Apple introduced updated, slimmer iMacs, faster Mac minis, and a new
technology, Fusion Drive, this week. Details
below.
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News & Opinion
Fusion Drive
Products & Services
Software
News & Opinion
Thinner All-New iMac Features Stunning Design,
Brilliant Display, Faster Performance; Mac mini Updated as Well
PR: October 23, 2012 - Apple today unveiled a completely new iMac with a stunning
design, brilliant display with reduced reflection, and faster
processors.1 With third generation Intel quad-core
processors, powerful Nvidia graphics and an innovative new storage
option called Fusion Drive, the new iMac is the most advanced desktop
Apple has ever made.
The slimmest iMac yet!
"With a stunning design, brilliant display and faster performance,
we've made the world's leading all-in-one desktop computer better in
every way," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of
Worldwide Marketing. "The all-new iMac is unbelievably thin, yet packs
an incredible amount of performance and technology into our most
innovative desktop."
Redesigned from the inside out, the new iMac packs high-performance
technology into an aluminum and glass enclosure with up to 40% less
volume than its predecessor and an edge that measures just 5 mm thin.
Built with an unprecedented level of fit and finish, the new iMac
delivers an amazing desktop experience in a gorgeous design. The new
iMac also features a completely reengineered display that reduces
reflection by 75% while maintaining brilliant color and contrast. In
the new design, the cover glass is fully laminated to the LCD and an
antireflective coating is applied using a high-precision plasma
deposition process. Every iMac display is individually color calibrated
using an advanced spectroradiometer.
The new iMac features third generation quad-core Intel Core i5
processors that can be upgraded to Core i7. The latest Nvidia GeForce
processors deliver up to 60% faster performance for advanced gaming and
graphics intensive apps. Every new iMac now comes standard with
8 GB of 1600 MHz memory and a 1 TB hard drive, and customers
can choose to configure their iMac with up to 32 GB of memory and a new
3 TB hard drive, or 768 GB of flash storage for ultimate
performance. With two Thunderbolt and four USB 3.0 ports, the new iMac
delivers even greater expandability and support for high-performance
peripherals.
Fusion Drive (see below) is an innovative new
storage option that gives customers the performance of flash storage
and the capacity of a hard drive. It combines 128 GB of flash with a
standard 1 TB or 3 TB hard drive to create a single storage
volume that intelligently manages files to optimize read and write
performance. Fusion Drive adapts to the way you use your iMac and
automatically moves the files and apps you use most often to flash
storage to enable faster performance and quicker access.
Mac mini Update
Apple also updated the Mac
mini with third generation dual-core Intel Core i5 and quad-core
Intel Core i7 processors that are up to twice as fast and have
integrated graphics that are up to 65% faster.2 Mac mini
comes standard with 4 GB of 1600 MHz memory with support for
up to 16 GB. 
Retaining
its amazingly compact aluminum design, the new Mac mini now includes
four USB 3.0 ports in addition to its Thunderbolt, HDMI, SDXC, Gigabit
Ethernet, and FireWire 800 ports.
Both iMac and Mac mini meet stringent Energy Star 5.2 requirements
and achieve an EPEAT Gold rating.3 iMac uses up to 50% less
energy than the previous generation when idle, and features LED-backlit
displays that are mercury-free and made with arsenic-free glass. Mac
mini retains its status as the world's most energy efficient desktop
computer, using only 11W when idle. Both the iMac and Mac mini include
PVC-free components and cables, contain no brominated flame retardants,
and use highly recyclable materials and material-efficient packaging
designs.
iMac and Mac mini ship with OS X Mountain Lion, bringing Messages,
Notification Center, systemwide Sharing, AirPlay Mirroring, Dictation,
Game Center and the enhanced security of Gatekeeper to your Mac. With
iCloud built into the foundation of OS X, Mountain Lion makes it easier
than ever to keep your content up to date across your Mac, iPhone, iPad
and iPod touch.
Pricing & Availability
The 21.5" iMac is available with a 2.7 GHz quad-core Intel Core i5
with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.2 GHz and Nvidia GeForce GT 640M for a
suggested retail price of $1,299; and with a 2.9 GHz quad-core Intel
Core i5 with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.6 GHz and Nvidia GeForce GT
650M for a suggested retail price of $1,499. The 21.5" iMac will be
available in November through the Apple Online Store, Apple's retail
stores and Apple Authorized Resellers.
