New iMac - Finally pulled the trigger.

[Warped9]

I’ve wanted a new iMac for quite some time to replace my aging, yet ceaselessly reliable, 2011 21.5 iMac (which I’m still keeping as a backup because you never know and I’m hesitant to part with such a proven and trustworthy device).

I had been excited about the new M1 iMac in 2020, but something besides circumstance stayed my hand. With its limitations in optional hardware specs I was undecided about whether or not I should wait for the next upgrade. Now in retrospect I think I would have been fine, but at the time and even now I wasn’t desperate for a new computer.

When the M3 upgrade arrived and the hands-on reviews started over the subsequent weeks and months I was convinced it was finally time to pull the trigger and order a BTO iMac. I was all ready to do it a month ago when life kicked me in the stomach—my 93 year old mother fell one evening and broke her hip.

The fall in itself wasn’t the real brake to getting a new computer—it’s what followed. The physical aspect of her hip surgery went well, but unfortunately my mother couldn’t recover from the overall ordeal of postoperative delirium. She rallied briefly, but then deteriorated and it dragged on for two weeks. Finally her heart failed and she passed away in the early morning of April 16th. I was with her in the room when she finally slipped away.

Suffice to say the events of the past month put ordering a new computer near the bottom of my list of priorities. Even now a lot of commonplace things don’t seem to matter much. Everything I do is tinged with an undercurrent of numbness.

Even so I’ve roused myself to try to get back to normal things. The second week back at work wasn’t as bad or as draining as the first week back. And ordering a new computer, after waiting so long, is a pretty normal thing.

In the end, I’ve opted not to go for a BTO iMac, at least not exactly. I’ve opted to go with one of Apple’s refurbished units to save a few bucks. No one does refurbished like Apple in treating the device like new with a full factory warranty, return policy and the option of AppleCare (not a bad idea for a refurbished device even though it will sit in one place and I’ll be the only one using it).

So this morning I ordered a silver M3 iMac with 16GB RAM, 512 SSD, USB-C to USB adapter and 3yr. AppleCare. I will pickup an Apple Magic Keyboard with numeric keypad through work on staff purchase and save a few bucks there.

It’s supposed to be delivered by Monday, May 13th. Despite my current sombre circumstance I can say, yeah, I’m a bit excited for a new machine.

Next the fun prospect of transferring all my stuff from my old 21.5 to my new M3 iMac.

 

[Regulus67]

I am sorry for your loss. I "kind of" know how it feels, as my mother died, aged 74, March last year.
But I also appreciate you story here. A personal story can be interesting to others, and I like how you explain it.

Suffice to say the events of the past month put ordering a new computer near the bottom of my list of priorities. Even now a lot of commonplace things don’t seem to matter much.

And with the rest of the story. There is still hope, and a will to go on 👍

I wish you a great experience with your new iMac. Going from a 21.5" to 24" sounds like quite a step up. And with the P3 colour space, I am sure you will love it.

 

[Warped9]

Besides transferring my data and files I’ll have to install a new copy of Office Home & Student (no 365 as I hate subscriptions) as well as SketchUp Pro (now optimized for Apple Silicon). Also have to pair up with my HP OfficeJet 8025 printer.

Then we’ll see what we shall see.


For a time I seriously considered popping for a Mac Studio Max and Studio Display, but I couldn’t get past the price for that setup, certainly not for my needs. I also briefly considered a 15in. M3 MacBook Air. I generally don’t care for the laptop configuration (for myself), but I‘m quite impressed with this one and it would have offered what I considered a good bang-for-the-buck for my needs. But in the end it would have been a big downgrade in display size for my 3D modelling. Yes, I could pair it with a larger display, but then the desk starts getting cluttered. And a spec’d MacBook Air with a larger display to connect to ends up costing more than the iMac. Yes, a MacBook Air 15in. would also offer portability, but I already have an iPad Air 5 for that which is much friendlier as a general purpose device. Note, though, I’m very interested to see the forthcoming iPad Air 6 12.9. A large screen iPad at a much friendlier price than a Pro 12.9 might compel me to upgrade much earlier than usual.

In the end my satisfaction with my old 21.5 iMac kept bringing me back to an upgraded version of that configuration for what I want out of it. And while I could afford buying a specifically BTO machine I found myself questioning the justification for that expense—what was I willing to spend for what I wanted.

 

[Warped9]

Just got my shipping notice from Apple. My new computer is expected to be delivered Wed. May 8th.

