So, the bad news: I was wrong about Apple not moving to aluminium for the new iMacs, and to be honest I’m pretty disappointed. Now in case you’ve been living in a cave for the last couple of days then you should know about Apple’s update to the iMac. However if you have just emerged bleary-eyed into the daylight, you can check out the new iMacs on Apple’s website. Along with the iMac update there was a big boost to iLife and a new version of iWork (which is the good news by the way). But first the iMac.
In some ways I think that this was a very weird move for Apple to make and in some ways I can see why they’ve done it. This is move away from Apple’s design era that began around 2001 with the iMac G3 Snow and continued with the iMac G4 and the ‘IceBook’ iBook of using white plastics to represent their consumer products while their Pro products used brushed aluminum (a la the PowerBook G4, PowerMac G5, XServe etc.). While I think this move is a real shame, I have thought more about it and I can now see the logic. Apple is moving into a new design era that started with the iPhone, this new iMac and even the redesigned Apple website.
In my opinion the new iMac looks too much like a ‘machine’ and not enough like a ‘piece of furniture’, and I can’t help thinking that the new iMac, if I were to buy it, would keep on reminding me that it ‘belongs in the future’. Can you see what I’m trying to get at? I mean don’t get me wrong, it’s a beautiful machine, but it would be a beautiful machine if it were a TV.
The specs are nothing to turn one’s nose up at however, I like what they’ve done with the product line (and I’m very glad that even though they dropped the 17″, which I was completely against, they haven’t closed off that market, they’ve just given that market an extra 3″ on their screen for the same price).
So, enough about the iMac, lets talk about the software that Apple announced yesterday: upgrades to .Mac, iLife and iWork. I’m going to focus on the iWork suite, because that is the most exciting release for me (as I use iWork extensively in my studies at college instead of Microsoft Office for Mac. And even then I’m not going to say much beyond what I think of the release, I’m not a news site, you can see things for yourself. I think iWork has been underestimated and skimmed over by many. With the choke-hold that 
Microsoft has on the office/productivity software market, even on the Mac, there didn’t seem room for a new suite, but Apple proved that creating great documents needn’t be stressful or time-consuming. I will certainly be buying iWork 08, and with the addition of Numbers (the new spreadsheet app) to the mix, iWork is definitely worth the £55 (or $79) compared to the £269 for the equivalent version of Office (£269! Geez!).
Filed under: Apple, Hardware, Software, Technology | 2 Comments
Recently Played- Avenged Sevenfold – Lost
- Coheed and Cambria – A Favor House Atlantic
- Coheed and Cambria – A Favor House Atlantic
- Douglas Adams – Tertiary Phase: Fit the Thirteenth
- Douglas Adams – Tertiary Phase: Fit the Thirteenth
- Douglas Adams – Tertiary Phase: Fit the Thirteenth
- Douglas Adams – Tertiary Phase: Fit the Thirteenth
- Douglas Adams – Tertiary Phase: Fit the Thirteenth
- Douglas Adams – Tertiary Phase: Fit the Thirteenth
- Douglas Adams – Tertiary Phase: Fit the Thirteenth
Personally I think the new design is very nice, very slim and I think the aluminum makes it look more streamlined than the plastic, although the glossy display is something I’ll never understand, why do you want a display that will reflect everything behind you?
Also, the apple remote no longer magnetically fixes to the side of the machine, which I thought was one of the most useful features of the previous generation.
Whats your feeling on the new keyboards, I’m not about them.