Mac & Dan blogbin » iMacs http://www.macndan.com/blog A blog for cool Macintosh technology and technnical digital content Wed, 14 Nov 2007 17:35:15 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 iMac 20″ Duo Core http://www.macndan.com/blog/2006/03/22/imac-20-duo-core/ http://www.macndan.com/blog/2006/03/22/imac-20-duo-core/#comments Wed, 22 Mar 2006 16:11:40 +0000 dan http://www.macndan.com/?p=25 With little debate I finally decided to buy one of the new Duo Core 20″ imacs. I would have to say that so far I have been very impressed with the overall design and functionality of this new Mac. Non native software runs very fast under Rosetta. In a comparison, MS Office suite 2004 running on a G4 1.5 gig processor is about the same give or take a few nano-seconds. The speed difference is so negligible I doubt anyone would notice the difference. The Adobe CS2 suite is marginally slower but nothing that isn’t workable. The screen is bright and beautiful and the small footprint makes it ideal for small workspaces. I also like the new built in iSight camera and the magnetic latch for the small remote. This time the remote works like it was intended to with Apple’s Front Row media suite. Airport wireless reception is very good without any wake from sleep disconnect issues. After a month of use performance is exceptional without a single reboot. No kernel panics and permission corruption’s.

Through the progression of change I believe Apple has done it right this time. (I remember not too many years ago when Apple made their first migration to the Power PC architecture and the nightmare everyone suffered for the duration of the change. Apple has successfully avoided the problem this time.)

So far I have found very few non-universal binary software that will not run on the iMac Duo Core. At the rate they are turning their product line over to the Intel processors, iMac, Mini, MacBook Pro all that is left to be introduced is a pro desktop model and a consumer iBook model to fill their line up. At the current rate I expect Apple to fill these slots by no later than the end of this year.

The question arises as to whether or not it would be a good time to make the switch to the Mac Intel machines? My response is yes. Apple’s quality on their current product lines has been well received and that is an excellent mark for any initial new product release.

]]> http://www.macndan.com/blog/2006/03/22/imac-20-duo-core/feed/ 1 Before I forget – there is just one more thing… http://www.macndan.com/blog/2006/01/13/before-i-forgetthere-is-just-one-more-thing/ http://www.macndan.com/blog/2006/01/13/before-i-forgetthere-is-just-one-more-thing/#comments Fri, 13 Jan 2006 02:35:36 +0000 dan http://www.macndan.com/blog/?p=17 Some day that phrase will be immortalized in the memory of Steve Jobs. How many Apple Keynote shows have we all watched and heard these words? No new surprises other than simultaneous hardware releases of both the MacBook Pro and the iMac Intel. Most analysts felt that Apple absolutely had to get the professional laptop product out the door to accommodate the demand or risk losing their market share. A new pro laptop, Intel iMacs, and new versions of the iLife suite. Personally the release of the new iLife suite is what excited me the most. The only thing that I was surprised by was that Apple had only provided a single 400 firewire port on the MacBook Pro. I would have rather liked to see an 800 firewire port instead. I’m concerned that once Apple kills firewire off for good how are users going to be able to boot externally? They must have something in the pipeline that will accommodate this need. It reminds me of the time between the first release of the original iMac and the third generation iMac when Apple discontinued using SCSI in favor of USB. Unfortunately the only device you could boot off besides the internal HD was the CD rom drive . I suspect that Apple had to make some concessions to Intel by dropping the Firewire preference in their product line (noted first with the USB only version iPods) in favor of Intels USB 2.0. I just hope that the new marriage with Apple and Intel will not deal death to the better product. Hint…hint.

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