I spent the Weekend at the Apple Campus for a training called Rack and Roll III. The trainings were mostly focused on Apple pro products like Xserv, Xserv RAID, and the Creative Pro apps. I had a good time although It was surreal being at the infamous Apple Campus for business though. There were so many faces that looked familiar from various keynotes and other Apple web casts I've seen. Being in Silicon Valley almost felt like a tour through Washington DC. What I mean is, so much technology history has been made there that I was in a bit of awe. Especially at Apple, thinking that the first Mac was created there, the iMac,and the iPod. The people responsible for their creation were wandering around in there somewhere. That's just cool. Anyway, Apple's a first class company. The conference rooms were great, all of the presenters were very enthusiastic and knowledgeable, and food was good. Loved the Smart Water
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Well, I got my iMac on Thursday and it is absolutely amazing. The machine is a work of art. When it was first launched I wasn't so sure I liked the design but seeing it in person, it's striking. I got the 20 inch and it really is huge. I was surprised that although it's only 25lbs it felt a lot heavier than I expected. The base is rather wide and contrary to John Davorak's dumb ass comments about knocking the thing over the whole machine is very very stable, even more than I expected. Anyway, the screen is huge and bright and I'm still getting used to the size. I'm so accustom to the small 12 inch screen that's on my PowerBook, that the 20 inch almost seems too big. I'm sure I'll appreciate it very quickly. So, the iMac flies. The G5 is definitely fast. A dual G5 would be nice but the single 1.8 in this thing is more than enough for any amateur video editor. I think this iMac is one of the best machines Apple has ever made.
Although, I was disappointed with a couple of things. First, the speakers are pretty average. They have absolutely zero base response and they are relatively quiet. A speaker upgrade is a must. I think I'll get some Sound Sticks II. Second, it's not as quiet as advertised. I'm a bit spoiled though because before the iMac, I was using a Cube, the quietest computer ever made. So, I knew the iMac would be a little louder but to me it sounds a lot louder. It's quieter than a G5 tower but louder than a Powerbook. Oh well, it's silent when it sleeps.
The coolest thing about the iMac was the setup. When you start it up for the first time, it asks if you're upgrading from an older Mac. When you click yes, it asks you to start your old computer in target disk mode and then connect it to the iMac with a firewire cable. Once you're connected you can transfer all of your old computer's accounts, and settings. The transfer took about an hour and then the iMac started up identical to my Powerbook. All of my settings, bookmarks, mail, photos, music, movies, everything was there in all the right places. To be honest, it was almost boring to do it this way but it was so effortless, and I can't believe it worked so flawlessly. Even more amazing, Brooke decided she'd like her own account on the iMac so I decided to see if I could transfer her stuff from her iBook onto the iMac. I re-ran the Setup assistant, connected her iBook, selected her account for the transfer and in another hour, we now had perfect replicas of each of our main user accounts from two different machines. What a cool feature!
That's the update so far. Tomorrow, I'll be putting the processor to the test. I'm gonna try and finally edit my wedding video and hopefully post a small version of it here on the site. I'll keep you posted.
