Time to speak up about the disappointing iMac

[caseybb4]

Sorry folks, but it looks like Apple has abandoned the Professional Photographers on Shoestring Budgets who Like to Play High-End Video Games market segment. Drop us a postcard from Vistaville, will ya?

HA!....funny stuff.

 

[mrbolano]

Sorry folks, but it looks like Apple has abandoned the Professional Photographers on Shoestring Budgets who Like to Play High-End Video Games market segment. Drop us a postcard from Vistaville, will ya?

the funniest and most bitingly accurate insight into all the crap that's going on in this forum I've read all week.

Especially amused that the guy who replied straight after you took you at face.

oh the irony

 

[JBat]

Sorry folks, but it looks like Apple has abandoned the Professional Photographers on Shoestring Budgets who Like to Play High-End Video Games market segment. Drop us a postcard from Vistaville, will ya?

Lol!

 

[Yukon Bear]

Well I must say I like the changes overall. I like my new iMac, it is different from my 17" white...change is good.

 

[iDave]

Now, this is problem I have. If you're working on some dark stuff or watching a movie that's dark, in my opinion, a matte screen isn't going to fix it because you're losing your blacks all over the place. You will see the matte screen, just like I do on my iBook right now because I have 3 bay windows in my room and the sun is setting.

If you're going to make a point, don't use the iBook as an example. It has one of the worst TFT screens (very poor contrast) I've seen in the past half dozen years.

If you're doing creative work and color is very important in the line of work you're in, you should be doing something about your work environment. You should be able to have some control of the overhead lights so you can work comfortably without straining your eye. There are easy ways to fix the glare, like dimming the lights, or putting up something dark behind you, like artwork or a large wooden bookshelf or something, or painting the walls a dark color, or rearranging the placement of the iMac so it won't have so much glare. Change is good.

So if I buy an iMac I better be prepared to alter my envioronment? I do just fine with a high quality non-glare display without altering my environment.

At the same time, if what you're doing isn't so geared on accurate color representation and dynamic range of the color field, then yes, the reflections would be super annoying. At the same time, CRTs and tube tvs have been around for years and people seemed to get by. LCDs have only been a part of the mainstream since 1999 or so.

In the 90s many CRTs had non-glare coating applied and if they didn't you'd see a lot of people buying non-glare "screens" to put in front of their CRTs, for a reason.

If Apple thought it necessary to make such a radical change (reflective display) to the iMac I think they should provide a choice of a non-reflective screen like they do with the MacBook Pro. After all, this is the only mid-range desktop they offer. I guess the choice is to buy or not buy an iMac. Thank goodness there is still the Mac mini.

 

[LATurner]

I didn't like the look of the white iMac, so I was glad when they changed it to a metallic look. I upgraded from a PowerBook G4.

I was worried when I read the complaints here about the glossy screen, since I tend to be sensitive to reflections, but they are totally not a problem. I really don't see them unless I concentrate on looking for them. I have my iMac right beside my old matte LCD and I much prefer the iMac screen. Of course it helps that the iMac is 24" and the LCD is 19"...

 

[AlexisV]

I use the white iMac at work and the aluminium at home, both 20".

My thoughts about the aluminium:

Pluses:
- the glossy screen looks fantastic
- I have no problems with glare, even with a large window to one side
- static photos look brilliant

Minuses:
- the colour difference between the top and bottom of the screen is annoying. However, this is only really evident in OS X. In games you don't notice it.

The viewing angle would actually make it difficult to work with it in a design environment and my white iMac screen is beautifully consistent at work.

 

[Fastshutter]

I moved from a 20" 2.0Ghz G5 iMac to a new 20" 2.4Ghz C2D. I miss my matte display .

I can't seem to get the colors and saturation to my liking with the new iMac. The default color profile is MISERABLE. I'm using Adobe RGB for now, but I plan on trying to take the glass off and color calibrate the monitor that way. I'm just waiting for someone braver then I to do it first and post their results.

