March 8th event announced!

[Jorbanead]

Officially dead

Apple’s 27-inch iMac disappears from its store with no fanfare or replacement

Rumors suggest a big Apple Silicon iMac is coming, but it's not here yet.

arstechnica.com

I’ve always suspected they’re just going to use the iMac Pro name for the larger iMac. My guess is they originally had planned to announce it at the March event so they planned to discontinue the normal 27” production, but the pro got delayed.

 

[Jorbanead]

Officially dead

Apple’s 27-inch iMac disappears from its store with no fanfare or replacement

Rumors suggest a big Apple Silicon iMac is coming, but it's not here yet.

arstechnica.com

I’ve always suspected that they were just going to call the larger iMac the iMac Pro. My theory is that they originally had planned to announce an iMac Pro in March, and at the same time planned to stop all 27” Intel iMac Production. When the pro got delayed due to major display and chip shortages, they had already stopped production on the Intel iMac so they were forced to just discontinue it without a replacement.

 

[JayMysteri0]

Officially dead

Apple’s 27-inch iMac disappears from its store with no fanfare or replacement

Rumors suggest a big Apple Silicon iMac is coming, but it's not here yet.

arstechnica.com

Great.

I wanted an iMac for years, but whenever I was ready to pull the trigger there was always some transition or something supposedly about to happen. When the M1 came around I was ready again to get an iMac and instead we got 24 inch pastel colored iPads on a stand. All I wanted was a 27 inch iMac, even better if it was Space Gray, and still have the ability to add my own memory. Now my options are a desktop ( I say iPad not because it's touch, but watch any unboxing & notice how thin it is when taken out of the box ) iPad, an older model, or buying a monitor only for the same price.

It seems the lines for what Apple considers desktop pro machines is even clearly separated using price. I don't need top of the line pro stats, but I liked the "future proofing" of the base "pro" models. Now even the base price for such a machine is a few grand. For someone like myself it's just Apple telling me to go look at other monitor makers, and get used to using my Macbook Pro as a desktop as well.

 

[SuperMatt]

Great.

I wanted an iMac for years, but whenever I was ready to pull the trigger there was always some transition or something supposedly about to happen. When the M1 came around I was ready again to get an iMac and instead we got 24 inch pastel colored iPads on a stand. All I wanted was a 27 inch iMac, even better if it was Space Gray, and still have the ability to add my own memory. Now my options are a desktop ( I say iPad not because it's touch, but watch any unboxing & notice how thin it is when taken out of the box ) iPad, an older model, or buying a monitor only for the same price.

It seems the lines for what Apple considers desktop pro machines is even clearly separated using price. I don't need top of the line pro stats, but I liked the "future proofing" of the base "pro" models. Now even the base price for such a machine is a few grand. For someone like myself it's just Apple telling me to go look at other monitor makers, and get used to using my Macbook Pro as a desktop as well.

If you already have a monitor or want to go with another monitor, the base $1999 Mac Studio is equal to or better than the $3500 MacBook Pro in performance... that’s a pretty decent savings if you don’t need portability, and have an old monitor or get an inexpensive 3rd-party monitor. And if you add in the monitor, you’re pretty much right at the MBP price.

 

[JayMysteri0]

If you already have a monitor or want to go with another monitor, the base $1999 Mac Studio is equal to or better than the $3500 MacBook Pro in performance... that’s a pretty decent savings if you don’t need portability, and have an old monitor or get an inexpensive 3rd-party monitor. And if you add in the monitor, you’re pretty much right at the MBP price.

I was looking at the new monitor & mac studio as a 1 to 1 to the 27 inch iMac.

I'd like to keep my MBP as portable only, the iMac as desktop, two separate things. I basically wanted a nice iMac to replace the Mac Mini I am typing on now. Moving the monitor to another room to use with MBP should I ever begin docking it.

To replace this Mac Mini with such an option the cost of the monitor & mac studio balloons to the price of your $3K MBP. That's more than I'd want to spend. Which means I should just suck it up and think about using the MBP as a desktop when this Mini becomes too slow.

I was just shooting for personal comfort with a model that Apple used to support. Now my options are just accepting an iMac in a color that me, or just waiting some more for an iMac I'll never seem to buy.

 

[JayMysteri0]

If you already have a monitor or want to go with another monitor, the base $1999 Mac Studio is equal to or better than the $3500 MacBook Pro in performance... that’s a pretty decent savings if you don’t need portability, and have an old monitor or get an inexpensive 3rd-party monitor. And if you add in the monitor, you’re pretty much right at the MBP price.

