Once you go iMac....

You have got to test drive a 24-inch iMac. If you're in the market for a new desktop, you owe it to yourself to head to your nearest Apple Store and behold this magnificent beast. To see is to believe its gorgeous 24-inch display, fast Intel Core 2 Duo powerhouse, and rock-solid Mac OS X operating system. For ease of reading, I have broken up my comments into three sections, The Display, OS X Tiger, and iLife.

The Display

24-inches is a lot of display. I thought it would be outsized...too much. Boy was I wrong. I read several reviews that said you can never have enough screen real estate. It's true. I've been opening 5, 6, 7 or more programs at once. If I need to hop from one to the next, I use Expose - a crazy feature of OS X that essentially shrinks all open windows to fit on your screen temporarily; scroll your mouse pointer over the window you want, release the mouse button and ta-da, you're in. The screen is also great for viewing photos full-screen, watching 16:9 and true widescreen DVDs, and sorting through hundreds of files quickly.

OS X Tiger

I read a rumor that in discussing the graphic interface for OS X, Apple CEO and Tech-celeb Steve Jobs told his designers that he wanted the graphics to be so polished and pleasing to the eye that users would feel an urge to lick the screen. Apple's designers delivered with gorgeous blue, red, yellow and green elements that mimic the color and texture of gummy (as in bears and worms).

OS X comes loaded with powerful software that hard core geeks and novice users alike will relish. Spotlight is a powerful search tool that delivers real time results. Looking for that picture of Aunt Bess or that song by Billy Joel? Hit Command/Space, or click the Spotlight Icon, type Billy Joel and within milliseconds your results appear. This is just one example of the power and simplicity of OS X. One of my favorite things about Tiger is Front Row. Front Row turns the iMac into a media center - complete with a remote control, DVD Player, iTunes Player, Video Player, and iPhoto Slideshows. DVD's on the 24-inch LCD are breathtaking - no need for a TV, DVD Player, Component Video hookups...the Mac has it covered. Don't let me forget about Dashboard. With a click of the mouse, the screen fades, and Dashboard appears. You can add a clock, dictionary, your local weather, random quote generators, RSS feeds, anything you can imagine. Another killer application - Stickies. Its like having post-it notes inside your screen. It is as if Apple's engineers said, what do computer users want in an operating system, what programs will they use, what programs will they enjoy....and so OS X was born. Lastly, OS X does not come with an anti-virus or spyware program. Not even a preloaded Norton or Symantec trail. Don't be disappointed though, its because OS X is extremely secure and very few viruses are written for Macs. Oh, and in Q1 2007, we can expect Leopard, the next update to OS X, which is sure to include exciting new features and improvements to existing programs.

iLife

iLife 06 comes preloaded on all iMacs. iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, Garageband. All of these programs are easy to use, powerful and hours of fun. A word about cost is appropriate here. One of the main reasons some consumers are reluctant to buy a Mac (including myself up until recently) is cost. These new iMacs throw that argument out the window. With the switch to Intel processors, the inclusion of a 24-inch LCD monitor, iLife 06 (expect to pay at least $200 for a comparable suite of creativity software), the most stable, widely used consumer-grade operating system in the World, a media center (Front Row), you can no longer find a Windows PC that stacks up to the iMac for the same price. Another thing about iLife that holds true for the rest of OS X - all of its programs work together. For example, you start a movie project in iMovie, import images from iPhoto, import your latest guitar solo from Garageband, export your movie to iDVD, and watch the finished product using Front Row. Also, you can drag and drop most any file into most any program. Something as mundane as attaching a picture to an e-mail message is so much easier on a Mac. Two options: Open iPhoto highlight the picture, click share, email...Mail opens w/your picture attached...send....and you're done. Or open Finder (OS X's powerful file finder - think Windows Explorer) locate the file, open Mail, new message, and drop it into the message. Simple, elegant, fast - just like the iMac.

If you are into anything creative this is your computer - photography, video, music, graphics, you name it. Once you experience your first Mac you will not be able to stop talking about it to friends and family. I read a book called "the cult of mac". There are so many mac fans and PC-converts just like me out there that will talk your ear off (or write your eyes off?) about "their Mac". There is something about the Apple culture that captures people. Personally, I think it is Apple's commitment to quality, design, innovation, fun, elegance, and the way its products nurture, nay, encourage creativity. Whew, there you have it. From the fingertips of someone who went Mac and will never go back to your eyes.

Finally, on a more technical note, I would recommend the upgrade to 2 GB of RAM and to consider the 500 GB hard drive upgrade if you are planning on shooting and saving lots of digital video, or if you have hundreds of CD's - because you will want to import them into iTunes using the Apple Lossless Codec (best audio quality) which takes up a considerable amount of hard drive space.