Apple iMac PPC G4 700 MHz - 15" TFT

Author's product rating:   

Speed	Very fast
Design	Excellent
Manufacturer Support	Good
Ease of use	Very easy
Value For Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Fast, stable operating system and innovative design .
Disadvantages:	The price, but well worth it .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

When I first saw the new design of new iMac in 2001, I fell in love with it. I loved its space age, contemporary look that has won numerous awards. Then I saw the price and my heart sunk. I didn't think I'd be able to afford it. Eventually I received some unexpected money and and ran out to buy this computer.

Setting up the machine at my home work station was a snap. Apple included a set up guide but I did not need it. There are icons on the back of the machine to make matching up the plugs fail-safe.

Installing the OS was also easy. I followed the instructions and I was up and running in no time. One great feature of the iMac is that it has the Classic environment (OS 9) and Aqua (OS X). Switching between the two operating systems is easy but regrettably necessary. OS X is such a radical departure from the Classic environment that some of the drivers for the peripherals didn’t work. The situation is in the process of being remedied but it’s three years on and there still isn’t a driver available for my printer or scanner.

To be honest, I didn't like OS X very much in the beginning and I relied on the Classic OS 9 exclusively. I was used to it, I knew it, and I wasn't in the mood to learn a new operating system. Then I bought a Mac magazine that had a DVD tutorial about OS X and I was hooked. Now the Classic environment looks paltry and juvenile compared to OS X.

I've since upgraded to Jaguar (OS 10.3) and I'm very happy with it, apart from still having no drivers for my printer and scanner. One of the greatest things about Jaguar is that it includes Apple's own web browser, Safari. Safari is much more stable than Internet Explorer and has many of the same features. It's faster than IE and it comes with a pop-up blocker.

The speakers deliver high quality sound and the volume control is conveniently located on the keyboard. Using iTunes is intuitive whether you are adding music to the library or if you are burning disks. The graphics in iTunes are spectacular in that they are colourful, imaginative, constantly changing, and tied into the equaliser - designs swirl and pulsate to the music. A bit 60's but cool nonetheless. My husband has a PC running Windows XP and they’ve added graphics to their media player, but the iMac’s graphics are far superior.

The DVD player is good and this is where the quality speakers show their true colours. It's just like being at the cinema - big, booming, full sound without any distortion. The control panel is small, functional, and intuitive, and it disappears after a few seconds of being idle. It appears again only when the mouse is moved.

The mouse takes a bit of getting used to because it does not have a left and a right clicking mechanism, but I got used to it quickly. It's sturdy and well made, which is a good thing because replacing it will cost almost £100!

The users manual is a paltry 38 pages with many suggestions to visit the Apple web site if you are experiencing problems. But how can you do that if your computer isn't working? Both PC makers and Apple Mac are guilty of this glaring oversight. I long for the days when computers were sold with manuals.

The system is loaded with many features that the casual user will not use or understand - i.e. developer capabilities, remote networking, Bluetooth, Keychain access, FireWire, server set-up, AirPort, FTP client, file sharing, etc. But if you're a geek, then all of this will be mana from heaven for you.

Apple has long been famous for its graphics capabilities but you don't have to be a pro to get the most out of your iMac. Many of the Mac magazines include DVD or print tutorials on how to use Photoshop, Dreamweaver, et al, and I cannot recommend them enough. Pros don’t need these but the average person needs to know how to use these programs if they want to build web pages, make home movies, or touch up photographs to make their own photo albums to share with family and friends.

The iMac comes with AppleWorks software that is similar to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. In addition, it also has a nifty drawing program. AppleWork will convert documents from MSWord and save it in any format you choose - plain text, HTML, ClarisWord, another edition of Word, and rich text format. You can create web pages with AppleWorks and it has lots of templates to choose from. There are templates for business envelopes, business cards, agendas, inventories, stationary, to-do lists, and much more. You can also download more templates from Apple Users Group.

With 40 gigs of memory, storage is not a problem. I've had my iMac for three years and have it loaded with programs, games, and documents and I still have over 24 gigs left unused. You can also allocate as much or as little memory for programs as you wish with the click of the mouse. Internet Explorer was constantly running out of memory but I have not experienced the problem with the Safari browser.

Apple has installed its own firewall which is extremely effective. Another great thing about Mac’s in general is that viruses primarily target PC’s. There are about 1,000 viruses written per day for PC’s whereas there are about 1,000 viruses in total for the Mac. That is because the Mac operating system is a real operating system whereas Windows is a program that runs on the DOS operating system. You can select the type of cookies you will accept from the preferences menu, so spyware and adware are generally a non-issue with the iMac.

There are many great games made for Mac’s, and again the graphics are superb with millions of colours available. The computer doesn’t come with any games installed but there are many good freeware and shareware games to be had from tucows.com and the like.

Aside from the iMac having awesome capabilities and being a reliable machine, one also has to take Apple’s reputation into account when deciding to purchase their equipment. Getting back to the issue of viruses, the reason there are so many viruses for PC’s is because of the horrible reputation that Microsoft has throughout the computer world. Hackers and virus writers are targeting Microsoft in an effort to bring attention to the poor quality, yet expensive, products of the software giant. Unfortunately, there are many holes in Microsoft’s products and hackers find them to be easy prey.

Overall, the iMac is a great computer and I’m very happy with my decision to own one. Would I buy another iMac in a few years? Yes, without hesitation.