machines, but those are netbook/nettop spec machines, nothing comparable to C2D.
It would be cool to have a removable hard-drive bay or two, touch-screen enabled (of the multi-touch variety), Core i5 (or i7 or even an AMD Phenom), and a Blu-Ray drive (even though Engadget says it isn't on the table, I'm still wishing for it).
Dear Santa,
Please give all the poor peasants of the world a iMac. They don't know what they are missing, and they have been shat in the mouth by Microsuck too many times.
Signed,
Jonny
Blu-ray or the highway. And throw in an integrated cablecard/tru2way tuner while you're at it. Hey, a guy can dream, right?
matte screen = my wife gets an iMac for X-Mas
In other related Apple news, Eminem's publishing company is sueing Apple.
The contract dispute trial involving Eminem’s music publisher and Apple Inc. is under way in federal court in Detroit.
No sign of Slim Shady though and he is not expected to testify or make any appearance. He is not part of the lawsuit.
Eight Mile Style contends that Apple earned $2.58 million from iTunes downloads of various Eminem songs. This morning, Eight Mile attorney Richard Busch said during his opening statement Eminem’s contract with record company Aftermath Records did not give the company right to make his songs available for download on Apple’s popular iTunes service.
Eight Mile Style is claiming copyright infringement, alleging Apple did not have a license to reproduce and sell 93 songs at issue.
Aftermath Records, founded by rapper and producer Dr. Dre, is also a defendant in the case. The lawsuit claims Aftermath and Apple ignored Eight Mile’s refusal to sell the songs in downloaded digital format
U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor is presiding over the trial without a jury, which was agreed to by both sides.
Apple attorney Glenn Pomerantz countered that Eight Mile Style made money off the download purchases. He said the Eight Mile made 9 cents off each song that customers pay to download an Eminem song from iTunes, which opened in 2003.
“They want you to force Apple to give over Apple’s profits,” he told the judge.
The trial is expected to last up to seven days.
Eminem, who grew up in metro Detroit, is the best-selling artist of this decade, having sold just less than 32 million, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Ben Sidbury, a copyright attorney from the national Alston & Bird law firm, said the case is being closely watched by the music industry and copyright experts.
“If the Court finds that Apple does not have a license to distribute the songs, the Court could order Apple to cease from making the songs available through iTunes and to pay damages for the unlawful use of the songs,” Sidbury said, adding a verdict in favor of Eight Mile “would likely cause Apple and other online distributors of music to re-think their protocols for obtaining permission to make the music available online. A broader license could result in higher royalty rates, which in turn may increase the music download costs for consumers.”
Joel Martin, manager of Eight Mile Style, was the first witness called today.
He testified that his company only once allowed Aftermath to license a song to be made available for download. That song, “Lose Yourself” was only available earlier this decade under a limited license, for a period of time that has since expired.
“The Internet was the Wild West out there,” Martin said, adding iTunes was not even in existence at the time. “We did agree to negotiate with the record company for that song.”
who actually buys an imac? lol I can understand the macbook and macbook pro (which is why i have several) but the imac just seems so expensive for what you can get with the desktop, and not as unique and niche as say macbooks compared to pc laptops.
show me an imac for $800 with at least q6600 4gigram and 500gig hdd. I'll be interested then =D. That same build, for pc, including the psu, 2408wfp and optical drive, etc. costed me roughly $800 a month ago.
Who buys?
Those who want something different. The iMac 'all-in-one' computer has always been a deviant from the desktop/tower & monitor model of computing the industry adopted. As such, its a niche product, and you pay for such niches.
It's more niche than their laptops I think. Ask most people which model comes to mind when they think of a mac and its things like the iMac G3, G4, iBook and G4 Cube (my personal favourite).
i work for a small video house that does PSAs and such and we use imacs running final cut pro. works just fine for us.
i didnt know iMac has been around for half a year. Thanks!
iMac needs to have better graphics processor and the new i7 or i5 processors and a lower price. I have a Macbook but would like something beefier for Photoshop and some games. I struggle to purchase an iMac or MacPro because of price vs features. You can get so much more hardware for so much less in a PC. Though I like OSX. I notice Apple is really slow to jump on the newer tech in desktops. I can understand charging a premium for design and OSX but thousands more than an equivalent PC doesn't make sense (speaking of Mac Pro) and perhaps just a thousand or so more comparing iMac to say Dell's XPS lineup or the 8000/9000. $500 extra for an iMac and show me the latest specs that a comparable PC would have.
Wireless HDMI, USB 3.0
I'd prefer it to be THICKER so they can increase airflow, and cool the thing down better. mine runs about 120 degrees F at all times.
I know it's just a little thing, but the iMacs really need a memory card reader/writer.
"A few amenities 'not previously available'":
Multi-touch capacitive touchscreen (four simultaneous contacts)
256MB discrete graphics standard, 1GB available
4GB DDR3 RAM standard on 20", 6GB on 24"; upgradeable to 32GB RAM
640GB SATA standard on 20", 1TB on 24"; 2TB hard drive available, field upgradeable; 24" has a second drive bay
Core i7 "Clarksfield" processors
ExpressCard slot, optional dual tuner card or CableCard available
Multi-card reader which supports SDXC
eSATA
IR port and included remote control
Four USB 3.0 ports
One FireWire 3200 port (backward compatible with 400-1600)
How do those sound? :)
Oh, and $200 less...
