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The iMac II
Probably one of the coolest marriages of old and new Apple hardware I've ever seen, not to mention the Apple II seems to make the perfect monitor stand. [Photo credit: Francesco Zaia]
TUAW Talkcast 2014-06-22: Summer solstice edition!
The days have gotten just about as long as they can get here in Ye Olde Northern Hemisphere, as we marked the official beginning of astronomical summer yesterday on June 21. We're enjoying the lingering twilight, the thrill of a 2-2 heartbreaking World Cup tie between the USA and Portugal, and the debut of Apple's newest and cheapest all-in-one iMac. Should you buy into the $1099 slow-but-slender iMac, or keep your powder dry for something with a bit more horsepower? We'll ponder it all tonight -- live on the Talkcast. Reminder on new-style talkcasting: With some help from the fine folks at Fuze, we're using the Fuze Meeting system to record the show. This should let everyone listen in live -- and, if you want, raise your hand as you would in the Talkshoe room to get unmuted and chime in. You can join the call in progress (meeting # is 20099010) at 10 pm ET from any computer via this link; if you download the Mac or Windows Fuze clients ahead of time, you'll get better audio and a slicker experience, but browser-only will work fine. Just click the phone icon to join the audio once you're in. Using an iPhone or iPad? Grab the native clients from the App Store and get busy. (Even Android users can join the party.) Still feel like using the conventional phone dial-in? Just call 201-479-4595 and enter the meeting number 20099010, then press #. While the Fuze web and native clients have a chat channel, we'd like to reserve that for host participants, requests to talk and other real-time alerts... so the full-on chat for the show is already in this post, and we'll be popping in right at 10 pm tonight. You'll need Twitter, Facebook or Chatroll credentials to participate in the chat. We'll remind everyone to check back in at that time.
The TUAW Daily Update Podcast for June 18, 2014
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get some the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the player at the top of the page. The Daily Update has been moved to a new podcast host in the past few days. Current listeners should delete the old podcast subscription and subscribe to the new feed in the iTunes Store here.
Apple unveils a lower-cost iMac starting at $1,099
If you've felt that the iMac's baseline $1,299 price was too high, you're in luck... to a degree. Apple has unveiled a new 21-inch iMac that lowers the cost of entry to a more palatable $1,099 (£899 in the UK). As you'd expect, though, there are a few catches involved in saving that much cash. To start with, you're getting the same low-voltage, 1.4GHz Core i5 processor that you find in the MacBook Air -- this isn't a powerhouse by any stretch. You'll also have to make do with a 500GB hard disk, although you can spring for 1TB disks (including a Fusion Drive) or a 256GB solid-state drive. The move isn't going to please those who were hoping for a full refresh of the iMac line, but that may not happen until Intel launches desktop-class Broadwell processors. This system will mostly be appealing to schools and anyone else who wants a complete Apple desktop for the lowest price possible.
Inconsiderate iMac disposal
Apparently these poor, defenseless iMacs were just chucked into a snowy ditch when they had outlived their usefulness. That's a horrible end to an otherwise colorful life. Shame on whoever did this, and may you forever be cursed with dropped calls and Safari crashes. [Photo: Jason Matthews]
The iLamp G4
This is seriously one of the most creative uses of old Mac components that I've ever seen. I'm not sure a high-temp bulb next to that white plastic is a great idea, but I suppose if it melts that's just part of its charm. [Photo credit: Photo Giddy]
Flickr Find: Even Stormtroopers prefer a Mac
You would think that, with his villainous personality, Darth Vader would force his stormtroopers to use Windows machines to keep them in a constant state of frustration. Instead, the Dark Lord allows at least one Empire soldier access to a lovely array of Macs. I bet all his trooper buddies secretly are jealous. The above photo was taken by Danny Choo and was originally posted as part of a series on Japanese Mac Rooms. Did you know that TUAW has a Flickr pool? And that we encourage readers to submit their own Apple related images. Please share as we'd love to see your photos.
