Did you just buy yourself the latest iMac refresh in 2011? If you are, and assuming that Apple’s knowledge database was not glitched, you may be upset to find out that in less than a year of using your iMac, it appears that yet another refresh may be in order.
The “leak” was spotted while Arstechnica was browsing through Apple’s knowledge database and was on the Thunderbolt documentation page. As you can see in the picture above, Thunderbolt availability and the number of devices you could connect to it has been listed according to various Apple products. As we all know, Apple has recently refreshed their line of MacBook Airs in mid 2011, bringing an upgrade in RAM and Sandy Bridge processors to the ultra-thin notebooks.
Similarly, the Mac Mini had been updated shortly after the Macbook Air, thus making the mid 2011 refresh correct, along with the MacBook Pro and the iMac, or at least until it was spotted that the iMac had two refreshes – one mid 2011 (which is correct) and one late 2011. Now it seems that other websites are claiming that the “late 2011” model of the iMac is referring to the education only 21.5” iMac, but according to Arstechnica, since the 21.5” iMac does not come with Thunderbolt (only a mini Display Port), it should not be listed in this documentation in the first place.
The “late 2011” has also appeared to have been removed by Apple in the knowledge database, which begs the question – was it there by automatic assumption of the person editing the knowledge database that the 21.5” iMac had a Thunderbolt port, or was it an accidental leak of an upcoming refresh?