That’s actually probably the one thing I really don’t like about my Intel Mac Mini. It seems that under any kind of load its fans spin up pretty quickly and get reasonably loud.
At some point when / if they drop the M2 Mac Mini or whatever with a higher RAM ceiling I might consider an upgrade largely due to that reason. But I need my RAM. 
I’m glad that I’m not the only one with this reaction! If I did not already have a M1 MacBook Air I would have totally gone for this iMac. M1 is plenty fast for basically everything I do haha
From the recent leaks, it seems that 4G laptops are not in the cards for Fall, unfortunately. Which was sort of announced by Ming-Chi Kuo.
I don’t agree totally here. Most of the Mac Power User content is connected to productivity, a realm that is relevant for everyone, especially office workers. Keyboard Maestro, Text Expander, BetterTouchTool, Obsidian, Craft are all tools that make most difference for the standard office work, that this iMac is aimed at. They are actually less relevant for people with computationally demanding jobs like designers and people in video editing/modification etc.
I’m interested in making this my work horse in the office to be honest.
Productivity is an extremely loaded term, just like pro is. Are you pro / productivity-oriented if you write and publish books using only (heaven forbid) Word, or if you do heavy architectural design on a Mac Pro?
Productivity ranges from basic office work indeed – my doctor uses an iMac in her office, but she knows nothing (and couldn’t care less) about TE, KM, BTT – to extremely heavy needs. However, our fiddling for computer productivity is a niche market. As I can regularly see on other productivity / GTD forums, most people in regular offices – even interested in productivity – do not know about these tools and are extremely intimidated by them. The reaction I got when I suggested using a two line (provided) AppleScript for automating something was met with (I’m not kidding) terror.
However, I think we are in fact in agreement 
This machine is terrific for power users who do just office work, and they will get all the tools they love there. But start adding tons of peripherals as we tend to use, the wish to use two external screens, that’s where you bump into the limitations of the M1 chip but it’s nothing new – it was the case with last year’s computers. That’s what I meant – power users are fiddly and want very precise things, which the M1, in many cases, does not accommodate (over 2Tb of SSD, more I/O and so on).
Seems right, I hadn’t thought about the screen and I/O limitation. I’m a one screen guy, as I am easily distracted, so that did not come to me.
P.S. I swear, the disparity between your account name and your profile picture always short circuits my brain for a second, haha.
I swear the disparity between your account name and your profile picture always short circuits my brain for a second, haha.
You make me glad, sir, as this is totally my intent. 
(What? That’s all black and white beasts. 
)
The I/O I can absolutely see, although I’m wondering about the SSD. From what I can tell the only Intel iMac that’s available with more than 2TB is the absolute highest-end 27". So if that’s a requirement for somebody, it’s not just a knock against the M1 - it’s seemingly a knock against 2/3 of the currently-available Intel iMacs models as well.
Were the previous 21.5" iMacs configurable higher than 2TB?
Was just speaking generally here that limitation was much lamented here and elsewhere also for the laptops. You could spec iMac Pro’s (which is the territory we are in, performance-wise) with more than 2 Tb.
And I’m confident that some day in the future, we’ll be able to spec M-class Macs that way too.
I mean…unless Apple had zero demand for them, why would they miss out on being able to sell a 2 TB SSD upgrade for 3X that SSD’s retail? 
Sorry, I wasn’t trying to imply that all-in-ones are just big laptops. I think that is how it used to be with Intel, but that is likely about to change with the transition to Apple Silicon. The more beefier the internals are, the better. 
I believe that it’s 2TB, based on the tech specs on Apple’s site.
I had been thinking about this issue all year leading up to the Spring Loaded event. All the pundits that I heard were making a prediction along the lines that the iPad Pro would get an updated chip “based on,” the M1 but it would be branded as an A-series chip and would be missing some of the “IP” of the M1 series chip.
It never sat well with me. Certainly, it was a safe bet to predict the device that has only ever had A-series chips would continue to have chips branded as such.
But Apple has such big plans for iPad that it makes perfect sense to put the M1 in it. The iPad–in Apple’s eyes–is a powerful pro device. By putting a desktop computer chip in it, you make a very bold declaration to the world about where iPad sits now and in the future. I was glad from a performance, marketing, and show-of-strength perspective.
Also, it’s great marketing for M1. It’s now “the” chip.
All that power, underutilized. I’m looking forward to WWDC, becuase there’s another shoe that has to drop.