New iMac / Keyboard

Apple's first USB keyboards and mice were intentionally awful. Here's why - after ditching ADB - Apple had to create a market for USB devices. And sure enough - that awful keyboard and mice combo did the trick. Now, I'm sure they have their reasons for this. We just won't see them for a while.

is there an online video of the event somewhere??? i did a little looking and looked in iTunes, but i couldn't find anything except for a transcript of it.......

The video isnt online yet, the event just ended literally 3 minutes ago.

here is some coverage:

http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/07/live-from-apples-summer-mac-product-press-conference/

yah, thats the same thing that i saw....
i keep forgetting that apple is in california and i am in new york..... so there is a large time difference :-)

looks nice though

OK, Apple.com and the store are back live again with the updates... Mac Mini got an update / speed bump as well. - Although, it wasn't mentioned at the event at all.

Remember a while back when the "Big Event" was the "Apple HiFi and some stupid iPod cases"... yeah, this was better than that.

:-( not for me yet.... it still says will be back soon

but is that a powerbutton on the side of it?!?!?!

It's got the powerbutton logo! Are they making a comeback finally?!?!

That will be very nice. It's *VERY* annoying having to reach around the back of the iMac intel Core2Duo to turn it on. Would be nice if I could just slap the button on the side of the keyboard and away I can go. Let's hope!

umm... It's highly doubtful that there is a power button on there... And if there is, it would probably only work for Power OFF. the Power button on the orig iMac USB keyboard was kind of a kludge that was not really USB compliant anyway...

This is what apple has to say about it:

The Apple Keyboard has been completely redesigned, inside and out. It features an elegant, ultra-thin anodized aluminum enclosure with low-profile keys that provide crisp, responsive feel. It also has function keys for one-touch access to a variety of Mac features such as screen brightness, volume, eject, play/pause, fast-forward and rewind, Expose, and Dashboard. Its extended layout includes document navigation controls and a numeric keypad. And two USB 2.0 ports provide high-speed connectivity for your iPod, Mighty Mouse, digital camera, and other USB-based electronic devices.

Right side of the keyboard

You're probably seeing the power on button for the Bluetooth model...

I think that that is the Wireless Keyboard's Powerbutton. Oh well, one can only dream.... *sigh*

edit: Hah! someone got me before I realized it. Oh well, i came to the realization before I saw protocols. Was just in the middle of writing this post

Coius, on a Mac, it is only necessary to use the power button once. Once its on, it stays on. You can use it more, but you only have to use it once. Personally, I think they should do away with them altogether, and just have the Macs boot when you plug them in!

that would NOT be cool. especially since if you wanted to put it away for the week or two weeks, you would either have to remove the battery, or run it till it goes all the way down, and then recharge it later. That would put excessive strain on the battery should apple ship them and have the batteries already dead when you get them. The other thing is, what about with the Mac Pro when you want to reduce the power and need to turn it off. I wouldn't want to have to move to the back of the desk if it was on the floor and unplug and then plug it back in.

There are a lot of reasons why there should be power buttons. If you go away for the weekend, you don't want it to sit on all the time, or have it off, and then have to plug everything back in when you come back.

I use the powerbutton on my PC a LOT in my room. that's because I can do a one-touch shutdown with windows, even when it's headless (which a few of my machines run, like servers) and walk away.

Not to get on you, but removing powerbuttons cause a whole lot of problems when you need to cut power to something immediately, especially in an emergency. If the iMac is emmiting a horrible screech, I don't want to have to frantically try to search for the powercord at the wall to shut the stupid thing off.

PowerButtons have to be THE best invention in electronics.

It's the ULTIMATE power Saving, and Life Saving device there is

Awesome. Now even the color matches.

--Peace

Like I said... use it if you want... but you only need to use it once. The system prefers to stay up, and always (at least until a 'reboot' update), regardless of a personal preference to shut it down when its not being used.

ok, can't argue with that. Before the buttons, we couldn't get anything to turn on, could we?

I think we can all agree that the new keyboard is, if nothing else, easier to keep clean, and the transition to USB 2.0 is way, way overdue. As for the iMac, I'm disappointed by the glossy displays, but everything else about the new design looks quite nice (wouldn't it be nice if the tidied up the interior design too?)

yeah, I'm willing to bet that as a tech or computer guy, this model is probably even more cramped to work on... TBH it almost seems like a tablet with a foot on it as far as form factor goes. (Maybe the next revision will lift off of the base and have multitouch if you want to walk around and use it as a tablet... ok, maybe not a 20 or 24" tablet really IS too big. lol)

I'm sold though - I would like a new iMac - my G4 Mini KILLS me when I'm using FinalCut

And, I'm still up in the air about the new keyboards... while they may be nice to look at - Im afraid that ergonomics went out the window on this, and that it probably wont be to nice to use. But i'm going to have to try one first..

