new imacs

[markcuk]

hi everyone

 

if you didn't know apple have updated the imac range, ilife 08 finally released and also iwork 08 also the mac mini has been updated

 

 

cheers

 

mark

[sqdge]

My word they look good. After all, who couldn't want a ultrathin anodized aluminum enclosed keyboard?!

 

Now, who wants to buy me one?

[Rozzer]

beat me to it lol.

 

You can read here on some of the updates: http://www.macrumors.com/2007/08/07/new-imacs-released/

 

Ross

[bishopsgarthstockton]

always wanted one, just never been able to afford it

[eastlondon]

We are luckly we waited to place our order for the Music Dept.

Now they get 20 New iMacs

And the Head of 6th Form even wants a 24" 2.8GHz for her office (I guess it will be a lazy Mac, only doing MS office)

[VGeek]

I am not a mac fan admire from a far. I have been brainwashed at an early age that windows is the best operating system. However I have started to branch out to linux which I find more creative than windows. However Apple macs maybe something that performs and looks gr8 but I am a programmer don't need things to look gr8 just perform I sticking with ubuntu and windows . Gotta say off the subject of macs Vista is a waste of space after a couple of service packs I might change my mind.

[webman]

I wouldn't waste my money on anything from Apple They offer nothing I want or don't already have elsewhere.

[ZeroHour]

Imagine what the heat will be like on that aluminum case with the sun lol.

[gaz350]

so that will be a problem for all of what? 2 weeks a year

[GrumbleDook]

Having been on holiday I missed the announcement. I forced myself to have no Net access at all just to see if I could manage and I almost made it all the way home without finding out what had gone on apart from an overheard conversation of two Swedes at breakfast. As soon as they started talking about the Macs they were speaking English and I caught a few things like "really shiny and will look good in the office" and "I glad she didn't find out I saved some money on this trip so I could get a new one" ... but not much detail about what Apple have done.

 

I will be ordering 15 on Monday.

[webman]

I trust you have made a sensible and methodical analysis of making a purchase of such expense for new technology, Tony?

[GrumbleDook]

Must .... resist .... try .... not ... to ... comment ... and .. allow ... the ... unbelievers ... to ... besmirch ... the ... holy ... name ...!!!

 

Yep ... we had already done an analysis of using PCs rather than Macs to deliver the Media Technology course, visited a number of schools and then looked at the amount of time required for staff to prepare resources so on.

 

I was more in favour of PCs as it would mean I could make the room available for the Graphics / Product Design courses, but the teachers and students wanted the Macs.

 

I am actually looking to see if I can get the old models if they are available at a decently cheaper price. That would allow me to pick up a few more extras too.

[john]

but the teachers and students wanted the Macs.

 

You asked teacher and students 8O , your crazy. They have this weird belief that you must have a Mac to do design / art /media which is absolute rubbish!

 

I was talking to a few people I know that are at uni (or have been to uni) doing Art / Design / Music Tech, fine they all said yes they have some macs but one uni (I've forgotten which) is actually binning the Macs as they don't see the point, as they all said that a PC can do what a Mac can do, and why make more work for overloaded IT techs, when just fitting 40 PCs to the existing PC network will work just as well and will be simpler to support as the staff are all PC trained.

 

So I would never give in to a Mac demand, they belong anywhere but in my places.

[GrumbleDook]

I am still trying to work out why people see Macs as a serious addition to the workload of a support team?

 

User needs are one of the prime reasons we have the systems that we have, and to find out what is needed it means talking to the people that will be using the kit (or are already using existing kit).

 

I am not going to get into the usual flame war about what is best Macs or Windows based beige or black boxes (remembering that Macs are also windows boxes now!) but I will repeat that I believe that you should have a mixture of platforms and applications to help students learn and develop transferable skills.

[scgf]

Do you know, I was just going to write Here Here, then realised I didn't know whether it was Here Here or Hear Hear!! So I've now written it both ways, and either way it look silly. Must be the heat!

 

Anyway, GrumbleDook, I so agree with your sentiments on transferable skills. We've ordered 21 17" iMacs directly from Apple for the Music department mid-July and were given a date of mid-August for delivery. I can only assume we are going to get the new 20" iMacs - surely there's no way they'd send us old stuff?

 

I get so irritated doing stuff on Windows machines - the workflow is always so clunky compared to Macs. My network manager doesn't like them though - he only likes Microsoft. reminds me of a quote I read recently - may have been on this forum:

 

"Most "IT Professionals" are not actually "IT Professionals", they are just Microsoft junkies. All they know is Microsoft, and plugging various Microsoft systems together (or, trying to, anyway). To be an "IT Professional" you would actually have to have a solid understanding of protocols, and their capabilities."

 

It's his age, bless him, he's in his early twenties and Microsoft is all he's ever known. Since he dismisses everything else, its all he will ever know too :-(

[GrumbleDook]

Don't get me wrong ... I like and use MS systems ... I like and use Apple solutions ... I like and use a variety of *nix solutions.

 

I just don't see why people get so bothered about schools that choose to go down a particular line ... especially after they have sat down and worked out which will have the most impact.

 

Then again, I also get tired with vampire threads cropping up ... and trolling can be amusing when done properly, but it gets boring when people say the same thing again and again in spite of people actually spending time responding to them in earlier threads. It actually detracts from the discussions particular forums are made for.

 

Back to the original topic ... it looks like I might be able to get a good deal with the older Macs so I will pick them up instead of the new ones ... but it means getting an order in first thing on monday morning.

