iMac

Last year I went hands-on with a few Akitio Thunderbolt 3-enabled drive enclosures for 9to5Mac, but none of the previous enclosures came with out-of-the-box support for macOS. Instead, users had to rely on a hack in order to enable support for these enclosures, due to the fact that macOS wasn’t compatible with the Thunderbolt 3 chipsets being used.

In today’s world, things are a bit different. Much of the Thunderbolt 3 hardware shipping today is no longer “Windows only”, which is a great thing for recent MacBook Pro and Mid-2017 iMac hardware with Thunderbolt 3 I/O capabilities.

Akitio’s Thunder3 Quad Mini is one such example of Thunderbolt 3-enabled hardware made with the Mac in mind. This four-bay enclosure comes with two Thunderbolt 3 ports in a small aluminum enclosure that supports passive cooling for noiseless operation. In other words, it’s a quiet enclosure that’s perfect for RAID 0 SSD setups for maximum speed. Have a look at our hands-on video walkthrough for more details.
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iMacs can’t be upgraded, right? Tell that to YouTuber Quinn Nelson, better known around the Interwebs as SnazzyQ. Nelson performed some intense surgery on his less than-a-few-weeks-old, $1,799 base-model Mid 2017 5K iMac. The result? He came away with a machine that performs better in some respects than the most expensive ($5,299 before tax) iMac you can currently buy.
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I recently acquired the base model Mid 2017 5K iMac, and I have a post in the works that explains my reasoning for that decision. In a nutshell, I believe that this machine, at $1799, is by far the best bang for your buck as far as Macs go.

That said, it’s not perfect. One of the weakest points of the base model 5K iMac has to do with its stock RAM configuration. With only 8GB of RAM, the system struggles right out of the gate, and will start writing lots of data to disk in fairly short order. Thankfully, it’s ridiculously easy and relatively cheap to upgrade the 5K iMac’s RAM. In this brief video tutorial, we’ll show you how.
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iFixit discovered yesterday that the RAM in the new 21.5-inch iMac with Retina 4K display was upgradable, and a day later is already offering a kit to take advantage of this fact.

The firm notes that the base model 3.0GHz machine tops out at 16GB of RAM, and that the only way to get 32GB direct from Apple is buy the more expensive 3.4 GHz version …

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iFixit has wasted no time in carrying out a teardown of the new 21.5-inch iMac with Retina 4K display, and has found that the RAM is user-upgradable, and the machine has a modular CPU. This means that – in theory – even the processor could be upgraded at a later date …

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Apple announced a new ‘iMac Pro’ model today set to arrive for customers this December and we had a chance to get a first look. Apple wasn’t actually allowing press to get hands-on with the new machine, but we did get an opportunity to get up close and personal with some video of the new iMac Pro (below).

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Apple has already announced that it will launch new iMacs later this year, including models aimed at pro users. Today, Digitimes reportedly reveals some details about what the iMac update will bring.

The report says that the consumer iMac models are going into production next month, with a launch in the second half of the year. An update is certainly due; the latest 5K iMac launched in late 2015. The pro iMac will seemingly launch later, with ‘server-grade’ components …

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Earlier this week Apple promised that new iMacs with pro configurations will be available by the end of the year ahead of its modular Mac Pro debut. While Apple didn’t share exactly what we might see in these new iMacs, one source believes it may have an idea about what to expect including other new hardware.

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Apple slightly updated the Mac Pro today and promised a radical new modular design coming next year alongside a pro Apple display. Within the news shared through Daring Fireball were also mentions of a new pro iMac coming later this year and a vague reference to possibly new Mac mini hardware.

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Earlier today, Zac offered up a full roundup of everything that we could potentially see at Apple’s spring event this year. While the event is generally much smaller-scale than Apple’s other events every year, there are a few things that most usually interest most people.

What rumored announcement for Apple’s April event excites you the most?

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Deciding between desktop Macs and laptop MacBooks can be challenging — you typically get more computer for your money with desktops, but notebooks aren’t anchored down to one location. Managing two Macs is getting easier with features like automatic software updates and iCloud Drive syncing Desktop and Documents folders across machines, but using one Mac is often easier to manage and more affordable.

My own setup has shifted over the years from laptop only to both desktop and laptop to desktop only. I’ve found that I’m most productive and comfortable when using a desktop with a large display and a dedicated mouse and keyboard, but I also benefit from being able to take my work out of the office.