Five days early—cool!

 

[PlayUltimate]

Condolences. . . my father passed away in our home a few years ago from heart/lung issues (pulmonary hypertension).
And congrats on the new computer. Have fun.

 

[Onimusha370]

Sorry for your loss

I'm sure you’ll love the iMac, by far the most beautiful and timeless apple product I’ve ever owned, a real work of art let us know when it arrives!

 

[eRondeau]

I'm sorry for your loss. My own mother passed away in February 2015 at the age of 90. Almost a decade later I still miss her every day.

Last month I also bought an Apple Refub M3 iMac with almost identical specs as yours (16GB/1TB). In yellow. It's absolutely perfect... and the unboxing experience was equivalent to new. I replaced a Late-2012 27" iMac with it and while the screen is obviously smaller the Retina display looks incredible. I like to think my new one was on Tim Cook's desk, but maybe that'll be yours LOL

 

[Warped9]

This evening I’m using Carbon Copy Cloner to make a bootable copy of my iMac’s SSD to my external Samsung T7 500GB SSD.

I used Carbon Copy Cloner previously in 2017 when I swapped my current iMac’s SSD in to replace my original factory 512GB HDD.

I want to use the T7 copy to help setup my new M3 iMac.

 

[Warped9]

New iMac delivered today! Looking forward to setting it up tonight.

 

[Warped9]

Wow! Leave it to Apple to make unboxing a new computer feel almost like Christmas. You can’t help but feel they put some real thought into this.

At work I’ve unboxed numerous computers including Macbooks and none give you much of an experience. Apple does take extra care in their packaging while most others it feels like a bare bones “good enough” effort.

And despite this being designated as a refurbished unit it is immaculate without a mark on it. I’m impressed!

 

[Regulus67]

Wow! Leave it to Apple to make unboxing a new computer feel almost like Christmas. You can’t help but feel they put some real thought into this.

I agree that Apple has the most amazing boxes. The iMac boxes are also easy to repack, if you need to transport it.
The Mac Pro 2019 box is a work of art.

I used to build my own PCs for years, with many different cases. They always come with styrofoam parts, fit inside a regular box. Apple on the other hand makes boxes that is never a regular box, but clearly built for purpose.

 

[mitchino]

Sorry for your loss, same thing happened to my mother two years ag at 92. Avoiding falls is the key to longevity. Enjoy the iMac - I recently got my first Apple Silicon machine, a mac mini M2 Pro and I love it.

 

[Warped9]

Apple on the other hand makes boxes that is never a regular box, but clearly built for purpose.

No question.

Avoiding falls is the key to longevity.

I’m still not sure exactly how my mother fell. She was about to get ready for bed. She said she had just turned on the lamp on her bedside night table and was coming back around the end of the bed to turn off the room’s ceiling light (before returning to the kitchen to take her evening medication which I already had prepared for her). Coming around the end of her bed she must have put a foot wrong somehow and her slipper slid on the hardwood floor. Not having the reflexes of youth she couldn’t catch her balance so she fell onto her side and thus broke her hip.

I was in my own room at the moment drawing down the blind on my window when I heard a muffled thump and heard her exclaim, “Damn!” I hesitated but a second before running to her room. I found her on her back at the end of the bed. I asked her if she hit her head, but she said “no” and that she had fallen on her side. So she must have rolled onto her back in the few seconds it took for me to come from my room. She said she didn’t think she was hurt and asked me to help her up to sit on the end of her bed. I helped her up onto the bed, but it was quickly apparent she couldn’t put any weight on her right leg. We talked about what happened and how she felt for maybe 5-10 minutes before I called 911 for an ambulance. In the hospital X-rays did reveal she had indeed broken her hip.

It all seems so ridiculously commonplace yet it was enough to end her life. The hip surgery went well, but she never recovered from the postoperative delirium. And if she couldn’t recover mentally she would never recover physically. She rallied briefly, but it didn’t last and descended further into confusion and even hallucinations—delirium. I was told it was not uncommon for seniors after surgery, but if she didn’t come out of it within a few days it could not only leave lasting effects, but she would be permanently bed ridden.

In extent she wouldn’t eat and barely drank anything. On some level it was if my mother was trying to put an end to everything albeit unconsciously. She was the last of her circle of relations and had spoken before of feeling she had been left behind. It seemed she had had enough. At this point the best we could do for her was comfort management to temper any physical pain and ease her mental distress (it got scary at times).

