Engadget

Apple initiates replacement program for 'small number' of iMacs with 1TB Seagate HDDs

Joe Pollicino — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 12:48:00 EST

Did you pick up a new iMac between May and July 2011 sporting a 1TB Seagate HDD? You should probably know that the platter might be of the prone to failing variety. No worries though, Apple's announced it'll replace potentially faulty drives at no cost to keep ya smiling, and your fixed disk a-spinnin'. Owners of registered rigs at risk are being notified via email, but if you skipped that form you can check the serial number on Camp Cupertino's website (linked below). After confirming that the machine's eligible, you'll be able to drop it off at an Apple Store or authorized service center for the swap. It's also suggested that you back up the drive prior to bringing it down; at the very least, it's an excuse to make use of that Thunderbolt port, right?

Apple initiates replacement program for 'small number' of iMacs with 1TB Seagate HDDs originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 24 Jul 2011 12:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The joy and pain of upgrading a 27-inch iMac with an SSD (video)

Richard Lai — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 18:36:00 EST

As the old Chinese proverb says: "Time flies like an arrow." Just like that, today -- coincidentally the 27th -- marks the one year anniversary of my Core i7 27-inch iMac. No words can express the satisfaction of having such sheer screen estate and computing power all encased in one gorgeous body, but said joy started to fade recently -- ask my colleagues and they'll testify to my regular rants about the darn machine freezing up over the last few weeks. I've had it with the bloody hard drive, and being a geek who's pimped up his last two laptops with SSDs, I thought rather than just reformatting it, why not spoil my iMac with the same goodie that it clearly deserves? Read on to find out how the upgrade went.

Gallery: The joy and pain of upgrading a 27-inch iMac with a SSD

Continue reading The joy and pain of upgrading a 27-inch iMac with an SSD (video)

The joy and pain of upgrading a 27-inch iMac with an SSD (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Nov 2010 18:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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OWC will cut a hole in your new 27-inch iMac, put an eSATA port behind it

Tim Stevens — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 09:36:00 EST

Say what you like about Apple, as a company it's not exactly on the forefront when it comes to offering standard connectors for peripherals. Case in point: the latest iMac revisions lack eSATA, something of a bother for companies that make external storage devices. Companies like OWC. So, that particular organization is introducing a service to add that to 27-inch iMacs, cutting a small hole into the bottom-right of the display and sticking an eSATA port behind it. It's a nice idea, the results look flush enough, and 48-hour turn-around time is great -- but $169 is hardly small change. You can, however, take that time to get a 480GB Mercury Extreme Pro SSD stuffed in there as well for a mere $1,649 more.

OWC will cut a hole in your new 27-inch iMac, put an eSATA port behind it originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Aug 2010 09:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iMac's latest 27-inch iteration requires special parts for your own SSD in second drive bay

Richard Lai — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:39:00 EST

One of the few highlights of the refreshed 27-inch iMac is the new SSD option for its second drive bay. This sure is good news for performance addicts carrying some spare cash, but with the 256GB SSD addition costing from $750, some may prefer the DIY route to save a few pennies for that gold iPad. Sadly, it won't be as straight forward as sliding in a new drive -- e-tailer OWC noticed in its teardown that you'll be needing a mounting bracket and a couple of cables that are only supplied with Apple's own SSD. That said, if you can find a way to secure the drive in the bay, all you'll need are a SATA male-to-two-female splitter plus a left-angled SATA connector cable, and then a way to partially remove the logic board to access the free port. Yup, it's as easy as really complicated pie.

iMac's latest 27-inch iteration requires special parts for your own SSD in second drive bay originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Belkin's AV360 Mini DisplayPort Converter lets you play Xbox 360 on iMac, costs as much as an Arcade

Tim Stevens — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 10:51:00 EST

If you're inhabiting one of those quaint, downtown studio apartments in which your sink, oven, computer, and toilet are all within reach of your swiveling desk chair, and if that computer happens to be a 27-inch iMac, we have good news for you. Belkin has introduced its AV360 Mini DisplayPort Converter, which takes an HDMI input at up to 1080p and squeezes it into a Mini DisplayPort connector at 720p for display on your iMac. It'll also push stereo audio through and is HDCP-compliant, so even protected content from your Blu-ray player will get by. The cost? $150, which is cheaper than getting a second display, but an awful lot for a converter box with a single input ~~-- especially when MonoPrice has similar offerings (which admittedly lack audio and HDCP)~~ ~~for under $10~~. But, if you don't have room for anything else, this will fit in nicely with you and your minimalist/affluent lifestyle.

Update: We got it wrong on the MonoPrice reference here. That adapter goes the other way!

Continue reading Belkin's AV360 Mini DisplayPort Converter lets you play Xbox 360 on iMac, costs as much as an Arcade

Belkin's AV360 Mini DisplayPort Converter lets you play Xbox 360 on iMac, costs as much as an Arcade originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Jun 2010 10:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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27-inch iMac gets another display firmware update, everyone else gets minor iTunes update

Richard Lai — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:34:00 EST

Still plagued by the annoying screen flicker on your precious 27-inch iMac, even after the previous update? Try this second attempt by Apple. While you're at it, there's also a minor update for iTunes which makes sure it actually "remember[s] password for purchases," as well as fixing a few sync and performance issues. Good luck with both and let us know if your iMac nightmare is finally over.

