But all of the current competition have an HD resolution or Full HD resolution (Kindle HD, Nexus 7 etc.).

i guess I am used to the extra resolution on my Galaxy SIII.


Yes, but you can only see one app at a time. For my general workflow, I have 3 or 4 windows visible, most with reference information I am using to create a new document. Having those open across my desktop means I can glance at the reference material as I work. Having to constantly stop, swap to a different app, try and memorise what I see, switch to another app, read that, then back to my main app to create new notes based on those two apps I can no longer see, seems unnecessarily hard and I know from working on a laptop with a resolution below 1920x1080, that it slows me down too much.

*shrug* If you don't want to buy one you can always keep on finding reasons why (note I mean 'you' in a generic sense, not you personally Dave). Doesn't make it a bad product or a good product, just makes it a product you don't want.

Anyone else noticed that only the 27" iMac has user-accessible RAM slots - the 21.5" model doesn't have access to the memory so you need to add any upgrade above the standard 8Gb RAM when you order it on the Apple Store. Not sure whether the RAM's soldered in place on the 21.5" one or whether it's just that a hatch door hasn't been put in - either way, I'm guessing trying to add your own RAM will invalidate the warranty on this model. The 27" model has "four user-accessible SO-DIMM slots" according to the Apple website.

Guess that's the price you pay for thinness, eh?!

May not be the case.. The memory slots are listed as not user-accessible but that doesn't mean the machine isn't upgradeable - it just may mean it's a 'service centre only' job. If it's under warranty, Apple shops generally do that kind of stuff for free. I don't think we know yet if the RAM is soldered onto the main board Macbook Air style.

Jon

The downside is you're stuck with Apple's inflated RAM prices though.

I can see a time, not too far down the road, when pretty much all Macs will have no user-accessable RAM (apart from the Mac Pro, if it still exists then). You order what you want when you buy it new and that's it. If the hardware keep getting slimmer, it's almost inevitable really due to the lack of internal space.

Screen resolution on the iPad is a tricky one.

On the one hand, for that price you'd expect it to be at least as high as the competition.

On the other hand, that would be a pain for developers who are only just getting used to having to cope with different resolutions.

I'd still quite like one, but it's difficult to justify not buying a Nexus 7 instead. Even the Nook looks pretty good, despite it's limited range of apps. I mostly just want a light, portable good quality little web browser. My "usual work flow" will obviously be done at my "usual work station" where I have over 9000 megapixels spread over half a square mile of multi-screen real estate.

Not in my experience. If you take in a Mac under warranty and some RAM that looks pretty reasonable (i.e. it's from a reputable source/brand), they will fit it for you. It's the same legal argument as the thing about car servicing and dealerships - you aren't required to use a dealership provided you source certified parts and no dealership is allowed to insist you buy parts from them. Same rules apply to PCs (and, indeed, Macs). might not do it for free int hat case, but the charge otherwise isn't particularly big - few years ago it was 20 quid to fit more RAM & a new HDD in an iMac. Although i think they've funked part of that because the iMacs now use drives with custom firmware, so you can't source from a 3rd party. I take a rather dim view of that bit, for sure.

Course, this does depend on there being standard DIMM slots on the motherboard in the first place. If they actually have soldered the RAM on to the main board then you're pretty much stuffed. Caveat Emptor I suppose.


I think you may well be right about that (and I wouldn't give you tuppence for the future of the Mac Pro to be honest with you). Having said that, I think the requirement to do so is reducing. Macs used to come with inbuilt RAM that was utterly insufficient but these days they come with a reasonable amount 'out of the box' for most users. Especially if you're running virtual memory off an SSD, the need for huge banks of RAM isn't anywhere near as common as it used to be.There will always be outliers who do have a reason to have a ton of RAM but they're lieing further and further out along the top end of the bell curve.

It also is the high end of the power users so allows Apple to try out new technology far more easily than with iMacs.

Well, Tim Cook is on record as saying that something exciting will be happening to the Mac Pro next year. Personally I dread to think but hopefully it'll have a revised case, Xeon E5-2600 series processors, Thunderbolt, and USB3. As for the long term viability of the Pro I have my doubts. It's hardly the favourite child of the line-up these days

I would like to upgrade to a Mac Pro at some point, but if they are not clear about its future why should people take the chance?

I'm pretty sure Apple is clear about the future of the Mac Pro, it's you lot and your speculating that aren't. (8+p

Mark

I'm sure Apple is clear about the future of the Mac pro, and they've even gone as far as checking where they can hire the skip from.

O ye of little faith. (8+)

Mark

Well I watched the Event on iTunes so quite like the new iMacs as well.