My iMac arrived today! How exciting! Being the Mac geek that I am, I documented the unveiling process. It’s like opening a Christmas present. I can’t really explain it, but there’s just something special about getting a new Mac, opening the box, taking it out and setting everything up. PC users are unlikely to understand, but I’m sure the Mac afficionados out there know what I’m talking about.

There’s no denying it. The iMac is a true work of art. It is extremely elegant to have a single power cable from the wall to the computer. In my case, I’ve also got a cable connecting my keyboard and mouse, but since my iMac has Bluetooth built-in, I could opt for a wireless keyboard and mouse. If I decide to do that, there would be only one cable for the entire setup!

The set up process is a great example of what makes Apple, Apple. When you turn on the Mac for the first time, the Apple Transfer Assistant asks whether you want to transfer your settings from another Mac. This is a really nice capability because I have my old Mac set up exactly the way I want it - email settings, bookmarks, music library, files, applications, network configuration, etc. The Transfer Assistant makes transferring all of that a snap. You simply connect a Firewire cable from old Mac to new Mac, restart the old Mac with the “T” button held down, and the Assistant transfers everything for you.

The only strange thing in my case was that the entire transfer (a little over 40GB) took over 10 hours. I just let it run overnight, but considering the speed of Firewire, I don’t think it should take that long. Maybe it was because my old Mac is so slow. Nevertheless, everything seemed to have worked fine since once the transfer was complete, my new Mac had everything set up exactly as on my old Mac.

After using the iMac for a while, it was clear that I made the right decision over the Mac Mini/Dell LCD combo. The iMac looks immensely better than the ugly black Dell display. More importantly, the display quality on the iMac is simply outstanding. I am amazed at how crisp and clear everything is, and am particularly impressed with the vividness and vibrancy of the colors. The display is absolutely gorgeous, many times better than the Dell 19″ LCD I have at home as well as a later model Dell 19″ LCD that I have at work.

In terms of speed, so far I am very pleased. iTunes is now very snappy as is iPhoto. Although I have seen glimpses of the spinning beach ball, those instances are not very often. Since RAM is so cheap these days, I may just add another 1GB of RAM to maximize performance.

Overall, I’m thrilled with my new iMac. I’d recommend one to anybody, particularly if you’re using a PC that’s likely infested with viruses and spyware. Oh wait, viruses and spyware, what are those again?

Posted by Roger at 9:21 am.