[lantzn]

I'm thinking of it as the Muscle Car model, you know the silver Cuda with the blacked out hood (back of iMac) and side stripes (around display). Although this is the 340 model and not the 426.

[SteVoz]

this eco-friendly aluminium and glass talk is quite funny. But, hell, don't blame humans for green house effect it is all down to solar turbulent activities in a last few year.
Some even think we should send army on Sun to sort this out
/forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[George76]

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I'm officially dubbing this iMac, the "overdone eyeliner model"

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In that case, you should call it the "Johnny Depp Model."

[opus_az]

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I'm officially dubbing this iMac, the "overdone eyeliner model"

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In that case, you should call it the "Johnny Depp Model."

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PiMacs of the Caribbean /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[MacCheetah3]

Hi
George, let's play nice. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
opus_az...The former model has a brightness of 400 cd/m and a contrast of 700:1.

[DisabledTrucker]

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Actually, if you read the specs, the HD series of chips have onboard HD decoding where the x1600 does not, also the x1600 pro isn't DX10 compatable where the HD2400 and HD2600 are. Also, if you read the latest press about the ATI offering, it is actually better than the 8600 GT in the area of HD.
To say it is inferior is a little extreme....
Equal to the 8600 would be fair, maybe not as good for gaming, but better for HD content etc.
As far as Blu Ray goes, I don't want an internal Blu Ray drive if I have to give up the superdrive. Blu Ray is still too expensive and if I want one, i can get an External one to use IMHO....