To further my unnecessary whining, I could get a refurb 24 iMac with 16GB of memory & a whopping 256GB SSD for the price of the monitor.

In Orange.

Been looking at the Dell Ultrasharp monitors that are so recommended. If I get one, will be annoyed I didn't get one at XMas time like considered when they were on sale, and blowing out of Dells' warehouses at a record clip.

 

[MEJHarrison]

Great.

I wanted an iMac for years, but whenever I was ready to pull the trigger there was always some transition or something supposedly about to happen. When the M1 came around I was ready again to get an iMac and instead we got 24 inch pastel colored iPads on a stand. All I wanted was a 27 inch iMac, even better if it was Space Gray, and still have the ability to add my own memory. Now my options are a desktop ( I say iPad not because it's touch, but watch any unboxing & notice how thin it is when taken out of the box ) iPad, an older model, or buying a monitor only for the same price.

It seems the lines for what Apple considers desktop pro machines is even clearly separated using price. I don't need top of the line pro stats, but I liked the "future proofing" of the base "pro" models. Now even the base price for such a machine is a few grand. For someone like myself it's just Apple telling me to go look at other monitor makers, and get used to using my Macbook Pro as a desktop as well.

I'm in the same boat as you. I was hoping for a 27" iMac and was hoping that it would have a similar price to the iMac I got years ago. That doesn't look like it's going to happen now. So if I want to replace what I have with something comparable, I'd need to start with the new 27" screen.

I'd love to get the new Studio, but I just can't justify it. While I'm working at home full time at this point, I'm just a web developer. I don't need a ton of power. Not to mention, I'm just using my Mac to log into my Windows machine at work. So the heavy lifting is getting done by hardware down the road or at AWS, not what's on my desk. I don't need the Studio to watch Netflix, browse this site or do light editing on photos (light as in cropping or rotating photos I've shot). One or twice a year I might play with iMovie or tinker with Xcode. That's about the toughest things I do. Honestly, as much as I'd like the bigger machine, I'm not sure it would be put to good use. And thinking back to last year, seeing how good the base M1 is on it's own, I'm 99% sure the simple Mac mini would get the job done.

So I'd be looking at a $1,600 monitor, another $1,300 to get the Mac mini configured with the same specs as what it would be replacing. And as if that wasn't bad enough, it's another $350 to get the extended keyboard and trackpad to go with that. I was hoping to spend around $2,000-$2,500. Now I'm looking at $3,250. That's what it would take to put together my own 27" "iMac" with Apple parts to replace the iMac I have today. That's quite a bit more than I was mentally prepared to part with. That's putting it in the same category as a $30 cheeseburger. Sure it might be an amazing cheeseburger, but for $30? It's not that I can't put together $30. It's that I could get 5 so-so cheeseburgers or 2-3 really good cheeseburgers for that kind of money.

One thing I'm considering is, do I need the new MacBook I picked up in February of 2020? If I was still going to work, a laptop is a nice thing to have. Now my office is at home and it just sits on the desk next to my iMac. It's in perfect condition. If I can manage to part with that, it could take a very nice bite out of that $3,250. And it would free up some desk space as well. Although I just checked and Apple would give me $650, so it might take a small bite out of the cost.

 

[SuperMatt]

I'm in the same boat as you. I was hoping for a 27" iMac and was hoping that it would have a similar price to the iMac I got years ago. That doesn't look like it's going to happen now. So if I want to replace what I have with something comparable, I'd need to start with the new 27" screen.

I'd love to get the new Studio, but I just can't justify it. While I'm working at home full time at this point, I'm just a web developer. I don't need a ton of power. Not to mention, I'm just using my Mac to log into my Windows machine at work. So the heavy lifting is getting done by hardware down the road or at AWS, not what's on my desk. I don't need the Studio to watch Netflix, browse this site or do light editing on photos (light as in cropping or rotating photos I've shot). One or twice a year I might play with iMovie or tinker with Xcode. That's about the toughest things I do. Honestly, as much as I'd like the bigger machine, I'm not sure it would be put to good use. And thinking back to last year, seeing how good the base M1 is on it's own, I'm 99% sure the simple Mac mini would get the job done.

