New iMac Revealed

The new G5 iMac finally revealed.

It’s pretty.

SPECS:

The new iMac G5, for a suggested retail price of $1,299 (US), includes:
* 17-inch widescreen LCD with 1440-by-900 pixels;
* 1.6 GHz 64-bit PowerPC G5 processor;
* 256MB of 400 MHz DDR SDRAM;
* Combo (DVD-ROM/CD-RW) optical drive;
* NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra graphics processor with 64MB video memory;
* Two FireWire 400, three USB 2.0, two USB 1.1 ports;
* 10/100 BASE-T Ethernet networking, 56K V.92 Modem;
* Internal support for AirPort Extreme wireless networking and Bluetooth;
* 80GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm; and
* Built-in stereo speakers and microphone.

The new iMac G5, for a suggested retail price of $1,499 (US), includes:
* 17-inch widescreen LCD with 1440-by-900 pixels;
* 1.8 GHz 64-bit PowerPC G5 processor;
* 256MB of 400 MHz DDR SDRAM;
* SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW) optical drive;
* NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra graphics processor with 64MB video memory;
* Two FireWire 400, three USB 2.0, two USB 1.1 ports;
* 10/100 BASE-T Ethernet networking, 56K V.92 Modem;
* Internal support for AirPort Extreme wireless networking and Bluetooth;
* 80GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm; and
* Built-in stereo speakers and microphone.

The new iMac G5, for a suggested retail price of $1,899 (US), includes:
* 20-inch widescreen LCD with 1680-by-1050 pixels;
* 1.8 GHz 64-bit PowerPC G5 processor;
* 256MB of 400 MHz DDR SDRAM;
* SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW) optical drive;
* NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra graphics processor with 64MB video memory;
* Two FireWire 400, three USB 2.0, two USB 1.1 ports;
* 10/100 BASE-T Ethernet networking, 56K V.92 Modem;
* Internal support for AirPort Extreme wireless networking and Bluetooth;
* 160GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm; and
* Built-in stereo speakers and microphone.

Buyer Beware

When I got my iBook, I decided to save a few bucks on the WiFi adapter. Instead of paying 80 bucks for an Airport card, I got a D-Link DWL-122. This is a USB dongle WiFI adapter that’s supposed to be OS X compatible. Only problem is it doesn’t work. Not reliably. Dropped connections and kernal panics were routine, and getting a half hour of uninturrupted net usage was unheard of. I tried everything, including the latest drivers. Nothing helped.

I ditched the DWL-122 and got an Airport Extreme card. I haven’t had a problem since. When I have time, I’ll try the D-Link on a Windows box, where it will probably work fine.

Lesson learned: be careful choosing hardware for Apple computers. Plenty of internet message boards would have warned me away from the DWL-122, if I had only Googled before I bought.

What’s new about the HP iPod?

A lot has been made on technology news sites of HP’s upcoming iPod clone. The truth is, it won’t be a clone at all. It will simply be an “Apple iPod from HP“, with nothing new or even different from Apple’s own iPod. Not even a new color, apparently. I’m not sure what the big deal is.

The “new” HP iPod is available for preorder through Wal Mart’s web site. But, wouldn’t this technically be an ‘Apple iPod from Wal-Mart’?

My Switch – 12 inch G4 iBook

I’ve been using a 12 inch Apple G4 iBook for a couple of months now. It’s my first Mac, but not my first Apple. In the late 80’s, I had an Apple IIc, and then an Apple II GS. I loved both, but soon moved on to IBM compatibles. But I’ve always looked on with envy at Mac users. There was just a certain coolness about the Mac.

Meanwhile, I have been very frustrated of late with the security problems inherent to Windows. I’ve been playing with Linux a lot, but I wanted an OS with a little more “polish”. OS X definitely fits that description. And Apple’s OS is findamentally more secure than Windows ever will be.

So far, I’m getting along nicely with my little Mac, and have definitely “switched”. I do almost everything on the iBook now. I use Dreamweaver and Fireworks for web development, Firefox and Safari for surfing the web, and Mariner Write for word processing. Apple’s own “Mail” program is awesome at filtering spam. I’ve even been playing Diablo II a little.

I still use a Windows box for DVD burning, but that’s it. Of course, my family is still using my Windows PCs, since I only have the one Mac. And I use a PC at work. But i’m not giving up my iBook anytime soon. Now, I want a G5 desktop, or maybe on of the iMac G5s coming next month. I’m hooked.