The Apple thread

[WiteWulf]

...and the Apple store's down.

(please be new MBPs, please be new MBPs, please be new MBPs, please be new MBPs, please be new MBPs, please be new MBPs, please be new MBPs, please be new MBPs, please be new MBPs, please be new MBPs, please be new MBPs, please be new MBPs, please be new MBPs, please be new MBPs, please be new MBPs)

[phattslagg]

So, is it a good time to buy an iMac? If so, is it worth looking anywhere other than the apple store?

[tufty]

Hopefully Apple will get off the fence and start putting BD drives in Macs now the war's over...

Would you be surprised if they were working on their own format? iRayHD?

Boom.

No, no, no, no, no. You're not "thinking different". The MacBook Air shows the way - removable media is about to be "Steved" in the same way that ADB, serial ports, floppy drives, SCSI etc were. Removable media is dead. The way of the future is SATA-over-wifi, no removable media on any machine, only a central wifi-accessible podule. Removable disks put into that podule will appear simply to be (read-only if necessary) directories on that remote drive.

Eventually, this central location will subsume all storage (with the possible exception of high-speed solid-state swap space) on the machines themselves, serving out a potentially unlimited zfs store that "just works". That space will be seamlessly internet connected, so iTMS and the various media providers will appear to simply be part of you available storage space. It won't matter what machine you're connecting from, your desktop will be the same, modulo differences between screen sizes on your iPod Touch, your iMac or whatever. In this case, there's no need for any particular media format, only a way for Quicktime to deliver it to your (chosen) screen whilst allowing for a certain amount of DRM. While net access speeds are playing catch-up with this brave new world, content-provider access will be done through some sort of p2p swarming.

A removable drive in every machine is wasteful.
A hard disk in every machine is wasteful

How close does that sound?

Simon

[kalmar]

Where will this end? By extrapolation, Apple will eventually ship no hardware at all other than a lovingly packaged logo.

[Misfit]

Where will this end? By extrapolation, Apple will eventually ship no hardware at all other than a lovingly packaged logo.

And they will sell millions of it...

[defsdoor]

Where will this end? By extrapolation, Apple will eventually ship no hardware at all other than a lovingly packaged logo.

And there will still be a queue outside the Apple Store on launch day.

[Kemper_Boyd]

This article about a new patent application shows some of the
multi-touch gestures Apple may incorporate in future products.
http://www.macrumors.com/2008/02/19/app ... -mac-os-x/

[Rod_S]

Where will this end? By extrapolation, Apple will eventually ship no hardware at all other than a lovingly packaged logo.

And people will still complain it's too expensive, doesn't have as many colours as other logos, is too big, etc.

[pogo]

So, is it a good time to buy an iMac? If so, is it worth looking anywhere other than the apple store?

Yes and not really. It's as good a time as any - I bought mine 15 months ago, there have been two revisions since then, but I am very happy with mine and expect still be using it 15 months from now. Whenever you buy there will be something better or cheaper available six months later.

As for looking elsewhere, the price seems the same everywhere. The only advantage might be buying from somewhere like John Lewis, with more generous warranties than Apple. Or whoever has a retail store close, so you can take it back if there are any problems.

[WiteWulf]

...and, of course, it should go without saying that you shouldn't spec any additional RAM if you buy from the Apple store. Get RAM from Crucial, instead. Having said that, the HDDs are a bitch to upgrade in an iMac, so unless you're happy adding additional external storage via Firewire, you may want to get as much HDD space as you can afford.

[Cloudane]

Yeah, I kind of wish I'd upgraded the HDD myself. It's not the end of the world, but it might be in a few years' time

I got mine about 6 months ago, and they haven't changed yet. The MacRumors buying guide suggests holding off for a probable update within the next few months if past patterns are to go by.

[phattslagg]

Thanks - I don't know if I can hold off that long though, as I'm really GASsing for one of these things! Part of what I do for a living is sound-design, and I'm sick of having to do this in the same room as a noisy PC. That and the fact that I much prefer Logic to any other music platform. Oh, and the form-factor - they look so lovely. Sigh..

[RiK]

My new Mac Pro is just about silent. The only noise on my desk is when my external backup drive spins up for Time Machine.

[WiteWulf]

Have you actually turned it on yet?

[piku]

My new Mac Pro is just about silent. The only noise on my desk is when my external backup drive spins up for Time Machine.

Same with my MacBook. Of course, since I do Time Machine over my network, it's silent when doing that too

The only time the fan comes on is when I boot VMWare and something in XP crashes.