Given the current Mac lineup and my own needs, I’m settling on a MacBook Pro with external display, mouse, and keyboard to balance portability and ergonomics. What’s your ideal setup? Desktops, laptops, or both?

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There seems to be no limits to what artists are able to create with Apple’s products. From Disney animators sketching classic characters, to an illustrator using an iPad Pro to design the New Yorker’s latest cover. In today’s latest artistic drive, Apple has partnered with five young Chinese artists to reinvent classic Nianhua folk art.

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During Microsoft’s October Windows event today, the company did something I never expected them to do: surpass Apple’s own desktop solution and experiences. Microsoft announced the launch of their new Surface Studio desktop, an all-in-one system with a beautiful 28” touchscreen display. A powerhouse of a system with specs up to 32GB of RAM and a GPU with 4 GB video RAM, Microsoft is really pulling out all the stops here to make their desktop solution attractive to all creatives in a way normally seen as Apple’s place.

The iMac has maintained the same design for the past few years, and with the Mac Pro seemingly forgotten within the desktop lineup, Microsoft has a solid chance at stealing some of Apple’s customers away.

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Apple is said to be introducing an entirely refreshed lineup of Macs later this month. The event is said to be on October 27th, which we first speculated earlier this month. The new Macs are expected to be available to consumers this month, as well.

As is often the case with Apple events, we already know a good portion of what the company has up its sleeve. Read on for a roundup of what to expect…

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[Update 10/14: Float Shelf is now available for all earlier iMacs, and Apple Thunderbolt & Cinema displays, including 17″/20″/21.5″ iMacs, 24″/27″ iMacs, 27″ Thunderbolt displays, 20″/23″ Cinema displays, and 24″/27″/30″ Cinema displays.

Float Shelf initially only supported newer 21.5″ and 27″ iMacs without SuperDrives. Now two additional versions which will fit older generations iMacs and Apple Thunderbolt & Cinema displays are available through the campaign.]

Earlier this year at CES I met the folks at Prism Designs who have some interesting new accessories for Apple products in development. The latest is called Float Shelf, which is an aluminum panel that attaches to the back of your iMac to provide a handy stand for decluttering your desk. Float Shelf is launching as a Kickstarter project today with nearly $9,000 (and climbing) in funding already, and we recently got a chance to go hands-on with Float Shelf for iMac…

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We already know a lot about Apple’s upcoming iPhone and MacBook Pro refreshes, but a new report today from Bloomberg details a bit more about what the company has up its sleeve for the rest of the year. The report claims that in addition to the new iPhone and MacBook Pro lineups, Apple is planning to refresh the iMac and MacBook Air and will also introduce a new 5K display, as we’ve reported in the past, in partnership with LG. On the software side of things, Apple is reportedly working on a variety of new features for the iPad Pro.

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Update: No new Apple display at WWDC … timing unclear but integrated GPU next-gen Apple Display is still in development.

The current $999 (!) Thunderbolt Display is showing its age to put it mildly, now significantly overshadowed by Retina MacBooks and iMacs in terms of screen resolution and quality. Reaffirming earlier reports, we have heard that stock of the Thunderbolt Display at Apple Stores is quickly running out with no indications of more units on the way to replenish availability. This is often a good indicator that a refresh is imminent. We are led to believe that WWDC will be very light on new hardware. However, given the opportunity for cheers in the audience, perhaps Apple could announce the new display at the keynote with a release pencilled in for later in the year.

Independently, we have heard some rumblings about what the new display might offer. Finally bringing it up to speed with its Retina display Mac cousins, the new ‘Thunderbolt Display’ will likely feature a 5K resolution display 5120×2880 pixels. Moreover, sources indicate that Apple will take the display in a surprising direction, specifically suggesting that Apple plans to integrate a dedicated external GPU into the display itself …

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The team behind Pixelmator has today released yet another free update to its Mac photo editor, Pixelmator version 3.5 ($29.99 in the Mac App Store). Alongside the usual round of performance improvements and bug fixes, the app includes a few handy new end-user features. There’s a smarter Auto Selection tool and a brand new Magnetic Selection tool to accurately and quickly cutout objects from a scene in a photograph. There’s also a brand new Retouch extension for the native OS X Photos app, integrating refined brush-style edits into iCloud Photo Library. Video demo after the break …

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