Save a few bucks by turning your Mac off or letting it sleep
When it comes to saving energy, I think I do pretty well. My wife and I both drive high-MPG vehicles, we keep our thermostat at a relatively chilly 62°F during the daytime hours in winter, and we don't have air conditioning in our home. We shut off lights when they're not needed, and all of our appliances are Energy Star certified. But one thing I usually don't do is shut my late 2012 27-inch iMac off at night or let it go into sleep mode. While doing a self-audit of energy usage in preparation for a possible installation of photovoltaic solar panels at our house, I thought it would be useful to determine whether or not turning my big-screen iMac off when I'm not using it would save a lot of energy and money. The short answer? It doesn't save enough to make it worthwhile, although if you're out to save the world, turning your Mac off or letting it drift off into sleep mode can ease your conscience. To give you an idea of my current weekday usage, I work about 8 hours per day with the iMac display blasting away, and the other 16 hours of the day the iMac is usually in "idle mode" with the display off. That's not sleep mode -- basically I just have my display set to shut off after 15 minutes of non-use, and the device never sleeps. Why? Well, I have processes that go off at odd times of the night, and I sometimes like to use Parallels Access to control my iMac from my iPad. On weekends, I try to stay away from the iMac as much as possible, so I'd say I average about 2 hours of use per day with 22 hours per day in idle mode with the display turned off. Determining the energy usage of your Apple device is actually quite simple. Go to Apple's Environmental Responsibility Report page, and you can see the energy diet of every Apple hardware product made back to 2008. Going to the 2012 list, I found that the 27-inch iMac uses 79.8 W of power when it's actively in use, 20.6 W when it's in that "idle mode with display off", 1.03 watts when in sleep mode and .22 W when turned off. Some quick calculations (hours of usage x power usage in Watts / 1000 = energy usage in kWh) showed my total annual energy usage for the iMac to be about 315.4 kWh (kilowatt-hours). Looking at my electrical usage and cost for the past year courtesy of my local electric and gas utility, I was able to determine that I'm being charged about $0.11 per kWh. That iMac that I use for the majority of my work costs me about $34.69 a year to operate. My next calculation was to determine how much energy I'd use if I set the Energy Saver system preference to shut the device down for 9 hours every day when I know I'm not going to use the iMac. In that mode, the iMac would use about 248.7 kWh of energy, or about $27.36 per year. That means that shutting that machine off at night would save about $7.33 per year -- and I waste more than that sometimes in a single app purchase! My last calculation determined how much I'd save if I just set the iMac to sleep when I'm not using it, so basically it's running for about 8 hours and sleeping for 16 hours on weekdays, or running for 2 hours and sleeping for 22 on weekends. In that situation, the iMac uses about 185.1 kWh every year and my annual savings would be about $14.33. Still, that's not all that great. My reticence towards using sleep mode on this computer was based on past experiences where "waking up" just took too damned long, but this iMac jumps back from sleep mode very quickly. While that monetary savings of $14.33 might not be huge, every little kilowatt-hour I can save is indeed money in my pocket. Just think -- I might be able to buy two Starbucks beverages or almost pay for a Lightning to USB cable from the local Apple Store. How about you, readers? Do you shut 'em down every night, let them sleep, or just have the display go dark when you're not using your favorite Mac? Let us know in the comments.
This is why he gets more work done at the coffee shop than you do
Venti? Grande? 27" iMac? We're surprised he didn't route an old ADB keyboard into it because that would have been badass. (And...previously on "bringing your office with you") Via @shanezilla.
You came to the wrong neighborhood, Windows user
There's something a bit menacing about the ways these vintage Macs have gathered, like they're just waiting for an unsuspecting Windows XP user to walk by and get roughed up. [Photo credit: Peter Baldes]
Steve Jobs on mouse design and how the Apple Pro Mouse was conceived by happenstance
Though Apple popularized the mouse when it introduced the Mac in 1984, the company hasn't always been a bastion of popular, or even elegant, mouse design. For instance, Apple's hockey puck mouse, originally introduced with the Bondi Blue iMac, is a perfect example of utilitarian design gone astray. Indeed, the mouse is largely considered one of the worst Apple product flops of all-time. In the wake of the forgettable hockey puck mouse, Apple had to go back to the drawing board and come up with a successor. On this note, Cult of Mac was able to chat with Abraham Farag, a former senior mechanical engineer of product design at Apple. Farag details how he and his team ended up coming up with the successor to the hockey puck mouse simply by happenstance. "It all started with a model we did not have time to finish," he says. "We had made six of these great form models to show Steve," he recalls. "They were fully done, with all the parting lines cut in for buttons and different plastic parts, and all the colors just right." At the last minute, the design team had decided to create a model that would echo the look of the Topolino mouse which shipped prior to the hockey puck. The only problem was, the model wasn't finished. They hadn't had time to draw buttons on to the model to indicate where they would go. "It looked like a grey blob," Farag says. "We were going to put that model into a box so people wouldn't see it." However, when Jobs turned up things went awry. "Steve looked at the lineup of potential forms and made straight for the unfinished one," Farag says. "That's genius," he said. "We don't want to have any buttons." "That's right, Steve," someone else piped up. "No buttons at all. Of course, this entailed more work for Farag and his team as they now actually had to design the mouse that so excited Jobs. They eventually figured things out and arrived at a design that would become known as the Apple Pro Mouse. Originally released in 2000, the Apple Pro Mouse was also notable for being the first Apple mouse to discard the age-old trackball in favor of an optical tracking system. Providing a bit more insight into Jobs' psyche as it applied to design, Farag relays that Jobs was vehemently opposed in principle to the idea of a multi-button mouse. You see, Jobs believed that if a UI was intuitive enough and designed with great care and precision, "you should be able to do everything you needed to do with one button." And speaking of Jobs' disdain for superfluous buttons, I'm reminded of this story detailing Jobs' hate for Apple's Extended Keyboard back when he was at NeXT.
