Tim Cook: "Great desktops," are in the roadmap

There's been growing concern that Apple has somewhat neglected its desktops. Sure, the iMac was updated in 2015 with impressive new 5K and 4K variants, but it's been two years since the Mac mini has gotten revised and three long years since the Mac Pro was launched. Well, Apple CEO Tim Cook reassured Apple staff that desktops are very much a part of Apple's roadmap in an internal memo to employees.

Some folks in the media have raised the question about whether we’re committed to desktops. If there’s any doubt about that with our teams, let me be very clear: we have great desktops in our roadmap. Nobody should worry about that.

This is very good news for Apple desktop users who have been waiting patiently for an upgrade path from their current desktops. Like most manufacturers of the PC industry, Apple's likely been held back by Intel, who supplies the processors that power notebooks and desktops and whose latest Kaby Lake processors are trickling out. The Mac is also a shrinking part of Apple's business. Notebooks may be on the upswing but desktops are a tough sell all around. Tim Cook's reassurance that great desktops are coming will help put a lot of speculation to rest.

Source: TechCrunch

Special Feature: HP Houston Labs Tour – A Focus on Quality Part 1

Photo courtesy of Mario Nagano of www.ztop.com.brText and photos by Alex Davies

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of touring HP’s Houston Labs, where they put their commercial hardware through the wringer to test its durability and quality. This large facility was the former headquarters of Compaq before the merger with HP, and it was interesting to see the relics of the former company everywhere we went. Many of the engineers we spoke to on the tour were former Compaq employees who have been working in these labs for years.

One of the mantras that we heard during the tour is that they “freeze it, bake it, shake it, break it”, and as we walked around the facility, we really did see HP’s engineers  subject desktops, notebooks and tablets to all manners of torture – the job wasn’t done until the product broke.  Hit jump for our report on HP's Houston Labs.

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Apple's lower cost iMac now starts at $1,149

Apple has quietly updated its iMac line with a new lower-cost 21.5-inch iMac starting at $1,149.00 in Canada. The new entry-level all-in-one fetures a 1.4GHz dual-core Intel i5 processor with 8GB of RAM and has a similar Haswell chip as the MacBook Air. 

Apple's new Mac Pro has a replaceable socketed CPU

The new Mac Pro is truly a uniquely designed desktop unlike anything anyone has seen before. Yet, the fact that this compact computer is one of the first fully-solid state workstations in the market (meaning no moving parts), makes some potential buyers nervous.

But fear not, the most important components of the Mac Pro can be replaced and upgraded quite easily. The RAM and, most surprisingly, the CPU can be replaced if need be. The fly in the ointment is that the SSD drives and the graphics cards are permanent. 

Source: ExtremeTech