The glare is bothersome towards the top of my screen. I keep tipping the display down so it doesn't catch my ceiling light. I also changed my wallpaper from a moslty black image to something brighter so I don't have to stare at myself so much.

I've been playing the really dark Bioshock Demo and it is almost unplayable with all the lights turned on in my computer room due to the glare. I know their is privacy film that you can put over a display so that people can't eavesdrop on your monitor and I'm going to buy some of that and see if it would mute the glare. I only need to find it in the right size.

I'm more impressed with the video card than a lot of other people. I heard all of the horror stories and prepared for the worst, so I was pleasently surprised with 60FPS in WoW and 27-32FPS in Bioshock. Not up to hardcore gamer standards by any means but the casual gamer (myself) should enjoy it IMHO.

The speed is killer on the 2.4Ghz since I'm coming from a 2.0Ghz G5.

The "MacCoon" black and grey doesn't bother me. It fits better with my MX1000 mouse and black and silver Canon Pixma printer. The all white iMac stuck out like a sore thumb next to all of my other black and silver gadgets.

If the glass display can come off easily, I wouldn't mind paying for replacement non-glare glass or other material if Apple ever offered it as an option. I also might look into the idea of cutting the glass out of the black border altogether. I know some guys who chop up Windows boxes for custom rigs and that might be right up their alley.

 

[HLdan]

in the 5+ years that i've worked in retail (1 year of which has been selling apple product), there's one thing that i've learned that makes absolutely no sense to me:

the better a product is, the more people complain about it.

Agreed. I just signed on but I spent a good amount of time reading these posts about how horrible the new iMac is. Hardly anyone ever wants to point out the positives about it when there are so many. Complaining will be inevitable so if Apple addressed the screen complaints with a matte option and put the Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT GPU then there would be so many other complaints. LOL.

Show me an AIO in the Windows world that's better than the new iMac in features, fit and finish and form factor. Take your pick from Sony, Dell, HP and Gateway.
Sony's Vaio AIO has never been without a glossy screen and they charge a kings ransom for 19" paperweight.

 

[iDave]

If the glass display can come off easily, I wouldn't mind paying for replacement non-glare glass or other material if Apple ever offered it as an option. I also might look into the idea of cutting the glass out of the black border altogether.

If you can get the glass out, you could take it to a glass dealer and have the border area sand blasted (frosted). That should take care of the border reflection. Might look funny when the display if off though.

 

[HLdan]

Glossy doesnt bother me but I dont think its too much to ask for the option considering the premium you pay for a Mac.

Give it time. They'll probably start offering the option next year.

What premium are you actually paying? Apple's iMac is the cheapest AIO on the market. No other manufacturer makes one that even matches it in price or features.

Sony: 19" AIO. 1.66Ghz, GMA 950, 250GB HD. $1699 U.S

Dell: 20" AIO. 1.86Ghz. Radeon X1800. 120GB 5400RPM HD. $2999 U.S

HP: 19" AIO Turion 1.6Ghz. Geforce Go 7600 2GB Ram PC4200 $1699 U.S

Those are all the starting prices from Sony, Dell and HP. All have glossies and none match price, features or form factor of the new iMac which starts at $1199 U.S and is a dual boot machine. Again, what premium are you paying on the Apple?

 

[technogeek]

Style over function

If you can get the glass out, you could take it to a glass dealer and have the border area sand blasted (frosted). That should take care of the border reflection. Might look funny when the display if off though.

I figured out the reason that the new iMac doesn't have the matte option. The aesthetic goal in the new design is to make it fit in with the new iPhone look, which has a smooth piece of glass over the entire front of the device. The LCD films can't extend over the whole surface, so another layer has to be added. And herein lies the problem.

