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Today, 07 November 2009

› Malema’s life in danger

› Leicester sting Bok Bs

› Eskom chair faces the axe

› Nedbank, ANCYL make up

› Hofmeyr addresses Joost

Yesterday, 06 November 2009

› ANCYL, BMF back Maroga

› Vanilla Ice, ice baby?

› Eskom boss 'slaughtered'

› I have fallen hard - Joost

› Eskom boss 'pushed'

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"It reminds me of something out of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Or even beyond that, it's...perfect," says recording artist Seal of the new iMac in an introductory video levitating inches above my table top.

This is not a machine you can be partisan about. It's a computer which appeals to the emotions and unashamedly right-brain for those who don't know about open source, clock speeds and SuperDrives.

So even the most techno-illiterate are astounded when they see the new iMac for the first time. My wife, who by her own admission would not know a hard drive from a handbag, took one look at the machine and said: "It's divine, it's lovely, it's beautiful."

To fully appreciate her emotive outpouring, you'd need to see a new iMac in action. But I'll try to explain. The machine itself is visually dominated by a Starship Enterprise-type flat panel display monitor which hovers on a fully adjustable steel neck. The electronic gizmo's which make up hardware of the iMac are located in a zany, ice white housing at the base of the steel neck. This computer, described by some as resembling "half a soccer ball" displays no visible buttons, connections or ports from the front. Tapping a button on the machine's keyboard opens a shiny-white Colgate mouth. Out pops a black tongue which ingests CDs and DVDs. Depending on the model of the iMac in question, that multi-media "tongue" will read and write to CD and DVD.

Located on either side of my test machine were two translucent Harmon Kardon speakers. So what ­ just about every machine comes with speakers? Let's put it this way ­ these speakers don't sound anything like the plastic and tin we have come to associate with computer sound. I'm talking hi-fi quality. I'm talking MP3s on steroids. I'm talking watching DVDs from across the room. I'm taking editing my own movies. I'm talking creating my own sound tracks.

The keyboard snakes a wire to the rear of the machine, where various ports are located, including three USB connections (a fourth and fifth are located on either side of the keyboard), external monitor, telephone connection for internal 56k modem, networking, headphones, speakers and two FireWire ports (serious high-speed peripheral connections).

Whupee!

I had great fun driving the optical mouse across my shirt. No dodgy little ball that gets bungled up with grit. Just an eerie red glow that controls precise mouse movement.

Philosophically, Apple has been punting the "digital lifestyle" for quite some time. To date, the new iMac is the most accomplished machine in this arena. Retailing at between R24 000 and R29 000 (depending on your requirements), this is not a cheap machine. But because of the digital lifestyle philosophy, it offers much more than the customary word processor, spreadsheet, email and internet brigade. The new iMac, in essence, offers a unique value proposition for both home and business users.

The version I reviewed has all the usual applications one has come to expect in a computer. It included Microsoft Office for Mac, which consisted of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and the Mac version of Outlook, Entourage. These files offer seamless integration with PC ­ based Office files (the system does not convert the files from one version to another, it actually shares the same file structure). The new iMac ships as standard with MP3 player and music archiving solution, iTunes, home video editing and creation software, iMovie, DVD viewing application, iDVD and digital camera and photography software, iPhoto.

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