Caturday: Mater surveys his domain
For cats, Macs are devices to keep warm next to. Bryn Behrenshausen's lovely cat Mater has his choice of Apple products to cuddle up to, including a new Apple AirPort Express, an iPad, and an iMac. Bryn says, "My cat Mater stands watch over my Apple gear in our home office. He likes to sit by the window to watch over the birds and often walks behind the iMac to get a blast of warm air." It must be nice to be a cat... We'd love to see photos of your favorite feline soaking up the warmth of an Apple product, chasing a Magic Mouse, or just being a general nuisance while you're attempting to work on your Mac, iPad, or iPhone. Please let us know via our feedback page and please remember that your cat photo has to have some sort of connection to Apple or its products. For security reasons we can't accept inbound attachments, so you should host the photo (Dropbox, Flickr, iPhoto Journals, etc.) and send us the link. Many thanks to Bryn Behrenhausen! Image via Img.ly.
After ten years HP has an answer to the iMac
In 2006* 2004, Apple released the iMac G5. Its cutting edge, all-in-one design instantly resonated with users looking for a desktop that delivered equal parts power and space saving design. As the years have passed the iMac has continued to improve, becoming more powerful while slimming down even more from its impressive original space saving design. Thankfully for Windows users, HP has been in lab working on a fresh new original idea for their Windows 8 touch screens. It's a game changer. Something the world has never seen before. Good job, HP. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. *Correction: The iMac G5 was released in 2004. HP has actually been catching up for 10 years.
These 3D displays are looking better every day
The depth. The realism. The cuddles. I've never seen anything like it. [Photo Credit: Karin Dalziel]
Study proves that you can secretly hijack an older Mac's webcam
If you believe common wisdom, it shouldn't be possible to take over most webcams without alerting users. The indicator LED is supposed to be hack-proof, after all. However, a pair of Johns Hopkins researchers have recently published a research paper showing that it's possible to control the camera while keeping the indicator dark. Their proof-of-concept app, iSeeYou, reprograms a controller chip on pre-2009 Macs to separate the camera and LED functions; users can flick the light on and off like a switch. Apple is aware of the issue with its own systems, but it hasn't said whether or not there will be a fix. It's also unclear how many newer Macs or other PCs are at risk. Regardless of the exact threat, the study isn't very reassuring in an era of widespread surveillance -- if a pair of academics can stealthily record your activity, it's likely that professional spies can do the same.
Apple's desktops overtake Dell as most sought-after PC for the holidays
Marketing research firm Parks Associates has released its annual survey of top consumer electronics that are planned for holiday purchases and, for the first time ever, Apple's desktops have overtaken Dell to be the most sought-after PCs for the holiday shopping season: "Apple topped the list of intended brands for desktop purchases for the first time this year," said John Barrett, director, Consumer Analytics, Parks Associates. "In 2011 and 2012, Dell was the top desktop brand, but Apple has displaced it, making Apple now the most popular brand across even more key CE categories." The 2013 Holiday CE Purchase Intentions gathered its data from a nationwide survey of 2,500 US broadband households in the fourth quarter of 2013. Though the survey doesn't differentiate between types of desktop computers, it's reasonable to assume that it's the new iMac -- and not the new Mac Pro -- that is appealing to consumers this holiday and the reason Apple has overtaken Dell for the first time. Apple also beat out others in two more important categories. The iPad topped the Kindle for the most sought-after tablet, and the Apple TV beat the Roku for the top media-streaming device.