A matte surface prevents reflections by having an irregular surface that reflects light in all directions, so that the reflected light is spread over several inches of screen. That hurts the depth of black on the screen, but gets rid of reflected images. But the irregular surface also blurs the transmission of light that goes through it, so in order for the the light emitting pixels not to get blurred together, they have to be very close to the matte surface. If you add another layer, you can't make the top layer matte, or it will blur the pixels. So the top layer has to be glossy.

Reflection could be greatly reduced by using optical coating on the top layer, which the old anti-glare screens did. Those are nano-scale coatings, and so oil from fingerprints shows up on the screen, making them get dirty looking easily. Which is why Apple probably didn't go that route.

So, the style meisters at Apple are going to have to be strapped down to allow a matte version of the iMac to be released. I think that a stylish matte version could be designed with a little tweaking of the bezel so that the front glass could be dispensed with, and the junctions between metal, black, and screen could be approximated to a near-iPhone look.

 

[TSE]

Lol. I love these forums because one of the reasons is to hear crybabys.

"Why doesn't the MacBook have atleast a 8400?!?!?!?!"

"I'm not going to buy the iMac because of the glossy screen!!!!"

"I was expecting a 8800 in the new iMacs, what a bunch of BS!!!"

Truth is, Apple is a company, not a charity. If you don't like the things Apple does, simply don't buy them, and have a fabulous time on the Windoze side (haha, ya right). If enough people don't like what Apple does and doesn't buy their products Apple will either go bankrupt which you wouldn't mind since they didn't do what you wanted it to, or they will change their product line to what you guys want, but as long as Apple is growing the amazing rate it is right now, Apple is going to do what they think is right.

I don't mind anything about the way Apple is heading, except for the fact that they cap the GMA 950, and the new iMac's graphics card, which seems a little dishonest, but you know what? It's not a big deal, so I buy their products.

 

[netdog]

Okay, I've got one.

Why is the new iMac so friggin' ugly compared to its predecessor?

Somebody had to say it.

 

[Mr Mercury]

I love the glossy display and can't see or am not bothered by any small reflections there may be.

However, the screen on my 20" suffers from inconsistency. At the top of the screen, things are dark and at the bottom they are bleached out. Only in the centre are they correct.

I've tried moving around and tilting the screen but can't fix it.

Does everybody else have this problem???

I too just bought a 20"2.4GHz iMac and found that the screen is Very inconsistent,from looking at it straight on I see yellow bands down either sides of the screen and found it to be brighter at the bottom than at the top.I seem to be always adjusting the display prefs to obtain a good picture.There are times when I take a step back and the quality really is fantastic,then the next it looks plain naff.I love the rest of the new mac,but I dont know if i'll be able to put up with it much longer.

 

[stockcerts]

Okay, I've got one.

Why is the new iMac so friggin' ugly compared to its predecessor?

Somebody had to say it.

I think you have a minority opinion. I think it's an awesome looking computer! Why would any company build a product that the majority of the people are not going to like? You are never going to please everyone, and as you can tell from this thread there are lots of people that are nearly impossible to please.

 

[HLdan]

I would like my next machine to be a Mac, but I need a new machine for work purposes by early next year and I cannot tolerate a glossy screen. Period. There simply are no Macs right now that can fulfill my needs and I'm not interested in the refurb/used market.

Well that's unfortunate for you as there is a huge market of glossy LCD's right now. You don't have much of a choice, nearly all Windows PC notebooks have glossy screens with absolutely no option for matte and the majority of stand alone LCD's are glossy as well. You will have a small pick of the litter to choose from.
So many people just say, "If Apple won't take care of me I'll just go get a PC" as if you have a ton of choices on the Windows side, no you don't, think straight. The reason why Apple is making these choices you don't like is because they are becoming mainstream along with the rest of the PC industry that has already done what they are just starting to do.

 

[HLdan]

I´m hoping for a correction in the Paris event (or the release of Leopard). Even I´m not that much confident of that, it is a really smart move if that do it.