My mother had a DNR if her heart stopped. She had thought about “a point of no return.” Now here we were faced with a similar point of no return. She already had heart issues (and a pacemaker) and without eating and being in constant delirium she would be bed ridden and weaken. My sister opined we couldn’t let her stay that way—it was nonexistence—but I had the final decision (as her power-of-attorney in regard to my mother’s health) if she couldn’t speak for herself, which now she obviously couldn’t.

In the end we opted for palliative sedation to make her as comfortable as possible and lessen her discomfort. It was heart-wrenching to decide that. She had fallen about 9:30pm on April 1st and her heart finally stopped at about 3am on April 16th. We were sleeping in her room with her when something woke me up and after a moment I felt it seemed unusually still in the room. I realized I couldn’t hear her breathing even softly. Previously her breathing could be noticeably stressed somewhat. I paused before putting my ear to her mouth and detected nothing although touching her arm she was still warm. I quietly left the room to get the nurse who quickly returned to check. The nurse confirmed my mother was gone.

It’s real, of course, but I still don’t feel it’s real. And everything I do is tinged with an undercurrent of numbness.

 

[JohnRckr]

I had M1 iMac for a while - it’s a great machine. No doubt you will enjoy yours!

 

[Warped9]

I actually didn’t set it up last night. I was distracted. I’ll do it this evening.

 

[Warped9]

Got the new iMac going this evening--I'm typing this on it.

The display on this machine is gorgeous!

My attempt to transfer data from my old iMac to new wirelessly wasn't working properly so I set up some things manually like my email accounts and such. I will now have to install a new copy of Office Home & Student as well as SketchUp Pro for Mac (optimized for Apple Silicon). I am making a Time Machine backup of my old computer and will use that to transfer the data.

I quite like the look of it, but I still think it needs an Apple logo on the chin.

 

[Warped9]

Things in Sonoma are a bit different than what I'm used to in High Sierra. I'm not sure I like System Settings as much as System Preferences.

One thing I do not like is the grey on white (or on lightish grey) typeface that Apple uses. I would prefer black on white typeface and I would also like to be able to make the typeface bigger. I sometimes find it a strain to read. You can make the typeface bigger on iPad and iPhone so you should be able to do it on iMac.

 

[steve123]

Things in Sonoma are a bit different than what I'm used to in High Sierra. I'm not sure I like System Settings as much as System Preferences.

One thing I do not like is the grey on white (or on lightish grey) typeface that Apple uses. I would prefer black on white typeface and I would also like to be able to make the typeface bigger. I sometimes find it a strain to read. You can make the typeface bigger on iPad and iPhone so you should be able to do it on iMac.

There are a couple places to do that. You can change resolution in display settings which affects sizing of everything. There are also specific font sizes you can set specifically for the UI elements.

 

[mitchino]

What happened to your mother is almost identical to what happened to mine - she was in her bedroom and must have tried to get across the room without her walker, we have no idea. Carer found her on the floor, she was taken to hospital and a broken hip was discovered. She had a repair done to the hip, not a full joint replacement, they thought she was too old, but a metal band to hold everything together. She was recovering well in the hospital, but then due to covid related bed shortages they moved her to a rehabilitation hospital. Again due to covid, we were given very restricted visiting hours, and she hated it there and quickly declined. She suddenly developed severe pain in her abdomen, was taken back to the original hospital and diagnosed with a perforated viscus. We were told this was inoperable, and she would shortly die of multiple organ failure. She accepted her fate with incredible dignity. She was given palliative care and died very peacefully soon afterwards, surrounded by her children. Unfortunately and shockingly that wasn't the end of the trauma, as 36 hours after watching her mother die, my eldest sister suffered a massive heart attack at her home and could not be saved. We had a joint funeral for these two amazing women. The double whammy was almost too much to bear, but slowly the surviving members of the family learned to live with the profound loss. It's been two years now, and I think of them every day.

 

[Warped9]

What happened to your mother is almost identical to what happened to mine - she was in her bedroom and must have tried to get across the room without her walker, we have no idea. Carer found her on the floor, she was taken to hospital and a broken hip was discovered. She had a repair done to the hip, not a full joint replacement, they thought she was too old, but a metal band to hold everything together. She was recovering well in the hospital, but then due to covid related bed shortages they moved her to a rehabilitation hospital. Again due to covid, we were given very restricted visiting hours, and she hated it there and quickly declined. She suddenly developed severe pain in her abdomen, was taken back to the original hospital and diagnosed with a perforated viscus. We were told this was inoperable, and she would shortly die of multiple organ failure. She accepted her fate with incredible dignity. She was given palliative care and died very peacefully soon afterwards, surrounded by her children. Unfortunately and shockingly that wasn't the end of the trauma, as 36 hours after watching her mother die, my eldest sister suffered a massive heart attack at her home and could not be saved. We had a joint funeral for these two amazing women. The double whammy was almost too much to bear, but slowly the surviving members of the family learned to live with the profound loss. It's been two years now, and I think of them every day.

