Apple iMac MB952LL/A 27-Inch Desktop

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5 Reviews

1. I BOUGHT THIS MAC AND I MA VERY HAPPY WITH IT
   IT IS VERY FAST AND TOP OF THE LINE IN COMPUTERS
   NOTHING BEST THAN A IMAC FROM APPLE
   CONGRATSApple iMac MB952LL/A 27-Inch Desktop

2. My last computer was a dell desktop which I was reasonably satisfied with. It came time to upgrade and because of a couple of Mac head friends of mine constantly going on about how great Macs are, i decided to go all out and buy the top of the line iMac as the family computer. Before doing so I spent 45 minutes on the phone with 3 different levels of expert at Apple. I had a very simple question: Can I use the iMac as a display for my windows based Laptop. After 45 minutes, the consensus was yes, but I would have to purchase the $25 VGA to Mini DisplayPort adapter. The computer arrived and I plugged everything in and away I went. It is a very beautiful display and the usability is great. However, I went to use the adapter to put my laptop display on the screen and the screen went blank. I was able to toggle back and forth between the display mode and the Mac OS using Command F2, but nothing was being displayed. It seemed like it was registering that a signal was there, just not the right one. I called support and they couldn’t figure out what was wrong. They then said no it didn’t support an external input. I pointed the guy to the website where it specifically mentioned that it did support the external input. While on hold, I managed to do some research and found out that the Mini Displayport is a signal format and not just a type of plug. I informed the guy of my discovery and he thanked me for the product lesson :S

   I then found out that for me to achieve what I needed to do, I would have to buy a port replicator that had DVI out for my windows based laptop and then a converter to convert the signal from DVI to Mini Displayport. I looked on Apple’s website and found two. A Gefen and an Atlona. Both seemed to do the job, with the Gefen being significantly cheaper, I purchased the Gefen (but not from apple as they were far too expensive…I got it from Amazon). I then purchased the port replicator. After everything had arrived, I set it all up and again nothing. I rang Gefen and they were useless telling me that it works for other Macs, but they had never got it to work with the 27 inch model. I rang Apple and they said that the input works when plugging another apple to it. It seems that Apple has no interest in getting the third party products they sell on their website to actually work with their products. I sent the Gefen back and got the Atlona, this I was able to get to work on one setting (the lowest). I then decided to upgrade my drivers in the hope that I could get a better resolution. After the update, nothing worked.

   Apple have gone out of their way to make this very difficult. Why use Mini DP? Why not use the industry standard DVI? This thing is the most expensive web browser ever. That is all I use it for. It won’t play nicely with my media streamers or any other device I have on my Network. It also has trouble with Flash websites. I used to own a Mac way back in 1992. I have since been on a PC and wish I had stayed there.

3. Unbelivable that macs do not support AVCHD or bluray nativelly .Anyone who has bought an HD camcorder in the last 3 years will be frustrated trying to use a mac to edit there videos. APPLE’s solution is either to use there own codec which either creates very poor qualty videos almost like standard definition or creating huge files 5 times the size of your original. How ironic georgeous 27″ 1080p+ display but you cannot watch a bluray disk on it instead you must either buy HD movies from the apple store or spend hundreds of dollars more on software and bluray drives ,what a shame. Even worst is that they deliberately cripple there dvd drives using some feature called Riplock that slows the dvd drive to a crawl if you wish to backup your dvd collection. I guess it’s back to windows untill Apple solves these problems

4. Buyers beware of the bottom line price. The invoice may say zero sales tax, while you are obligated to pay. That is the case here in Colorado. I was quoted a lower price at the Apple store with a Business discount than the Amazon price + the invisible sales tax. At least $100 lower. I have to refuse the shipment from UPS, and go back to square one after a lot of deliberation and expectation about this purchase.

5. Well, I finally did it. I dumped Microsoft and went Mac. Anyone who knows me knows I am not impressed with Windows. Blue screen of death, Viruses, constant program hangups and of course, the
   over time slowing of machines loaded with Windows all contributed to my migration to an iMac. The only thing that held me back this long was a false perception that Mac’s were more expensive. Yes, they are more expensive then some
   ‘wally world’ special. But take the time to compare features and you will quickly see that the $500 computer at the local P.C. emporium is in now way shape or form the equal of this machine. The first thing you will notice is that BIG screen.
   A 27″ HD screen is rather large even by today’s computer standards. Ok, let’s compare apples to apples (no pun intended). Look at any other all in one computer with at least a 23″ screen and a duo core 3.06 Ghz processor and you are looking at a machine that costs pretty much what the iMac 27 does. Now look at the build quality of this machine and the others in it’s class fall short. Aluminum as opposed to plastic is a real nice touch in my book. And then there’s the Magic Mouse.
   I have never used a piece of computer hardware that was more intuitive then the Magic Mouse. And I am not some under 20 something techno geek who lives and breaths the latest and greatest electronic gizmos. It just fit and it just plain worked for me. Ditto for that Chicklet keyed wireless keyboard. I love the thing. My only complaint, which is echoed by others, is the lack of a numeric keypad on the keyboard. There is an after market keypad you can buy for an astonishing $59.00, which is more then the Apple wired USB keyboard which has a numeric keypad. Just wish they would make a bluetooth keyboard that included the numeric keypad. Ok on to the operating system. Snow Leopard kicks Windows butt.
   I pulled this thing out if it’s box, turned on the keyboard and mouse, plugged the monitor in and powered it up. It took all of 40 seconds to boot. It found the keyboard and mouse instantly and then found my home wireless network. It asked if I wanted to log on to the network. I answered in the affirmative and then put in my network password and voila! I was on the internet. This thing, from first turn on to being on the internet took less time then my duo core Intel processor PC
   does just to boot and get through the plethora of programs Windows feels compelled to load at each startup. Man, there is truth in the saying, once you go Mac you never go back! Oh, if you have a PC connected directly to your favorite printer and you want the Mac to find it, just turn on “Printer Sharing” in your network settings on your PC and the Mac will find it. Snow Leopard has a HUGE data base of printer drivers. I found one for my HP Photosmart with no problem and was printing to the printer attached to my Dell in about 1 minute. Oh, my Dell XP 400 was almost as much as this iMac 27″ and my Dell is almost 4 years old. So don’t believe it when they tell you Macs cost too much!