iCame, iSaw, iMac

Can we have some "real talk" for a second?  How hard can it be to make a mouse?  Honestly.  Left-click, right-click, scroll wheel, some side buttons, and presto!  I don't want to even talk about other fancier features like being wireless or having rechargeable batteries.  Get the mouse part right, and you're golden.  So why has it been so hard for Apple to produce a mouse that's halfway decent?  More about my gripes with Apple's Mighty Mouse later - now for a quick review of my new-ish iMac.

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Over the past decade or so, Apple has been producing All-In-One desktops under the iMac moniker.  There was the original CRT version that came in a ridiculous amount of colors (which I learned to hate in middle school).  Next was the groovy half-sphere one with the Pixar-like LCD monitor that swiveled (and stuck out it's tongue). Most recently have been two models that look like nothing more than a monitor with an Apple logo on the front; the first came in a white body, and the second in an aluminum case which was much thinner, and also gave quite a few folks a tingle inn their pants (due to the sexiness, in case you missed that train).

After my first foray with the new Intel based Macs with a Mac mini, and then last year with a MacBook, I decided it was about time to give Apple's flagship computer a spin.  Out I went to the Apple store, and back I came with the midrange iMac model ($1499.99, 20 inch / Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66GHz / 2GB RAM / 320GB HD; MB324LL/A). 

Even after being around them at work so often, once I got it set up on my desk I was still in shock about it's size - it's incredibly thin.  Much thinner than the simlarly priced HP TouchSmart PC ($1499.99; KQ437AA#ABA) or Sony's VAIO All-In-One ($1449.99; VGC-JS190J/B).  The iMac does carry a price tag similar to it's peers however, and at first glance it may seem like it lacks any special features;  it only has a standard DVD/CD SuperDrive compared to the Blu-Ray on the Sony, and it certainly doesn't have a touchscreen like HP's offering.  However the processor speed is pretty modest (The HP comes stock with a mere 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo, awhile the Sony includes a quicker 3.0GHz).  Both the HP and the Sony come with 4GB's of RAM at the same price point, and having Apple upgrade the memory isn't exactly cheap.

So what motivated me to take the geeky girl to the prom?  Really?  OS X, duh.

In all fairness, Leopard hasn't exactly been the angel it's made out to be in those spiffy Mac ads.  I sometimes miss Tiger - how it booted faster, I didn't have to worry about the network crashing (yes, I'm still having issues), Spotlight was a little cleaner looking in the Finder, and so on.  And I'm not going to go off and bad-mouth Vista either.  I can navigate through Explorer just as well as the next guy, but even in Vista it seems like it doesn't have that extra coat of polish that Leopard brought to the table.  Front Row trumps Media Center andy day in my book, and iLife integration in something that Windows computers could benefit from (for example, if i need to open a photo that's in iPhoto, I don't have to go to my pictures folder and click through folders until I find it, I can simply click on the 'Photos' tab and the iPhoto interface appears right in the Finder, and I can view my entire photo library with ease).

Aside from my software preference, let's get down to business.  This computer simply is a joy to use.  It's lightning fast - everything from browsing the internet and checking my email to watching television shows I've recorded and looking at pictures and listening to music happens when I want it, and all at the same time on occasion.  The screen is nice and bright and, like I stated before, leaves me with plenty of real estate on and around my desk.  The built-in iSight camera is a nice feature that I got used to on my MacBook.  At first I didn't use it, but when I found out how easy it was to take pictures and video chat I couldn't find a reason not to iChat with my girlfriend at 2 in the morning on weekdays.  A few other nice features are the Firewire 400 and 800 ports on the back, the mini-DVI out, the built-in Airport wireless card (802.11 Draft-N), and the fact that really all I needed to do to set it up was plug the power cord into the wall.  The keyboard is also fantastic.  Yup, one helluva nice keyboard.  I never use the "media keys" that sit on top of the F keys (except for maybe to mute the volume), but I've they could come in handy for launching Dashboard or controlling iTunes if you took the time to get familiar with them.

It's not all peaches and cream though.  It only has two USB ports, but advertises five.  Apple gets away with this by saying that there are two additional ports on the keyboard.  To use these ports however, you actually have to have the keyboard plugged in, thus taking up on of your "five."  The mouse then plugs into the keyboard, and was meant to, made obvious by the length of the wire.  The only thing I can really think of plugging into the keyboard on the other side is perhaps a game controller, but it's not like the Mac sports a very extensive game library.  It would be unfair to say that OS X doesn't have any games as more game companies are starting to jump on the Apple bandwagon, but they still have a long way to go, and for the most part if you're buying a Mac in the first place you're not expecting it to be a hardcore gaming computer anyway.  But back to the USB point, I have my keyboard, iPod, printer, and external hard drive plugged into my computer; the drive and printer connected with a cheap USB hub that I had lying around.  I want to take a guess and say that most Mac owners have an iPod or an iPhone, or at least some kind of MP3 player, and a wired printer is pretty standard as well.  So most people may only use the three included ports, but when the day comes where they need to connect a camera (thankfully said printer has a camera card slot) or another USB device, they're going to have to reach behind their iMac and unhook something.  A small complaint, but I think it's mostly valid.

