New iMac and the Shiny Screen

Now that I think about it, I wonder if Apple's already working on a replacement for the glass plate in front of the iMac Aluminum's LCD panel, that will be an optional retrofit for the first series of iMac Aluminums, as well as a build-to-order option for the next series. Possibly there will be, or already is, a spot in the bezel behind the glass, that contains contacts that a touchscreen glass panel will use to communicate the touchscreen data to the Mac. I really doubt if the current glass plate already has touchscreen technology built-in -- Apple would have trumpeted that from the start, and the people who have taken the iMac apart would have noticed if it was more than just a simple plate of glass.

A glossy glass touchscreen may be an easier surface to drag one's fingers over, than even the best matte surface -- try it: your fingers will sometimes hang on a matte LCD, especially at slower drag speeds. This may be another reason Apple hasn't offered a matte-finish glass plate (at least not yet), nor an advertised option to remove the glass plate, and so this might be another hint that Apple may be planning a touchscreen iMac.

If touchscreen iMacs are in the future, it looks like some people will be building up their arm muscles a little more, having their arm raised often to touch the screen, and more screen cleaning fluids will be sold, though like I mentioned earlier, rubbing alcohol will work fine, or something like Windex, though I don't recommend spraying it on in case it drips below the display and into the inside of the Mac--spray your cleaning cloth instead. But it's possible Apple already anticipated this with the new iMac's design--from the looks of the take-apart photos, with its inner bezel behind the glass's edge, it looks like liquids sprayed on the front aren't likely to get inside. I still wouldn't spray anything directly onto the glass plate though, and definitely don't spray anything directly onto the LCD panel, since that could drip down inside.

I am a heavy photoshop user and the new imac's glossy screen is a very real issue - especially the 20-inch which has a very narrow vertical view angle.

Under less "than ideal" conditions (the Apple store at the mall) the reflections are extremely difficult to contend with!

I would love to know if the Apple industrial designers researched anti-reflective museum glass manufactured by Tru Vue (Tru Vue AR Reflection-free).

This product has a less than 1% light reflection and 98% transmission. From my experience it is almost invisable when mounted over a photograph. Drawback - expensive!

Not sure this product would work when placed over an LCD screen though and not sure how it would affect color rendering. Bottom line is there may be a market for after market imac glass screen replacements ( I believe the imac glass is held in place by magnets - a link shows the computer being "deconstructed" and mentions this.

Thanks to these excellent discussions about the new glossy iMac displays, I have for the time being shelved the purchase of a 2.8 GHz, 24" iMac with 4 GB of RAM, and thereby perhaps avoided a costly mistake.

As your reader Ethan E. remarked: "Life sure is tough for Apple fans." And I really agree, because I now have to cook up a "plan B".

I am the owner of a G4 PowerMac (AGP graphics) with a (non-glossy) 22" Cinema Display, model M7478 with DVI connector. It still serves me well, though a bit slowly, and therefore I want to replace this 7-year-old machine.

I plan to continue for a few months saving part of my money to afford the extra cost of a MacPro with a 30" Apple Cinema HD Display, as a worthwhile alternative to the not yet existing 24" iMac with a matte screen.

In the meantime Apple might perhaps offer this iMac with a non-reflective display. In that case I can still buy it and will have some excess cash as a result.

This wait-save-and-see period I can also put to good use to cut my last ties with some software which only runs under Mac OS 9.

By the way, one of the owners of a big chain of Apple Centres in my country told me that about half of the potential buyers of a new iMac do NOT buy this new machine because of the glossy and reflecting display. This fact is adequate proof of Apple's mistake.

This is cool