Tech Spotlight : 24-inch iMac’s crisp picture shames old TV; its speed is also impressive
Posted on Monday, October 9, 2006
Computer companies are doing their best to invade the living room, replacing the old television with full multimedia systems.
Apple Computer Inc. is among those companies trying to offer full entertainment packages in one device. It recently introduced a computer that, frankly, puts my 25-inch living-room television to shame — the 24-inch iMac.
Apple recently updated its entire iMac line, adding Intel Core Duo processors to the desktop machines. The Core Duo is among the fastest processors on the market, and more than doubles the speed of the previous iMac models.
The iMacs come in 17- and 20-inch models, plus they added a new 24-inch iMac. I was lucky enough to get my hands on the latter.
The box it came in was about 3 feet tall. Needless to say, I was a bit nervous about getting this monstrous thing out of the box.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t that hard because the computer is less than 25 pounds. The entire computer is built into the flat-screen monitor, and it sits on a single silver stand. The screen tilts up or down, making it easy to set at just the right angle. It comes out of the box with the keyboard, mouse and power cord. Once those three are hooked up, the computer is ready to go.
The most noticeable thing about the 24-inch iMac is that screen. It’s a widescreen monitor with bright, sharp colors. The resolution is 1920 x 1200 pixels. By comparison, the standard resolution on a television is 640 x 480 pixels.
The resolution is almost too much for some video formats. I tried out a couple of DVDs on this computer at full screen. Older DVD movies with midrange resolutions, such as the concert DVD from three years ago I tried, became a bit fuzzy at full screen. But newer DVDs, such as the Batman Begins DVD I tried, look fantastic on this sharp screen.
Users can really take advantage of this sharp monitor with Front Row and the Apple remote control, both of which are included. Front Row pulls up the DVD player and access to iPhoto, iTunes and iMovie. It allows users to view movies and slideshows at full screen using the remote.
The second thing I noticed about this computer is the speed. The computer starts up in a blink. Web pages pull up almost instantly, and applications start in so short a time I couldn’t really time them.
I did manage to time a computer-to-computer transfer from my iBook to the iMac. These tend to be faster than downloading over a standard network because the two computers talk directly to each other. I transferred a movie and television show, totaling four hours of video, in about 18 minutes. That’s more than 2. 5 GB of information. By contrast, the movie alone took over an hour to download from iTunes.
I also transferred 3. 4 GB of information from one place on the computer to another. This is where the speed really showed itself. The information copied in less than four minutes, which is pretty darn speedy.
The computer includes a built-in iSight camera, which sits at the top of the monitor. The fixed camera appears to be oriented slightly downward already, though the tilt of the screen can adjust its view. The included Photo Booth software allows users to take pictures easily, and iChat AV uses the camera for videoconferencing.
I like that this new computer comes with the Mighty Mouse, though the wired one. The mouse looks simple, but its shell offers two-button capabilities and a small scroll wheel. The laser mouse is a lot easier to use than the previous one-button mice in older Mac desktops.
It would be nice to have the wireless Mighty Mouse, since this computer has the Bluetooth wireless capabilities needed for the mouse. But that’s just a personal preference, since all I use is wireless mice. For those who agree with me, Apple does offer the ability to upgrade to the wireless mouse and keyboard set for $ 60, provided you order it from them.
The computer comes with iLife ’ 06, which includes iMovie, iDVD, iTunes, iPhoto, Garage-Band and iWeb. That basically covers all the bases on creating and enjoying multimedia, from photos to movies to music. For those who are wondering, it also will run Boot Camp, which allows users to run Windows XP on the Mac.
This computer is a great entertainment package for those tempted to replace their old television sets with something more. Its power also makes it a heck of a computer, delivering Web content and applications at lightning speed.
It sure makes it hard to go back to that dull living-room TV set. Melissa L. Jones may be reached at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 515 Enterprise Drive, Suite 106, Lowell, Ark. 72745, or by e-mail at mjones@arkansasonline. com.
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