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10/20 new products

#31
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10/20/09 at 12:39pm
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Buy the new 27" iMac, get a 27" display for your portable (essentially) for free!
http://www.tuaw.com/2009/10/20/what-the-27-imac-means-for-a-designer/

Edit:  See below, this makes perfect sense to hook a BluRay player to, just get an HDMI to Display Port adapter!

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#32
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10/20/09 at 12:43pm
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Know your intel processors:
http://gizmodo.com/5381760/giz-explains-intels-entire-confusing-armada-of-chips

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#33
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10/20/09 at 12:45pm
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Maybe BluRay playback isn't as big a deal as I thought:

Quote:
The screen is finally LED-backlit, like the Cinema Displays. And like the 24-inch Cinema Display, it does IPS (In Plane Switching), which is great for edge-to-edge viewing without color distortion. The iMac has a new trick, too—its DisplayPort can turn it into a second screen, receiving video (but not audio) input from DVD players or a MacBook. Apple said it was HDCP compliant so it should be fine for watching Blu-rays on, via the port, via a separate player.

http://gizmodo.com/5385841/apple-imac-hands-on

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#34
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10/20/09 at 2:10pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Craig S View Post
Price for the top-end 27" w/ Core i7 and 2 TB drive is $2449. Upgrade from 1 to 2 TB is $250 - ouch, seems steep to me. 
Depends on what drive they are using.  WD Caviar Green 2TBs are < $200 at Newegg, while Caviar Blacks (faster, supposedly more reliable) are $300.  When I bought my MacPro (early 2009) I can't remember if they were offering a 750GB or 1TB as the top drive size, so I just kept the stock 640GB drive and upgraded it to 2TB myself -- but it cost me $300  a few weeks ago -- so the iMac price could be a bargain.  (FWIW the stock MacPro drive was a Caviar Blue, of which supposedly larger sizes don't (yet) exist).
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#35
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10/20/09 at 5:24pm
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Awesome news if true. I would actually try to get an HDMI to MiniDP adapter to be able to play my 360 in my bedroom (where the iMac will be when I buy it) when the living room TV is in use. Only question is how to handle the audio portion...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sam Posten View Post

Maybe BluRay playback isn't as big a deal as I thought:
 


http://gizmodo.com/5385841/apple-imac-hands-on
 


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#36
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10/20/09 at 7:47pm
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Might hafta check out the Magic Mouse!  Looks pretty damn cool.

I caved.. I'm now surfing HTF on my new MBP.  Prices dropped at the Apple store this very morning.  (Dropped about 150 Cdn)

No more PCs in this house!  WOO!
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#37
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10/20/09 at 8:20pm
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Maybe I'm a mouse snob, but I'm unimpressed, disappointed even, by the new awesome mouse. It seems to have removed features, now only supporting right click, left click, and scroll. Oh, and the prominently featured ctrl-scroll "zoom" feature, which ranks among the least useful features in OS X. The previous mighty mouse had that and the squeeze button.

I was hoping for something exceeded my MX Revolution; not something a few steps back. Feh.
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#38
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10/20/09 at 9:47pm
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I always seem to buy iMacs at the wrong time. I can't remember why I was compelled to buy my last one six months ago. Oh well....

Quote:
Originally Posted by Todd H View Post

Not sure why they are touting the resolution of the new iMacs and then refuse to give us a way to watch true 1080p material on these beautiful screens.
1080p trailers from apple.com?  (Funny that since most movies are wider than 16:9, they're all 1920 across, but less that 1080 tall, but they're still called "1080p")


Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveF View Post

Maybe I'm a mouse snob, but I'm unimpressed, disappointed even, by the new awesome mouse. It seems to have removed features, now only supporting right click, left click, and scroll.
With the two-finger swipe, you get more programmable actions, depending on the app. Multi-finger swipe works great on the MacBooks -- although I suppose it can be confusing that on the mouse, you use one fewer finger: two-finger scrolling on the trackpad, one-finger on the mouse; three-finger swipe vs. two-finger on the mouse.

