

Apple Announces New iMac With Quad-Core Processors & Thunderbolt I/O - ssclafani
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/05/03imac.html

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phren0logy
Can't wait to see these options in a Mac Mini. I would buy one of those in a
heartbeat. Here's to hoping.

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adolph
Hmm, even the low end one's default is to ship with Apple's wireless mouse and
keyboard (with an option for a free swap from mouse to trackpad and and to a
wired keyboard with numeric keypad. Thats going to make a lot of desks look
pretty by default.

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gaius
Do people actually use the Apple keyboards? Sure, they're a triumph of visual
design, but absolutely horrible to actually type on. I throw them away and
replace them with Cherrys at the first opportunity.

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astrodust
I'm particular about keyboards and I've got to say that while I was initially
appalled by the new Apple keyboard, and was no fan of the precursor, the
newest kind is actually one of the best keyboards I've ever used. The short
travel of the keys makes them surprisingly good.

If you like clanky, clacky keyboards, they're not for you, but that's why
Matias makes keyboards.

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city41
I've come to love Apple's current keyboard so much that I actually find I want
Apple laptops simply because they have the same keyboard.

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mgkimsal
I'd love an apple keyboard which had the trackpad built in - basicall just the
lower half of a macbook.

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ptomato
Not exactly what you're looking for, probably, but close:
<http://twelvesouth.com/products/magicwand/>

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mgkimsal
Seen those, but it's still not that like the macbook (or any laptop).

It's actually a bit surprising to me that no one makes a wireless keyboard
that replicates a good laptop keyboard without the screen.

Many of us have spent years with laptops - get this - on our laps, and usually
a touchpad in the center of it. Moving to any sort of desktop system, you're
stuck with _lightweight_ keyboards - everyone's in a rush to make the
lightest/slimmest wireless keyboards (Apple included) but ignore the fact that
these do not sit well on your lap while typing. Pressing any keys not in the
dead center of the keyboard cause too much movement.

A nice solid sturdy 4-5lb wireless keyboard with a nice trackpad would be
awesome. I'm still waiting. :/

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kayoone
With 2x Thunderbolt you will be able to hook up multiple external Displays,
thats great news for me ;)

Could possibly undermine Mac Pros in the future.

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montagg
I think it's clear from Jobs' philosophy as the PC as the truck that he wants
to make the iMac the new Mac Pro. Thunderbolt's the first step in making it
possible to add the customization options of the Mac Pro to the iMac as a
peripheral.

Pure speculation, of course, but I think the trend is starting to show.

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axxl
I would agree with this, and have seen it as a trend. Of course, the purpose
of the Mac Pro was always a specialized machine, but the iMac is definitely
starting to compete in power and options, and probably the better choice for
most people who want an Apple desktop.

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mahrain
Still no matte display option, I'm sticking with a Mini + Dell display combo.

To explain a bit more: I have owned a 27" iMac for about four days. The
machine was great but I couldn't handle looking at it for more than five
minutes until getting eye strain, this, and on darker backgrounds the screen
really ís a mirror - and I'm no narcissist.

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ThomPete
May I ask why you want matte display? I am not missing it at all but I might
be missing something.

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srgseg
I remember reading that about 40% of people tested suffered significantly more
eye strain than others with a glossy screen. The theory was that there is a
genetic trait affecting whether eyes tend to constantly refocus or not.

Personally, it gives me a headache and makes it very hard for me to
concentrate because I can't help constantly refocussing. The other 60% of the
population think we're just being awkward.

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ThomPete
I see. Thanks.

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toong
The standard models' CPU: 3.1GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 with 6MB on-chip
shared L3 cache

That's no Sandy Bridge for the new iMac ?

The more expensive models allow you to configure Intel Core i7: "Configurable
to 3.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i7, only at the Apple Online Store."

That's still a little vague ?

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pieter
Sounds like the i5-2400 and the i7-2600 to me, both Sandy Bridge CPU's. The
bit about the "only at.." means you can't get them in the physical store,
because those will be custom built to your specifications.

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colinprince
Finally! Apple Canada prices on a par with US prices,

$1199 really means $1199.

