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New iMac with M4

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Re: New iMac with M4

#581
post #138
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.

The iMacs very much aren't their main seller. A couple of key demographics use it though: * Families with a shared computer in a common room. Super simple to setup, no fiddling, low price. In the video Apple showcased this use case. My parents have an M3 imac and it works great. They had their last iMac for ten years. * Businesses buy these for reception areas and customers see the Apple logo on the back. Easy soluti…

>low price

???

Re: New iMac with M4

#582
post #529

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> Or please tell me how to use the magic mouse while it's charging? Am I just holding it wrong? is that really a deal-breaking decision to buy an iMac? Yeah, sure, I agree it's super silly design that they put the port under the mouse; but c'mon, does it really matter? As far as I can tell, I have never had to explain to my 61 year old Indian mother how to use a Mac as much as I have had to debug every little thing o…

Can you read? I guess not, because I literally even wrote that it's a great OS?

It just doesn't just work and has issues. That doesn't mean that windows or Linux dont have issues. They do, they all have their warts and that's fine. But that makes the slogan "it just works" idiotic.

It has the by far best vertical integration with the least issues switching devices, sure.

That still doesn't make "it just works" a reality, because that's an unachievable pipedream!

Re: New iMac with M4

#583

Reading this on 2017 iMac 27" - is the first 5k iMac that couldn't be used as a monitor after the computer inside is irrelevant. I hope EU will push for some law that requires all AIO computers to work in monitor-only mode if internal hardware is no longer good enough or no longer supported by software updates. I love the 5k screen on this iMac but the CPU is too old for photo or video editing as software got so much…

> Apple is only "green" in their presentations - in reality they care more about inifite sales only. needs citation. I say this as someone who worked several years in engineering at Apple, and they were extremely environmentally conscientious years before it was a thing.

The iMac are the perfect example though. The horror of putting a DVI/HDMI port on that thing seemed so horrendous that they'd rather let the whole thing go to waste. Reading OP it seems like this has been corrected? But generation of generation of devices didn't have any sensible reason to exist.

Apple is also the king of integrated batteries. First with phones, then with laptops. I'm still baffled they got away with this. Such mindless waste at an incredible scale.

Being extremely environmentally conscientious while designing the packaging isn't going to offset that.

Re: New iMac with M4

#584
post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> An HDMI input would be great. There is a reason that is difficult to do: the licensing terms for HDMI require manufacturers to put DRM in place to make it impossible (or at least not straightforward) to record from an HDMI source. It's nearly impossible to meet that requirement on a computer.

You're thinking of HDCP, not HDMI. HDMI recorders exist (Elgato built an entire brand off selling them for console game streaming) but they are not allowed to speak HDCP because gestures vaguely at DMCA 1201 . In the specific case of the iMac: - USB-C video outputs are all either DisplayPort[0]. HDMI Forum was promoting an HDMI USB-C altmode but it was never implemented. USB-C HDMI adapters are all DisplayPort adapte…

Yes, that's right. Thanks for pointing that out.

https://www.makeuseof.com/hdcp-vs-hdmi-whats-the-difference/

Re: New iMac with M4

#585

Reading this on 2017 iMac 27" - is the first 5k iMac that couldn't be used as a monitor after the computer inside is irrelevant. I hope EU will push for some law that requires all AIO computers to work in monitor-only mode if internal hardware is no longer good enough or no longer supported by software updates. I love the 5k screen on this iMac but the CPU is too old for photo or video editing as software got so much…

they offer free recycling of old hardware https://www.apple.com/shop/open/free_recycling when you buy new hw see also https://www.apple.com/me/recycling/

There is a reason that the old saying is "reduce, reuse, recycle". The effectiveness is in that order: reduce consumption, reuse what you have, and recycle what you can no longer use.

There is a very straightforward opportunity here for Apple to enable "reuse". They absolutely should be doing that.

Re: New iMac with M4

#586
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now that my 27" iMac from 2020 is starting to get old and Apple will likely deprecate support for all Intel Macs soon, I really wish there was an easy way to use it as an external monitor for a MacBook. Every implementation of streaming to an iMac is hacky at best.

