[MacDV] Re: In defense eMacs-- was350MHz G4 and suggestions-- MacDV Digest #2674

[illovox at comcast.net]

on 4/17/04 10:42 AM, Ronald Woodland at woodland at infowest.com wrote:

> I concur with Ted.
> 
> I bought my Daughter an eMac for high school graduation.  It's a
> not-quite-one-year-old 1 GHz eMac with SuperDrive.  She loves it.
> Absolutely no problems -- video editing (with FCE), DVDs, iTunes, MS
> Office, Adobe Creative Suite, anything she wants to do.  Her PC friends
> are jealous.  It runs continuously -- never shutdown, just put to sleep
> when she's not using it.  I am planning to buy a second one for my wife
> with the tax refund.
> 
> Just for the record (not to brag), I have also had a G5 dual 2 GHZ as
> soon as I could get one after Steve announced them last year.  I bonded
> with it in the first hour and never looked back.  There are no PCs in
> my life and I want to keep it that way.  I also own Honda cars
> exclusively, a Honda Goldwing motorcycle, and a 25-year-old Honda
> lawnmower that still starts on the first pull every time.  Hey!  When
> you find a product that is the best at what it does, why waste money on
> anything else?
> 
> Ron Woodland
> St. George, UT
> 
> 
> On Apr 16, 2004, at 6:56 PM, Ted Langdell wrote:
> 
>> There's some new news on the eMac front:
>> 
>> http://www.apple.com/emac/
>> 
>> Apple's dropped the price of the top end emac to $999 upped the G4
>> processor speed to 1.25 MHz for both the Superdrive AND CD burn/read
>> drives.  The CD burner model is now $799.
>> 
>> The new machines have USB 2.0 ports, and use faster RAM, among other
>> differences from the older models.
>> 
>> Check out http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/archives/apr04/041304.html for
>> other details, including a report that the DVD burner will cook at 8X.
>> 
>> Prices on the 1GHz machines with Superdrive and 256MB Ram are now
>> under  $899 at Frys, perhaps because of the price changes.
>> 
>> A Google search for eMac problems turned up a few that appear to have
>> been identified and fixed.  Nothing to indicate a large range of
>> problems, and it would appear from a quick scan that the units
>> affected were not recent.
>> 
>> There WAS a raster shift problem that involves a cable, and the fix is
>> to replace the cable.  Macfixit.com has details.
>> 
>> http://www.macfixit.com/staticpages/index.php?page=20030131071918881
>> 
>> Perhaps the posters below could check into what brought the machines
>> into the shop mentioned,  what the problem(s) were, and what
>> models/age of machines were affected.
>> 
>> That's more useful than blanket statements from un-named sources that
>> "eMacs are major bad."
>> 
>> I'm QUITE happy with my 1GHz Superdrive eMac and will continue to
>> suggest them as a viable option for someone looking to do as our
>> original poster with the 350MHz machine wanted to do on an $800 or so
>> budget.
>> 
>> Ted.
>> 
>> Ted Langdell
>> Ted Langdell Creative Broadcast Services
>> Marysville, CA
>> 
>> On Apr 16, 2004, at 4:12 PM, Macintosh Digital Video List wrote:
>> 
>>> ------------------------------
>>> 
>>> Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2004 15:59:07 -0700
>>> Subject: Re: [MacDV] Re: 350MHz G4 and suggestions--MacDV Digest #2672
>>> From: Gregg Gorrie <ggorrie at telus.net>
>>> Message-ID: <BCA5B34A.166E4%ggorrie at telus.net>
>>> 
>>> on 4/16/04 11:50 AM, matblack at mac.com at matblack at mac.com wrote:
>>> 
>>>> I just heard from someone that eMac's are major bad.
>>>> oh, I spoke with my mac-head yesterday. The eMac is *****, plagued
>>>> with
>>>> problems. He sold 400 of them last year and has 65 in the shop. he
>>>> sold
>>>> 4000
>>>> G4s and has 5 in the shop.
>>>> Apparently the problem stems from the heat build-up caused by the
>>>> monitor
>>>> which quickly degrades internal components. also, because the
>>>> speakers
>>>> are
>>>> built-in, their magnets cause the monitor to jitter and develop odd
>>>> color
>>>> shifts. apples trying to dump them.<<
>>>> 
>>>> Just FYI...

I have been an avid mac user and tech for years.  In MY experience, 1st gen
eMacs have problems due to heat and cheap components, monitor issues, and
all G3 iceBooks  suck because of rotten hinge and cable design.  If your G3
iceBook doesn't have a problem now, it will.  Also:

1st gen B&W g3--suck
1st gen G4--suck
1st gen g5--why only one optical drive bay?  Sucks.  Newer cooler G5 chips
should solve the problem.  Rest is cool.

Apple isn't perfect.  Better than the rest, but not perfect.  eMacs and
iceBooks were designed to cut costs.  It shows.  I want Apple to be even
better.