Slash LaneBrian Tong of CNet reported the rumor Tuesday on his Twitter account (via MacNews.de). Citing anonymous sources, he said that the new iMacs will be "en route by ocean" to the U.S. around the start of May, and the machines will be upgraded with Intel's latest-generation Sandy Bridge processors.
"We'll see if this pans out, but I'm highly confident in my source," Tong wrote. Aside from the anticipated inclusion of a Thunderbolt port, no other specifics were given.
The inclusion of both Sandy Bridge processors and Thunderbolt ports on the new iMac lineup are expected. But the alleged ship date, by the first week of May to the U.S., is new information.
The iMac lineup was last updated in July of 2010, when the all-in-one desktops were outfitted with Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 processors, along with ATI Radeon graphics. Those machines retained the same design first introduced when the iMac was given an edge-to-edge glass screen in October 2009.
Intel's Sandy Bridge processors debuted on Apple's new line of MacBook Pros in February with the high-end 15- and 17-inch systems sporting quad-core CPUs.
The new MacBook Pro models also marked the debut of Thunderbolt, a new input-output technology developed by Intel with collaboration from Apple. Featuring two bi-directional channels with transfer speeds up to 10Gbps each, it delivers PCI Express directly to external high performance peripherals such as RAID arrays, and can support FireWire and USB consumer devices and Gigabit Ethernet networks via adapters.
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109 Comments
Great, another hardware upgrade.. No one can keep up with the latest and newest gizmos available..
This one is obvious. Whether it's end of April or early May or some other date, it's coming soon - and Thunderbolt will clearly be on every new system.
I was looking at a new iMac, but decided to wait for the next update. I actually expect it a bit earlier - around Mid-April, but any time between now and June 1 won't surprise me.
Finally some iMac news! I won't be able to get these, probably.....but this is still the only Mac line I'm interested in right now. I can get just as psyched up for the 'Post-PC' line of stuff as anyone else, because what's $300-$500 every year or so? But when it comes to replacing my iMac, that's a once-per-3-to-5-year proposition....
I would believe this one. I think Apple wants to move quickly on Thunderbolt to take advantage of its early mover advantage. The fact that the new processors seem to also be very major upgrades is also appealing. Thunderbolt, however, is arguably the most significant upgrade for some time. Anyone working on video or with large graphics files knows the need for faster hard drive access.
I got new MBP (15" matte screen i7) just last Sept. so I am out luck here for a while.
I love the current iMacs but I'm beginning to long for a new design. This one has been around for years now, only changing from white plastic to the aluminum and black glass currently used.
My favourite iMac was the "lamp" but something like that might not happen again because there's no more computer to hide in the base like they did with the lamp iMac. It's ever more comfortably fitting right behind the screen, lending for a very clean all in one look.
What do y'all think the next iMac will look like? Less chin perhaps? More like the cinema displays? Maybe we'll see an articulating neck like the lamp iMac after all, once OSX Lion's full screen apps and more iOS like UI begin to open up OSX for touch leading to an iMac that can move horizontal for an ergonomic touch experience.