Now back to that mouse.  This will be my third Apple Mighty Mouse, and with each one I come into contact with, I have the same complaints.  For starters, what the heck is up with that scroll ball?  Has anyone owned one of these things for more than a year and not had the ball get stuck?  The connected to the Mac mini in the other bedroom takes turns making scrolling up or down not work - you have no idea how frustrating it is to be able to scroll down a webpage only to not be able to scroll back up.  The side buttons are also kind of sensitive.  Whenever I attempt to do any kind of video or photo editing (anytime I have to hold the mouse button down for long periods of time, sometimes even when I'm just dragging a file) I will accidently squeeze the button, and there goes Exposé.  The tracking is fairly decent, and being able to right-click with out a physical button is kinda cool, but neither compensate for the shoddy scroll ball.  Just bite the bullet and throw in a wheel for goodness sake.  Oh, and by the way, the included mouse pad is a joke.

The built-in speakers are just on par with it's competitors - if you're going to use it to listen to music or watch movies you're going to be buying external speakers.  The DVD/CD SuperDrive is nice to have, but once again so would having a Blu-Ray drive (and I might be biting my tongue come this holiday season).  I don't really mind it not having a built-in TV tuner because I happened to have one I bought for the Mac mini, but it would be appreciated, especially if Apple teamed up with someone like Pinnacle and Elgato.

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If you're in the market for an All-In-One and you're looking purely at specs, you might find yourself looking at the Sony.   And for first time switchers I still think the best option would be a Mac mini.  But overall the iMac is a very impressive computer - it's quick, can handle pretty much anything you throw at it, and is "stylish" just for the hell of it.  I could easily recommend this over the HP model in any case, unless you have a longing desire for something with a touch screen.  The VAIO is very comparable, and has that Blu-Ray drive, so if you already have a PlayStation 3 or want to get into the whole High Definition scene sooner rather than later, you're going to have a tough choice on your hands.  But Apple's known to surprise people, and everyone's going to be on the look out for a Blu-Ray option on the next version of the iMac.  The iMac is the ultimate "show off to your friends" computer, and Mac OS X is a dream come true for average users, so that might put it over the top of Sony for some people.

The bottom line is that the iMac is awesome, end of story.

I'll give it a 4.5 out of 5, my main concerns being the mouse and the lack of Blu-Ray support.

If you have a solid mouse already, and you don't have a mountain of Blu-Ray movies by now, I can't imagine what you'd be hesitating for in picking one of these bad boys up.

Off Topic: Photoshop, or Something Like It

I really have been putting this thing off;  not just posting, but posting something like this.

My original intention was to keep a little tracker of my technology purchases, with relatively small reviews to accompany them.  There's so much out there in the electronics field today, and a growing majority of it is absolute garbage, so I figured I'd document the good stuff that I find, and give a few reasons why it may or may not be better that the rest.

This being only my second entry, one would assume that it would pertain to said topic.

The truth is that while I have made a purchase or two, I haven't really gotten around to reviewing anything yet.  But I did have the time to open up Photoshop and mess around a little.

Yes Donnie, I suck at Photoshop.

So in addition to any (eventual) technology ramblings, I would also like to use this wonderful service provided by Google to showcase my spiffiest (for the lack of a better descriptor) JPEG's I've created.

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I recently found out about this handy program called Iconic that helps in the creation of custom folder icons in Mac OS v10.5.  It's not a fancy icon creator; it basically takes any image file and "stamps " it onto a folder.  Some people hate the new "flat" folders in Leopard, but I don't mind them, and even though Iconic can be a pain in the butt sometimes (the images have to be very clean, and for the most part only black & white images give decent results).  After playing with it for a while, the results can be pretty neat.  So here's one I made for The Office, for your viewing pleasure.

I have a few of those floating around my computer now - I made one for Pushing Daisies, too.  They really make OS X look polished.  Or, at least, just a little bit cooler.

So the other thing I wanted to share is sort of a gag.  Over the past summer I spent most of the rainy days sitting in my room with the girlfriend playing through Kingdom Hearts.  I had both of the PlayStation 2 games sitting on the shelf for a few years and it was damn well time I actually broke down and played them.  anyway my girlfriend couldn't get enough of them, and I used to send her little pictures of Birth by Sleep and 358/2 Days, yada yada.  There hasn't been a lot of information recently, so today before work I made a quick mock-up of an ad for KH3.  I know it hasn't been announced yet, but come on, it's bound to come out, right?

Yeah, really quick, and yes that's just a weird font that says "AEIO," but it fooled her, and that made me chuckle a little.  And I even took the time to type out a little copyright disclaimer, which added a little bit of "authenticity."  Because who takes the time to fake a copyright notice just to get a little laugh?  (And another yes - that's just the back cover from the manual of KH1.  You try googling for a better "mysterious" KH picture).

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Next time (hopefully) - a review of my shiny new iMac!