Actually, that is not exactly true. In my early days of computing I did a lot of work on the Apple II computer. I knew the hardware and software inside out. I used it as a development platform in both code development as well as in circuit emulator for a special purpose automatic test equipment that I designed and wrote all the system software for. For example, I read and comprehended the entire machine code of the Apple II computer operation system written by Steve Wozniak - yes, his name was in the beginning comments of the code. I was constantly in awe on the very compact and clever coding, only someone who knows the Microtek's 6502 CPU instruction set extremely well. Wozniak was my hero for a very long time. Steve Jobs was just the business guy...
Over the ensuring decades I had always wanted a Mac but for many reasons that just never work out. One of the biggest deal breaker for me is the closed architecture. The second is the high price premium. A lot had changed today.
When I was in the market for a notebook a few years ago (before the iMac Air) I seriously considered the 13" MBP. I weight it against the similarly spec'ed Lenovo T400s Thinkpad. In the end, I decided on the 13" Thinkpad.
Fast forward to today. With the continuity features of the iOS 8 and OSx Yosemite the choice of my next PC is clear even for a long time Windows user. I know the transition would be rather painful for someone who consider himself a power user. I have been wanting to get a Mac notebook. Portability and a retina screen are some of many most important criteria. It boils down to I want the size and weight of a 13" MBA, but the performance of a 13" MBP. With the Intel Broadwell processors delay it is clear the next major refresh of both would likely not happen until early or mid 2015.
Then out of the blue Apple announce the new 27" 5k retina iMac starting at $2495. For me it is a no brainer that I want one. While I had never been a fan of all-in-one desktop, the 5k iMac is irresistible. Why? It is the first ultra-high definition screen in the 27" screen size. Even for those who shelled out big money for the Mac Pro cannot get a screen over 4k resolution, not matter at any price. The current display port interface spec cannot accommodate the transfer of data rate needed to drive a screen with this many pixels. The new iMac is different. Because of the all-in-one configuration Apple can do what is necessary internally to create a proprietary display interface to support this while the industry standard interface specs are still being finalized.
In an ideal world I would like this new iMac to ship with the yet to be available Broadwell processors. Like all things in leading edge technology, one have to decide when you want to jump in. For me waiting for the next refresh is out of the question. My strategy is to choose a configuration to hedge against obsolecence. I decided on the following upgrade over the base model.
4GHz Intel Core i7
8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 (to increased to 32 GB by installing the memory myself)
Radeon R9 M295x 4096 MB
3TB HDD
this is the monitor arm that i was planning to mount the new retina iMac; the arm is mounted to the "tool bar" of the vitra office ad hoc system designed by antonio citterio
I am so done with trusting answers from Apple stores' staff.
I would have liked a SSD over the magnetic HDD, but for the amount of video and photos anything less than 3TB is just not enough. If I change my mind later, I would have to open up the iMac and swap the drive myself. It would not be an easy task with this vintage of the iMac.
My greatest justification of wanting a desktop iMac is nonlinear video editing. For many years I have been using Sony's Vegas and I just had it. The program constantly crash with any amount of HD clips I added, and will slow to a craw. Sony made very little progress with this mid range application and I simply had enough of Sony's products. Crash and burn, and this have been happening to the once mighty and most loved CE company in this decade. I want to switch to Final Cut Pro, and I plan to take advantage of the 30 day free trail before buying it.
It took about 2 weeks to arrive. I was monitoring shipping tracking to be home when UPS arrives. The beast arrived on Friday instead of the scheduled Monday. I scrambled to get to the door within 30 second. As I open the door the UPS guy already pasted the delivery notification on my door and ready to leave without delivery. Yes, that is how crappy UPS service these days. Understandably the company is suffering. It's biggest customer Amazon had started using cheaper and hungrier small carriers. In the last 8 months or so, I cannot help but to notice the substantial drop of UPS trucks in my neighborhood.
My friend just received his new iPhone 6 he ordered. You would think a signature is required. No, it was just left in plain sight in front of his door. At least the shipping container is nondescript. I asked my friend before he open it - is that what I think it is?
I get a small discount from my corporate program and the saving helps pay for the 32GB DIMMs I separately purchased from Amazon.
for a very long time, my reluctance to switch to mac is i hate chiclets keyboard and the flat feel of the apple mice
Unfortunately in my system check out I found a problem. Once I place the system into sleep, both the keyboard and mouse would lose the advance functions upon resume from sleep. This will consistent occur if I wake the system using any bluetooth HIDs. The only way to recover is to perform a restart.
Without getting into the specifics we (myself and many owners) concluded the problem most likely lies in the new Yosemite version 10.10.0 OS, and is unlikely a hardware problem.
Here is a thread on the Apple Support Communities forum on this very issue.
As my 14 day return grace period is ticking away, I wanted to be decisive on my keep/return decision. I went to my nearby Apple store to see if I can reproduce the problem on their display unit. They only have the base model.
I was unable to reproduce the issue. While this does not shed any light if the issue implicate hardware, it gave me pause on my confidence that Apple can fix it via a software update. By this time I have spent many hours of talking to Apple's tech support, as well as conducted hours of test to characterize the issue.
After working with Apple's tech support in good faith with days of time wasted, I decide to request for an exchange, hoping the the replacement unit would not have this problem. Why I did this is because based on the small number of reports by owners it points to the problem may require very specific sets of variables to precipitate, or (while very unlikely) it affects very small number of machines that have some defective hardware.
It turned out all the DIMMs are good. I just didn't quite fully seat one and this is very easy to do.
Restoring the iMac back to the factory DIMMs I carefully pack it up for an exchange. Unfortunately it seems they are built to order in China and I would have to wait 2 weeks for my replacement to arrive.
A few nights ago I want to an office party of my friend's ad agency. I stopped by the new Apple store nearby which I never been to.
