Where does the iMac go next?

ajf · 11 Dec 2010 at 03:26

Not bothered about thinner - no real advantage with a desktop?
Would like to see ability to change hard disk easier and usb ports on side or front rather than rear.
I also second moving the card reader away from the cd drive - I did exactly the same yesterday!

Regarding the screen, I love my 27" and the quality over my previous PCs 28" Hanns G TN is night and day. Buying an equivelant monitor and a PC closes the price gap considerably.

Kainz · 11 Dec 2010 at 06:19

I am planning to get an iMac at some point next year as I wish to move away from Windows, however I seriously need a 24" screen - that is the max size I can fit on this desk, which also has a 32" Sammy HDTV. The present 21" is too little :/

I hope a 24" arrives with the next iteration, or I'm stuffed.

SeraphX · 11 Dec 2010 at 08:10

Kainz said:
I am planning to get an iMac at some point next year as I wish to move away from Windows, however I seriously need a 24" screen - that is the max size I can fit on this desk, which also has a 32" Sammy HDTV. The present 21" is too little :/

I hope a 24" arrives with the next iteration, or I'm stuffed.

but a last Gen 24" then, i sold my Late 07 one last year for around 600 notes, so, you'd get tonne of machine for the money if you look about

BallisticJack · 11 Dec 2010 at 08:26

SSD and Bluray would make me seriously consider an upgrade from my 18 month old iMac.

whitecrook · 11 Dec 2010 at 10:19

Raymond Lin said:
They will never be a touch screen desktop. Have you guys not watched the MBA video where he gave the reason not put a touchscreen in the MBA? It is a painful to hold your hand up midair for long periods. It is NATUAL to rest your palm DOWN. They have done a lot of research into this and touching vertical screen all day long will kill your arm.

As in where does it go?

NOT TN panel that's for a start, that is going backwards.

Prices won't drop, that is like asking Ferrari start selling cheaper cars because we are in a recession. The people who can afford it WILL buy it, recession or not.

Thinner and Faster is where it will go. SSD will be next i suspect will be the next big thing.

Um yeah hence the touch s teen iMac, when if its released , will have a screen which angles back to a similar angle like a drawing board - ie raked, as i said above. Just search the net for touchscreen iMac to see the diagram of this in action.

And ssd is highly likely

Raymond Lin · 11 Dec 2010 at 10:41

whitecrook said:
Um yeah hence the touch s teen iMac, when if its released , will have a screen which angles back to a similar angle like a drawing board - ie raked, as i said above. Just search the net for touchscreen iMac to see the diagram of this in action.

And ssd is highly likely

It will never happen.

That requires you sit within arm's length from the screen, at all times.

Leaning your arm, resting on a warm surface.

The chances of pressing on the wrong items will be high too.

steveo · 11 Dec 2010 at 10:56

still have my 24 inch iMac and love it to bits, but if i had the cash then a 27 inch iMac would be mine but nowing my luck the week i bought a 27 incher Apple would release a 30 incher

sods law, i never want to see a touch screen on an iMac the finger prints on my iPad are annoying as hell when watching films or clips so to see them on a 27/30 inch iMac would be hell

LordSplodge · 11 Dec 2010 at 12:05

Faustus said:
If you actually look at my post again you will see that I don't compare my iMac to Windows All in Ones and I purposely do not include the 27" in my post.

21.5" is IPS and higher resolution than a lot of similar sized monitors and all in ones.

Your point?

Faustus · 11 Dec 2010 at 13:05

LordSplodge said:
21.5" is IPS and higher resolution than a lot of similar sized monitors and all in ones.

Your point?

Yes and higher resolution equates to smaller text etc. which I for one do not like. In fact I hear a lot of gripes about the text on the iMac being to small. I use the NoSquint app which means I can keep Firefox zoomed to 125% which is just about bearable. I have to do the same with Office docs as well.

The end result of all this means that I am getting less usable screen. 24" would be a really good compromise and something a number of the reviewers have commented on when looking at the 21.5" iMac including CNET.

Your point?

Faustus · 11 Dec 2010 at 13:07

steveo said:
still have my 24 inch iMac and love it to bits, but if i had the cash then a 27 inch iMac would be mine but nowing my luck the week i bought a 27 incher Apple would release a 30 incher sods law, i never want to see a touch screen on an iMac the finger prints on my iPad are annoying as hell when watching films or clips so to see them on a 27/30 inch iMac would be hell

They did have a 30" display which they have now dropped in favour of the 27". I thought the 30" was a better product as it had a matte screen.

