Apple Updates iMac, iLife, .Mac

Apple just announced new iMacs. They are aluminum and come in 20" (two models) and 24". There's a new view called "Events" in iPhoto that should make it easier to deal with large photo libraries. Apple's .Mac service is enhanced with .Mac Web Gallery, which integrates with the new iTunes and also the iPhone. It's a Web 2.0 app now. And iMovie is being replaced by a completely new app of the same name. Steve Jobs claimed that with it you can put together a 5-minute movie in 30 minutes, and he demo'ed that from the stage. iWeb, iDVD, and GarageBand get new features too. And .Mac subscribers get 10 GB of storage. Here is Engadget's blow-by-blow coverage, and Wired's.

Software's the name of the game

[solar_blitz]

With their spreadsheet application and upgrade to Pages to include a word processor, it looks like Apple wants to establish an entire office productivity suite. I wonder if it will be a successor to WriteNow in the near future?

A few thoughts

[JamesRose]

first quote: "What about AMD chips?"

Steve: "We use Intel chips"

hehehe, sounded a li'l like the intel chip implanted into his head kicked in there.

second, why is the imac so underpowered in the RAM department, I mean the specs in one of the pictures showed the iMacs, all the way up to the biggest $1800 version only has 1gig- with all the RAM you get in normal PCs now days (4gigabytes not unusual) is this not a little strange?

Finally, is it just me, or have they slighyl repackaged everything, made no huge advances, like for example, why did they bother to minimize a keyboard, which for someone like me, would just be annoying. iLife? It's had nothing added, they just repackaged every single feature, and when asked why .mac doesn't support HD Jobs goes- Well, we do support HD, well actually slightly less than HD- you know what I call not quite HD- NOT HD! Everything just seemed a little small fry.

Brushed metal

[Arathon]

Am I the only one who thinks it's ironic that they've only recently completely done away with brushed metal in their user interfaces, in favor of a more plastic-y, smooth feel, but are now introducing brushed metal iMacs to replace their plastic-y, smooth-looking old ones?

I like the change, but...how? Some auto-negation bug in the intra-office memo software? "!brushed_metal = brushed_metal....SENT"

iWork - Numbers!

[2starr]

But the more important announcement (IMHO) is iWork which now includes Numbers: http://www.apple.com/iwork/ [apple.com] Finally, I can get rid of Office.

They could make the iMac more expandable

[Burz]

Even laptops have drive bays and PC Card slots ya know, and there's no reason (not even looks) why iMacs couldn't have these features.

iMac and VMWare

[SpottedKuh]

I've been considering a Mac desktop for a while, and now that a new one is out, perhaps I'll buy it.

One thing I need, though, is to be able to run Linux and OpenBSD in virtual machines on my desktop. Does anyone have any experience with how the new VMWare Fusion compares to VMWare Workstation? Is there any difference between the two (aside from the price, and that unity view for Windows, which does not affect me)? I mean, in terms of features and running other OSes?

Re:A few thoughts

[reidconti]

My 2.66Ghz quad-core Mac Pro only has 1GB RAM. It's not really intentional, I just didn't want to pay $300 for another gig of FB-DIMMs when I bought it last August; figured I'd skip the Apple Tax and buy it third-party.

Then I found out third-party companies were selling it for the same absurd price.

So I told myself I'd wait a few months for the price to drop, since it would inevitably fall like a rock when more companies started shipping the Core 2 Extreme with chipsets requiring FB-DIMMs. Then it was announced that the FB-DIMM wasn't going to be on Intel's future roadmap.. d'oh!

Prices haven't dropped like a rock, but slowly declined instead.. now I can get 4GB for around $300.

But the thing is, the system doesn't really need it. I admit that it's already total overkill for what I use it for, but I was rewarding myself for using my 600Mhz iBook G3 for 5 years, including all thru college, and that maxed out at 640MB. With Tiger, and a bunch of widgets running, yeah, I can feel when it starts swapping -- usually at about the 15th Safari window or so. However, the system is so damn fast -- and I'm running RAID 0 on my main volume -- that the swapping is really just a minor annoyance. I keep finding better things to spend money on than more memory for my already blazing fast computer.

So, to make a long story short, 1GB is plenty for a "desktop" Mac. Most users would be much better served by 2GB, but most users would ALSO be much better served by Apple bundling as little possible so that the buyer can choose whether they want to install the RAM themselves, or have Apple do it.

Re:I, for one, welcome our...

[BluMeNe]

honestly the keyboard isn't the seller for me. I'll be ordering my first ever Mac computer tonight when i get home. I've been waiting since about April for them to update the iMac and now i will put my money where my mouth is...i sure hope the Apple tastes sweet.