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Firstly, I want to reply to this...
Okay so it's supposedly better with HD Video... So Frackin' what!!! When they include an HD device with it, then I'll worry about it, until then, (Jobs even said it himself,) they needed to go with the best product available, (unfortunately this wasn't it this time Steve, get real!) They should have given us the option at least, (like before,) to use the better video cards from nVidia!!! If they really wanted to give AMD a nod, they should have included their processors in the system instead of their graphics!
Secondly, I have to say this is not an "upgrade" to the iMac, if anything it's a DOWNGRADE!!!
Apple failed again to amaze me or convince me that I need to upgrade my Powerbook to a new iMac! If they wanted to do that they would have dropped the iMac line, (and name too,) and reinvented it. A removable cover on the back of the unit to upgrade the processor as needed, a proprietary drive bay configuration where one can slide in new hdd's as needed, 3-4 of them would be nice, actual 5.1 analog audio plugs or a real optical connection for sound, more firewire ports, eSATA, and some sort of video-in ports, (forget about analog we want digital,) would have been nice improvements.
So they wanted to use Aluminum for it's recycling abilities, they could at least have painted it! What's up with using lame laptop processors in a desktop, it's time they used real processors, if they wanted to really upgrade the mini, that's where they can use the lame AMD HD video and laptop processors at. Oh, yeah, they now give you an extra gig of memory and a terrabyte of drive space, (only on the BTO 24".) That's something that was long time needed, but still falls short of providing people what they want, the ability to add more than one drive in their computers. Besides, who really needs 4 GB of memory, unless they're into video production. If they're into that, they're needing the Mac Pro instead of this.
People talk about the Mac Books being proprietary and that being how people want their desktops too, well you can still take the Mac Books apart and upgrade them yourself if need be, something you can't do with the iMac at all. Sure you're not going to replace the video card in them, (that is unless you've got an excellently designed Dell Alienware which has that capability,) or to a newer processor, (unless you're wanting to take a chance in destroying your laptops cooling to do it.) But if you want to replace the network card or exchange the hard drive, (and in most newer laptops add a second hdd,) then you can do that too. No your not going to exchange the monitor when 24" is too small and you want the bigger 30" on your desktop, but then you're not going to want to spend $10K for your system either or your going to get a Pro!
Steve talked about how they were totally recreating their software, well it's beyond time Apple recreated the iMac and gave it a better name at the same time! They have a mini and a pro, now they need a midi as well and that's the biggest disappointment of this entire presser that they just released. It's still nowhere in sight and on top of that they took the iMac backwards, only offering a microscopic update to a few of it's features, while going totally in the wrong direction in most of the others. So it's thinner, so it has a larger hdd available only to it's largest, most expensive version, everything else hasn't really changed with the exception of it's ridiculous keyboard and cheaper prices, (which is also beyond time happening.) I can hear the doctors screaming now over that design choice! (Referring to the keyboards.)
Oh, you're gonna scream, "it's got a faster processor!", so what, it's only the stupid laptop processor, where's the desktop 3+GHz Quad-Cores?!? Why is it still stuck with the lame 667MHz bus, what happened to 1333MHz?!? Is that not better?!? Steve tried to be serious about using top of the line components in their systems but I don't see it here anywhere!!!
They gave the mini a much needed upgrade to it's processors but stopped there, what's up with that?!? If they really were interested in updating it, why not add larger drives to it as well as a upgraded video that most everyone is screaming for in it?!? With perpendicular drives pushing the drive space up to well over 250GB on the newer drives, where's the option for them in Apple's newest systems? Even more importantly, where is the graphics improvements at? Why use last millennium's technology for graphics if they're interested in using the best components for their systems?!? I would have been happy to see the AMD HD graphics line in the mini, at least it would have been an improvement over the lame Intel graphics and shared memory that's in it.
They touted this as a presser for the Mac's but the only real information that come out of this was for the iLife/iWork apps that were released today. It's like the iMac and mini were after thoughts of the whole thing. They found they needed something to showcase the new apps on and since they haven't really done anything with the iMac/mini line, they chose those to do it on those and failed miserably this time, IMHO! You're trying to tell me it took them over a year to come up with these supposed upgrades to their line? Get real!!! Where's the innovation that Apples so good at? I didn't see it in their hardware, from a company that's supposedly touts themselves as a hardware first company!
Steve must've been too busy listening too much to those fairy tales that Al Gore's been spouting than actually being inventive of late. Hopefully with 2008 being right around the corner, we'll see a much more improved line-up at MACWORLD 2008!
EDIT:
Oh for those of you all waiting for the discount for the "i" apps, well keep on waiting, for one the iLife suit comes with the computers, only iWork you have to actually purchase, (unless you have older equipment you're going to use it on,) therefore don't look for a discount on the iLife suit. Until Apple decides it's iWork is prime-time enough, it's not going to bundle it with their operating systems/computers, so you'll have to pay the extra $80-100 for it. The only thing worth waiting for would be the purchase of your system with Leopard when it's released, but don't let that hold you back get your iMac now while you can still get the previous version and upgrade it's operating system when it comes out, (it should have iTunes 08 on it if you purchase it now,) if not the upgrade isn't that bad a deal even at full price! Sure you'll be out a couple $100 for the upgraded OS, but then you won't have to worry about having the problems with it either. You can wait until it's actually been patched to purchase it and get an even better deal. It's unlikely you're going to actually need Leopard when it comes out anyways, unless you're absolutely in need of a backup solution. If your that in need of it, you should look at the ones currently available now. Outside of that, the rest is mostly flash and unnecessary. This is why I talked my son into not waiting to purchase his iMac and he's glad he did now. (He was a late switcher from the winblows platform...)

[opus_az]

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opusaz...The former model has a brightness of 400 cd/m and a contrast of 700:1.

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Thanks, you resparked my curiosity.

Found the old specs. Anyone interested can compare detailed specs...

White iMacs: http://www.humbercomputershop.com/csdatasheets/computers/appleimac.pdf
Aluminum iMacs: http://www.apple.com/imac/specs.html

[peetz]

This is a NIGHTMARE.
This is the MacBookPro issue over again, now with the imac, except Apple does not give a choice. They force the gloss screen.
Gloss is no good for people who need to stare at the screen for hours, e.g. 10-15 hours per day. e.g. book writers who compose on screen for hours at a time, starring at it non-stop.
Gloss is good for watching movies, seeing photos etc where brilliance is important.
I am definitely hanging on to my old imac 20" all-white with its matte screen.
I'm also keeping my files in a format that is transportable to PC, in case Apple never makes a replacement large matte screen computer.