Faustus · 11 Dec 2010 at 13:11

whitecrook said:
Um yeah hence the touch s teen iMac, when if its released , will have a screen which angles back to a similar angle like a drawing board - ie raked, as i said above. Just search the net for touchscreen iMac to see the diagram of this in action.

And ssd is highly likely

It was rumoured that Apple had taken delivery of touch screens that were to be used for the iMac and there are diagrams on the net showing how it is thought it will look. However, Apple have recently scotched these rumours.

Faustus · 11 Dec 2010 at 13:21

Unless your head is 27" wide, then it is impossible to sit directly in front. Even 19" TN panels suffer from colour shift when sitting directly in front. And who wants to HAVE to sit directly in front of their screen? What good is a monitor that changes colour based on position when you are trying to do colour accurate work ? TN panels are a cheap compromise.

Why would my head have to be 27" wide? I think given that I have both the iMac 21.5" and a 24" Benq on my desk makes me eminently qualified to pass judgment on these two panels.

I cannot see any shift in colour with the Benq until I either stand up or shift my position to either the far left or far right from centre. The monitor is HD and the PQ is excellent. The iMac is also very good, however, what spoils the iMac is the high glossy screen. It's OK during the dark winter months but can be a real pain during spring and summer.

Faustus · 11 Dec 2010 at 13:28

Aleksandrs said:
They could address the standard hard drives for a start. They are too loud and also more importantly, a bottleneck to the whole system.
Adding a hole to the cd drive so I can stick a pin in and force the CD out in case it gets stuck (its happened twice already) would be a good move, or better still upgrade the drives! With this massive resolution screen I can't even watch a bloody Blu-Ray!

Move the SD card slot somewhere else so I don't accidentally put my SD card in the cd slot again when im too lazy to move my head to the side to see where the slot is (done that before too LOL).

Also the option to have a matte screen would be great. I don't really enjoy spending all day with the curtains closed just so I don't accidentally catch a glimpse of myself in the screen glass as it's not the best sight in the world.

Perhaps a way to get inside it from the back would be an amazing touch. I wanna change to SSD on my current iMac but really don't want to take the screen out etc as knowing my luck I'd end up breaking it or getting it all dirty and will have no way to clean it.

Some good points in this post. Many of the things you mention are what makes the iMac aesthetically pleasing but are also what spoils its user friendliness.

Ev0 · 11 Dec 2010 at 22:28

See I was going to say Blu Ray, but then thought about it for a sec and reckon unless they bow down to the public and include it they don't really want to use them.

With itunes et al really pushing the streaming/downloadable content I'm not sure they'll do it. Don't think they want to anyway

Faustus · 11 Dec 2010 at 22:58

Ev0 said:
See I was going to say Blu Ray, but then thought about it for a sec and reckon unless they bow down to the public and include it they don't really want to use them.

With itunes et al really pushing the streaming/downloadable content I'm not sure they'll do it. Don't think they want to anyway

Jobs has already been quoted as saying he thinks Blu-Ray is a dead medium and his vision for the future is downloading and streaming films and the like. Any connection with Apple TV anyone?

Blackhawk47 · 11 Dec 2010 at 23:08

Faustus said:
Yes and higher resolution equates to smaller text etc. which I for one do not like. In fact I hear a lot of gripes about the text on the iMac being to small. I use the NoSquint app which means I can keep Firefox zoomed to 125% which is just about bearable. I have to do the same with Office docs as well.

Your point?

Erm, you do realise that the 21.5" is 16:9 and 1920x1080, the old 24" was 16:10 1920x1200. My iMac is one of the best screens I've ever seen, compare with any other monitor on the market.

And to the guy saying the hard drive is to loud, then it's just you, mine is so quiet you can't hear it. :confused:

Faustus · 12 Dec 2010 at 11:53

Blackhawk47 said:
Erm, you do realise that the 21.5" is 16:9 and 1920x1080, the old 24" was 16:10 1920x1200. My iMac is one of the best screens I've ever seen, compare with any other monitor on the market.

And to the guy saying the hard drive is to loud, then it's just you, mine is so quiet you can't hear it.