So I'd be looking at a $1,600 monitor, another $1,300 to get the Mac mini configured with the same specs as what it would be replacing. And as if that wasn't bad enough, it's another $350 to get the extended keyboard and trackpad to go with that. I was hoping to spend around $2,000-$2,500. Now I'm looking at $3,250. That's what it would take to put together my own 27" "iMac" with Apple parts to replace the iMac I have today. That's quite a bit more than I was mentally prepared to part with. That's putting it in the same category as a $30 cheeseburger. Sure it might be an amazing cheeseburger, but for $30? It's not that I can't put together $30. It's that I could get 5 so-so cheeseburgers or 2-3 really good cheeseburgers for that kind of money.

One thing I'm considering is, do I need the new MacBook I picked up in February of 2020? If I was still going to work, a laptop is a nice thing to have. Now my office is at home and it just sits on the desk next to my iMac. It's in perfect condition. If I can manage to part with that, it could take a very nice bite out of that $3,250. And it would free up some desk space as well. Although I just checked and Apple would give me $650, so it might take a small bite out of the cost.

The screen on the 24” iMac is pretty nice; set a few up for some people and was pretty impressed. Most people buy the silver one.

 

[JayMysteri0]

One thing I'm considering is, do I need the new MacBook I picked up in February of 2020? If I was still going to work, a laptop is a nice thing to have. Now my office is at home and it just sits on the desk next to my iMac. It's in perfect condition. If I can manage to part with that, it could take a very nice bite out of that $3,250. And it would free up some desk space as well. Although I just checked and Apple would give me $650, so it might take a small bite out of the cost.

That last one is a tough one.

As @SuperMatt suggested, if you don't have a hang up like myself with it's colors, the 24in iMac maybe a choice.

Trading in your older iMac for any of the refurbed ones maybe an option, and keep the 2020 MB for portability in case you do have to return to work. Otherwise if you are sure you aren't going back, that MB takes $650 off of a $1600 24in iMac with 16GB of memory & that 256SSD I mentioned. Your old iMac would bring that even further down.

Perhaps?

 

[MEJHarrison]

That last one is a tough one.

As @SuperMatt suggested, if you don't have a hang up like myself with it's colors, the 24in iMac maybe a choice.

That thought has crossed my mind. But I'd have a really hard time going from 27" to 24". And since I have dual monitors, then I'd need to replace that too. I'm not saying I couldn't have mismatched monitors, just that it would bug me every second of every day.

As for trading the iMac, I was thinking of passing it down to my son or to my mother.

 

[JayMysteri0]

And noooooowww they are saying...

Kuo: 2023 Mac Mini to Retain Same Design as Current Model

Apple's next-generation Mac mini will likely feature the same design as the current model, according to reputable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. In a...

www.macrumors.com

In a brief tweet, Kuo said that the refreshed ‌Mac mini‌ is likely to retain the same form factor as the current model, which is an aluminum unibody design that Apple has used for every new ‌Mac mini‌ since 2010. Earlier this week, Kuo said that the new ‌Mac mini‌ will not launch until 2023.

Kuo's claim runs contrary to a rumor from leaker Jon Prosser, who last year said that Apple was working on a complete redesign for the small desktop computer, moving to a smaller chassis with a "plexiglass-like" top.

Apple has been believed to be working on a new Mac mini for some time. It updated the entry-level ‌Mac mini‌ with the M1 chip in November 2020, but the high-end offering is still the Space Gray model with an Intel processor from 2018. The potential of replacing this older high-end model with an Apple silicon machine was previously at the center of rumors related to new Mac minis, but now it looks like both the entry-level and the high-end model may be refreshed simultaneously.

9to5Mac recently said that Apple originally "had plans" to introduce high-end versions of the ‌Mac mini‌ with M1 Pro and M1 Max chips, but these plans were "probably scrapped" in favor of the Mac Studio. Now, Apple is believed to be working on two new ‌Mac mini‌ models, including one with the M2 chip and a higher-end model with the ‌M2‌ Pro chip.

That one Apple product you're waiting for is always just about to come out, until it doesn't, then it's coming next year.

I can't care anymore.

 

[Yoused]

And noooooowww they are saying...

I would not be inclined to trust what you read on that site. A lot of bullshitters there, so I am told (rumor has it they are refining the art of BS over there the way Apple is refining the art of ARM).

 

[SuperMatt]

I would not be inclined to trust what you read on that site. A lot of bullshitters there, so I am told (rumor has it they are refining the art of BS over there the way Apple is refining the art of ARM).