By the way - does it seem like apple may be "peppering" their own store with bogus reviews? I mean there is already a user submitted review for the new keyboard on the site, and it shows a 3-5 day wait before shipping.

Honestly, I'm impressed by the new iMacs. Oddly enough, I had to put together a purchase proposal for a new iMac for a new department member this morning. He'll be getting one of these new iMacs. Hopefully, my local Apple rep will be able to snag one for me in time.

I've been nothing short of pleased by the reliability and ease of management that the Core/Core2Duo iMacs have offered. I have about 20 of them under my care, not counting the 20" Core 2 Duo on my desk. Great machines, easy to live with, not very needy. Here's to hoping the new iMacs are just as good, if not better.

Very cool construction, glass front panel is held on with a series of magnets (in the case) which stick to a steel band glued to the glass. To access the iMacs' guts, the glass must be removed, using a pair of suction cups.

Keeping the glass's interior and the LCD face clean are a major issue when servicing, special tools and procedures needed . . .

Hmm, I forget, did the previous gen iMac use a separate video card as well?

dan k

Number pad is on the new wired one. Not on the new wireless one. I think they look great. I got bluetooth to work on my imac g3 dv with my cell phone. I wonder if the new wireless keyboard will work as well. Getting one if it does. That's about all I can afford.

Is that so? That's.. incredibly weird and cool. The old 24" iMac had a separate video card, yes. Do both sizes have one now?

The video card in iMac's is now modular? Do folks think that these are now fast enough to be considered "gaming worthy" machines? The possibility of a swappable video card is intriguing.

Also, are these monitors LED backlit like the new macbooks?

Mutant_Pie

Yep, both 20" and 24" have separate video cards with mongo-huge heatpipe/radiators on 'em. I don't know enough to be able to ID the card as a standard formfactor, but I'd imagine it's some sort of mini PCI Express sort of jobbie. Is there such a thing and what sort of other cards might be available one wonders?

Both models use inverters, so it looks like no LED-lighting on this gen iMacs.

dan k

The 24" iMac used a PCI Express MXM connector for the video card, and I'd bet that the new iMacs have the same kind of slot. It would be a great expansion route except for the utter lack of MXM video cards (especially ones that are blessed by Apple).

The black logo looks ok, but that black band around the display sucks. Otherwise it seems to look nice. I'm sure it might grow on me, but there has to be something they could have done instead of that wide stripe...

The new iMac is pretty great. I just set one up for an end user today. It's a great enhancement over the outgoing iMac (I have one on my desk at work). It's nice - the case is much smoother, far more seamless than the outgoing design.

Performance is good. The value proposition on the new iMacs is great. I put together a proposal for the outgoing machine and then the new machine (the release came after I was tasked with the proposal). The model is 240 mhz faster, has an extra 70gb of hard drive space, and was close to $30 cheaper when all was said and done. (apple now ships them with 1 - 1gb module instead of a pair of 512mb chips, making upgrading to 2gb easier, cheaper, and less frustrating).

All tolled, I am impressed. However - the new iMacs no longer have the magnet in the case to hold the remote.

They removed the Open-Apple Logo on the command key

*sniff* we knew thee well...

Apple seems to be changing everything that made apple, well... Apple

Who else here loved the rainbow mac logo . dont be shy i know your out there . thats like the only reason i bought a mac classic. sigh

And that's gonna change how I've been dishing out help for a long time. I always think "Command-Z" for undo, but for people who are new to the Mac I have to stop myself and say "Apple Key-Z". Now I'll probably have to ask whether their key has an Apple on it or the word Command.

I can't understand why they didn't keep the Apple on it and add the word Command to it. Seems kinda silly to drop the Apple after all these years.

The black stripe is a no-brainer. The last model iMac was styled to look like a giant iPod, this one looks like a giant iPhone.

Take it as a bonus that it *also* makes it looks like a TRS-80.

(Sorry, just can't get over that. What's old is new again.)

--Peace

Is that pretty impressive, or is it just me that's impressed?

I need to buy a new Mac this week for a new employee, and I'm torn between going with a new 20" base model (and adding a second monitor to it) or with one of the refurbished 24" models available through the Special Deals section. The new 20" goes for $1,199, and the refurbished 24" is $250 more, but also has a slightly faster processor...

