This week’s column comes to you from the Apple Store at Lenox Square Mall in Atlanta, Georgia. Your intrepid Mac Maineiac, going to the ends of the earth to bring you the best coverage of all things Mac. I don’t know if Georgia is exactly the “ends of the earth”, but you can certainly see them from here. Just kidding.

Anyway, I just spent a half hour or so “getting to know” the new iMac G5 in person, and I can tell you that, visually, it’s stunning. In case you missed my description of two weeks ago (and where were you?), the first question you ask yourself when seeing the new iMac for the first time is “what did they do with the computer?” All you see is either a gorgeous 17” or 20” flat panel display suspended in mid-air by a polished aluminum base, and a keyboard and a mouse.

The computer is certainly there – it’s just housed inside the display enclosure, which is only two inches thick. The computer is state-of-the-art, powered by either a 1.6GHz or 1.8 GHz 64-bit G5 processor from IBM. On the back of the display you’ll find ports for all your computing and connectivity needs. What about the optical (DVD/CD burner) drive? There’s a slot on the right side of the display, at just the right height, that gently grabs your DVD/CD disk and pulls it into the drive.

There are internal fans that cool the powerful G5 processor, but you can’t hear them at all – Apple claims they produce around 25db, less than whisper volume. There are also internal speakers, but they lack good bass response, as there is no room for the required resonance to take place. If you’re into music, you’ll want to get one of any number of USB speaker systems with subwoofers.

Although the iMac G5 is competitively priced with comparably equipped PC systems, it comes equipped with only 256MB of RAM. These machines really need 512MB of RAM to complete the package, and having Apple add it at purchase adds another $75 to the price. An additional 256 MB RAM chip can be purchased at other outlets for around $55, and installation can be done at home.

Oh, and it runs Mac OS X – the best OS in the world. No viruses, spyware, adware, or pop-ups. Sometimes beauty is indeed more than skin deep.

© 2004 Peter F. Zimowski