Sleek Mac

It’s a real museum piece. It has cutting-edge looks and technology. Apple has shown that it not only makes shiny white or black devices that fit into your pocket but that CEO Steve Jobs knows what people want even before we know it ourselves.

Yes, I am talking about the brand new iMac, Apple’s flagship product that has been long due for a makeover. Built from aluminium and glass, the iMac is just a monitor with a keyboard and mouse. There is no CPU. It is all in the monitor, including the hard disk. This three-piece unit is a delight without the clutter of wires that you find in all PCs. The overall look of the iMac resembles that of an LCD television you might have in your room. The glossy display and slim design are bound to sweep you off your feet.

This all-in-one new iMac desktop will take care of all your digital needs. It is priced between Rs 65,000 and Rs 94,000, depending on the model and configuration. Currently, it comes in two sizes — with 20- and 24-inch screens — and 1 GB memory. This memory is expandable to 4 GB. The 20-inch model has a 250GB hard drive. The 24-inch one has 320GB. Since it has an Intel-based processor, you can run Windows too.

If your budget permits, I would suggest you get one of these iMacs. They can even be mounted on a wall. This is ideal for watching movies. You can control the unit with the remote that comes with the desktop. If you want to see a live demonstration of this, just visit Imagine, the Apple shop at the Salt Lake City Centre, Calcutta.

Accompanying the new machines are overhauled versions of the company’s consumer software suites, iLife 08 and iWork 08, including — among other new features — a spreadsheet program called Numbers designed to lure users from Microsoft’s Excel. I find Keynote particularly easy to use. It is equivalent to PowerPoint in Windows computers. And of course, there is Pages, a word processor just as good as Microsoft Word.

One of the best things about the iMac is the keyboard. It has been radically redesigned. It uses the same type of keys as does the MacBook, but they are placed atop a thin aluminium piece that matches the iMac’s body. The keyboard’s thin design gives it a sleek and modern look. It has a built-in USB 2.0 port on the side.

The new iMac has a new iSight camera that blends into the black screen border of the monitor. The camera — with a resolution of 640 by 480 pixels — provides fairly good video and still photographs. The microphone is also at the top of the monitor and is very good in picking up sound. You will never face a problem during a video chat.

The back of the monitor, too, is very interesting. For one, it looks good in matte black with a shiny black Apple logo. Then there are the ports. There is an analog and digital audio output port, an analog and digital audio input port, three USB 2.0 ports, one Firewire 800 port, a Gigabit Ethernet port and a mini-DVI connector.

The new iMacs have the latest Intel Core2 Duo processors with speeds varying from 2GHz to 2.4GHz, depending on the model you choose. There is an option to upgrade this to 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo Extreme should you want a more powerful model.

When you buy a Mac, make sure you become a member of .Mac. For around Rs 4000, you will get 10GB of storage online and the ability to save large

files online from office, which you can later pluck from the net with your iMac. Other new .Mac features include Web Gallery — which enables immediate sharing of photos and movies from iLife with Mac, PC or iPhone owners; and the ability to incorporate live web widgets, such as Google Maps, into websites created

using iWeb.

For me, with its lower price, the new 24-inch model is the real winner. The larger screen makes all the difference.