Apple discontinues eMac, intro's $900 education iMac

[Mike Tesh]

Where did Jane come from? The way I always heard it was Tom, Dick and Harry. :)

[Boyd Ostroff]

Originally Posted by Heath McKnight

go with a Mac laptop and buy Windows XP Professional and use Bootcamp to boot up into Windows and cut away on Vegas.

It's getting even easier than that. Vendors are now shipping Macs with WinXP pre-installed; MacMall has this as an option on all the new Macs for about $150 more. Saves you the hassle of going through the install process. Apple is expected to release MacOSX 10.5 on August 7 at WWDC. That version will eliminate the need for "bootcamp" and include the ability to switch operating system at boot.

I was just reading an article about how Apple is expected to gain market share due to Windows compatibility: http://www.forbes.com/2006/07/10/app...markets07.html

"Judging from consumer interest, it is reasonable to believe that Boot Camp will play a significant role in Apple gaining market share over the next twelve months," wrote analyst Gene Munster in a report to investors Monday.

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Not a good time to buy a laptop right now anyway... At least not for the next month or so. The Core 2 Duo "Merom" CPU is just a couple weeks from shipping to system integrators. It's nearly 60% faster than current Core Duo CPUs and it has full 64bit support. :)

So, once "Merom" hits we should see some discounts on current CoreDuo notebooks as well as the new more powerful offerings. As for which notebook to get, the MacBooks are where it's at right now and I've researched notebooks to death lately. I'm hoping to buy a 15" MBP with Merom CPU and BluRay drive sometime this fall.

[Steven Davis]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kilgroe

Not a good time to buy a laptop right now anyway... At least not for the next month or so. The Core 2 Duo "Merom" CPU is just a couple weeks from shipping to system integrators. It's nearly 60% faster than current Core Duo CPUs and it has full 64bit support. :)

So, once "Merom" hits we should see some discounts on current CoreDuo notebooks as well as the new more powerful offerings. As for which notebook to get, the MacBooks are where it's at right now and I've researched notebooks to death lately. I'm hoping to buy a 15" MBP with Merom CPU and BluRay drive sometime this fall.

Thanks for that Jeff.

[Daniel Hollister]

Not only that, but the MacBooks and especially MacBook Pros are buggy as hell. I own a MacBook, and while I like it, it does have some issues that would prevent me from using it as my main system, nor would I trust it with data that was not somewhere else. This is to be expected of a first-line Apple product. These are their first Intel computers ever, and there's bound to be bugs.

The MacBook Pros, however, are worse. Many have issues. I have a friend who brought his in for repair four times and it is still messed up. Apple really wanted to kick them out the door fast in time for MacWorld, and in doing so they left them prone to error. Of course, many of them work fine, but for someone serious about their data, I really wouldn't chance it yet.

I would wait for a revision before buying. I personally will probably buy a Pro when a revision comes out.

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Yeah, there's been a lot of reports of bugs/glitches/issues with MacBook and MacBook Pro systems. But it's not quite as bad as Daniel makes it sound. I personally know several people who have bought the new Intel Macs, including myself. I bought a 17" MBP to replace a 17" HP notebook... I don't use it myself, it was for an employee of mine, but he's using it daily for presentations and runs Photoshop and InDesign on it regularly with no issues now after a few months. I also bought a new Intel iMac for my father and he's been [ab]using it for about a month now with no troubles. OTOH, I do have a friend that bought a MacBook for his daughter and it was DOA right out of the box from Apple. I'm assuming they swapped it and it's OK now but haven't really followed up.

But do a search on it or just check out the Apple section over at notebookforums.com. There's links to issues that range from the power connector melting to batteries leaking and GPUs overheating, etc... What can we expect though... New models, rushed out the door, poop happens. Hehe. All the more reason I've been waiting for newer revisions with the Merom CPU. :)

FWIW, Dell and HP aren't doing much better with their new notebooks.

[Steven Davis]

Yeah Jeff,

I'm looking for a portable office that I can do v/editing on. My day job and video job are competing for my brain cells and time more and more, so it's looking like a laptop is in my 2006 future.

And you're right, I don't need one that is going to give me a lot of trouble. So I'll look up that link and start reading.

[Steven Davis]

Originally Posted by Mike Tesh

Where did Jane come from? The way I always heard it was Tom, Dick and Harry. :)

I'm an artist Mike, I have problems with norms. :}

[Heath McKnight]

The stories I've heard about MacBooks and Pros are very isolated. Even Dell is having issues with "bursting into flames" laptops:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/07/...iness/dell.php

heath

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Originally Posted by Steven Davis

Yeah Jeff,

I'm looking for a portable office that I can do v/editing on. My day job and video job are competing for my brain cells and time more and more, so it's looking like a laptop is in my 2006 future.

And you're right, I don't need one that is going to give me a lot of trouble. So I'll look up that link and start reading.

As Heath said, the problems are very isolated. Apple has pretty good support (probably the best out there) and a nice warranty on their systems. Actual failure rate on these MacBook[Pro] systems is probably just a few % with less than 1% being serious issues like parts melting or whatnot. But just like any complex device, there's always that chance something could happen. No matter what solution you finally decide on, be sure to have a good backup solution in place. Laptops used in the field on a daily basis are far more likely to fail than a desktop computer, regardless of who manufactures them or what OS they run, etc.. Also, while I do a good portion of my work from a laptop, I couldn't imagine using it for an all-in-one solution. There are just too many things a laptop or compact computer can't do.

[Heath McKnight]

Get this (from macrumors.com):

"Multiple readers report that Apple's $899 iMac has been designated as an education institution purchase only product.

From http://www.apple.com/education/imac/
$899 configuration of the 17-inch iMac is available for education institution customers only.

For the past week, the education-only iMac had been available to both qualified education individuals and institutions. There has been no official explanation from Apple on the quick change."

That stinks! Only schools can get them, not customers!!!! Probably not making much money...But, think of the software!

heath

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Originally Posted by Heath McKnight

That stinks! Only schools can get them, not customers!!!! Probably not making much money...But, think of the software!

I never read Apple's official announcement for the $899 "education" iMac, but I assumed this was the case just by how they were announcing/promoting it.

Too bad if it is true, that's quite a bargain, even though it's a very basic config.

[Boyd Ostroff]

That could be right. I just went to one of Apple's educational online stores for personal purchases. The cheapest iMac is $1200.

[Nick Jushchyshyn]

Yeah, same here logging with my Academy of Art University student id.
I think it used to show the $899 option when this announcement was first released.

Oh well ... I'm still waiting for the workstations. :)

[Djee Smit]

Must say that Apple got nice discounts anyway for students, saved quit some money on my powermac g5 and ipod video :-)