It’s official: the “spaceship campus” is ready to roll as the Cupertino City Council lends their unanimous approval of the Apple project at their October meeting. This month has already shown off a couple of views of the upcoming beast of an architectural project – now Apple can celebrate the initiation of the building itself. […]
Apple‘s big iPad launch event will take place on Tuesday, October 22, insiders claim, with the Cupertino firm tipped to not only reveal the new iPad mini 2 and iPad 5, but bring the new Mac Pro 2013 on-stage as well. The leaked date, according to AllThingsD‘s sources, will also see OS X Mavericks on […]
A lot of computer users out there looking forward to 4K resolution monitors allowing them to get higher-quality images and more information on the screen at one time. Sharp has a 32-inch 4K resolution touchscreen monitor that it is aiming at retail and commercial applications. The screen supports 4K resolution of 3840 x 2160. Sharp […]
The new iMac Apple introduced without much fanfare a couple of weeks ago is an evolutionary upgrade, retaining the slimline design it debuted with last year’s pre-holiday refresh, and introducing some major specification bumps under the hood. For owners of any of those machines, it probably won’t be surprising to hear that this year’s upgrade takes what was a great computer and makes it even better, especially for demanding users.
As reviewed:
Apple’s redesigned iMac is as nice this year as it was last – the slimmer profile affords it some much-needed weight savings, and the cleaner look leads to a much better overall aesthetic for a home office setup. The 27-inch model, which I reviewed, is still going to be a beefy device, but it’s no longer an absolute horror to move and reposition.
The redesign does change some aspects that users coming from previous generations should note, however – there’s no longer any optical disk drive, and the SD card slot has shifted from the side to the back, owing to the much narrower edges of the new iMac. These are worthwhile sacrifices, in my opinion, since I haven’t used an optical disc since who knows when, and while the SD slot was easier to access on the side, it’s something you get used to reaching sight unseen on the new chassis pretty quickly if you need to use it frequently.
Also for those coming from devices older than the 2012 model iMac, you’ll probably notice less glare on the glass display, and better color rendering (in my unscientific opinion). Overall, the iMac’s design, while unchanged from last year, continues to place it atop the market in terms of attractive looks for an all-in-one computer.
The new iMac offers up improved configuration options for one of Apple’s most interesting recent tech innovations – Fusion Drive. The Fusion Drive is a cocktail of software and hardware that allows Apple to offer capacious storage capacities not available affordable in SSD, but with the speed and performance benefits that come from SSD. It does this by pairing a platter drive with a small segment of flash storage, and then intelligently keeping information that’s likely to be accessed on the flash portion, while constantly shuttling less immediately relevant data on to the platter hard disk drive.
The result, for most users, is an experience that compares very well to having a totally solid state drive in terms of boot speeds, wake from sleep times, program launches and program performance. One of the big downsides of switching between a 2011 27-inch iMac and my 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro has always been that the iMac always feels like a relative dinosaur with its 5,400 RPM HDD, but that perceived gap is completely erased with the Fusion Drive in the new 2013 27-inch iMac. This is my first experience with Fusion, and it genuinely does seem like the best option for anyone wanting both storage space and speed without much compromise.
Another huge benefit of the iMac if you’re new to it, especially if you’re adding a home computer to your existing Mac notebook, is Target Display mode. Connected to another Mac via Thunderbolt, the iMac can act as a second display. It’s actually better in some ways than getting a Cinema Display, since you have the option to use it on its own, but have a smaller/lighter package to work with. It’s not a new feature, but it’s a good one to keep in mind with this device for new buyers.
The iMac’s display is likewise the same as the one found in its predecessor, but it’s an excellent screen that’s worth noting. The 2560×1440 display isn’t so-called Retina quality technically, but it gives you plenty of screen real estate to work with, and offers excellent color rendering, brightness and contrast. Plus, viewed from a reasonable distance, text still appears plenty crisp, and the screen does great work operating double-duty as a TV for watching movies and shows from a distance.
