iFixit Tears Down New Retina iMac, Internal Layout Largely the Same as Prior Generation

Though the new iMac with 5K Retina display was just released yesterday, iFixit has already acquired and disassembled one of the new machines, giving us a look at what’s underneath the iMac’s ultra thin display.

Apple’s newest iMac continues to use many of the same design elements from previous iMacs, including an easily accessible RAM upgrade slot on the back of the device. With the RAM slot, users will be able to install their own RAM modules with little trouble.

The 5K display, which has a resolution of 5120 x 2880, was manufactured by LG Display, the same supply partner that has manufactured iMac displays for Apple in the past. Aside from the display, iFixit found that the Retina iMac internals look much like the internals of the 2013 iMac, with the sole difference being a wider display data cable.

Along with an AMD Radeon M290X GPU and i5-4690 processor from Intel, the iMac contains SK Hynix 256 MB GDDR5 SGRAM. It uses the same SanDisk PCIe SSD as the late 2013 Retina MacBook Pro, with Marvell Controller, and it uses the same AirPort/Bluetooth card that was used in the 2013 27-inch iMac.

The 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display earned a repairability score of 5 out of 10, the same score earned by the 2013 27-inch iMac. iFixit pointed out that the RAM, hard drive, and CPU are user replaceable with some adhesive cutting, but removing the glass and LCD panel from the machine remains a difficult task for all those but the most dedicated do-it-yourselfers.

New 2014 Mac Mini Has Soldered RAM, Not User Replaceable

After going more than two years without an update, Apple’s Mac mini was refreshed yesterday, adding Haswell processors, Intel HD 5000/Iris graphics, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and PCI-based flash storage options for the higher-end models.

Unfortunately, the upgrade was disappointing to some Mac mini fans as Apple stopped offering a build-to-order quad-core processor upgrade and dual-drive storage options that exceed 1TB.

Many have speculated that the Mac mini also includes soldered RAM, which has now been confirmed by Macminicolo’s Brian Stucki. According to Stucki, the RAM in the Mac mini is “not user accessible,” which means those who purchase Mac minis are limited to 16GB of RAM that must upgraded when purchasing the machine from Apple.

All three Mac mini models can be upgraded to a maximum of 16GB of RAM, with the upgrade priced at $300 for the base model and $200 for the mid and high-end models.

While the RAM is not upgradeable, Stucki says that it is possible to replace or upgrade the hard drive, but doing so may void the warranty.

Apple’s new Mac mini starts at $499 and comes in three separate base configurations. On the low end, the Mac mini ships with a 1.4Ghz dual-core Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, and Intel HD Graphics 5000. At the middle tier, the Mac mini comes with a 2.6Ghz dual-core Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 1TB hard drive, and Intel Iris Graphics. At the high end, the Mac mini ships with a 2.8Ghz dual-core Core i5, 8GB of RAM, a 1TB Fusion Drive, and Intel Iris Graphics.

Base configurations of the Mac mini are currently available for purchase from the online Apple Store and will ship in one to three days. Custom configurations ship within three to five days.

OS X Yosemite: An In-Depth Look at Markup and Mail Drop in the Mail App

OS X Yosemite has brought some major changes to Apple’s Mail app, and those changes aren’t limited to a simple visual overhaul. Mail may have a new look, but it also has several new features like Mail Drop and Markup.

With Markup, you can annotate images and PDFs from directly within the Mail app. For example, when composing an email message and attaching a PDF, it’s possible to use various tools to add signatures, emphasis, and more. The same is possible with an image — simply attach a file in a message that’s being composed and right click on it, selecting Markup.

Markup has a set of tools at the top that allow users to create shapes, write text words, and insert signatures. There are different brushes that can be used, along with a color palette and various font options.

Users can enter various shapes, such as stars, circles, squares, speech bubbles and more, and there’s a magnifying glass that will magnify sections of text or photos. A crop tool also allows for simple image edits, and there’s a pen tool for free-handed writing or drawing.

Markup’s neatest feature is a signature tool that lets users insert a signature using the trackpad of a MacBook or a camera. With the trackpad, clicking begin and then signing a name with a finger on the trackpad will create a signature that’s automatically entered into a document.

There’s also an option that allows users to write a signature on a white piece of paper and use a Mac’s FaceTime camera to import it into the document. It’s a little bit finicky getting the camera to recognize the signature, but once it’s lined up properly, the feature works well.

Along with Markup, Mail has a new feature called Mail Drop that lets users send large file attachments of up to 5GB using iCloud. Composing an email message and attaching a file that would normally be too large to send will prompt Mail to ask a user if they would like to use Mail Drop to deliver the message.

When the Mail Drop option is selected, the person receiving the email will receive the file attachment as normal if they’re using Mail, while non-Mail users will receive a message with a download link that allows them to download the file directly from iCloud. Files are stored in iCloud for several days before being deleted.

MacRumors did not experience any issues getting Mail Drop to function with files ranging in size from 10MB to over 1GB, but some users on the Apple Support forums have been having trouble with the feature. Because Mail Drop works based on a sender’s file size limits rather than a receiver’s, users have run into an issue where they can send a file that is below their own maximum file size threshold, but above a receiver’s file size limits.

For example, sending a 10MB message from an email account that has a 30MB file size limit to an email account that has a 6MB file size limit will not activate Mail Drop and turn the file into a clickable link that can be downloaded from iCloud. Therefore, the person sending the message will get a bounce back reply that the user can’t accept a message of that size, even if the receiver also has Mail Drop.

According to Apple, Mail Drop can only be used to send files that “exceed the maximum size allowed by the provider of your email account,” which means there is no way for a user to select a custom file size threshold to activate Mail Drop to avoid the above situation. It is not clear if Apple has plans to implement manual size controls for Mail Drop, but for the time being, it appears that Mail Drop may not be useful for all users in certain situations.

Released to the public yesterday, OS X Yosemite can be downloaded from the Mac App Store at no cost. It runs on all machines that were capable of running OS X Mountain Lion and OS X Mavericks, and it requires 8GB of storage space and 2GB of RAM. [Direct Link]

OWC Announces RAM Upgrade Kits for New Retina iMac, Up to 32GB for $399 [Mac Blog]

Following yesterday’s launch of the new iMac with Retina 5K display, Other World Computing has announced new RAM upgrade kits for the machines.

OWC is offering three separate 1600MHz DDR3L kits to upgrade the Retina iMac’s memory to up to 32GB at prices lower than Apple offers. The 8GB kit, priced at $101.99, will increase the RAM of a base Retina iMac configuration from 8GB to 16GB.

The 16GB kit, priced at $197.99, will increase the RAM of a base Retina iMac configuration from 8GB to 24GB, and the 32GB kit, priced at $395 kit will allow users to replace all memory for a total of 32GB of RAM.

When purchased from Apple, upgrading to 16GB of RAM total costs $200, while upgrading to 32GB of RAM costs $600. OWC’s 32GB kit is $200 less than Apple’s price, and while the 16GB OWC kit is priced the same at $200, it ultimately lets users install 24GB of RAM rather than 16GB of RAM.

OWC is also offering a trade-in rebate for original factory memory, giving customers a credit towards the purchase of a memory kit. OWC’s memory kits come with a limited lifetime warranty along with a lifetime advanced replacement program.

Released yesterday, Apple’s iMac with 5K Retina display can be purchased from the Apple Store for $2,499. Current orders ship out in three to five business days.