September 04, 2004
My Next Computer...Eventually
Last week Apple announced the much anticipated iMac G5. Well, much anticipated by Mac geeks like me. As a regular follower of "All things Mac", I was aware that it was generally accepted that Phil Schiller would be introducing the previously unseen iMac in Paris during his keynote speech at Apple Expo which started at 10AM Tuesday morning. That meant that the Keynote, which wasn't broadcast live, would be starting at 1:00AM local time. I figured that by the time I woke up for work on Tuesday morning (at 5:00AM) the news would be in and I could get a look at it before going to work. As it turned out, however, I woke up at about 2:00AM to go to the bathroom, so figured I'd try and see if anyone had announced anything yet. After checking the rumour site for the live updates they were posting I went to the Apple Store to see if anything was there yet. When I first checked it was just the normal store but about 3 minutes later it was a page with what looked like a yellow sticky note on it that read "Back Soon". Ooooh, things were getting interesting. Anyway after bouncing back and forth between the rumour sites and the "not in service" Apple store, it appeared again. This time with a picture of a new iMac with a iPod beside it and the slogan "From the makers of the iPod, the iMac G5". I lost a bit of sleep that night but it was kind of fun. Not that it means much, but I was probably one of the first people in Victoria to see the new iMac design!!
Anyway, I have been holding off on upgrading my machine, a 450MHz G3 Ruby iMac, until I could get a look at the new iMac and I must say that I'm quite impressed. For substantially less than what I paid for the Ruby iMac 3 or 4 years ago, I can get a pretty snazzy computer.
If you haven't seen one, they have reduced the computer 
to just a 2 inch thick, 17 or 20 in flat panel display, with the same small foot print of the new Cinema Display line. It is really quite a feat of engineering. Follow the link for thetech specs. I am quite eager to see one in person. When I first saw the new iPod mini and the Cinema Display monitors on the Apple website, I thought they looked cool but wasn't overly impressed. But upon actually seeing them in person I was stunned by the aesthetic beauty of the design. I can only imagine the same will be true with the new iMac G5.
So, I'm due for an upgrade, but I think I'll wait a while. My reason is three fold.
- I'm waiting for the first generation to be tested by the "early adopters" (of which I was one) to make sure there aren't any serious design/hardware flaws that need to be ironed out. Plus, after about 4-6 months they usually do a "speed bump" and fix any little problems or add better things like video cards (which apparently is the only real weakness of the new iMac).
- OS X 10.4 "Tiger" is due out by the first half of 2005 and if I can get it bundled with my new 2nd generation iMac all the better.
- I don't have the necessary cash right now, as we just spent a bunch of money on furniture, including a computer desk, which is now much bigger than it needs to be.