I still can't see the point you are trying to make. Small is small is small whichever way you try to dress it up. I think if you had to compare a 24" 1920x1080 alongside a 21.5" 1920x1080 as I do almost every day then you would immediatley see the merit of my argument. My 24" Benq being the larger monitor is much easier on the eye than my iMac. I think too that you are confusing "high gloss" with superb PQ. There is no doubt that the iMac is a good screen, however, the reflective finish is a real black mark against it and this is widely recognised both by reviewers and owners alike.

Well it is amongst those of us who don't feel the need to defend everything that is Apple.

Blackhawk47 · 12 Dec 2010 at 18:51

Faustus said:
I still can't see the point you are trying to make. Small is small is small whichever way you try to dress it up. I think if you had to compare a 24" 1920x1080 alongside a 21.5" 1920x1080 as I do almost every day then you would immediatley see the merit of my argument. My 24" Benq being the larger monitor is much easier on the eye than my iMac. I think too that you are confusing "high gloss" with superb PQ. There is no doubt that the iMac is a good screen, however, the reflective finish is a real black mark against it and this is widely recognised both by reviewers and owners alike.

Well it is amongst those of us who don't feel the need to defend everything that is Apple.

Look, if you have a 24" benq monitor already and you cant afford a bigger iMac then don't settle for a smaller model and get a Mini or a Mac Pro or heaven forbid a PC.

You keep trying to make excuses about what you have when infact you only paid £200 or something daft for it. How much did your benq screen cost exactly? And if it still an issue, turn the front of the iMac round, so it faces the wall and stick your 24" monitor instead.

You keep complaining about OS X saying that it is crap compared to windows this and that. If you don't like it, don't use it, then sell it.

I have an iMac 21.5" sat directly next to my gaming pc which I have a 24" samsung (about £220 from overclockers IIRC) connected to my PC...the iMac is so much better to use for everything bar gaming because I couldn't afford top of the line 27".

You don't understand that its not just based on hardware. You can have top of line gaming rig right now, a game comes out tomorrow, poorly optimized and your ****ed until they sort it (if they sort it). The same goes for OS X. You don't have to waste time doing virus scans, defraging or trawling through the registry of doom that is windows. :rolleyes:

Faustus · 12 Dec 2010 at 20:45

Look, if you have a 24" benq monitor already and you cant afford a bigger iMac then don't settle for a smaller model and get a Mini or a Mac Pro or heaven forbid a PC.

If you go back to my original post you will see I ask the question where does the iMac go next. I think the 21.5" would benefit from either being a larger screen size i.e. 24" or putting a 24" into the range alongside the other two models. I already have a 21.5" iMac (do you not read the posts). I would not want the 27" as I think it is too large.

You keep trying to make excuses about what you have when infact you only paid £200 or something daft for it. How much did your benq screen cost exactly?

This paragraph has me beat, I haven't a clue what you're getting at.

I have an iMac 21.5" sat directly next to my gaming pc which I have a 24" samsung (about £220 from overclockers IIRC) connected to my PC...the iMac is so much better to use for everything bar gaming because I couldn't afford top of the line 27".

This paragraph is just rambling, no one is arguing against the performance of the iMac. The question is "what next"?

You don't understand that its not just based on hardware. You can have top of line gaming rig right now, a game comes out tomorrow, poorly optimized and your ****ed until they sort it (if they sort it). The same goes for OS X. You don't have to waste time doing virus scans, defraging or trawling through the registry of doom that is windows.

Yet again more ramblings that have nothing to do with the original post.

Being charitable I can only assume you have either spent the afternoon down your local pub or been on the wacky baccy. :confused:

Blackhawk47 · 12 Dec 2010 at 21:44

Faustus said:
Yes and higher resolution equates to smaller text etc. which I for one do not like. In fact I hear a lot of gripes about the text on the iMac being to small. I use the NoSquint app which means I can keep Firefox zoomed to 125% which is just about bearable. I have to do the same with Office docs as well.

The end result of all this means that I am getting less usable screen. 24" would be a really good compromise and something a number of the reviewers have commented on when looking at the 21.5" iMac including CNET.

Your point?

You fail to realize what pixels are... :rolleyes:

Text on a 21.5" screen with the res/blah blah blah stated in my previous post essentially shows the same size text in terms of sharpness/font as any pretty standard 24" with 1920x1200.

It is a fact that the text in OS X is indeed sharper than that on windows. :rolleyes: