[venividivici]

I think this post sums it all up for iMac plans for professional creatives:

[m-634839]

[Rhywun]

Gee4orce said:

It amazes me how few people ever even bother calibrating their display though ! it's the first thing I do on a Mac....

You do realize that not everybody works with color professionally, right? I might as well say, I can't believe how many people don't bother installing Xcode :)

[montgomery_burns]

While you admit that "some users don’t like the glossy screens that are mandatory on the MacBook and MacBook Air", you neglect to mention the glossy screen at all in the iMac section.

[venividivici]

[quote name='Rhywun']
>

Gee4orce said:

> It amazes me how few people ever even bother calibrating their display though ! it's the first thing I do on a Mac....You do realize that not everybody works with color professionally, right? I might as well say, I can't believe how many people don't bother installing Xcode :)

XCode is an option. You can install it if you want it. Color accuracy is not an option on the iMac displays, you can not have non-glare or true ColorSync calibration on them. It is not the same comparison.

[KBeat]

So why does the MacBook have a "Good" expandability rating while the MacBook Pro gets a "Fair" expandability rating? Am I missing something?

[MichelleEris]

For me, the iMac is the perfect machine to get. I do not need the expandability of a Mac Pro; in fact, when I had expandable Macs, the only things I put inside them were memory and a video card. All the other slots remained empty.
The iMac is much more cost effective than any Macintosh laptop computer, and since I don't have a need to take a computer with me when I leave the house, I don't need a laptop. For checking email or browsing the web, if I want to, the iPhone fits the bill perfectly.

[Jason Snell]

CPTKILLER said:

The article while interesting sounds like a sound bite from Apple Marketing. In your own editorial staff there is a group that thinks a mini tower is a good thing.

It's an article about what to look for when buying a new Mac. I wouldn't advise anyone to look for a mid-range minitower, because that product doesn't exist. We've covered what Apple should be making quite a lot, as you point out. This is not that article. This one is about what you can actually buy, not fantasy products that may or may not ever exist.

[Jason Snell]

hayesk said:

This rule should be added to the article: When you decide to buy a Mac, you should already accept that in two weeks a cheaper or better model will come along at the same price. If you can not accept that, don't buy.

And the irony is, two weeks after this article shipped to the presses for the magazine, Apple shipped new iMacs. (We updated the web version of the story before posting, including testing all the new iMacs, so what you've read here is current as of today.)

[Jason Snell]

KBeat said:

So why does the MacBook have a "Good" expandability rating while the MacBook Pro gets a "Fair" expandability rating? Am I missing something?

The MacBook's hard drive is the most easily accessible drive in any Mac. So it's incredibly easy to swap drives (and install RAM).

However, the MacBook Pro has a card slot, so you may have caught us!

[Jason Snell]

montgomery_burns said:

While you admit that "some users don’t like the glossy screens that are mandatory on the MacBook and MacBook Air", you neglect to mention the glossy screen at all in the iMac section.

Good point. We should have.

[lrivers]

First, I really like this direction, it's practical and well-reasoned (in other words, I agree with what you're saying ;))
One more thing on the good for/bad for and the MBP. Frankly, the main reason I sprung for the new MBP over the MB is gaming. I'm not hard core, but I do like to play some games on my laptop (some are not available for Mac or XBox) and the MBP is a capable game machine. So, I'd add that to the info for the portables (MB & Air, bad for gaming, MBP, OK for gaming).

[lrivers]

When I was in the prepress trade (some years ago, but still) most retouchers and color guys never even hooked the color calibration stuff to their systems, even the Scitex gear. Fact is, no matter how well calibrated the screen is, the proof is in the output. I only mess with color calibration to the extent that I want the screen's appearance to please me and not because I believe that the screen and the output have anything more than a nodding acquaintance.

[hipsig]

One thing that doesn't seem to get mentioned very often about laptops is that they essentially have an emergency power supply built into them (but no surge protector I think ). If the power goes out, you've got several hours to continue working or save your work. And it'll even let you know when battery power is about to run out.

[dalegg]

lrivers: I always wondered about that. :- )