Re:Brushed metal

[SSonnentag]

I don't recall brushed metal ever going out of vogue. I think it looks great. Brushed aluminum doesn't show fingerprints, cools well, and looks so much more upclass than some old cheapy plastic. Plastic laptops degrade where your hand is constantly resting on them when typing. My Dell looks like acid was spilled on it. I'm betting aluminum wouldn't have this problem.

The Dumbest Question I've Ever Heard

[LKM]

Apropos Intel, via Daringfireball.net [daringfireball.net]:

One question that came from the audience wondered why Apple doesn't participate in the "Intel Inside" program, in which PC manufacturers affix the well-known labels to their computers.

"We like our own stickers better," Jobs said. "Don't get me wrong. We love working with Intel. We're proud to ship Intel products in Macs. They're screamers, and combined with our OS, we've tuned them well. It's just that everyone knows we use Intel processors. We'd rather not tell them about the product that's inside the box."

Re:A few thoughts

[Mononoke]

Will the iMac have easy to reach memory slots, so I can buy my memory elsewhere? I guess not...

Always have, likely always will.

The previous iMac generation even had the instructions for adding memory printed on the bottom of the 'foot' the computer is standing on.

Re:No kidding

[jdray]

The un-news is the whole "Events" thing. Photo tagging. So what?

Is it just me, or did he not say, "Boom!" once during this presentation?

Re:iWork - Numbers!

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

But the more important announcement (IMHO) is iWork which now includes Numbers

Agreed. The feature list and Excel compatibility are a big win for some of us. I'm tired of using MS Office for the Mac, because it is slow and bloated, and prone to crash. A lighter, more nimble competitor is very welcome for my light spreadsheet needs. I avoid OpenOffice on the Mac as well, since it is likewise not really there yet.

The improvements to Pages also seem significant, with some real layout power (and separate layout and word processing modes). Hopefully this will make for a lightweight Framemaker/InDesign replacement for smaller jobs. In fact, the main thing missing from iWork for my needs is ODF support.

Re:iWork - Numbers!

[massysett]

Any support for OpenDocument in that new iWork? Website doesn't mention it at all.

Re:They could make the iMac more expandable

[failedlogic]

I wholeheartedly agree. I am an iMac G5 owner and would love one of the Intel Macs. I sold a practically brand new PC at the time to go with an iMac. I love OS X.

I begrudge buying the iMac for a few reasons though. What to do if the monitor stops working and its outside Applecare warranty? I hate to think of repair costs. If I change systems I also cannot keep the screen. Upgrade of the video card, CPU or motherboard is impossible (no surprise there). Ditto the sound card. I'd love to hook up a Klipsch 5.1 system but incompatible. But mostly its storage space. I hate having to use an external caddy for the HDD drives. Firewire doesn't work as well as would SATA and I can't really take advantage with an External system of powersaving features whereas it would be on the mobo on new PCs. I also think the "Superdrive" is a piece-o-junk and had to buy an extra caddy for a real DVD-RW.

I really cannot justify buying a Mac Pro for personal use. The iMac though is not in contrast under powered ... it is not upgradeable. For nearly $2000, I want more flexibility. I was really hoping Apple would see that some 'non-pro' users would spring $1500 to $1800 for a Core-2 or Quad core tower system. Instead we're stuck with the Xeons. Apple doesn't want to drive away Pro sales or iMac sales. And they're sticking with mobile and Xenon chips to keep development costs lower. There are more than a few 'power users' I've spoken to who are PC users and current Mac users on the web like myself that would love to buy another Mac, but the hardware choices are frustrating.

Sigh. Keeping my iMac (it makes a really nice desktop for surfing web, e-mail and such) but for gaming and SOHO use I think I'm going back to a PC. XP 64 was really nice and fast when I last tried it 2 years ago and no problems with software. Come on Apple!

Re:iphone update?

[rollthelosindice]

Actually its a new feature that just automatically showed up on my iphone when looking thru the photos library. So I'm not sure who the "dummy" is here in this thread. in summation, no new iphone update, but OP is not dumb for asking.

Re:I, for one, welcome our...

[heinousjay]

Yes, we all know the one button trackpads are the last bastion of the one button defenders in the Mac world, now that Apple has caved and added extra buttons on their Mighty Mouse. One of these days, they may even make a human interface device made to work with human hands instead of impressing human eyes, not that I'm holding my breath.

Re:Finally

[NatasRevol]

I don't think you're putting one and one together there.

The wireless keyboard IS FOR the Apple TV. They just haven't announced it yet.

The wired keyboard is for when you're sitting right in front of your iMac.

also getting it out of the way...

[Anonymous Coward]

Macs come with clustering built in. Under the Sharing preference pane, you can enable XGrid. Any XGrid capable apps will automatically send data packets to it for processing. All Apple machines and OSes ship with an XGrid capable app. XCode will use XGrid for compiling.