Working with two browser windows side-by-side works perfectly on the new iMac, as does tiling a number of applications including a browser, IM client, Twitter client and others. It’s also a great screen for working with windows, and compared to older models, the glare is much diminished. I’m using the review unit in a well-lit room with a window directly behind me facing the screen, and I’m still able to work on image-intensive tasks like photo editing without noticing too much glare.
Here’s where the new iMac shines, thanks to latest generation Intel Haswell processors, and much improved graphic card options on all levels of the device. The one I’ve got has the top-of-the-line Nvidia 700-series option, a GeForce GTX 780M with 4GB of dedicated video memory. It’s powerful enough that it hardly breaks a sweat running Civilization V in windowed mode at 1920×1080 resolution in addition to powering Photoshop CC, Final Cut Pro X, and any number of browser tabs and communication software.
The improved processor also makes everything feel lightning quick, and again, my first experience with a Fusion Drive from Apple has proven very eye-opening. Unless you’re working frequently with extremely large files which are processing in real-time, I see little reason to pay up to three times as more for dedicated SSD storage vs. Apple’s sophisticated hybrid tech. I’ve used aftermarket hybrid drives in the past, too, but because Apple’s solution is tied directly to firmware and system software, it provides much better performance benefits overall. The average user definitely wouldn’t be able to tell Fusion from all-flash storage.
In general, gaming performance was excellent on the new iMac, including sample tests performed using the recently released Mac App Store versions of Bioshock Infinite and Lord of the Rings: War in the North. This iMac isn’t one that will back down to a gaming challenge, though the most demanding gamers will probably still want to spec out and build their own custom Windows gaming PC if only because of library size.
Apple has provided a fairly standard upgrade for the iMac with these most recent versions, much like it does between major generational shifts for the Mac that happen every few years. But the hidden nature of these changes belies their benefits, especially for users working at the top level of the iMac’s capabilities. A fully-specced machine isn’t for everyone (the price tag alone will put most off), but barring anything truly shocking in terms of a price tag for the upcoming Mac Pro, the top of the line new iMac is the creative professional’s current best friend. And no matter the price point/configuration, Apple still definitely makes the best all-in-one available.
The Gold Master version of OS X Mavericks is now available for developers. That means that OS X Mavericks has reached the final build and is ready to go to customers. What we see in this build will be exactly what everyone sees when they upgrade to Mavericks.
     |
It has been widely believed that Apple’s latest operating system, OS X Mavericks, would see a release sometime later this month, although specific release dates have yet to be given, but it looks like those rumors could come true as the ninth beta of Mavericks has since been released to those participating in the program. Interestingly enough the latest release has dropped the “Developer Preview” from its name, suggesting that work on the software could be drawing to a close and possibly meeting its rumored October release.
The latest build is 13A598 which is close to the previous release, 13A584, indicating that there has not been major changes made to the operating system, apart from some minor tweaks which we guess is to be expected. Once again this points to the fact that it is possible that the beta could be in its final stages and it shouldn’t be too long before a Golden Master build of the operating system is announced. We’ll definitely keep our eyes peeled but until we hear from Apple officially, try not to get your hopes up just yet.
Latest OS X Mavericks Beta Drops “Developer Preview” Tag original content from Ubergizmo. 
| |
If you enjoy using your mid 2013 MacBook Air’s FaceTime HD camera, hold off on updating your notebook’s operating system. A bug in the latest OS X update, 10.8.5, disables the camera in 32-bit applications like Skype, iMovie, and Final …
| |
The teardown team at iFixit has taken the time to give a full run-down to the iMac reboot series appearing this week from Apple. What you’ll find is a build quite similar to last year’s collection of iMac devices, with a few exceptions – beyond that of the obvious upgrades. These models work with new […]
The 2013 American Customer Satisfaction Index report for Household Appliance and Electronics has been issued this week, showing Apple to continue to lead the pack in Personal Computers as has for a decade. This honor appears to be running above the industry average, with a total score of 79 shown for satisfaction in Personal Computers […]
Apple has released the latest update for OS X 10.8. This update is arriving as OS X 10.8.5 and will be available by way of the software update section of the Mac App Store. Apple is putting this out as a recommended update for all Mountain Lion users and has it listed as bringing the […]
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