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#39
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10/21/09 at 5:23am
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I guess I don't understand what "swipe" is versus "scroll" in an app.

What I was hoping for was a mouse that gave normal behaviors, plus controls for Dashboard and least two Expose controls (e.g. Apps and Desktop). The mouse shown at Apple.com seems to be about like a typical $30 mouse with a two-axis scroll wheel. Maybe I'll feel differently after playing with one at the store. And maybe they'll increase its functionality with driver updates.
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#40
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10/21/09 at 6:55am
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http://daringfireball.net/linked/2009/10/20/snell-imacs

Quote:
The new dual-core 27-inch iMac is $1699. The 30-inch Cinema Display is $1799. As Jeff Mancuso notes, it’s like buying a nice display and getting a built-in Mac for free.

Oh and Macworld quoted me today in a different but similar article:
http://www.macworld.com/article/143407/2009/10/imacs_oct2009.html?lsrc=twt_macworld

Quote:

where the hell is the BluRay support? =) Or more curiously, how does Apple expect consumers to acquire 1080p video with no Bluray and iTunes only supporting 720p?—Navesink

I guess Steve Jobs and Apple still think Blu-ray is a bag of hurt. Good question, though. One for my list when I talk to Apple.


Sam

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#41
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10/21/09 at 9:00am
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I totally agree with Mancuso. As I posted in the other "nerd-dom" thread (thanks Sam), the closest thing to the 27" IPS panel Apple is using is a Dell 27" VA panel (TN being the cheapest type of panel). Most consider IPS superior to VA, and the Dell only has a resolution of 1920x1200 vs. Apple's 2560x1440 (60% more pixels!). The Dell sells for $929 direct, so it's not unreasonable to project out that the 27" IPS Apple display would go for over a thousand dollars.

For another grand you can get a CTO quad-core i7 Nehalem w/ HT (8 virtual cores), 1TB HD, 4GB RAM, decent graphics, magic mouse, wireless keyboard, two-way mini displayport, all built into the back of the monitor in a stylish and compact shell.

I've never been tempted by the older iMacs, but I will have the 27" i7 in my place within a month or two, pending supply and good initial word of mouth (I still try not to buy first major revs of any product without reading the community's response).

Quote:
The new dual-core 27-inch iMac is $1699. The 30-inch Cinema Display is $1799. As Jeff Mancuso notes, it’s like buying a nice display and getting a built-in Mac for free.

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#42
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10/21/09 at 9:55am
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 The new iMacs are nice. However, it is a real shame that Apple decided to stick with the 4850 512MB GPU as the top video choice (and even that is only available on the 27" model).  The 4850 is a rather low end part for an otherwise nice machine.

ATI just released new GPUs. Surely, there was a more powerful, less power consuming option that could have been used instead. Hopefully an iMac refresh will happen next spring or summer with better GPU options.

-KeithP
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#43
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10/21/09 at 12:49pm
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You just gotta get over on the idea that iMacs are 'nice' for gamers but they arent going to be AWESOME for gamers.  That's not the market at all.  And you are lucky to get a 4 month old part on a new release.  That's pretty amazing for an iMac launch.

And they will still play Crysis just fine at pretty decent graphics levels.

If it's that important to you, there is always the Mac Pro.

And hard core gamers who care about such are like 1% of the market, which is probably even less than a market segment of those who care about BluRay...

PS:  Show me ANY OTHER all in one system whose graphics cards come close to what these have in them...  And if you can find them, compare the prices....

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#44
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10/21/09 at 12:55pm
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As a Mac fan, I've always recommended to my gamer friends to steer clear of Macs if your primary goal is high FPS frame rates at high resolutions.