Make acessories design to mach the looks of the iMac. It´s absurd that we have a white mouse, a silver and white keyboard and a black and aluminium iMac.

IMPORTANT: Think about what we (people who buy Apple stuff) expect from Apple: great products (in design, performance and inovation).

I think the white keys look cool. It's just different. It won't look very "Apple Like" if the white wasn't shown somewhere and remember the Mac Pros come with a white keyboard and white mouse and the Mac Pro is ALL Aluminum.

The problem is you and many others expect too much from Apple in terms of aesthetics. Dell and HP pay almost zero attention to detail so why do you buy those? It amazes me how people will not breath a negative word about how ugly Dell's computers are and yet they still drop cash on them but they pick apart Apple if they don't make the damn keys on the keyboard match the computer. How shallow and anal can you be?

 

[Nick12945]

I think you have a minority opinion. I think it's an awesome looking computer! Why would any company build a product that the majority of the people are not going to like? You are never going to please everyone, and as you can tell from this thread there are lots of people that are nearly impossible to please.

Yea.... same concept with hp's SEXY all-in-one!

 

[bousozoku]

I just tried an new iMac today and it's better in person than in a browser window. (Wow! I just realised that CompUSA had them and it's not even December.)

The new iMac is quick and nice and I'm sure that it will be everything the average consumer needs from a machine. That said, I won't be buying one but I'm sure there will be plenty of people who will like it.

The keyboard has to be the worst keyboard I've ever tried. Actually, it's more an art and/or engineering piece of work than it is a keyboard. Is it worse than the puck mouse or the original iMac keyboard? I'm not sure because they were both pretty bad but I don't believe that I'd spend any more than 15 minutes with it before I got the old black Mac keyboard that I also don't like because it's better. People who hunt and peck to type might be quite happy, though.

 

[Lifegrdtwr]

I have always used a glossy screen

My G4 450 AGP came with an Apple CRT monitor that has a glossy screen.
No problems ever. I do a ton of Photoshop and Illustrator and have absolutely 0 problems.
Ordered:IMAC 24/SD
2.4GHZ INTEL CORE 2 DUO
2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB

Ships by: Aug 22 - Aug 24
Delivers by: Aug 24 - Aug 29S
I am pumped and can't wait!
Best regards!

 

[GNice]

The new iMac is great! I don't expect everyone to share my opinion. I'm a recent switcher and everyone that has seen it loves it. None if us are graphics pros. For many of us regular ole boring home consumers it rocks!

 

[maccompaq]

Yea.... same concept with hp's SEXY all-in-one!

WOW! That HP all-in-one is ugly and expensive.

 

[rainydays]

The keyboard has to be the worst keyboard I've ever tried. Actually, it's more an art and/or engineering piece of work than it is a keyboard. Is it worse than the puck mouse or the original iMac keyboard? I'm not sure because they were both pretty bad but I don't believe that I'd spend any more than 15 minutes with it before I got the old black Mac keyboard that I also don't like because it's better. People who hunt and peck to type might be quite happy, though.

You can't please everyone. Personally I think it's great. Actually, it's the best keyboard I've ever used (and I've used a lot of them).
I've been dreaming of a standalone macbook keyboard ever since I got my MB.
So it's a dream come true for me

When I had to return my iMac I went back to the old Apple keyboard, and it felt like such a huge step back. Like going 10 years back in time.

Most people seem to like the new keyboard actually. There will always be a few persons that doesn't like a product. But overall, it seems like it is a hit.

 

[imacdaddy]

Glass can be easily removed

If the glass display can come off easily, I wouldn't mind paying for replacement non-glare glass or other material if Apple ever offered it as an option. I also might look into the idea of cutting the glass out of the black border altogether. I know some guys who chop up Windows boxes for custom rigs and that might be right up their alley.

Someone removed the glass using a suction cup. It's attached with magnets which is behind the black border. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/346277/

This could mean 3rd party border pieces coming real soon! And with colour!