Читать книгу iMac For Dummies - Mark L. Chambers - Страница 23

When you bought your new digital pride and joy, you probably noticed a number of subtle differences between the standard 21.5″ iMac, the 27″ iMac, and the faster top-end 24″ M1 iMac. I call these differences the Important Hidden Stuff (or IHS, in case you prefer acronyms), and they’re just as important as the parts and ports that you can see:

 Internal drive: The current iMac can be equipped with flash storage (also called a solid-state drive, or SSD). Apple also offers a Fusion Drive, which is essentially a combination of a traditional magnetic drive and flash storage (offering the larger capacity of a magnetic drive and the improved performance of flash storage). As I type these words, the iMac product line offers several different storage capacities, depending on the processor speed and screen size you choose: anywhere from a standard 256GB solid-state drive to an immense 8TB SSD. (Yes, friends and neighbors, TB means terabyte, or 1,000GB.) The bigger, the better. (Remember, though, that the iMac has room for only one internal drive.)

 Wireless Ethernet: “Look, Ma, no wires!” As I mention earlier, your iMac can join an existing wireless Ethernet network with its built-in wireless hardware. With wireless connectivity, you can share documents with another computer in another room, share a single high-speed Internet connection among several computers, or enjoy wireless printing. Truly sassy! You can use your iMac with any standard 802.11g, 802.11n, or 802.11ac wireless network. (The M1 iMac adds support for 802.11ax as well.) And yes, PCs and Macs can intermingle on the same wireless network without a hitch. (Scandalous, ain’t it?) Apple’s AirPort wireless devices have been discontinued, however, so you’ll have to do some searching online to locate an Apple wireless network device.

 Bluetooth: Let’s get the old “digital pirate” joke out of the way: “Arrgh, matey, I needs me a wireless parrot.” (Engineers again … sheesh.) Although strangely named, Bluetooth is actually another form of wireless connectivity. This time, however, the standard was designed for accessories like your keyboard and mouse, and devices like your tablet and smartphone. Bluetooth is built into every iMac.

 SDXC card slot: As I mention earlier, this slot allows your Intel iMac to read photos and video directly from standard SD memory cards. Photographers and video fans, rejoice!

 FaceTime HD camera: The iMac built-in video and still camera appears as a tiny lens and activity light at the top of your computer.

 Video card: You’ll be pleased as punch to find that your Intel iMac comes equipped with either Intel Iris Plus or fast AMD Radeon Pro graphics hardware. The AMD Radeon Pro cards are well suited for entry-level 3D applications, and … well, honestly, blasting the enemy into small, smoking pieces with aplomb. On the Apple Silicon side, proud owners of M1 iMac models can choose from either a 7-core or 8-core graphics system, offering blazing speed (the 8-core version offers significantly faster performance). Both built-in M1 graphics platforms are worthy of Hollywood-quality video editing and the most demanding 3D applications.