Stupid Washington Post Review Lists Wrong Price On iMac.
IMac's Radical Redesign Easy on the User as Well as the Eyes
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By Rob Pegoraro
Sunday, February 17, 2002; Page H07
Most computers might as well have descended from the boxes they were shipped in. Apple's new iMac looks more like something evolved from R2-D2.
Instead of the traditional rectilinear slab of dull gray plastic, its base is a half-sphere of pearly white that hides the processor, disk drives, memory and even the AC adapter -- no external power brick sullies the iMac's appearance. The monitor is a 15-inch liquid-crystal display that connects to this hemisphere of a CPU by a sturdy, pivoting metal arm.
Those looks make the iMac an instant conversation piece. But they also make it an easy machine to live with.
That compact round base takes up far less desktop space than other desktop computers, while keeping the CD-ROM drive and expansion ports far more accessible than does a tower case parked below the desk.
And the iMac's screen-on-a-stalk is staggeringly useful -- I would call it "obvious," except hardly any other manufacturers offer anything like it. This sharp, bright and thin LCD is the first monitor I've used that's always been in the right place.
When I slump down in my chair, I can tug the screen forward and down to meet my lowered gaze. If I walk over to the computer, I can tilt the screen up to inspect it while standing. If somebody else wants to look at what's on the display, I can swing the screen over to the side. The ability to pull the screen up close also has the wonderful side effect of letting you focus on just the parts you're actually using -- the keyboard and the monitor. The rest of the machine simply fades away.
Apple sells the iMac in three versions, differentiated mainly by their optical drive and price. A $1,299 model, shipping next month, comes with a CD-RW drive; a $1,499 unit includes a CD-RW/DVD combination drive; an $1,899 system -- the one I reviewed -- features a DVD-R/CD-RW "SuperDrive." The old CRT iMac lives on in $799 and $999 versions.
The first two flat-panel iMacs include a 700-megahertz PowerPC G4 chip, while the high-end model runs on an 800-MHz processor. That faster chip means that the new iMac needs a cooling fan, unlike its bulbous predecessor -- but its fan only emits a quiet whir and cuts out completely when you put the machine in sleep mode.
All three iMacs come with 100-Mbps Ethernet for high-speed Internet and local area networking; a 56-kbps modem that, unfortunately, doesn't support the new, improved v.92 standard; three available USB ports and two FireWire connectors for peripherals as varied as printers and digital camcorders; a slick, accurate optical mouse; and a built-in antenna for an optional AirPort wireless-networking card.
The new iMac, however, doesn't offer any internal expansion capabilities beyond one slot each for extra memory and an AirPort card. To get at them, you need to flip the computer on its side and take a Phillips screwdriver to four small screws that hold the machine's lower lid in place.
Apple has loaded this machine with a set of digital-media tools that let users create and play with music, pictures and video and even (on the $1,899 iMac) make their own DVD movies: iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD 2.
IPhoto, a newcomer to this suite, may wind up one of the most popular applications of the bunch. It cleverly folds in outside offerings such as Kodak's Ofoto online photofinishing and Apple's own iTools Web-page hosting to simplify much of the drudgery of digital imaging -- it only takes a few clicks and taps of the Enter key to put a photo album online or order up a set of prints.
The other noteworthy piece of software on the iMac is the operating system it boots up into. It ships with the new Mac OS X as its default instead of Mac OS 9.
But this software -- along with many of the applications that have been rewritten for it -- still feels as if it's an update or two away from being finished. While the machine didn't crash in a week of constant testing, it did exhibit some small but nagging quirks and annoyances.
More seriously, the DVD-creation program iDVD 2 froze in the middle of Apple's tutorial, then kept crashing when I tried to run it. The remedy for this turned out to be quite simple, but Apple's help line shouldn't have taken 45 minutes to come up with it. That experience reminded me a little too much of life with PCs.
Then again, the iMac's price also reminded me of the PC experience. Except for one custom configuration from Sony, comparable machines from major PC manufacturers cost the same or more. They do all offer internal expandability and processors with higher clock speeds, but many also left out FireWire ports and wireless-networking antennas. As far as looks go, none of them are even qualified to sit in the same showroom as the iMac.
So what's not to like about this machine? A few things. The hard drive -- advertised at 60 gigabytes but clocking in at just under 56 -- is roomy enough for now, but I wish Apple had just thrown in an 80- or 100-gig model. With hard drives so cheap, it seems silly not to max out on storage capacity.
The iMac's design also takes one big step back from the innovations of the original iMac. All of its ports -- even the headphone jack -- hide on the rear of the CPU, as does the sole power/sleep button, guaranteeing a lot of clumsy reaching around by users.
The single most annoying thing about this computer, though, will be having to ship the review unit back to Apple.
He listed it at $1,899 for some reason?