The 27" iMac is available with a 2.9 GHz quad-core Intel Core i5
with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.6 GHz and Nvidia GeForce GTX 660M for a
suggested retail price of $1,799; and with a 3.2 GHz quad-core Intel
Core i5 with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.6 GHz and Nvidia GeForce GTX
675MX for a suggested retail price of $1,999. The 27" iMac will be
available in December through the Apple Online Store, Apple's retail
stores and Apple Authorized Resellers.
The Mac mini is available with a 2.5 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5
with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.1 GHz, 4 GB of memory and a 500 GB
hard drive for a suggested retail price of $599; a 2.3 GHz quad-core
Intel Core i7 with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.3 GHz, 4 GB of
memory and a 1 TB hard drive for a suggested retail price of $799;
and a 2.3 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.3
GHz, OS X Server, 4 GB of memory and two 1 TB hard drives for
a suggested retail price of $999. The Mac mini is available today
through the Apple Online Store, Apple's retail stores and Apple
Authorized Resellers.
Additional technical specifications, configure-to-order options and
accessories are available online at apple.com/imac or apple.com/mac-mini.
- Testing conducted by Apple in October 2012 using preproduction iMac
configurations. For more information visit apple.com/imac/features/.
- Testing conducted by Apple in October 2012 using preproduction Mac
mini configurations. For more information visit apple.com/mac-mini/features.html.
- Claim based on energy efficiency categories and products listed
within the EPA ENERGY STAR 5.2 energy database as of October 2012.
EPEAT is an independent organization that helps customers compare the
environmental performance of notebooks and desktops. Products meeting
all of the required criteria and at least 75% of the optional criteria
are recognized as EPEAT Gold products. The EPEAT program was conceived
by the US EPA and is based on IEEE 1680 standard for Environmental
Assessment of Personal Computer Products. For more information visit
www.epeat.net.
AppleDesigns Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along
with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the
digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple
has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App
Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices
with iPad.
New 21.5" iMac Not Designed for User Upgrades
Softpedia observes that for whatever reason, Apple's designers
decided that the new 21.5" version of the iMac would not offer any
upgrade options - not even RAM - leaving Apple's entry-level all-in-one
desktop solution completely non-upgradable. With the new iMacs, the
option to upgrade the RAM is only available with the high-end 27"
model.
The 21.5" iMac comes with 8 GB of memory and can be configured
only at time of purchase with 16 GB. On the 27" iMac, 8 GB of
memory comes standard, and you can upgrade to 16 GB or 32 GB.
Thus Apple is following a similar trend pattern with the iMac as it
has with its newer laptop models beginning with the MacBook Air, with processor chips and
system memory soldered to the logic board and no RAM expansion
slots.
The inescapable inference is that Apple's orientation is to turn all
of its hardware configurations into variants of the iPad.
Publisher's note: Based on a report on AnandTech (below), system memory can be upgraded in the 21.5" iMac, but
you have to take the computer apart to do so. This is a big step
backwards, Apple. dk
Link: The New 21.5-Inch
iMac Is Completely Non-Upgradable
New 27" iMac's User Serviceable Memory
Panel
AnandTech's Anand Lal Shimpi notes that both the 21.5 and 27" new
iMacs use SO-DIMMs, but only the 27" model allows end user RAM upgrades
behind a little panel providing access to the system's SO-DIMM slots.
Unhappily, the 21.5" model needs to be torn down to gain access to the
memory slots.
Link: Up Close with the
New 27-Inch iMac's User Serviceable Memory Panel
New Mac mini Torn Down and Benchmarked
AppleInsider's Mikey Campbell reports:
"A pair of Mac colocation companies performed teardowns and
benchmark tests of Apple's newly released Mac mini, finding that the
small format desktop's performance is approaching that of legacy Xserves and 2010's Mac Pro."
Link: Apple's Speedy New
Mac mini Torn Down and Benchmarked
How Much That You Once Did on the Mac Is Now Done
Only on iPhone or iPad?
Mac 360's Alexis Kayhill says that most of her email is handled on
the iPad. Likewise casual web browsing, Facebook, RSS readers, and news
watching. And while everything used to be on the Mac, many functions
have become iPhone or iPad only for her. She spends less time on the
Mac's keyboard than she does hunched over her iPhone or navigating the
iPad, observing that while it may be many years before the Mac takes a
back seat to iPhone and iPad, the trend is clear.
Where will the trend toward using handheld devices end?
Link: How Much of What
You Once Did on the Mac Is Now Done Only on iPhone or iPad?
