Source: Tom's Hardware – Keywords: Apple, iMac, 24-inch
Categories: Hardware
Software
Like any other Apple computer, the iMac runs the company’s own OS X operating system. Our model came with version 10.5.2 (code name “Leopard”). The OS brings quite a few interesting features to the table. However, they are both too numerous to list and would go beyond the scope of this review. Thus, we’ll limit ourselves to mentioning the system-wide “Spotlight” search, the “Front Row” media center interface, the “Exposé” window organizing feature, and the “Time Machine” Backup solution that can write incremental backups to external hard drives. Boot Camp, a dual-boot feature allowing you to switch between OS X and Windows, should be an interesting feature for those not quite ready to commit to using only Apple’s OS. Windows XP with SP2 and Windows Vista are supported.
Additionally, the iMac comes with the iLife ’08 Suite preinstalled. It consists of the following components. iPhoto is a simple image editing and organization tool. iMovie is a movie editing tool. The finished product can then be turned into a DVD using the iDVD authoring application. iWeb allows users to quickly and easily create personal websites and even webcasts from existing templates. Garage Band, finally, represents a small but well-equipped personal recording studio. Some users will find this bundle more interesting and worthwhile than others, depending on where your interests lie. At any rate, they’re included with the iMac and do their respective jobs quite well.
Trial versions of Office:mac 2008 and Apple’s own iWork ’08 Suite are also preloaded on the iMac. Both can be upgraded to full retail versions over the web. Office:mac should be especially interesting for Windows switchers, as you no longer have to worry about being unable to use your old documents when you switch to the new platform. iWork is also worth a look. If you’ve ever watched a keynote by Apple CEO Steve Jobs (also known as Jobsnotes), you may have noticed the sleek slides and transitions offered by the appropriately named “Keynote” presentation application. If neither of these solutions are quite your speed, you can always go the Open Source way. NeoOffice is a Java-based OS X port of the OpenOffice.org suite.
- Previous page A Look Inside / Technical Specs
- Next page An Apple with a Vista
- More than meets the Eye - Barebone PC for Quad-Core and Crossfire
- Upgrade Modules – Remote Controls for Media Centers
- AMD’s DTX Form Factor – A new Concept for the HTPC
- Build Your Own Silent HTPC – Blu-ray, HD DVD and HDTV Combined
- Hackintosh - Running Mac OS X on a Standard PC
- Mac OSX: Cracked for PCs + More Update Woes
- What Kind of Person Uses Linux, And Should You Be One Of Them?
- The Swiss Army Knife of HTPCs - Fujitsu Siemens Activy Media Center...
- Another Round with DHCAT: Building Machines to Ace the Test
- Reviving Old Hardware
Heesh, you can keep your £1,149.00, I'll spend it on two faster pcs instead...
rtfm,
You're not the target market. iMacs are not for gamers who want a big noisy box that you can put great honkin video cards into - they're for people who want a silent, slim computer that won't look out of place on the coffee table in the lounge "that just works". Like a laptop, you can?t upgrade the video card or swap the internal screen or CPU, but like a laptop, you *can* upgrade the internal HD or RAM, plug in Firewire or USB external drives, connect an external screen as big as you like etc.
We have the 2.8GHz, 4GB RAM 24 incher iMac with 3 EyeTV digital TV tuners in our lounge acting as our home media centre with the optical audio-out plugged into our home theatre sound system and data projector for when we have larger groups watching movies and it works a treat.
For those who are in this demographic, compare the iMac to other PCs in the same form factor - the Del XPS One or the Gateway One or the Sony VAIO LT19U and it comes in cheaper, faster and better looking and with the ability to run Windows and Mac OS X natively and it?s not a bad choice.
Here's a classic quote from Cnet about the Dell XPS One vs the iMac:
"You know your performance is in trouble when your gaming scores are slower than a Mac's. But on every test, from music encoding to photo editing to multitasking, the XPS One falls behind the iMac that costs $750 less."
Horses for courses and each to his or her own.
-Mart
simple equation live on true to a next generation of apple produects.
Overprice + underspec = rip off crappy products
+if you want apple media centre then why wouldnt you get a Mac Mini or Apple TV and hook it up to a TV designed to be a TV, on the grpund that the apple screen would poudce a high enough contrast ration. Althoguh i would still get a Vista Box with Media Centre (or Myth TV with Linux
and keep saving money.