Given that there is no BD capability, I think that's why they went with the 4850. In a refresh or two, when BD does make it onto the iMac, that's going to be when we'll see the higher capability cards (out of necessity).
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#45
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10/21/09 at 12:56pm
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Slam dunk 4th quarter news.
Home Run new iMacs.

Stock an all time high
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/ByteOfTheApple/blog/archives/2009/10/apple_stock_hit.html

Can it keep going or is this the big rush before another December 2007ish fall?

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#46
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10/21/09 at 2:00pm
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Given that OpenCL was one of the major new features of Snow Leopard, it will be increasing difficult to write off a powerful video card as just something that a gamer would want. The software isn't there just yet. Maybe after developers get some time with OpenCL and start producing useful apps Apple will rethink its options. Of course I suppose OpenCL could end up going nowhere.

The recently released ATI 5770 and 5750 draw less power than the 4850 and in most cases perform much better. I guess they were just too new to be included. The 4870 and 4890 might have drawn too much current and generated too much heat for the iMac enclosure.

Don't get me wrong, the new iMacs are the best ever. It is just that when you look at the entire package, the options for its GPU seem to stand out as being a bit behind when compared to the rest of the machine, gamer or not.

-Keith
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#47
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10/21/09 at 2:29pm
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Keith, I could be wrong but aren't the 4870 and 4890 desktop solutions (i.e. an actual PCIe card)? I was unaware that there was a mobile chip solution. Because the iMac, to fit inside its enclosure, uses largely mobile parts not desktop parts. I know the 5770 and 5750 PCIe cards recently came out and the reaction was mixed, in some instances they performed better than the 4850 but not all. But I was unaware that ATI had put out new mobile video solutions...

[edit - I checked AMD's website and the top of the line mobile solution on it is the 4850/4870 line, no mention of a 5xxx line yet. Still one wonders why we weren't given the 4870...]

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#48
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10/21/09 at 6:11pm
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Heat / efficiemcy

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#49
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10/21/09 at 7:35pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveF View Post

I guess I don't understand what "swipe" is versus "scroll" in an app.
Swipe is the physical action; scroll is the effect. What constitutes a swipe is a matter of degree. The other main factor is the number of fingers.

Slowly moving one finger around scrolls. Swiping with one finger scrolls with momentum, "throwing" the viewport, as on an iPhone.

Swiping with two fingers does Back/Forward in Safari, for example. Dunno if slowly moving two fingers does anything (anything different, anything at all...)

The video on the Magic Mouse page shows the different actions.
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#50
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10/22/09 at 7:12am
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Well, I ordered a 21.5 iMac yesterday. Should be here Monday or Tuesday. I am going to give my present iMac to my in-laws so we can use iChat. I will let you know what I think of this new model vs. last years after I fire it up.




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#51
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10/22/09 at 8:43am
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Parker, as it will be running 10.6, are you also upgrading to CS 4 to fix your CS 3 problems?
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#52
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10/23/09 at 12:25pm
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Well. Actually it came in today. I couldn't believe it. I ordered it on Tuesday. They shipped it on Wednesday and I got it today. I wasn't expecting it until Monday or Tuesday next week.

Bummer is I have to work today through Sunday so I won't be able to get it all set until then. I couldn't wait to plug it in through and so far it works just like a Mac should. I am getting used to the new mouse. Also the 1920 x 1080 screen size takes a bit of getting used to. Next week I am getting WIndows 7 and loading VM fusion on it.

Dave: At some point I will be loading CS 4 but I have to wait a bit on that one.

Parker

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#53
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10/23/09 at 3:08pm
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If you are gonna put it off even a little, if you can wait till January 18th that might be for the best!

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#54
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10/23/09 at 6:07pm
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Congrats on your new iMac, Parker.  The reviews on
these babies have been very positive.

I have to wait another 4 weeks until the 27" iMacs ship.

Meanwhile, this is one of the best reviews I have seen
on the new 27" models (though not testing the i5 or i7):

http://gizmodo.com/5388567/apple-imac-review-27-inches-and-less-chin
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