When I went brought one of Apple Computer’s new iMacs home during spring break to play with, my dad asked me why Apple was making lamps as I was setting it up. I’m not entirely sure he was joking, and it’s actually pretty easy to understand why. The difference in the design of the new models is nothing short of drastic.
The entire unit consists of a 15-inch liquid crystal display monitor, attached to a half-dome-shaped base containing the entire system by a stainless steel arm which raises, lowers and swivels about like a pendulum. It really does look more like a lamp than a computer and defies nearly every convention as to what a computer should look like.
And it’s tiny. The circular base is only 10.6 inches in diameter. To see how much stuff Apple crammed into that tiny amount of space is truly astounding. The keyboard and mouse combination takes up more room than the actual unit.
The instruction manuals play on speed and simplicity and stress how there are only six steps to getting on the Internet and e-mail from the box to powering the unit on. Other pages detail how easy it is to record precious memories on digital video and burn DVDs with the iMac, using optional accessories at an additional cost, of course.
But of course, the real reason to get a new computer is how much power it’s packing. The three available models offer a choice between a 700 MHz or an 800 MHz PowerPC G4 processor - the latest in Apple’s line of processor chips. Advertised as a “Pentium-crusher,” Apple officials hope their newest technology will be a sufficient or even superior answer to Intel Corp.’s well-known processor.
And some programs did run rather quickly on the machine - complex graphics programs like Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign loaded and did their jobs as quickly as anyone might notice. But smaller, simpler programs like Adobe Acrobat Reader or even America Online Instant Messenger ran far more sluggishly than the 600 MHz Pentium 3 I tested it against.
Of course, it’s easy to blame that on the machine’s new OS X,(that’s X as in “10”, not “Malcolm” or “Men”) which is another topic for review in itself. Briefly, Apple redesigned its operating system from the ground up as well, and not all programs work correctly with it - or even at all. Some programs need to be run in an artificial OS 9 environment, which users are given the option of loading ahead of time, or only when they run a program which requires it.
The monitor, the most prominent piece of the system, looks fantastic. It runs at a 1,024-by-728-pixel resolution, for the number crunchers, and displays “millions of colors.” It comes at a higher quality than most liquid crystal display units on store shelves, which have a very specific viewing angle - but Apple’s new display can be tilted, angled or turned away and still be extremely visible.
The upper-end models also come bundled with a pair of 9-watt Apple Pro Speakers, which not one person in my family or set of friends recognized as speakers. A pair of clear plastic balls with an embedded disc barely resembling a normal speaker’s woofer piece, these things put out an incredible sound that is very surprising for their size.
Most desktop speakers are somewhat hollow and tinny at best, but the Apple Pro Speakers make use of the iMac’s digital audio port, which adds a clarity to the sound that truly deserves to be heard.
Also, the top-of-the line unit features Apple’s proprietary SuperDrive, a combination CD and DVD player/writer. This is the centerpiece of Apple’s creativity marketing drive, hoping to sell more machines to home video enthusiasts and MP3 fans. This is remarkable, as most DVD burners still retail for somewhere around $500.
With retail prices starting at $1,299 and up, the new iMac is a good machine for home users who want to give their productive and creative sides a workout.
It won’t completely overpower most mid- to high-end PCs, and the biggest downfall of a Mac is, as always, the lack of software support. Gamers and loyalists to certain brands will find themselves at a loss, missing out on titles that probably won’t be ported over to the Mac platform.
But what the iMac does, it does well, and can definitely stand - and swivel - on its own merits.
For more information on the iMac, visit www.apple.com/imac.