Gah! Somebody tell me what to do!

I would go with the new iMac all the way. We have a new person coming in on Monday. It was either wait until the 21st for our Apple rep to get us one, or walk two blocks to the Apple store (which I hate doing - they're a bunch of idiots there).

I braved the Apple store, got the iMac, and got it set up. It's an absurdly good value.

Though, the 24" iMacs are pretty darn great - I've got half a dozen of them under my care - they've proven to be rock solid - provided you get an off the shelf config. (the CTO units we ordered had a 50% DOA rate, while off the shelf was 100% good) The only problem with the 24" iMac is that it is so darned big. Too big for my desk.

I would go with the new iMac all the way. We have a new person coming in on Monday. It was either wait until the 21st for our Apple rep to get us one, or walk two blocks to the Apple store (which I hate doing - they're a bunch of idiots there).

I braved the Apple store, got the iMac, and got it set up. It's an absurdly good value.

Though, the 24" iMacs are pretty darn great - I've got half a dozen of them under my care - they've proven to be rock solid - provided you get an off the shelf config. (the CTO units we ordered had a 50% DOA rate, while off the shelf was 100% good) The only problem with the 24" iMac is that it is so darned big. Too big for my desk.

So far, there has only been one problem - the Applecare system doesn't acknowledge serial numbers for the new iMacs, so you have to call in and spend 20-30 minutes with someone on the phone to get the Applecare contract tied to the computer.

I don't buy anything without Applecare - as far as work is concerned anyway. (having a logic board go on an iMac G5 (iSight) one month out of warranty and having to plead with Apple to sell us applecare because my predecessor didn't believe in Applecare - I refuse to buy anything without it. Less work and hassle for me in the long run.

Any opinion regarding the glossy screen? The engadget photos made it look like it'd be quite annoying to use at an angle, or they were under abnormal lighting.

I'm also curious how the keyboard feels. I've got a fondness for slightly contoured keys, so I think my current white Apple keyboard will be sticking around.

On a related note:

When I'm writing code I like to have two monitors since I tend to expand windows to fill the available space and one monitor for documentation is a nice way to code. I was looking at getting an iMac 17" and screen spanning with another 17" monitor. The 20" seemed too big. I currently use the last gen of the 12" Powerbook and a 17" monitor.

I'll probably end up getting one of the 20" because that seems to be the smallest option. Is there any way the Mini can drive two displays? I don't really want a Mac Pro or another laptop, but I do need an Intel machine for testing and I'm fairly dependent on my dual displays.

The glossy screen doesn't bug me for one main reason ... the gloss is from the glass - which I can handle, in fact I dare say that I actually like it more than the screen on my 2.16 ghz 20" iMac. Now, the glossy screens on the MacBook and MacBook Pro - those have earned themselves a special place in ... as far as I am concerned.

The keyboard is going to have more of a learning curve than the keyboards on the 13" MacBooks - on those machines - there wasn't much of an elevation difference - because everything is relative due to the built in wrist rest. With the new keyboard - it's so small and slim - it will take a good deal of getting used to. As for the flat keys - that too will take getting used too. I prefer the white Apple keyboard that came with my 2.16 ghz iMac.

Unfortunately, the Mac Minis are limited to just one monitor. I think that you'll be happy with the 20" iMac - it doesn't feel as big and bulky as the outgoing 20". I can safely recommend it. Also, the iMacs don't have the option of the cripple-tacular GMA-950 video chipset anymore. The Mac Mini is the same as it's always been - just got a new chip popped in. (the machines with integrated video graphics have proven to be a support nightmare for when people want to use Parallels - dedicated video memory makes a world of difference - and is worth the premium)

The new iMac is a machine that pictures can not do any justice to. In pictures - I felt bleh about it. In person, it was "wow, this is freakin sweet". It comes with a cleaning wipe for the screen. (this made the OCD part of me very very happy)

For all of the Apple techs - check out the service manual on gsx for the new iMacs - there are some pretty great OCD shenanigans that are a bit much - even for freaks like me.

Good. I'll have to check one out in person. The photos on the Apple site make it look like the 'chin' is a bit less prominent in this version, but I wasn't sure if that's just because there's no 17" photo to compare it to.

heh heh, well, maybe. It is quite a comprehensive procedure, as iantm alludes. A fancy silicon roller, special wipes, a special storage pouch, etc.

Still, with 3 surfaces to attract and hold dust, of course Apple's not taking any chances having folks' machines returning from service visits with dust anywhere on the display. Visible dust inside wouldn't make anyone happy, OCDers or not.

dan k