XYMer's Home away from Home

HUH according to this
http://computershopper.com/lcd-monitors ... harp-u2711
the Dell UltraSharp U2711 comes with a matte screen.
End of story, the glare on the iMacs makes them almost unusable unless you have
really good good control of the lighting where your at.

Agreed completely. I had meant to mention that.

I have nothing against them for most users, but I'll never buy an iMac. I have several old macs stacked in a closet, but no displays unused.

Another positive thing about the 27" iMac is that its display can be used as a monitor for another another system. The mini-DP port works both ways as an output and an input.

looks like there's some gotchas with the whole idea.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3924

plus you have to buy the cables and adapters. if the whole mini display port takes off then it could be more elegant. otherwise you'll have something like this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

hanging around somewhere

Looks like it the video card cable, anyway another patch/update is on the way
http://www.macnn.com/articles/10/01/25/ ... first.fix/

good to know there gonna fix $1500 brand new machines.

and fixing it again

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3207

iMac (27-inch, Late 2009): Display flickers and the 27-inch iMac Display Firmware Update 1.0
Last Modified: February 01, 2010

27-inch iMac Display Firmware Update 3.1.12

System Requirements...

OSX 10.7.13.11.9

Keyboard Update 42..1.1 (1.1TB)

Apple Miracle Mouse Update 43.7 or more (2.2B)

iTunes Store account & iMobile.me

Quad Layer Blu-Ray 192x and QuickTime Pro

28.2" iMac Quad Core Octo or better

nVidia graphics card with lead solder or ATI HD 22509 or better

Flash 13.13.13

Couple of cases of beers.

* If you are still having display issues after successfully completing all these updates, contact AppleCare or an Apple Authorized Service Provider.... or wait for the next update.

I can only say it in a low voice and out of the corner of my mouth so as not to tempt fate, but my unit is still performing very well. I'm still getting used to Snow Leopard which, design-wise, seems to have taken a few steps back with regard to Tiger. Why does clicking and holding a dock icon bring up a horizontal menu (making it very clumsy procedure to quit an app) whereas a right click brings up fixed a vertical menu?

As for the updates, Apple has always been just plain stoooopid at giving names to system updates and this graphics patch continues the tradition. Couldn't they have just appended something simple like 'update 1' or 'update 2' to a common name?

BTW, I haven't applied either one as yet and hope not to have to until forced to do so or Apple breaks with another stoooopid decision: failing to explain how these updates work their magic.

And hey, why does a Left click on the Right side of the Dock require a Right click on the Left side of the Dock to do the same silly thing?

Apple says 27in iMac screen problems 'resolved' Cross your fingers.
Some websites, including Gizmodo, said that Apple had offered a 15 per cent cash refund to customers suffering from these problems, but the technology company has refused to comment on the speculation.
This article sums it up
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/a ... olved.html

My thoughts exactly. If I didn't have the Quad G5 I'd do exactly the same. As it stands the G5 must be 4 or 5 now and is pretty much unsellable. So I'll just run it until it expires. Still way, way faster than I need these days.

Sounds like you guys are being coached by vlad.

No. He gets a loaded Mac Pro every year, sells it 6 months later, and buys a PC. My thinking is that if I have a tower, I'll realistically only upgrade components once every year or two. I'll keep it for 5 years, and then sell it for 1/5 the price I bought it for. I might spend $4000 and get $800 back for it (costing $640 per year). If I buy a top of the line iMac every 2 years for $2000, and don't upgrade it, I can sell it for $800, costing $600 per year (it would also sell for $800 after 3 years - for some reason the value doesn't drop during the third year, costing only $400 per year). While I might not be able to expand the memory as much or replace the video card, the processor would be upgraded much more frequently due to the whole computer being replaced, and the new machine will probably come with more RAM and be more expandable if I really need it.

I found this article which supports my reasoning.

You just reaffirmed my choice of a Hackintosh. $50 for a family pack of Snow Leopard, $600 for hardware, maybe $150 per year average for upgrades, roughly 20 hours of time per year to dick around with it making it work. Then I can usually sell the parts that I upgrade for 1/4 - 1/3 of their original price. All the while keeping a system reasonably up to date spec wise.

A month later and the poll is 9-to-12 against. I keep reading about more and more issues with these boxes, and am wondering about the next iteration. Probably June, right?

I recall reading a Hackintosher's* blog post shortly after the first 27" was torn down: he spotted a serious cooling issue that had a fan blowing hot air over the video processor or CPU. I'm wondering if a 2nd generation build will fix this.

*Can't for the life of me recall who but he was an amateur photographer specializing in street scenes.

That sounds about right to me but I'd say at the latest. Possible even May. This summer things will get very hot where I live so I'll have to wait until then to see how it handles the heat.

If I weren't in the position to take the risk with this machine I'd be waiting for the second rev. Mine is still working flawlessly.

I have a few qualms with the design decisions on this mac (as opposed to design flaws) and I hope that they add another firewire port (not going to happen, I know), internal DVB decoder, eSATA and make changing the hard drive a piece of cake. If light Peak is being prepared as some folks seem to think it is, I guess it will be for the 2010 Christmas offerings.

I don't see anything in Apple's performance going back the past decade to make me optimistic about any of those very nice advances.

That's why hope is a renewable resource.

Now if only we could harness hope as a source of sustainable energy creation.

Somewhere I feel I read that there were greater advantages to buying the I7 model than just the processor bump. Or maybe it's quite a processor bump? Can anyone amplify on the I5/I7 iMac distinctions?

You get twice as many CPUs (even if the difference is just emulated CPUs), and the cache might get bumped depending on which i5 & i7 proc they use.

After getting fed up with seeing all those graphics updates appearing in software update and with me being on holiday right now, I decided to apply them all even though I had no pressing need to do so. The logic was that if any of the updates bricked the machine I'd have ample time to put things right.

All went well and I'm now waiting to see if I get any flickers (which were few and far between anyway).