Ten minutes after the box arrived, I had (all by myself) unpacked and set up the computer, got it going, taken a photo of myself and emailed that photo to my geek partner, saying: “Look, I’ve got an iMac G5 to test.” And I’m only a mere journalist.
The Mac is beautiful — shiny, white, minimalist. It is flat (about an inch deep) with a slightly convex back to fit in the whole computer behind the screen. Fancy.
My old PC next to it looks a bit ashamed of its grey, bulky, lack-of-design appearance. It is humming away, disappointedly. When I turn the old beast off silence falls upon my desk, because the Mac is quiet, very quiet.
After a while I realise that the little dot next to the camera in the middle of the top panel is not a spec of dirt but a microphone. And the speakers are built in underneath the Mac.
The smallness of the remote is a little bit worrying at first; it could easily disappear among the piles of magazines, printouts, pens, books and coffee cups that decorate my desk. But then I discovered that there is a place to stow it (of course): on the right side of the Mac there is a remote rest with a magnet. That’s very Apple.
And for those of you who are about to say, “yeah, yeah, I’m sure Macs are good, but that one-button mouse will never win me over” I have some news — this mouse is touch-sensitive. It can be set up as a one-button or a multi-button mouse with left and right buttons, force-sensing side buttons and a 360-degree clickable scroll ball. Take that.
I just have one more thing to say: please, don’t make me part with this wonderful machine.
Apple iMac G5
Apple, www.apple.co.nz
0800-50 50 70
Cost: from $2349
Tech specs:
- 1.9GHz G5 processor
- 512MB of DDR2 SDRAM; supports up to 2.5GB
- 160GB SATA hard drive
- 17-inch LCD monitor
- ATI Radeon X600 pro graphics processor with 128MB of DDR video memory