[MacCheetah3]

Hi
Have you seen Apple's glossy screens? They are richer in color but have very noticeably less glare than competitors.

[BuzWeaver]

Apple copied the Black and Gray from PC's.

[AtomicPunk]

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How about other internal components like the hard drive, dvd drive, logic board, power supply, speakers, or lcd screen? Has Apple given a moment's thought to the technicians who actually have to repair these computers? -- <SNIPS> -- But when their shiny iMac has to spend a long time in the repair shop, then the user starts calling every 5 minutes asking what's taking so long and demanding that the technician drop everything and work on his iMac first.

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First, the way I understood the question was "wether RAM was easy to install". So, the answer to that was... Yes, it is. Now, wether it is easy to crack open a new iMac and upgrade it. Well... I don't really have an answer, yet, I really don't care. But you could Google it, someone is probably out there doing it. Me, I am into their Towers, that is what I use... always.
But, look at this way... Before people go off in these tangents, they should ask... How often do people often crack open their Laptop? The point being is that some things are made for servicing by techs, others are made in consideration of the customer's demand for upgradability. When I look at the iMac, I see it as engineered like an design engineer would design a laptop. There are certain things you can do for the consumer, and other things that are unavoidable and have to be done by techs.
Now, if a person's iMac has gotten to the point where they have to take it in for a technician to look at it, then that makes my point. If a technician is having a hard time with the engineering of the new iMac, that's not really the consumers problem as much as it is Apple and Apple Certified companies problem. That or it quite probable that it is the WRONG Tech to look at it. ie: Hopefully they are Apple Certified and know the nuances of how to crack open certain Mac Mini's, iMacs, MacBook and MacBook Pro's.
I am not really a hardcore techy, but I have been doing this since the mid 80's. I used to crack open my Mac Plus, an SE, and an SE30. I also used to crack open my IIci and my 8500, which were dramatically easier. In fact, I actually built my own IIci. The point being, if you know what you're doing and have the right sources, you can do anything. But, if a tech knows less than me, then they shouldn't be a tech.
My understanding is the iMac is really made for people that are probably not into getting their hands too dirty into the tech. It is more for people who would have to go to someone more technically able to help them through the issues or upgrades.

[MCJ]

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I think if they got rid of the 'chin' beneath the LCD the upgrade would have a bit more wow factor. I was secretly hoping the new iMac would look just like a cinema display. That would have made for a more exciting upgrade.

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I have to agree. I was hoping for a more minimalist design. To me the two-tone look and the overbearing logo is a step backwards; it is reminiscent of the original iMac.
I was also hoping for something groundbreaking from a functional POV, like a touch-screen interface. In his presentation SJ mentioned this would be something for research but HP already have a desktop on the market with this technology.

[moose_n_squirrel]

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But I really dislike the new flat & square button keyboards on the MacBooks. I find them hard to type on and the keys seem flimsy to me; they actually feel quite cheap. The flat buttons don't do anything to draw your fingers in to the keys, not to mention the placement and/or size of some keys (like Enter).

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That's true. While like many people, I actually like the short travel and light touch of good laptop keyboards, I'll have to try the new wired keyboard out at the Apple Store and if the keys are too much like the MacBook, I might have to pass on it after all.

[opus_az]

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I'll have to try the new wired keyboard out at the Apple Store and if the keys are too much like the MacBook, I might have to pass on it after all.

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At the Apple store it was hard to tell if the keyboards are comfortable because the iMacs were displayed on a tall counter so I was standing at the counter, not sitting at a desk with the keyboard and my arms at their normal positions. (And they only had the USB model, they didn't have any bluetooths in stock.)
Even using a laptop wouldn't be exactly the same since even then the new keyboards would lower.
That's a shame because at $50 for the USB and a whopping $80 for the bluetooth, it's too expensive to experiment with.