Apple iMac G5 20 in. (MA064LL/A) Mac Desktop - with Front Row

I didn't take the iMac out of the box but I wish I did. In fact, it's not my system but I wish it was.
The first time I saw the iMac at my girlfriends house -- I convinced her to buy one -- I was impressed by its look-at-me presence which stems from a gorgeous display and simple elegance. Although it shares the coloring scheme with the iPod line it is coated in a clear casing and lacks silver highlights. The base (iMac stand) is a very nice matter aluminum. The system power supply is integrated and there is no messy external power brick.

The monitor is 20" with a wide-screen aspect. The native resolution is 1680x1050 pixels and very well suited for working on multiple tasks in a side-by-side fashion. The color is very brilliant and bright. I can not discern any color variations. There are no bad pixels on the screen and the viewing angle is astonishing as text can still be easily read in excess of 120 degrees. The scaling for non-native resolutions is the best I have seen on ANY LCD system. Although the display height can not be raised or lowered, it should be a comfortable height in most scenarios and can be tilted forwards and backwards. It is also fairly easy to rotate left or right on a smooth table.

UPDATE (WEEK 1): When bringing the computer out of standby the display will briefly flash on only to turn off and turn back on a few seconds later. Although not a hardware flaw, it is a slightly annoying firmware/software implementation. Yet, if I'm complaining about this, it is a sure sign that I am I nit-picking.

The keyboard follows the design cues with the iMac with a very clean, thin, border. It, thankfully, doesn't have tacky internet buttons while it still sports a volume control and an eject button for the optical drive. The keyboard has a a slightly concave face which, except for the F-keys on the top row, makes for very easy typing. The keyboard is very heavy. Weight was added the base and it weighs as much as this 600 page computer book. The added weight and little rubber feet ensure the keyboard remains firmly planted. The keyboard has two addition USB 1.1 (not 2.0) ports located in the middle of the back which are well suited for plugging in a mouse or other peripheral. Unfortunately, as stated above, the USB ports are only 1.1-compatible which makes them unsuitable for high-speed devices and iPods. The keyboard, although nice to type with, is REALLY NOISY and makes a "clacking" sound.

UPDATE (WEEK 1): Although "clacky", this keyboard has a much better feel then ALL of the keyboards I recently tested at Circuit City. I would like to test it head-to-head with a Microsoft "non-natural" keyboard which was my previous favorite. Unfortunately, the keyboard gets dirty fast: the design and coloring does nothing to hide little debris. I take care to not eat over the keyboard and will be aquiring a can of compressed air to ease the maintenance.

The supplied mouse is the newly released "Mighty Mouse" and dispelled most of my misgivings about the earlier Mac mice I loathed.
This mouse really is quite amazing. The fit, although looking like a large, slightly-mushed, white pill, fits very comfortably in my largish-hand. It supports two primary buttons (it is a "buttonless" design and it uses a touch-sensing technology to detect a right-click. The disadvantage is that if you are touching the left of the mouse it still registers as a left-click so you have to be careful to slightly raise the left finger). It also supports a side-mounted button which is, unfortunately, quite firm and hard to press, and a button integrated in the 2d scrolling system which resembles a miniature trackball. The 2d scrolling system takes some getting used to as it is very easy to go left and right (backward and forward while browsing) while simply trying to scroll vertically.

UPDATE (WEEK 1): I hate to love this mouse. As described earlier the horizontal scrolling is very sensitive. While this enabled the super-easy scrolling of PDFs and images, it is a real pain to use in Firefox (and other browsers?) where the slightest accidental left or right movement will navigate forwards or backwards. It takes much practice and, after a week, I am still not entirely proficient. Like the keyboard, the mouse also gets dirty REALLY fast. The dirt collects on the upper rim marring the smooth surface and making the entire mouse feel dirty. It can, thankfully, be wiped clean fairly easily with a clean palm or cloth.