Apple Dumps Java in Latest OS X Security
Release
Intego blogger Sam Lawrence riffs on Apple's recently pulling of
Java from OS X in an effort to close some of the loopholes that
potential attackers could use to compromise a Mac. Lawrence shares a
brief history of OS X and Java and how they have grown together.
He notes that Apple takes security so seriously that for the last
several years it maintained its own builds of Java, which were deployed
across the Mac platform. Two years ago, Apple announced that it would
no longer be supporting Java on the Mac (following the release of Java
SE 6 1.6.0_22), and since then, Java releases on the Mac have slightly
lagged behind Oracle's general releases.
"Their message last week was loud and clear," says Lawrence, "if you
want to be vulnerable, it's your choice, but Apple will no longer
support a language and platform that leaves their users at risk."
Link: Apple Dumps Java in
Latest OS X Security Release
Fusion Drive
Apple Explains Fusion Drive
A new Apple Knowledge Base article says the Fusion Drive is a new
storage option for Mac mini (Late 2012) and iMac (Late 2012) computers
that combines the performance of Flash storage with the capacity of a
hard drive.
Products Affected: Mac mini (Late 2012), iMac (Intel-based)
Presented as a single volume on your Mac, Fusion Drive automatically
and dynamically moves frequently used files to Flash storage for
quicker access, while infrequently used items move to the hard disk. As
a result you'll enjoy shorter startup times, and as the system learns
how you work you'll see faster application launches and quicker file
access. Fusion Drive manages all this automatically in the
background.
One interesting limitation is that you can add just one partition to
the hard disk side of the Fusion Drive, after which the "plus" symbol
in Disk Utility to add additional partitions will be grayed out. The
explanation of why is that the additional partition is not part of
Fusion Drive but rather a separate volume that is physically located on
the hard disk drive. You can't partition the Flash storage.
Fusion Drive can be mounted on another system in Target Disk Mode,
but the system attempting to mount the Fusion Drive in Target Disk Mode
must have OS X Mountain Lion version 10.8.2 or later. A Fusion Drive
will not appear as a Target Disk Mode volume or startup disk on earlier
versions of Mac OS X.
Also, if you first used a Time Machine backup drive to store images
that originated from a computer with OS X Lion v10.7, you won't be able
to select Fusion Drive backup images from the backup. Fusion Drive
images must be the first ones to be written to the Time Machine backup
drive to be selectable. After the initial Fusion Drive backup image is
written to a Time Machine back up drive, you can add OS X Lion images
to the drive and you can use it without limitations.
The version of Disk Utility that comes with Fusion Drive is unique,
and earlier versions of Disk Utility can't be used with a Fusion
Drive.
Link: Mac
mini (Late 2012) and iMac (Late 2012): About Fusion Drive
Apple Joins Hybrid Storage Market with Fusion
Drive
MacFixIt's Dong Ngo notes that at its October 23 Special Event,
Apple announced a new type of hybrid storage device it calls "Fusion
Drive", which combines 128 GB of flash (SSD) storage and a regular
1 TB or 3 TB hard drive - initially available as an option in
its new iMac and Mac mini.
The Fusion Drive is integrated with OS X 10.8.1. It installs the
operating system and bundled applications on the SSD while data, such
as media and documents, stay on the hard drive. However, the OS will
automatically optimize performance by moving frequently-used
applications to the SSD, and users users can also manually move apps
and files between the two "sides" of the drive to improve performance.
Fusion Drive-equipped iMacs or Mac minis will ship preconfigured. Apple
claims that that the Fusion Drive will offer real-world performance
very close to that of a solid-state drive while retaining the storage
capacity of a hard drive.
Distinguishing the Fusion Drive from most other hybrid drives is the
128 GB of solid-state memory compared with the more typical 32 MB or
smaller flash cache in hybrid 2.5" laptop drives. Apple's Fusion Drive,
at least for now, will be only available for desktop models.
Link: Apple Joins
Hybrid-Storage Market Trend with Fusion Drive
Understanding Apple's Fusion Drive
Anand Tech's Anand Lal Shimpi explains,
"...Apple introduced a new feature that I honestly expected it to
debut much earlier: Fusion Drive.
"The idea is simple. Apple offers either solid state or mechanical
HDD storage in its iMac and Mac mini. End users have to choose between
performance or capacity/cost-per-GB. With Fusion Drive, Apple is
attempting to offer the best of both worlds.
