[NewsPoster]

Dispelling rumors, Apple has announced that the 2012 iMac will go on sale this Friday, November 30th. Initially, however, only the 21.5-inch model will be available. Orders for the 27-inch option will start shipping sometime next month.

The new iMac was originally announced in late October, without any firm release date. At one point rumors suggested that it wouldn't ship until 2013. The delay may be linked to the difficulty of building the computer, as its thin profile is dependent on unusual production techniques.

[Zanziboy]

Hurray! At least some people will be able to get their new iMacs before Christmas!

[FireWire]

Dear Apple: nobody asked for a super-thin desktop. Especially if it's interfering with availability or usefulness.. It's a desktop! We just want easy access to peripherals (RAM, HD, etc) and an optical drive.. Like most people my age, my computer is my main TV for watching DVD, and I still need a burner to burn CDs to listen in my car..

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by FireWire 

Dear Apple: nobody asked for a super-thin desktop. Especially if it's interfering with availability or usefulness.. It's a desktop! We just want easy access to peripherals (RAM, HD, etc) and an optical drive.. Like most people my age, my computer is my main TV for watching DVD, and I still need a burner to burn CDs to listen in my car..

If you're the kind of guy who needs access to the RAM, you're probably looking at the 27" model anyway — which coincidentally allows easy access to the RAM.

Get a $30 external drive and rip your DVDs to disk like everybody else. Optical media are a nuisance, and it takes one prolonged effort to get rid of them, after which life has been substantially improved.

Also, it's not been Apple's modus operandi to build stuff people asked for. It's their job to build stuff people didn't know they wanted.

And people definitely don't want desktops anymore. But iMac sales are increasing. So it makes perfect sense to force the design aspects that make the iMac *different* from all other desktops.

This new series will be their best-selling one yet, I'm sure.



(also, for the record, "peripherals" are things on the periphery — EXTERNAL accessories. RAM is not a peripheral.)

[Jeronimo2000]

Originally Posted by FireWire 

Dear Apple: nobody asked for a super-thin desktop. Especially if it's interfering with availability or usefulness.. It's a desktop! We just want easy access to peripherals (RAM, HD, etc) and an optical drive.. Like most people my age, my computer is my main TV for watching DVD, and I still need a burner to burn CDs to listen in my car..

Dear FireWire: nobody asked Apple for an iPad. Still, they did one anyway, and strangely enough, people seem to like it. Nobody asked Henry Ford for a car - all they wanted back then was a faster horse. The word you're looking for is "innovation".

Sure, I can see that a thinner frame for a desktop machine serves little if any practical purpose... unless you count "design" as a purpose in itself, as you might do with any Apple product.

And, maybe, you shouldn't consider yourself the spokesperson for "most people your age", whatever age that may be. At least in my age group (going on 40), I see nobody (and I mean: not a single person) around me who still uses their optical drive on a regular basis. I got an external LG burner and I need it maybe once every 2-3 months. Sure, your needs may differ, and apparantly they do, but please don't assume everybody else's needs are like yours. Your problems can be easily solved with an external drive.

And if you're the person who wants to change the internal HD, an iMac clearly is the wrong choice for you. Has been for years. Do what everybody else does and expand your storage options externally (and THAT's when the word peripherals comes into play). Get a NAS system like one from Synology (good stuff), or a USB 3 drive, or whatever. Quit whining and look for solutions.

[blahblahbber]

There goes crApple again, controlling what it wants to force onto consumers first rather then letting them choose a real good iMac with all the bells and whistles. Where's my spiked club?

Pure rubbish techniques aren't fooling anyone.

[elroth]

Jeronimo!

Your idea of innovation seems to be to take away options and flexibility, and make everyone do things like you do.

So wow, Apple is making a thinner iMac - looks really nice. But then you realize the 21-inch can only fit a laptop hard drive in, and it's limited by Apple to 5400-rpm (you can get a low capacity SSD, of a "Fusion" drive which is stil limited to 5400-rpm). Those of us who actually work making DVDs can add a DVD drive, but did you know there is now no DVD burning program made by Apple? No more iDVD, and Final Cut X has no companion DVD program available - no more DVD Studio Pro. That's innovation? I'd say it's Apple trying to make us all fit into their box. I'm glad you fit in so happily, but not all of us do.

P.S. Would you like to have a DVD of your wedding video, or your kid's birth? Or is it enough to put them on YouTube?

[Waragainstsleep]

While they aren't going to go away altogether just yet, DVD is dying tech. Even Blu-ray is.

