absent.canadian

A few people have asked me what I think of the new iMac. Despite my hatred of Black Friday and all things associated with the gross over commercialization of American holidays, I did venture out on Friday morning to the Apple store to see if it was really true that Apple would have a sale. It was, and I got this shiny new iMac before running like hell to get away from the mindless flocks with their Macy’s bags and Starbucks cups.

Here’s my impressions of the iMac after spending some time with the new iron.

• It looks good. Real good. Most computers have that chiseled-out-of-plastic-from-the-1980’s look to them. The iMac may be the most sensual computer to come out of Cupertino; the metal case around the screen and the keyboard, and the “glossy” glass over the screen scream quality and class. True, you may be thinking that how a computer looks on the outside isn’t important, but I’d rather spend my hours behind a nice looking computer than the usual plastic junk.
• The Core 2 Duo is fast, but it’s not blindingly-fast like I was expecting. I’m not basing this on any quantifiable benchmark – I’m just talking about the “gut feeling” (a la Stephen Colbert) that I get when I open apps. This probably has something to do with the fact that I’m comparing Leopard on the new iMac to Tiger on my old eMac (and one can assume that Leopard takes more horsepower to run). And, in fairness, my two most heavily-used apps – iPhoto and iTunes – open a lot faster than they did on my old 1 gHz G4.
• iPhoto 08 rocks. Organizing photos by “event” is the single most “killer” upgrade I have discovered, and it’s been worth every penny. And it’s strangely compelling; I found myself going through the 8,000 odd photos I have in iPhoto and grouping them very logically.
• This gets me to my next point, which is organization. Apple is subtly moving us towards a different model of computing – one where we synthesize information with the computer, *and* we leverage its power to help us organize the information. Case in point: I tried, in vain, to keep a folder tree for organizing my digital photos. I would create folders called “Calgary Vacation 2007″, but it became a hopeless mess that was too top heavy to support. Enter smart apps like iPhoto (and the online equivalent – flickr). They don’t have all the bells and whistles of commercial photo apps like Photoshop, but they do let me organize my photos quickly and effectively, and they let me *find* my data very, very quickly.
• And isn’t that what a computer is all about – finding what you need, when you need it? Spotlight seems to be faster in Leopard, and that’s a good thing, because I use it a lot.
• Back to the iMac. I wasn’t sure how I would like the smaller wireless keyboard (it’s missing the numeric keypad), but again – Apple proves that less can be more, and the reclaimed real-estate on my desk is more than worth it.
• Apple moved the function keys on me. This is a little thing that pisses me off, since I’m used to hitting F12 for my widgets (it’s now F4). A trifling detail, but worth mentioning.
• Speaking of wireless, the wireless Mighty Mouse is a mixed bag. The scroll ball has a wonderful tactile feel, but you *really* have to squeeze the sides – almost to the point that I feel like I’m going to crush the poor mouse completely. But it’s wireless, and that has worked flawlessly so far. We’ll see how battery life is. And – the mouse doesn’t have the bright red light that you blind yourself with when you turn most mice upside-down … I think it’s infrared now? Way cool.
• I had a few very un-Mac-like crashes with Leopard in the first few days, but haven’t had anything even remotely hiccup-like since. Maybe it was just beginner’s bad luck.

The nitpicking should hardly be perceived as a deterrent, and I’m thrilled to say that my new iMac is one badass machine that will provide many hours of happy computing.