New iMac - initial thoughts

New iMacI’ve been holding off buying an iMac until OSX Leopard comes out. The idea of an all-in-one desktop that I don’t have to faff around with (and which can dual-boot windows) is particularly appealing. I’m not going to go into a Mac v PC rant, and I’ll concede that a desktop PC is probably better than an iMac, as the iMac is limited in it’s upgrade possibilities (I feel Apple are making a mistake on their website comparing the iMac to a Dell PC - the PowerMac would be a fairer comparison)

However, I mess around with PCs all day at work, and to be honest, all I want from a home computer is one that ‘works’. Macs famously ‘just work’ out of the box, hence me deciding to replace my PC with an iMac.

Not to fall into the trap of buying a Mac with Tiger on it, only to want to upgrade the operating system in six months I decided to wait for Leopard to come out, and probably a new range of iMacs to go with it.

Apple have now announced the new iMac. With its brushed aluminium front it is now more like a MacBook pro or PowerMac than an iPod, which I think is a bit of a shame, as the white, clean design is what defines the apple ‘i’ hardware.

Having said that I popped into my local apple shop to have a look at the new toy.

It is far less imposing than the white iMac, partially because of the colour, but it is also a smaller box. Thinner, and with less outside the screen. I must admit that it does look very sleek. The display is bright and pretty much everything you’d expect from an iMac. The older 24″ model used to look absolutely huge, and while the screen size hasn’t changed, the actual unit is now smaller and more tempting.

iMac KeyboardWhere apple have really gone wrong is with the new keyboard.

Hailed as thinner and sleeker than ever, it is also heaver and harder. The keys are like laptop keys, and offer very little action. I powered up word and tried typing some random rubbish and found myself having to correct my typing a lot. (similar to how I do on a laptop keybaord keyboard). Is this a ploy to get us to buy the old keyboard? or go for the wireless keyboard, which has not yet been changed to the new design? The Apple logo off the command key is now missing also - with Apple being so brand focused, this is surprising. Some veteren apple owners might refer to keyboard shortcuts as ‘command-c, command-q’ etc, I quite liked referring to it as ‘apple-c, apple-q’.

Additionally, the mouse is still the white Apple ‘mighty mouse’. While the ‘mighty mouse’ is a very good mouse, it amazes me that Apple have not updated it to match the new iMac (or bought out a brushed aluminium/dark silver coloured one). On the desk it looked out of place alongside the new keyboard.

This has not diminished my desire for an iMac, but it has made me think I might try and get one of the old iMac keyboards off eBay or simply get hold of a silver and black HP keyboard just to make typing easier.

Posted by Andy on August 14th, 2007 under General

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