New iMac with M4 • Hacker News Board

Re: New iMac with M4

#141

Post by wffurr » Mon, Oct 28, 2024, 4:07 PM UTC

What's with the green iMac picture? https://www.apple.com/newsroom/images/2024/10/apple-introduc...

It only shows two USB-C ports while further down the marketing material talks about "all four USB-C ports". EDIT: the low-end 8-core model for $1300 only has two ports.

It also has what looks like a rear-facing camera in the stand cutout. What is that for? EDIT: It's the magnetic power connector. I did not expect that to be round.

Supposedly there's a gigabit Ethernet port somewhere too. Not shown in any of the pictures on the site that I can find.

Re: New iMac with M4

#142

Post by azinman2 » Mon, Oct 28, 2024, 4:07 PM UTC

jfoster wrote: post #76

I could never justify getting an iMac. All the downsides of a laptop & desktop in one; not upgradeable and not portable. Leaves me wondering how many of these Apple actually sell. A Mac Mini with a separate screen feels like it makes far more sense.

Most Mac users seldom upgrade. I read here and myself often use a MacBook for 7+ years. Given screen tech changes alone, I think it makes a lot of sense.

I’ve owned an iMac before very happily. I just don’t own one now because they stopped making 27” versions.

Re: New iMac with M4

#143

Post by fourfour3 » Mon, Oct 28, 2024, 4:07 PM UTC

bradfitz wrote: post #2

I still miss the 27" iMacs. They were such a great form factor.

I've got one of the LG Ultrafine 5K monitors paired with a modern M1 Max macbook and it's a nice combination.

Expensive, but I adore the pixel density considering I spend all day staring at text :)

I'd be seriously tempted by an iMac if it had M4 Pro + a 27" 5K display. I just don't feel it's likely as they'll probably see it as cannibalising Mac Studio + Studio Display sales.

Re: New iMac with M4

#144

Post by simonw » Mon, Oct 28, 2024, 4:07 PM UTC

As someone who mucks around with running LLMs and other large models on my computer the 32GB maximum RAM is a show-stopper for me. I'm on a M2 with 64GB at the moment and I'm already regretting not going for 96 or even 128.

I want to be able to run a large model AND other apps at the same time.

Re: New iMac with M4

#145

Post by Technetium » Mon, Oct 28, 2024, 4:08 PM UTC

kbolino wrote: post #122

hggigg wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very easy. You sell it on eBay and buy a Logitech MX Master.

Does the Logitech MX Master come with a driver that overcomes Apple's "unintentional" hobbling of non-Magic mice?

Seems not: https://github.com/pqrs-org/Karabiner-Elements/issues/2968

Re: New iMac with M4

#146

Post by rgbrgb » Mon, Oct 28, 2024, 4:08 PM UTC

jfoster wrote: post #76

I could never justify getting an iMac. All the downsides of a laptop & desktop in one; not upgradeable and not portable. Leaves me wondering how many of these Apple actually sell. A Mac Mini with a separate screen feels like it makes far more sense.

> Leaves me wondering how many of these Apple actually sell

I think we can check since they're public. Looks like 5-8 million per quarter [0]. Approx 10% of their computer sales [1].

[0]: https://www.statista.com/statistics/263444/sales-of-apple-ma...

[1]: https://www.cultofmac.com/news/macbooks-make-up-a-whopping-7...

Re: New iMac with M4

#147

Post by Wytwwww » Mon, Oct 28, 2024, 4:08 PM UTC

Hamuko wrote: post #52

minimaxir wrote: post #3

16GB base RAM, they finally did it. They also did move the Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse to USB-C.

Surprised that they didn't offer it with 8 GB, since they do have a 8 GB version of the M4 in the (cheaper) iPad Pro.

These days 8 GB is absurdly low for a ~$1300 PC. Hopefully they might have finally realized that selling crippled products (just to force its users to pay the predatory price for memory upgrades) is hurting UX and their reputation.

I mean they claim:

> Compared to the most popular 24-inch all-in-one PC with the latest Intel Core 7 processor, the new iMac is up to 4.5x faster.1

But is that really true if your "ultrafast" Mac grinds to a halt when you have a couple of Electron apps and a browser open at the same time? Naturally users who bought the base model because they didn't really understood the implications would just conclude that macOS is slow and unstable compared to Windows?

Re: New iMac with M4

#148

Post by yumashka » Mon, Oct 28, 2024, 4:08 PM UTC

Will it blend?

Re: New iMac with M4

#149

Post by taeric » Mon, Oct 28, 2024, 4:08 PM UTC

jfoster wrote: post #76

I could never justify getting an iMac. All the downsides of a laptop & desktop in one; not upgradeable and not portable. Leaves me wondering how many of these Apple actually sell. A Mac Mini with a separate screen feels like it makes far more sense.

I'd be interested in numbers on some of this. From my view, the upgradability is a bit of a red herring for most users. Computers are fast enough for most uses that it just doesn't matter.

Re: New iMac with M4

#150

Post by david_allison » Mon, Oct 28, 2024, 4:08 PM UTC

ChadNauseam wrote: post #58

mmastrac wrote: post #10

If 32GB is the max, why not just make that the one and only model and get rid of this weird segmentation. That's a ridiculously low minimum and only just barely adequate. 8GB was practically criminal. Or -- and I know this is crazy -- slottable RAM on a device that is designed for things other than portability. Wild, I know.

I’ve never felt memory limited on my 16gb macbook pro, on which I code, run rust-analyzer (major memory hog), video edit, etc. Most people definitely don’t need 32GB

My M1 MacBook is currently sitting at 46GB usage. It's not heavily under load

(WebStorm, Rider, Android Studio, Chrome, Discord & Slack), not currently running an Android Emulator, LLM or Docker