27-inch iMac gets another display firmware update, everyone else gets minor iTunes update originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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27-inch iMac gets a firmware update to assuage your display issues

Ross Miller — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:39:00 EST

Here's something that'll fix a bit of your 27-inch iMac ails. Apple just released a graphics firmware update 1.0. Order of the day? To "address issues that may cause image corruption or display flickering." Download away, and let us know if you troubled souls have seen some relief.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

27-inch iMac gets a firmware update to assuage your display issues originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Blu-ray comes to the iMac... via an Apogee HDMI-to-Mini DisplayPort adapter

Nilay Patel — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:51:00 EST

Although it's technically possible to use the gorgeous IPS display in the 27-inch iMac as a standalone monitor, the feature's been pretty limited in practice, since it only works with other DisplayPort devices like the unibody MacBooks. That's about to change thanks to Apogee, which just posted up a video demo of an as-yet-unnamed HDMI-to-DisplayPort adapter being used to play Xbox 360, PS3, and -- yes, it's true -- Blu-ray movies on Apple's latest all-in-one. Never thought you'd see the day, did you? Apogee hasn't disclosed pricing or availability yet, but we're told more info is coming soon --we'd guess sometime around CES. Video after the break.

Continue reading Blu-ray comes to the iMac... via an Apogee HDMI-to-Mini DisplayPort adapter

Blu-ray comes to the iMac... via an Apogee HDMI-to-Mini DisplayPort adapter originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Core i7 iMacs showing up DOA -- including ours

Nilay Patel — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:38:00 EST

Apple's new Core i7-based iMac might be a performance monster, but it looks like the whole family's having some problems getting out of the gate: in addition to the previously-noted performance issues with the Core 2 Duo models, a quick glance across Apple's support forums and on other Mac boards around the web reveals that some machines are showing up DOA and / or with cracked screens. We're a little more familiar with the DOA issue, since the new i7 we just bought doesn't boot at all, but the cracked screen issue seems to be equally common and mostly affecting the bottom left corner, from what we can tell. Now, our review Core 2 Duo 27-inch iMac is perfectly fine, and Chris Ziegler's new Core i7 machine doesn't have any problems either, so these obviously aren't universal issues, but if you're about to stick one of these under the tree for someone it might be wise to do some surreptitious testing first.

Core i7 iMacs showing up DOA -- including ours originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple's Core i5 / i7 27-inch iMacs now shipping to expectant owners

Vlad Savov — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:53:00 EST

Lovers of Snow Leopard, oversized IPS display panels, and Intel's very latest processors, your time for rejoicing has come. Apple has begun sending off shipping confirmations to customers who ordered up their slab of quad-core all-in-one nirvana in October, and the biggest and baddest iMacs should be arriving at their new homes imminently. To remind you, the reason for waiting on these units was the 2.66GHz Core i5 750 inside, which comes along with 4GB of RAM, a Radeon HD 4850, and a cool terabyte of storage. We're sure some of the eager new owners couldn't resist upgrading that spec to a 2.8GHz Core i7 860, which we can kind of see the sense in -- after all, an iMac is for life, not just for Christmas. That's how that saying goes, right?

Filed under: Desktops

Apple's Core i5 / i7 27-inch iMacs now shipping to expectant owners originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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27-inch iMacs having performance issues?

Nilay Patel — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:17:00 EST

It's not at all clear what the root cause of the problem is, but we've noticed a big uptick in people complaining about performance issues on new 27-inch iMacs on Apple's support boards. The most common symptom seems to be incredibly slow Flash video playback, but people are also claiming that there's a bug forcing the hard drive to spin down, that there's a corrupted Snow Leopard build preinstalled, and even that the problem is bad permissions, which is basically how an OS X user gives up trying to figure things out. Apple hasn't said anything yet, but neither of the 27-inchers we have here are having problems, so we're keeping our fingers crossed while we wait for an official resolution. Video of the issue after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Read - First Apple Discussions thread
Read - Second Apple Discussions thread

Continue reading 27-inch iMacs having performance issues?

Filed under: Desktops

27-inch iMacs having performance issues? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New iMac doesn't play nice with Apple's Mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter

Donald Melanson — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:59:00 EST

Apple hasn't exactly been making any promises to the contrary, but it looks like anyone hoping to use the company's Mini Display Port to DVI adapter to hook a game console or other device up to a brand new 27-inch iMac is flat out of luck -- for now, at least. That's because the system's exciting (but pricey) ability to be used as a standalone monitor only applies to devices equipped with their own Mini Display Port at the moment, which does limit your options quite a bit. Of course, it's almost certainly only a matter of time before Apple or a third-party manufacturer comes out with an adapter that does work, but we haven't heard anything firm on that front as of yet.

Filed under: Desktops

New iMac doesn't play nice with Apple's Mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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27-inch iMac torn into tiny bits for the greater good

Tim Stevens — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:26:00 EST

You've seen the outside of what the new iMacs look like, but do you know what's inside them? If you guessed "lots of tiny components," you win! The folks at iFixit are always on the bleeding edge when it comes to taking big things and turning them into series of smaller things, and they don't disappoint us here. No real surprises, just a few notes, like the external display won't be able to be powered without the integral one being on as well, that the lack of a Blu-ray drive is described as a "bag of hurt," and that "the SuperDrive just doesn't seem so super anymore." Like we said, no surprises, but lots of fun pics.

Filed under: Desktops

27-inch iMac torn into tiny bits for the greater good originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A video walkthrough of Apple's newest additions (Unibody MacBook, iMac, Magic Mouse)

Joshua Topolsky — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:12:00 EST

Sure, you've seen the hands-on posts and the PR, but have you really gotten a look at Apple's new gear? Join us for a quick and spirited walkthrough of the goods. You won't be disappointed. Or you might be. It really depends on how picky you are.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Peripherals

A video walkthrough of Apple's newest additions (Unibody MacBook, iMac, Magic Mouse) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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