[DMcCoy]

Macs take less time to manage when they work. They take more time to manage when they don't.

 

Macs are much less painful without OS X server. I feel quite qualified to talk about it now seeing as I've been using it for over a year here and have even done the apple server courses.

 

OS X server is *usable* with AD integration if you have unix and scripting experience, you will send a lot of time at the command line. As a "Managed" network OS, OS X is rubbish (so was windows for a long time).

 

As a client the Mac experience has gradually become more enjoyable, now that we have the nice native CS3 rather than CS2 crashes have mostly been eliminated. Like windows it does have its flaws still. There is no system level 802.1x support, printing - yes just printing in general. The Open directory is also a pain to get working as Apple broke the startup order with an early 10.4 release on the intel macs.

 

I wasn't really anti Mac but I hadn't used them much, when the Mini came out I decided to buy one on the day of release! A year after this we got specialist status for the arts so we started to look into replacing the machines in Art and Music.

 

We have a number of Mac enthusiasts in the Art and Music departments who know what they are doing with the macs so we decided to go the mac route. It was more expensive than PCs I will admit, but this was mostly due to the fact we decided to go for a supporting mac server structure and storage at the same time which would have been in place with windows.

 

I have spent much time since swearing at OS X, much the same as I have with windows. Would I swap them for PCs now? I don't think I would, now that I have most things running it has become less work and there is one area that has been a huge success.

 

The work produced by the students has been astounding. During an arts week I saw an amazing video produced with istopmotion on the macs. I'm sure this could be done on the PCs too, but if good things are happening does it matter on what?

 

Its not like going to the dark side you know, you just happen to have Macs and PCs, much like you can have Windows and linux. One system will always be easier to manage, but multiple doesn't have to be unworkable.

[gaz350]

Macs take less time to manage when they work. They take more time to manage when they don't.

 

I would put that down to experience.

I've come from the other direction, with 7 years Mac experience and have had to deal with the ups and downs of Mac OS X Server from its initial release. Last summer we moved authentication from OD to AD to allow us to fully intergrate PC's into the network.

 

99% of mac problems i can fix pretty fast. but the 25% of computers which are Windows can be a real pain in the butt to fix.

 

As GrumbleDook said having a mixed platform in schools gives students transferable skills.

Also you wont believe how many staff ask if they can take their iBooks with them when they leave to another school.

 

EDIT: forgot to say 26 are on order!

[FN-GM]

I am begging to love Macs now they are so reliable, now with boot camp & Intel processors you can have Mac OSX & Windows. I think Macs will be more popular in the next few years.

[DMcCoy]

Macs take less time to manage when they work. They take more time to manage when they don't.

 

I would put that down to experience.

I've come from the other direction, with 7 years Mac experience and have had to deal with the ups and downs of Mac OS X Server from its initial release. Last summer we moved authentication from OD to AD to allow us to fully intergrate PC's into the network.

 

99% of mac problems i can fix pretty fast. but the 25% of computers which are Windows can be a real pain in the butt to fix.

 

As GrumbleDook said having a mixed platform in schools gives students transferable skills.

Also you wont believe how many staff ask if they can take their iBooks with them when they leave to another school.

 

EDIT: forgot to say 26 are on order!

 

It actually to do with userbase. There are far more people encountering more unusual issues with windows so you are more likely to find a solution.

 

Some stuff on os x is broken, but you will only find a handful of posts about it anywhere. Broken stuff on os x tends to stay broken longer as versions of core components mostly remain unchanged.

[ZeroHour]

Macs take less time to manage when they work. They take more time to manage when they don't

{abbreviated to save on the thread size but I am really quoting ALL text}

Its not like going to the dark side you know, you just happen to have Macs and PCs, much like you can have Windows and linux. One system will always be easier to manage, but multiple doesn't have to be unworkable.

Nice viewpoint, I always wondered what the OSX server stuff was like.

[Guest Guest]

I have never and will never found a reason to have a mac, personally or in school. If they half the price and install windows as standard maybe... lol

 

I know people who earn ££££ from making music and they dont use macs. So why a kid making a daft few bars of music *needs* a mac is beyond me when the only program thats avalible for mac that isnt for PC is garageband (and a few other top end apps but they aint for kids so not really relivant).

 

I was actually talking to one of my mates who is a big name in his genre and his reply to "do you have a mac?" was

"A mac?" *starts laughing*

"why would i want one of those, they are for snobs and cost far too much"

 

This coming from a guy who can earn more in a month than i dare say anyone on this forum earns in a year, says it all really.

[webman]

I think Macs will be more popular in the next few years.

 

Not with their current ridiculous price tag they won't 8)

[FN-GM]

Maybe people pay for reliability, in my opinion Mac OSX is much more reliable than Windows XP & Windows Vista. I don’t currently own a Mac but I am considering buying one. Since I have been working in a CLC with the Macs I have found they are much more reliable. When I began working there they gave me a Macbook Pro, with bootcamp. I love it in Mac OSX it hasn’t crashed once. The plus with apple is that you can use bootcamp to run Mac OSX & Windows, you can’t currently do this on PC’s but who knows maybe you might be able to in the future. I have also found that both Windows XP & Windows Vista is much more reliable on Macs than to PC’s.

[Guest Guest]

^ Are you for real? From your pic you look very young so ill let you off with your rather misguided views.

 

XP more reliable on a mca, ill have to remember than one