New iMac Set for Tuesday Unveiling? (1 Viewer)

[Craig S]

I will definitely try before I buy. I assume the retail stores have the new iMacs today - I'm going to pop over after work to check 'em out.

The big complaint about the keyboard, however, is going to be the chopped-off wireless version. The compact size is OK as an option, but it's a huge mistake, IMHO, not to offer a full-size bluetooth keyboard anymore.

 

[DavidJ]

Where is this?

 

[DaveF]

The demo features are fantastic looking and I can see how they might even faster work of my tasks. I just hope it didn't remove basic editing tools (separate audio from video and clip splitting) -- sometimes audio is a better video discriminator than the visuals.

 

[Craig S]

I've gotta give kudos to Apple - browse through their iLife & iWork sites and there are just tons of demos & tutorials showing off the new features. Both suites are looking really good so far. They also have a 30-day downloadable demo of iWork available:

http://www.apple.com/iwork/trial/

I'll definitely be checking out Numbers tonight.

Oh yeah, for GarageBand fans, reports are the app now supports 24-bit audio. Plus, there's a new Loop Pack - Vocals. Contains phrases, choirs, and vocal beat box stuff (gee, I wonder what prompted that...).

 

[Craig S]

Well, no new iMacs at the Apple Store. :frowning: The folks there said they expect them in on Thursday.

They DID have the new iLife & iWork packages, so now I do too! I'll post first impressions in a bit.

 

[Carlo_M]

Hopefully by the time I am ready to buy (around late 2007, after Leopard) they will have had a speed bump and perhaps transitioned the iMac to an nVidia video card [like they did with the Macbook Pro]. I'm reading reports of some problems with the ATI card drivers on the official Apple forums. I don't know why but even on the PC side, I've had better luck with nVidia cards than ATI.

 

[Michael_K_Sr]

The ATI issues may have already been addressed.

 

[Garrett Lundy]

No HD-DVD/Blu*Ray drives and still the antique 128/256 videocard.

No need to replace my eMac yet. :frowning:

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

Huh? It's a completely different video card. Don't get hung up on the numbers -- it's the engine of the card that makes most of the difference. I'd be shocked if the 256 in the high-end 20 didn't outperform cheap 512s that are out there.

 

[Craig S]

And why would Apple want to jack up the price of the iMacs to support niche formats that only a small percentage of their target market is interested in??

Blu-ray will enter the Apple product line as an option on the Pro products (first the Mac Pro, then the Mac Book Pro). It will take a while to trickle down to the consumer line (if it ever does).

 

[Ted Todorov]

Exactly correct -- these drives won't appear on a consumer machine before the Pro machines. At any rate, right now Apple has joined Criterion in sitting out the format war. I doubt they will be in any hurry until either the war ends or combo drives (BD/HD) become ubiquitous. In any event, I don't think that ANY of the HiDeff drives are available in a slim enough format to fit in anything other than a MacPro -- and at this point Mac owners that need one can easily get an external Firewire version.

 

[Carlo_M]

I don't know many laptops with a 512MB video card, so in that sense you're probably right. But I'd wager it won't beat that many 512MB desktop video cards.

Don't forget that the iMacs use the mobile Intel chipsets and mobile ATI/nVidia solutions. They aren't using the desktop chipsets and standalone video cards in anything but the Pro. The iMacs are essentially upright, non-mobile Macbook Pros with a 20"-24" screen.

 

[Craig S]

I just got back from the Apple Store and checking out the new iMacs. My initial impressions:

• They're very attractive machines in person. Very sleek. The thinness of the 20" model in particular is impressive.
• The screen is REALLY glossy!! OK, part of it is the lighting in the Apple Store (the MacBook Pros look much more reflective than mine is). But it's gong to be a tough sell to folks who are sensitive to it. I suspect the first rev of this model will have to include a matte option.
• The iSight camera is nearly invisible behind the black border. There are reports that later model Macs with built-in iSights have an increased resolution (from .3 megapixels to 1.3). I fired up Photo Booth and the camera image did look sharper than my older Macs.
• Other than that I think the screen looks great. I had read some complaints, but I had no problems with it.
• I like the new keyboard. Frankly, it's a lot easier to type on than its predecessor, which I find a bit stiff. I do wonder about the ergonomic repercussions of it being so much lower than most keyboards.
• The machine is nice & snappy. No performance issues that I can see.

Overall, it's a beautiful machine. Like most of Apple's recent products, it just exudes a sense of style you don't get from many other consumer electronics products. Another winner for Jobs & co.!

 

[Garrett Lundy]

Starcraft 2 is due out soon. I'd really hate to buy a new Mac and not be able to run it properly.

 

[Carlo_M]

Garrett, if gaming is your high priority, you should know it is not the Mac's strength, especially the iMac which runs basically the Macbook Pro hardware (same mobile Intel C2D chip, Santa Rosa chipset, mobile nVidia or ATI video solution, PC5300 (DDR667) 200-pin DIMMs) with a faster hard drive. So if you think the MBP can run Starcraft 2 (and I'm not familiar with the game so I don't know how graphics intensive it is (as opposed to say a first-person shooter). Perhaps that hardware will be powerful enough.

If you want a Mac and be able to game fairly well, I think you'd have to go with a Mac Pro with a CTO (custom to order) graphics card, the ATI x1900 XT 512MB, as the standard nVidia GeForce 7300 isn't a great gaming card.

If gaming is really important to you (especially high quality/high framerate/graphics intensive 3D gaming), I'd move away from a Mac. Macs can perform well in 2D and light 3D games, but anything highly 3D intensive you should consider staying with a WIntel solution.

 

[Garrett Lundy]

I've been Mac for years and the games I do play have run fairly well (Starcraft, Fallout, Neverwinter Nights) its only been since WOW that I've really been left in the dust. Of course we don't know what Blizzard's new games will need and I guess I'm just concerned because PC land has 512, 1g, and 2g videocards now.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Kind of looks like a Mac Pro, as set up by a slob.