The thinner iMac
Phil Shiller says the iMac is Apple’s number one desktop in the US and the flagship of the Apple desktop range. There have been seven generations of iMac, so the new ones are part of the eighth generation.
And what a generation it is.
The screen uses edge to edge glass, and is set inside a casing that dead on looks super thin with a 5mm edge. Apple says it’s 80 percent thinner than the previous generation, and thanks to some advanced laser welding, it’s super strong and seamless.
Apple has also laminated the display directly onto the glass, making it thinner by removing a 2mm gap of air that existed before. There’s also no optical drive, which may upset some, but gels with Apple’s iTunes streaming media future.
Oh, and there’s this technology called ‘Fusion Drive’ which is Apple’s hybrid hard drive technology combining solid state storage with conventional hard drive technology, allowing you to run the operating system from the super speedy solid state drive, but still keep lots of files on a big one terabyte drive.
As expected, you’ll find Intel Core i5 and i7 processors here, running at quad-core and part of the latest generation of Ivy Bridge 3rd generation Intel Core processors. Two Thunderbolt ports have been included, and USB has been updated to the very latest specification, with the iMac now supporting four USB 3.0 ports.
Only two sizes of the iMac will be available, keeping it inline with what Apple has already available, with the 21.5 inch iMac starting from $1,249 and the 27 inch iMac starting at $1,999.
Mac Mini
Apple’s smallest Mac has undergone a revamp with this release, updating the system with third-generation Intel Core processors, and coming standard now with 4GB RAM and at least a 500GB drive.
It’s probably the right time for a refresh, and the ports on the back now include Thunderbolt, HDMI, SDXC card slot, Gigabit Ethernet, Firewire 800, and four USB 3.0 ports.
The Mac Mini is still the least expensive Mac system out there, starting at $699 for a dual-core Intel Core i5 and jumping up to $899 for a quad-core Intel Core i7 with 1TB of storage.
I was wondering if someone could tell me if Apple will be releasing their new iMacs with a ‘retina’-type display, such as they have on their new Macbook Pros?
Sadly, no. The new iMacs are thinner, and the optical drive is gone, but no Retina type display.