You don't want much, do you?
He did say for us to "throw out wild suppositions"... :)
I want a 30" iMac!!! But I guess that won't happen :-(
How about a 56" quad-HD (3840x2160) laser-based iMac? With four ATSC tuners, two CableCard tuners, and 6x 2TB SATA drives in RAID5? (A 56" display would allow room for the six drive bays along one side, with hot-swappability.) Oh, and twin BD-RW drives.
Keep dreaming...
(But it would be a doable custom mod, if an expensive one...)
c'mon a 30" would be possible to make, so...
eSATA. eSATA eSATA eSATA. Maybe make it a bit deeper and finally killing the chin. Aluminum-style IR remote. Keyboard with integrated trackpad for all the multitouch capabilities they've been adding.
There was a time, for a while, when iMacs came in new interesting shapes and colours.
The Apple Look and Feel has stagnated again.
My thoughts exactly, the G3 was nice and colourful, and the G4 iMac was amazing.
My personal favourite though was the G4 Cube.
i'm buying a imac on november, i hope there are some good updates, and with a lower price i could buy a better one
Why a touch screen?
Its useless for a desktop pc.
They'll add SD card slots (Idk what sorts they have now)
They'll probably do like they did with macbooks and take away firewire.
USB 3.0 probably.
Theres no point having GPRS or anything in it.
BlueRay isn't gonna be in it.
A bigger hard drive option.
They wont add a HDMI lead.
They'll stick with Mini-DVI.
They wont ever add HDMI, because then they'd feel pressure in adding DVI and all other sorts of video output.
Mini-DVI is a cheap way of letting you do what you want.
More RAM modules hopefully, that'd be great.
New graphics card.
New processor.
Mini DisplayPort instead.
Many devices with DisplayPort handle higher bandwidth/higher resolution, up to 2560x1600, while many implementations of HDMI max at 1920x1200. (The protocol specs for both support up to 2560x1600.) And both support audio on the same cable, though some devices (like MacBooks) don't.
And you can get a Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter.
I wish the foot didn't swing back when you lift the machine. Its center of gravity is off.
I also want an SD card reader or an Expresscard slot.
Two things I'd like to see.
1) a program where you can ship your blitzing iMac G5 iSight (Oct 2005) to Apple and they will give you 700 USD towards the purchase of a new iMac.
2) a new iMac that sells for 700 USD.
I just wish they would fix the "burn in" issues. My 24" imac has bad burn in issues. They started about 1 yr after i purchased it. Seriously, it started the week after my warranty was over. I was like MF. It's like they new it was going to happen. Please fix burn in and put bluray in and im all in.
I'm only going to buy this thing if it comes with a built in coffee maker!
I know its never gonna happen, but I'd love the iMac to include a built in KVM switch. So I could just hook up another desktop/latotp and use the keyboard, mouse & monitor of the iMac.
It would be cool to see something like a Core i3 in the low end version. maybe with a GTX 260, optimized for mac applications. I'm interesting in getting a mac soon, if i get something like that for a G, i would be happy. but sine the comment thread is supposed to be about high end stuff, how about an HD webcam, for the vloggers, and some sort of device that could be used to set up a network. Like a built-in router. Apple would score big for that.
I'd have to go with 30 inch, 2T hard drive available, smokin' graphics, and lots of ram to make me buy.. I have a 24 inch imac now, circa 2005ish, and I'm just not feelin' the lust to upgrade. A little bit thinner and a little bit silver isn't making me want to spend money... Dazzle me and I'll buy. Bore me and I'll go looking at home theaters or kitchen gadgets.
I would love to see new iMac without that brick at the bottom. I don't need it to be slim. I want it to be lower to the table so that I don't have to feel pain in my neck. Do you know that eyes should be on the level with the monitor's top.
I know it's not the best source for accurate apple news, but I was researching Skype's phone plans yesterday and they have this image on their home page (mac home page I'm guessing). I actually went to the Apple Store website thinking that there had been an announcement for a new iMac model today. As it turns out they don't currently sell anything that looks like this.
Now, I realize this is probably just some icon designer having a little creative liberty, but if you look on the rest of Skype's website their mac icons are pretty accurate to actual computer models, for like color, proportion, button placement and so on.
So I know it's not really much but I figured there was someone else out there that might find it interesting.
Okay so the image didn't attach, but it is available here: http://emberapp.com/nevember/images/firefox/sizes/m.png
[url=http://emberapp.com/users/nevember/images/firefox][img]http://emberapp.com/nevember/images/firefox/sizes/m.png[/img][/url]
Wow does my 2 week old 20" iMac look less pretty today.
As long as they only make it thinner and don't add anything drastic I will consider myself lucky.
I'm braced for the worst, already called PC world and they won't do a 28 day return because I've turned it on.....Boooo'urns :-(
Touch Screen?