PC users when are you going to understand; MAC is a whole package, You got the beautiful operating system, you got well design pieces of hardware with features that PC vendors don't even think of implementing into there system. You may said but Mac users don't have the advantages of upgrading to the latest hardware but I will tell you a prefer a video card with a well written driver, that it would let me play the game without any glitches; you can keep your latest hardware with half cook drivers that all it will give you is a headache.
Why do you think XP and Vista run so smooth on MAC hardware.... This is something for PC users to think about.
I got a PC at home and a Mac and let me tell you life is soooo much easier with a MAC.
I think I'll frame these comments, they illustrate how hard it is to roll square rocks. The PC guys are right, from their point of view. Macs are more expensive than a 4 fan beige box and the $ is their priority. Mac guys have their priority; design, usability and silence are valid priorities. This isn't team sports, people. Both sides manage sound like cranky old a$$.
It’s known that if you pay a Mac price for PC parts you will end up with a better PC system. Design / Silent has its price.
And as for usability – you’re talking about operating system Vs operating system.
I like mine with a little less DRM. So neither win. And if you don't know what DRM is then go learn.
1. I like Macs, but not the price.
2. (XP) I’ve no love for it; but it pays the bills.
3. Ubuntu, I love the free price. Not ready for prime time.
I find it amusing that a mac fanboy has taken the time to tell me that apple "just works" as opposed to the big, nasty noisy PC (because they're all like that kids).
Well that's not been my experience. Try and connect to a network printer on a mac, just try it... then learn how to re-write FreeBSD just to get it working, even HP's awful PC software does a better job. Try using an Outlook archive, ooops you can't. Try playing a game that looks like it was made in the last ten years, nothing. Try using around 90% of the software on the market today...
If you're the sort of person who hasn't got requirements above reading a website, more money than sense and have decisions easily swayed by marketing then buy a mac be become part of the moron club.
Then spend your time trying to convert others, hopefully this will give you more chance of finding someone out there who you can help you use your 'computer', you know, for when you finally get around to writing that novel you've been telling the girls about (they don't believe you by the way).
i dont see the arguement. mac=nice looking, works out of the box...
pc=(can be)nice looking, works out of the box, plays games+hd video.
to me, a mac is more of a status icon (to some anyway) and a pc is something that does the job. you can get pc's that "just work", and likewise i know a family friend who has had a terrible experience with his 24" imac.
personally i dont see the problem with having a simple cable runnning from a quiet box under my table (a pc) to my screen, its just not that big a deal. my pc is also sufficiently good looking and unobtrusive that i would put it in my living room. so for me, the mac has absolutely no plus points. however...since i do lots of audio work, maybe a mac pro and pro-tools hd would be attractive, but again, mac pro is basically just a pc with osx (not all in one, nice and powerful, does what i want) so there is not much there either...
wow a low end pc for £1,149.00
I agree with some of the comments... People that are obsess with PC and can't see anything out they need to open there eyes these are new days.
People are happy to pay more for a well design piece of hardware.. Anyway is not all about the hardware is the whole package that make Mac a good system.. Software and hardware go hand in hand.
read this article it may change your mind.
http://arstechnica.com/articles/cu [...] pple.ars/1
I cant believe there are people out there that still dont get this.... MAC HARDWARE ISN'T BETTER THAN PC HARDWARE FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST!
Both PC's and Mac's get the same ram the same motherboards and now they even use the same damned processors, EVERYTHING and i mean everything is the god damn same except for the freaking case it goes in and what OS it runs, so people who dont wanna play games can get a mac it'll make no difference and people who get a PC can pretty much do everything, yeah it doesnt have some of the software but boooohooooo cry it off and go find 1 of the hundreds of versions of the same software...this isn't about which side is better anymore, its just who has the bigger ego...
Regarding cost, remember PC's are worth very little second hand. Buy an iMac, sell it in 3 year's time and you've got a large chunk of cash towards a new one.
To use a car term, PC's are generally 'depreciation disasters' and the only way to avoid losing money is to upgrade the mobo, CPU, memory and GPU every couple of years. Fine for Tom's Hardware readers, but not for a large chunk of the PC market.
I always find it amusing that you mac owners think PC's come in a build it yourself kit or somthing without working video drivers.
"Why do you think XP and Vista run so smooth on MAC hardware.... This is something for PC users to think about"
er yeah let me think about that.. er mabey it is because a Mac is basicly entirely PC hardware, in a different BOX. Hell I got OS X booting on my PC for a laugh once.