Apple's online store now offering refurbished Late 2013 27" iMac models
Apple has begun offering the newest iMac models as refurbished units on its online store. Three models of the 27-inch iMac are available, including: 3.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 with 8 GB RAM, 1 TB hard drive and NVIDIA GeForce GT 755M graphics for US$1,529.00, a $270 savings versus new/list price for the same model. 3.5GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 with 8 GB RAM, 1 TB hard drive, and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 775M graphics for $1,869.00, a $330 savings. 3.5GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 with 8 GB RAM, 3 TB Fusion drive, and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M graphics for $2,289.00, a $410 savings. Refurbished items Apple sells come with the company's one-year limited warranty and are often a great way for customers to get the latest models at reduced cost.
Caturday: Let sleeping cats lie ... in front of the iMac
Yuki is a beautiful 2-year-old white cat whose name, appropriately enough, means "snow" in Japanese. Her human companion Glenn Smith often needs to get work done on this iMac, but Yuki has other ideas: I always look forward to the Caturday pictures on the weekend and thought it is time that I share my precious feline with your readers. This is a photo of my 2 year old cat Yuki (which means snow in Japanese). Generally when I try working on our iMac she will sit in front of the screen, walk around the computer, chase the mouse pointer on screen, rub her whiskas on the side of the iMac and sit on the keyboard. There are times when I have to make font sizes larger so I can see around her when she doesn't want to move out of the way. She just cannot bear to be alone! All very familiar behaviours to other Caturday contributors I am sure! The only way I can pacify her so I can actually get some work done is to place a towel in front of the computer and she will curl up and sleep - very daggy but works a treat everytime! Yuki's a bit large to be an ergonomic wrist rest, but she would make a convenient hand warmer... We'd love to see photos of your favorite feline soaking up the warmth of an Apple product, chasing a Magic Mouse, or just being a general nuisance while you're attempting to work on your Mac, iPad, or iPhone. Please let us know via our feedback page and please remember that your cat photo has to have some sort of connection to Apple or its products. For security reasons we can't accept inbound attachments, so you should host the photo (Dropbox, Flickr, iPhoto Journals, etc.) and send us the link. Many thanks to Glenn Smith for sharing this photo with us.
Caturday: Pippin's iMac house
Some cats just hang out on the furniture provided by their owners, others have nice and cozy pet beds. Pippin, however, has one of the best cat domiciles we've seen so far -- a strawberry slot-loading iMac G3 that's been outfitted with some nice cushions. Pippin's owner, Ian Cobb, named his feline companion after Apple's ill-fated gaming console. There's a box for a non-feline Pippin in this photo as well; see that box marked "Atmark"? Ian also has a nice Mac Portable, what appears to be a PowerBook 170, a Newton MessagePad 2000 (or 2100), and an eMate. So this week, you're not only getting treated to a really cute feline, but also one of the best Apple collections I've seen in a long time. We'd love to see photos of your favorite feline soaking up the warmth of an Apple product, chasing a Magic Mouse, or just being a general nuisance while you're attempting to work on your Mac, iPad, or iPhone. Please let us know via our feedback page and please remember that your cat photo has to have some sort of connection to Apple or its products. For security reasons we can't accept inbound attachments, so you should host the photo (Dropbox, Flickr, iPhoto Journals, etc.) and send us the link. Many thanks to Ian Cobb for sharing this photo with us.
Engadget Giveaway: win an iMac and software package courtesy of Parallels!
The holidays are starting early this year for one lucky Engadget reader. Parallels, the well-known cross-platform enabler, has recently served up its new Parallels Desktop 9 for Mac and it's in the mood to celebrate. The winner will get a new 21.5-inch iMac (2.7GHz quad-core i5, 8GB RAM, 1TB hard drive) along with the Parallels software, which now offers OS X Mavericks and Windows 8.1 support on top of improved disk performance and other enhanced features. You'll get a copy of Windows 8.1, too, which will let you dip your toes into either OS without needing to reboot. The slate side of things hasn't been overlooked either. A one-year subscription to the Parallels Access iPad app is also part of the prize package. The app will let you remotely access your Windows and Mac applications from your tablet while you're on the go, so you might not want to mention this to your boss. Parallels is always nice enough to offer free software trials to the curious, but if you want to take a shot at this sweet setup, you'll have to head down below to the Rafflecopter widget for a chance to win! Winner - Congratulations to our winner: Michael W., Brooklyn, NY