UPDATE (WEEK 2): Firefox 1.5, RC3, no longer navigates forwards or backwards when you use the Mighty Mouse's 2d scrolling system and, instead, is used to pan the entire page. This negates the particular sensitivity issue.

Additionally, the unit has a built-in camera and microphone located at the top of the monitor. It also comes with a little remote which, when not in use, "hangs" out on the right side of the iMac by magnates.

UPDATE (WEEK 1): The little (and I do mean little) remote is is wonderfully integrated with OS X and iTunes making the iMac capable of entirely replacing a lower-wattage (non-radio) stereo. I didn't detect a way of replacing the battery but, if it were to run out (or was lost), you can purchase a new unit at a local computer store (such as Circuit City) which carries Apple products.

This unit is very easy to setup. My girl friend did all setup on her own (and she isn't a very "computer oriented" person).

(Disclaimer: I come mainly from a MS background (DOS, Windows 3.1, 9x, 2k, XP, 2k3) and my earlier experiences with the Mac OS (versions 7.6, 8 and 9) were rather disappointing and made me scoff at Apple systems. I am very happy to say that OS X has raised the bar considerably in terms of functionality and elegance and I am proud to be learning how to use it to its potential).

The OS.
Just as iTunes makes the iPod a success, OS X 10.4 makes the iMac a success.
The system ships with Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) which is based off of BSD.
It is the most gorgeous operating system I have ever used and makes Windows XP look like a 2nd-rate child toy.

++ Dashboard and Expose (until you see these in action you won't understand what I mean...)
++ Security considerations are built-in and role separation is employed from the ground-up.
++ User switching, which is new to 10.4, is really fast and convenient.
++ Sharing between accounts is really easy and not flawed (as in the XP global-shared-folder approach).
++ Hardware acceleration is used and the added effects and meaning to various operations.
++ Icons scale, label color is changeable, context visibly changes, there are live previews and status summaries.
++ It is based on BSD and offers full access to the underlaying "Unix" system. The OS comes with an X server and many development tools and utilities. There are active projects to port many Open Source applications.
++ "Installing" programs is a snap (it really can't be compared to the Windows Installer or anything in the Windows world)
-- You need to download an application to view WMV files. You can get Microsoft Media Player 9 for Mac OS X (which is very light-weight and nothing like the windows version).
-- You need to download the StuffIt expander program to open ZIP and SIT files. There is a free basic version but version 10x was causing errors on my iMac. Version 8x works wonderfully.
-- It comes with Microsoft Office "Test Drive" (30-day demo). I think it's $199 to buy it. That being said, it comes with Apple Works and Text Edit. There is also the Open Office Project (Open Source) with a Cocoa port (NeoOffice/J).

UPDATE (WEEK 1): Although you can watch DivX and AVI files in OS X, it requires additional software. I have been using VideoLAN (VLC) -- a VERY GOOD and free movie player -- for almost a week with great success. There are other solutions for converting and playing non-QT/WMV movie files including 3vix. The "official" DivX 4/5 CODEC currently has compatibility issues with OS X 10.4 and the latest QT but it sounds like the issue is actively being resolved.

UPDATE (WEEK 1, part 2): OS X, with its beautiful UI, animations, and skinned Dashboard widgets, also uses more memory than a stock Windows XP setup for active user logins. This iMac only has 512MB but I would recommend getting 1024MB (or more!) memory -- especially if you wish to utilize the multiple login feature. I have occasionally experienced "hiccups" (1-2 second delays caused by heavy swap/HD access) which manifest themselves while switching to Dashboard.

However, I would recommend buying a good OS X book -- especially those users migrating from a Windows environment. OS X 10.4 (Tiger) introduces several new features not found in early versions.

If I could afford it I would buy an iMac for myself. In the meantime I will satisfy my appetite my learning how to use my girl friends system and, if the last two days have been any indication, it will be a very good experience.