Yeah those 5K panels are fantastic. When I switched to a MBP M2 I got an Asus ProArt 32'' 4K and really like it. Comes precalibrated out of the box.

Were you able to see a difference between the 5k panel and the ProArt?

Re: New iMac with M4

#587

32gb RAM max? I don't understand, macbooks on battery power have 128gb, why this limitation on an always powered device

I believe it’s a limitation of the memory controller on the M4 chip. It can only address 32 gb of ram. Addressing more ram would require more die space

I hope not. This is a parallel product line instead of a successor then. Not what anyone was anticipating or looking forward to.

Re: New iMac with M4

#588

Reading this on 2017 iMac 27" - is the first 5k iMac that couldn't be used as a monitor after the computer inside is irrelevant. I hope EU will push for some law that requires all AIO computers to work in monitor-only mode if internal hardware is no longer good enough or no longer supported by software updates. I love the 5k screen on this iMac but the CPU is too old for photo or video editing as software got so much…

> Apple is only "green" in their presentations - in reality they care more about inifite sales only. needs citation. I say this as someone who worked several years in engineering at Apple, and they were extremely environmentally conscientious years before it was a thing.

>I say this as someone who worked several years in engineering at Apple, and they were extremely environmentally conscientious years before it was a thing.

Then please tell us why they can't put a HDMI/DP input on the iMac to be usable as an external monitor when the internal computer dies or just to be used as a secondary monitor?

Or why the SSD NAND on Macbooks needs to be soldered when a guy on youtube managed to hack an NVME connector on the motherboard to make the storage replaceable and expandable? What are the reasons other than driving more sales of new devices when old ones break?

Because they're clearly not technical limitations and without any substantiated info from your side, your comment just reads more like astroturfing ("Apple is so conscious, trust me bro I worked there").

Re: New iMac with M4

#589

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Putting the plug on the bottom is an intentional choice by Apple. It's because they don't want you to plug it in to charge, then never remember to unplug it. Mandatory wirelessness.

Logitech makes mice that worked plugged in and not, and they are durable too because they use a custom plastic piece around the USB connector to ensure a snug fit: https://www.logitechg.com/en-ca/products/gaming-mice/pro-x-s...

I converted a Logitech mx2 mouse from micro-usb to usb-c. When doing so I confirmed and am 100% certain that the data lines of usb are not connected on this mouse (only ground and 5V are connected for charging). The traces to the micro-usb connector do not exist. The mouse only works by bluetooth or a Logitech 2.4Ghz dongle.

Yet, when I read forums as I was troubleshooting something, I found multiple posts where someone claims the mouse doesn't work in "wired mode", and multiple people replied saying they only ever use the mouse with a usb cable and never wirelessly so surely something is wrong, leading to lots of confusion and returned mouses. In reality, the mouse can only work when plugged in if it is also paired as a wireless device.

If you think about it, the design choice to support charging only and not data makes some sense. Having a wired and wireless mode may confuse users if they don't have a Logitech driver installed that ensures settings are persistent across both modes. Apple's design is good from this point of view, it only works wirelessly and there is no design language that suggests it has a wired mode.

Logitech gaming mouses do have wired and wireless modes, but I think they generally do not have bluetooth, so presumably the mouse and/or its driver can more easily take care of persistent settings between modes by not supporting bluetooth which is constrained to support certain features.

All that being said, I believe the main reason for the port being on the bottom of Magic Mouse was simply to avoid cost of retooling for manufacturing when they switched from AA batteries to a non-removable chargeable battery.

Re: New iMac with M4

#590

Right now, the Apple computer lineup is totally out of alignment for me. The iMac is too small and the laptops are too big. I'd like a minimum 27" display for the iMac, maybe 31". For a laptop, give me something more portable, like the old 2 pound, 12" MacBook.

AFAICT the 11" Mac Air failed in the market. It did not last long in the lineup.

It was available for 6 years (2011-2017), that's hardly a failure relative to other Apple products that have only made it through 2 cycles (the most recently iPhone Mini sub-family that lasted 2 years).
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