Apple learned from it's fiasco with the Cube [power with no expandability] and it's success with the iMac [people craved an all in one machine] and used it's knowledge to create the ideal personal computer.

The flat-panel display is beautiful! And because it's flat, 15" gives you more viewable area than a comparable CRT. The pivot and 180 degree swivel are neat, but not quite as practical as a 90 degree rotation might be -- allowing the user to see an 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper in normal orientation!

I wondered at first about the base of the new iMac. Other all-in-one manufacturers hide the CPU behind the monitor itself. These other machines have performance problems. With the drives turned on their sides it slows down performance and actually causes damage to the media and the drives. The new iMac doesn't suffer from this -- and still has a relatively small footprint even with the base.

The digital hub idea is great [although I don't have a digital video camera...] but this machine is not for anyone who wants to do very serious audio/video work. Even if you're not a professional -- if you want to turn your den into an editing bay or a recording studio you might want to think of a tower. The machine was built for the casual user -- but it has so much more power than the previous iMacs [which I hated...]. There are more powerful models, but I think that even this model is more powerful than most users need -- which is what you want. A computer should be like buying clothes for a child -- get something to grow into.

You might want a model with a DVD player if you don't have one for your TV, but I can't imagine watching movies on the 15" screen when I have a 35" television.

It's improved for gamers, and this in combination with Mac OSX means you'll have beautiful, fast games -- and a lot of them in the next year [even though I really only love the Sims...].

With a G4 processor and the 40 GB drive, the only thing you might want to do is get more RAM -- especially if you are forced by some terrible circumstance to have to use pc files and need Virtual PC to do some work [or gaming].

I think it's a brilliant machine, and it means Apple will continue to be around for a long time. Combined with more RAM and OS X -- it's almost the perfect machine.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 1299
Operating System: Macintosh
Processor: PowerPC G4
Processor speed: 601-700
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW
Hard Drive (GB): 31-40