[ 02-18-2002: Message edited by: Macintosh ]</p>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
\t\t\t
\t\tE-Mail This Article\t
\t\tPrinter-Friendly Version \t
\t\tSubscribe to print edition \t
By Rob Pegoraro
Sunday, February 17, 2002; Page H07
Most computers might as well have descended from the boxes they were shipped in. Apple's new iMac looks more like something evolved from R2-D2.
Instead of the traditional rectilinear slab of dull gray plastic, its base is a half-sphere of pearly white that hides the processor, disk drives, memory and even the AC adapter -- no external power brick sullies the iMac's appearance. The monitor is a 15-inch liquid-crystal display that connects to this hemisphere of a CPU by a sturdy, pivoting metal arm.
Those looks make the iMac an instant conversation piece. But they also make it an easy machine to live with.
That compact round base takes up far less desktop space than other desktop computers, while keeping the CD-ROM drive and expansion ports far more accessible than does a tower case parked below the desk.
And the iMac's screen-on-a-stalk is staggeringly useful -- I would call it "obvious," except hardly any other manufacturers offer anything like it. This sharp, bright and thin LCD is the first monitor I've used that's always been in the right place.
When I slump down in my chair, I can tug the screen forward and down to meet my lowered gaze. If I walk over to the computer, I can tilt the screen up to inspect it while standing. If somebody else wants to look at what's on the display, I can swing the screen over to the side. The ability to pull the screen up close also has the wonderful side effect of letting you focus on just the parts you're actually using -- the keyboard and the monitor. The rest of the machine simply fades away.
Apple sells the iMac in three versions, differentiated mainly by their optical drive and price. A $1,299 model, shipping next month, comes with a CD-RW drive; a $1,499 unit includes a CD-RW/DVD combination drive; an $1,899 system -- the one I reviewed -- features a DVD-R/CD-RW "SuperDrive." The old CRT iMac lives on in $799 and $999 versions.
The first two flat-panel iMacs include a 700-megahertz PowerPC G4 chip, while the high-end model runs on an 800-MHz processor. That faster chip means that the new iMac needs a cooling fan, unlike its bulbous predecessor -- but its fan only emits a quiet whir and cuts out completely when you put the machine in sleep mode.
All three iMacs come with 100-Mbps Ethernet for high-speed Internet and local area networking; a 56-kbps modem that, unfortunately, doesn't support the new, improved v.92 standard; three available USB ports and two FireWire connectors for peripherals as varied as printers and digital camcorders; a slick, accurate optical mouse; and a built-in antenna for an optional AirPort wireless-networking card.
The new iMac, however, doesn't offer any internal expansion capabilities beyond one slot each for extra memory and an AirPort card. To get at them, you need to flip the computer on its side and take a Phillips screwdriver to four small screws that hold the machine's lower lid in place.
Apple has loaded this machine with a set of digital-media tools that let users create and play with music, pictures and video and even (on the $1,899 iMac) make their own DVD movies: iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD 2.
IPhoto, a newcomer to this suite, may wind up one of the most popular applications of the bunch. It cleverly folds in outside offerings such as Kodak's Ofoto online photofinishing and Apple's own iTools Web-page hosting to simplify much of the drudgery of digital imaging -- it only takes a few clicks and taps of the Enter key to put a photo album online or order up a set of prints.
The other noteworthy piece of software on the iMac is the operating system it boots up into. It ships with the new Mac OS X as its default instead of Mac OS 9.
But this software -- along with many of the applications that have been rewritten for it -- still feels as if it's an update or two away from being finished. While the machine didn't crash in a week of constant testing, it did exhibit some small but nagging quirks and annoyances.
More seriously, the DVD-creation program iDVD 2 froze in the middle of Apple's tutorial, then kept crashing when I tried to run it. The remedy for this turned out to be quite simple, but Apple's help line shouldn't have taken 45 minutes to come up with it. That experience reminded me a little too much of life with PCs.
Then again, the iMac's price also reminded me of the PC experience. Except for one custom configuration from Sony, comparable machines from major PC manufacturers cost the same or more. They do all offer internal expandability and processors with higher clock speeds, but many also left out FireWire ports and wireless-networking antennas. As far as looks go, none of them are even qualified to sit in the same showroom as the iMac.
So what's not to like about this machine? A few things. The hard drive -- advertised at 60 gigabytes but clocking in at just under 56 -- is roomy enough for now, but I wish Apple had just thrown in an 80- or 100-gig model. With hard drives so cheap, it seems silly not to max out on storage capacity.
The iMac's design also takes one big step back from the innovations of the original iMac. All of its ports -- even the headphone jack -- hide on the rear of the CPU, as does the sole power/sleep button, guaranteeing a lot of clumsy reaching around by users.
The single most annoying thing about this computer, though, will be having to ship the review unit back to Apple.
He listed it at $1,899 for some reason?
[ 02-18-2002: Message edited by: Macintosh ]</p>
Comments
You'll get a "thank-you" and it'll be revised...no big deal.