I used to get all my Apple rumors here, but it doesn’t get updated anymore…

Crazy Apple Rumors Site

Satirizing the Apple world since... OMG it's been THAT long?

crazyapplerumors.com

 

[Cmaier]

I used to get all my Apple rumors here, but it doesn’t get updated anymore…

Crazy Apple Rumors Site

Satirizing the Apple world since... OMG it's been THAT long?

crazyapplerumors.com

Here‘s a rumor from me:

The chip for Mac Pro will be based on M2, not M1.

I have spoken.

 

[Yoused]

My wild rumor is that by M3, Apple will have developed a modular packaging design that will allow them to improve yields and flexibiliy by welding multiple chips together to form the SoC in a given package. Their costs will go down, which means that retail prices will remain stable.

 

[Cmaier]

My wild rumor is that by M3, Apple will have developed a modular packaging design that will allow them to improve yields and flexibiliy by welding multiple chips together to form the SoC in a given package. Their costs will go down, which means that retail prices will remain stable.

My 2nd wild rumor: M2 => ray tracing in GPU.

 

[JayMysteri0]

I would not be inclined to trust what you read on that site. A lot of bullshitters there, so I am told (rumor has it they are refining the art of BS over there the way Apple is refining the art of ARM).

My point rumor or not. Is that it seems nowadays with Apple's secrecy creating a rumor mill, the Apple product you want but didn't get will always be on the way next year. Looking for or planning for that certain Apple product nowadays if it isn't a phone, can seem like a fool's game.

 

[jbailey]

I'd love to get the new Studio, but I just can't justify it. While I'm working at home full time at this point, I'm just a web developer. I don't need a ton of power.

I’m currently using a M1 MacBook Air to do node.js development. Working from home and targeting my 2013 Mac Pro with a CentOS7 VM. Don’t ask— current client is adverse to any change apparently. Node runs fine on the MBA so I just push the code across the wire for testing. I can’t conceive of needing a Mac Studio or even an M1 Pro or Max for what I’m working on. I want a M1 Ultra Mac Studio but there is no way that I need one for what I’m working on.

 

[Roller]

I’m having second thoughts about getting a Studio Display to go along with my Mac Studio. But there aren’t many monitors with 5K native resolution. The LG UltraFine isn’t to be found anywhere, though it may become available in a couple months.

What would you suggest as a Studio Display alternative?

 

[Colstan]

I’m having second thoughts about getting a Studio Display to go along with my Mac Studio. But there aren’t many monitors with 5K native resolution. The LG UltraFine isn’t to be found anywhere, though it may become available in a couple months.

I'm with you on that setiment. I had been considering the same combination, but am now rethinking that purchase.

I picked up an unopened 21.5-inch 4K UltraFine on Ebay last Summer, for half MSRP, expecting it to be a "stopgap" before Apple released a new consumer grade monitor. However, I was expecting Apple to use something better than the seven-year old panel that has been in the 27-inch iMac. I don't need the added size, I'm more concerned with "Retina" density and would have liked 120Hz and mini-LED, so I don't see a reason to do a lateral move with the Studio Display. Plus, I'd spend the extra for the nano-texture process, adding additional cost. For me, it just doesn't make logical sense to switch, since my LG is working fine without issue.

What would you suggest as a Studio Display alternative?

That's the conundrum, there isn't a good answer to that. If you're like me and want ~219ppi then there's not much to choose from. There's the discontinued 21.5-inch UltraFine, the larger 27-inch model, and the Studio Display. Everything else is primarily targeted toward the PC market. You could try to get a 4K UltraFine off of Ebay like I did. (It's very hard, but not impossible to get a new boxed unit.) LG says that they haven't canceled the 27-inch UltraFine and plan on continuing sales once component shortages ease. The price for the LG is almost as much as the Studio Display, so I'm not sure it's worth saving a bit by going with the LG.

Hence, my advice is to do the same thing I am currently planning: wait until after WWDC. Display analyst Ross Young is still predicting that Apple will launch a device using a 27-inch mini-LED in the coming months, and he states that multiple sources in the supply chain have confirmed this. Assuming he is correct, there is no telling if it is for an iMac, a replacement for the current XDR, or something else that may fill a different part of the product line. Given that it is mini-LED, it will certainly cost more than the Studio Display, but that's probably the most that we can surmise, at this time.

So, unless you need that Studio Display to go with a Mac Studio immediately, I'd wait another three months, if possible, just to keep your options open.