If you get an iMac with an SSD, the only moving part left in it is the fan. This is going to be very good reliability. Since you can add DVD-RW via USB, this qualifies as innovation in my book.



Firewire:

You can afford a new iMac but you don't have $70 or so to put an iPod compatible head unit in your car?

[blahblahbber]

Originally Posted by elroth 

Jeronimo!
Your idea of innovation seems to be to take away options and flexibility, and make everyone do things like you do.
So wow, Apple is making a thinner iMac - looks really nice. But then you realize the 21-inch can only fit a laptop hard drive in, and it's limited by Apple to 5400-rpm (you can get a low capacity SSD, of a "Fusion" drive which is stil limited to 5400-rpm). Those of us who actually work making DVDs can add a DVD drive, but did you know there is now no DVD burning program made by Apple? No more iDVD, and Final Cut X has no companion DVD program available - no more DVD Studio Pro. That's innovation? I'd say it's Apple trying to make us all fit into their box. I'm glad you fit in so happily, but not all of us do.
P.S. Would you like to have a DVD of your wedding video, or your kid's birth? Or is it enough to put them on YouTube?

Well put... but remember, some folks are OK with getting pushed into the corner, then whine all to themselves.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by elroth 

Jeronimo!

Your idea of innovation seems to be to take away options and flexibility, and make everyone do things like you do.

So wow, Apple is making a thinner iMac - looks really nice. But then you realize the 21-inch can only fit a laptop hard drive in, and it's limited by Apple to 5400-rpm (you can get a low capacity SSD, of a "Fusion" drive which is stil limited to 5400-rpm). Those of us who actually work making DVDs can add a DVD drive, but did you know there is now no DVD burning program made by Apple? No more iDVD, and Final Cut X has no companion DVD program available - no more DVD Studio Pro. That's innovation? I'd say it's Apple trying to make us all fit into their box. I'm glad you fit in so happily, but not all of us do.

P.S. Would you like to have a DVD of your wedding video, or your kid's birth? Or is it enough to put them on YouTube?

Obviously, you print out all your photographs as well, and all the e-mails your significant other sent you are printed out and sitting on a shelf in a shoebox.

Times change. Welcome to last year.

[ remove post - the "import images" option came up and my post went through though the page was still showing the "write reply" ]

double

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

DVD is dying tech. Even Blu-ray is.

Care to explain this graph?



or the increasing market for blu-ray 3D?

The most innovative thing about the late 2012 iMacs is their low-reflectance display.

[Spheric Harlot]

Percentage of what?

LOL !

I just found your source:

http://www.digital-digest.com/blog/DVDGuy/2012/05/09/blu-ray-the-state-of-play-may-2012/

Market share is defined as the percentage of sales belonging to Blu-ray compared to all discs sales (which includes both Blu-ray and DVD).

So um, yeah, your graph shows that IF an optical drive were of interest, it might make sense to eventually implement a Blu-Ray drive over a DVD-drive.

Unfortunately, it provides no context as to why an optical drive should be of interest.

Do you have a nice graph like that one showing a growth in optical media sales?

Because the source you got that graphic from shows Blu-Ray revenue (not unit sales, mind) UNCHANGED, DESPITE growing market share of the optical disk market.

Doesn't that indicate that the market for optical media itself is in decline?

What is with your confrontational attitude all the time on this site?

Don't be so biased. The graph shows growth of blu-rays, nevermind the source, I expect that the figures are correct.

I wasn't even talking about optical media sales. Where is YOUR graph of optical media sales? How quickly are they declining compared to blu-rays?



- I still think that it was a very stupid idea to remove the optical drive from the iMac -

You want to get rid of the optical drive from the iMac? I think that it's 1-2 years TOO SOON to do that.

[Spheric Harlot]

It does NOT show a growth of Blu-Ray.

It shows a growth of Blu-Ray percentage of a declining market.

The link you posted shows that Blu-Ray revenue is not increasing, but remaining constant.
This may mean that media prices are dropping (are they? I don't know), but if the prices are constant, it actually means that Blu-Ray is not growing; its share is merely growing because DVD sales are declining.

My point was that the graph you posted does not support the claim you're making, not that the claim was necessarily wrong.

Find actual sales data (not unit market share) either for Blu-Ray media or for optical video media in general, and we can draw conclusions and talk.

Until then, that graph means nothing.

What does this graph tell you?

[blahblahbber]

Originally Posted by Andrej 

What does this graph tell you?

Whoah.... You just pulled out a BIG GRAPH!! Is this the mother of all graphs???

ok, so yeah 1-2 year too early to kill optical media? I'm gonna go with two.