My condolences. I simply cannot “like” such a post.

Somewhat related it can be risky going to a hospital even for the healthy. One evening shortly after my sister had come down from Oakville we went out to get a bite to eat during Mum’s hip surgery. Near the end of the meal I felt very bloated and when we stopped off at the house before going back to the hospital I soon found myself running to the bathroom every five minutes. I soon felt very tired, headachy, and even nauseous. I begged off going back to the hospital not to risk bringing whatever bug I now seemed to have near my recovering mother. My sister went by herself while I went to bed with cold shivers. I was convinced I must have gotten some form of food poisoning.

During the night I slackened my frequency to the bathroom and I was no longer shivering, but now my nausea intensified. I eventually lost everything I had eaten that day and felt wiped out. I don’t recall hearing my sister come in. However, the next morning I felt much better and pretty normal except for a mild headache and a bit if nasal congestion—the bug seemed to have largely passed. But now I found my sister in bed feeling so ill she felt she couldn't even stand. With a coffee and some toast my headache went away, but I was still congested and took a Sinutab to clear my sinuses. My sister stayed home while spent the day at the hospital with my mother alone while she recovered (or at the time we had thought she would be recovering).

I did not feel quite one hundred percent, but I managed. My sister also felt better the next day, but couldn’t understand how I could even stand on my feet with this bug. It couldn’t have been food poisoning given we had not eaten the same thing. We each must have picked up something, that affected us somewhat differently, while we had been at the hospital with Mum for an extended period.

I can only deduce if you want to stay healthy don’t go to a hospital.

 

[Warped9]

Woo hoo!—I can now use Airdrop on my Mac. For some reason my older 2011 21.5 would not allow use of Airdrop with my current iPad and iPhone, but my new one does.

And my new version of Safari allows visits to certain websites my High Sierra version of OS would no longer allow.

Time Machine transfer from old to new went smoothly. Next is to replace or update programs that couldn’t cross over.

Progress!

 

[steve123]

I can only deduce if you want to stay healthy don’t go to a hospital.

Agreed. Best thing is to get your loved one out of that environment as quickly as practical and back into the care of a physician that knows their history.

For some reason my older 2011 21.5 would not allow use of Airdrop with my current iPad and iPhone, but my new one does.

When you have acquainted yourself and are comfortable with the new mac, you can still get quite a bit of life out of your old mac by upgrading it to Sonoma. Max out the memory if it is not already max. Replace the spinning disk with an SSD. Then install Open Core Legacy Patcher. You can then install/upgrade your mac to the new OS.

 

[Warped9]

you can still get quite a bit of life out of your old mac by upgrading it to Sonoma. Max out the memory if it is not already max. Replace the spinning disk with an SSD. Then install Open Core Legacy Patcher. You can then install/upgrade your mac to the new OS.

^^ My old 2011 already has an SSD and 32GB RAM. I am keeping it as a backup.

 

[steve123]

^^ My old 2011 already has an SSD and 32GB RAM. I am keeping it as a backup.

Perfect candidate for an OCLP update. Carefully read the installation procedure so you understand what to do. It is great to be able to run the latest OS on these old machines. There are a few issues related to apps that use the AVX2 instruction but generally Sonoma works very well for a lot of people. Of course you could choose to run Monterey instead but security updates will soon end for Monterey.

 

[Scoot65]

Please accept my condolences.

My mother died four years ago aged 89 and my father died two years ago aged 94. I miss them every day. I'm a 59 years old guy and I often feel like a little boy whose desperately looking for his Mam and Dad and once he finds them and is with them, everything will be OK............. unfortunately I'm never going to find them and be with them again.

I hate this feeling, but I took some comfort when I read an article which stated " you get through it, yes, and you'll probably get used to it, but you don't get over it. "

As we grieve the passing of our parents, we must give ourselves time, start to enjoy life again and always remember that our parents would want us to be happy. They wouldn't want us to be unhappy.