Except for GST :(

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jarek
Except for that 1.05 exchange rate...

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pieter
You now have to upgrade to the second tier if you want to have more than 500GB
hard drives or an SSD, so if you really want that you'll have to pay $300 more
than the base model. Too bad the hard drives in these macs are so hard to
replace yourself.

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JoeAltmaier
"Too bad"? Its of course no accident that memory, drives, in fact everything
cheap to upgrade on an Apple is tucked away behind "warranty void" stickers.

Compare the the ease of replacing your PC laptop drive or RAM - behind a snap-
off cover.

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johnthedebs
That's not true.

To upgrade the memory in an iMac there's 1 screw in the way.

To upgrade the memory or hard drive in a MacBook, there are 10 or so screws,
but as long as you don't damage your device in the process it remains under
warranty.

People like to make Apple out to be draconian about this stuff, but let's at
least do basic fact-checking.

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zdw
That said, to upgrade the hard disk in an iMac is a total PITA and requires a
special sensor cable to the hard disk that is HDD vendor specific:

[http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/iMac-Intel-27-Inch-
Hard-D...](http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/iMac-Intel-27-Inch-Hard-Drive-
Replacement/1634/1)

I pine for the old days of white G5's and original iMacs where they were a
piece of cake to work on. That said, I don't pine for their bad capacitor
problems...

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JoeAltmaier
I remember those; my wife had one; had to send away for the special
screwdriver invented solely to keep me out of the case. "Piece of cake"?

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daimyoyo
While it's great that the new iMac has Thunderbolt, it's really not that
important right now. The reason is that there are not any devices in the
market that support it. Will Thunderbolt be the next USB? Maybe. But until
people actually make stuff for it, I'd advise against purchasing a new iMac
based solely on that feature.(Disclaimer: I have a Thunderbolt MBP, but I
bought it because my 6 year old laptop couldn't go more than a few hours
without crashing.)

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zdw
No word on if the Thunderbolt ports support video in like the 27" before them
did - you used to be able to plug another computer into the 27" iMac and use
it as a display.

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mcritz
It's been many years since we've had a new Mac chassis. I'd love to see Apple
apply some of their touch screen technology to the Mac line.

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adolph
Yep, it seems like they haven't figured out the solution to gorilla arm yet.
On the positive side they have a free trackpad option to start educating
desktop users about multi-touch input.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touchscreen#Gorilla_arm>

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lamnk
Now if they update the Macbook Air with Sandy Bridge and Thunderbolt, that
would be a perfect machine.

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kayoone
Can anyone tell me how the iMac does in terms of noise under heavy load ? I
have a QuadCore Macbook Pro 15" and while its immensly powerful it also gets
annoyingly noisy as soon as you try to use all that power.

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pk2200
My Fall 2009 iMac is virtually silent, even with all 4 cores fully loaded.
Sometimes, late at night, when the house is very quiet, I'll notice some fan
noise, but it's very soft - nothing at all like the MacBook Pro (which I also
own)

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kayoone
thanks for the info! Ever played games on it or any GPU intensive applications
? I work alot with games, thats where my MBP gets noisy very quickly.

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pk2200
Only WoW and Minecraft, and I never noticed any additional fan noise (although
I doubt the GPU was maxed-out). In any case, I'd expect a game's sound effects
and background music to be MUCH louder than any fan noise...

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throwaway10020
Apple doesn't publish the models (just the GHz)... Are these the Intel Sandy
Bridge series of processors (the second generation ones)? If so, which ones?

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pmjordan
According to Heise (German) they do use Sandy Bridge chips[1]. Apple sometimes
receive chips from Intel that aren't available outside of Macs, but other than
that, the exact model should be possible to work out - you've got clock speed,
i5 or i7, and they all have 6MB L3 cache.

[1] [http://www.heise.de/mac-and-i/meldung/Neue-iMacs-mit-Quad-
Co...](http://www.heise.de/mac-and-i/meldung/Neue-iMacs-mit-Quad-Core-Chips-
und-Thunderbolt-1236671.html)

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nu2ycombinator
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