"The new iMac and Mac mini can be outfitted with a Fusion Drive
option that couples 128 GB of NAND flash with either a 1 TB or
3 TB hard drive. The Fusion part comes in courtesy of Apple's
software that takes the two independent drives and presents them to the
user as a single volume. Originally I thought this might be SSD caching
but after poking around the new iMacs and talking to Apple I have a
better understanding of what's going on.
"For starters, the 128 GB . . . is simply an SSD . . . with the same
connector that's used in the new MacBook Air and rMBP models."
"Total volume size is the sum of both parts. In the case of the 128
GB + 1 TB option, the total available storage is ~1.1 TB. The same
is true for the 128 GB + 3 TB option (~3.1 TB total storage).
"By default the OS and all preloaded applications are physically
stored on the 128 GB of NAND flash. But what happens when you go to
write to the array?
"With Fusion Drive enabled, Apple creates a 4 GB write buffer on the
NAND itself. Any writes that come in to the array hit this 4 GB
buffer first, which acts as sort of a write cache. Any additional
writes cause the buffer to spill over to the hard disk."
"That 4 GB write buffer is the only cache-like component to Apple's
Fusion Drive. Everything else works as an OS directed pinning algorithm
instead of an SSD cache. In other words, Mountain Lion will physically
move frequently used files, data and entire applications to the 128 GB
[SSD] and move less frequently used items to the hard disk."
"After a few accesses Fusion Drive should be able to figure out if
it needs to pull something new into NAND. The 128 GB size is near ideal
for most light client workloads...."
"We'll have to wait and see what happens when we get our hands on an
iMac next month."
Link: Understanding
Apple's Fusion Drive
Products & Services
Dolly Drive Offers 100 GB Free to Try Its
Mac-centric Backup & Storage
PR: Cirrus Thinking, makers of the Dolly Drive cloud backup
and storage for Mac, is encouraging Mac users to try the company's
Apple-inspired cloud storage with a free 30-day trial of up to 100
gigabytes.
"With 30 days and 100 Gigs to play with, Mac fans will have the time
and storage space to truly appreciate the exceptional Dolly Drive
experience." says Anthony Palermo, creator of Dolly Drive. "We want
them to see that the Dolly interface is not only elegant and Mac-ready,
but does more to protect their data and give them easy anywhere access
on their iPhones, iPads and other computers than any other cloud
services."
The offer signals an intention by the company to help Mac users
consolidate their data protection and access services - Dropbox,
iCloud, & online backup - into a single, more cost-efficient
application.
"As Mac users become more proficient with the cloud - from backing
up files to accessing them on their phones or other computers - they
are becoming overburdened with multiple applications, logins, &
high-priced services." says Palermo. "Dolly lets them access all of
those features from one app at a price point lower than the
others".
Pricing and Availability
The 100 Gigabyte annual Dolly Drive plan is priced at $72, less than
similar services like Dropbox ($99), iCloud, ($100 for 50 GB), Mozy
($96), Spider Oak ($100), and SugarSync ($149). Dolly Drive plans
continue in various sizes up to 8 terabytes or more.
The company's new operating platform, Dolly Drive REVO version, is
an all-in-one sync, store and backup service designed for the Mac
experience. In addition to providing Mac users offsite cloud storage
and mobile access to expand hard drive space, the application allows
users to create a bootable clone of their Mac on an external hard drive
for local disaster recovery. See more of the new REVO release visit
Dolly Drive online.
Link: Dolly
Drive
Software
Memory Clean Frees Up Memory Without Logout or
Restart
PR: Memory Clean is an app for optimizing your Mac's
memory and is recommended especially for after you've finished using a
memory (RAM) intensive app or game.
With a slick interface and easy-to-use, Memory Clean works by
purging the Mac's inactive memory and is best used after you close
memory-hungry apps that you don't not plan to use again within a few
hours.
Before and after running Memory Clean
New in Version 2.0
- Mountain Lion support.
- New Features.
- Updated UI and App Icon.
- Fixed Bugs.
System requirements:
- OS X 10.7 or later
- 64-bit processor
Currently offered free for a limited (unspecified) time at time of
posting this Reader.
Publisher's note: For those still using OS X 10.6,
Memory Cleaner ($5.99) does the same thing. We've been using it on
our Mac mini for quite a while, although it's far less necessary with
3 GB of RAM than it was when it had only 1 GB installed.
dk
Link:
Memory Clean
Desktop Mac
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