Second thoughts about the iMac

Several things have happened that have started me to question whether I should purchase the iMac.  Some Apple related and some just down to the way I work and how my network is setup.

Apple reasons:

It seems of late Apple have been doing some very greedy monopolistic things to their consumers.  Now one of the reason for leaving Vista could have been to get away from the Microsoft monopoly, but now it looks like Apple are going the same way.   In fact Apple’s position could be slightly more dangerous and here is my thinking why.  Microsoft have done some questionable things in the past but now because of the antitrust stuff they have been mostly kept in check.  Apple doesn’t currently seem to be as restricted.  Here are the things that Apple has done lately that really annoy me.

1.   Overcharge for the iPhone, actually all their hardware is quite pricey.

2.  Reduce the iPhone bye $200 after only 2 months, shafting all early adopters.  Fair enough they did recompense these people but only after Apple witnessed the anger of it’s fans.

3.  Charges an extra 99 cents for a ringtone of a tune you already own.

4.   Putting a chip in the new iPods that renders nearly all 3rd party video accessories useless.  Then asking $49 for the Apple video cable.  Not been backward compatible for technical reasons is fine. But to deliberately put a chip in to make accessories obsolete is just plain wrong.

5.  Releasing an update for the iPhone to deliberately break 3rd party apps.  It is obvious to me why they have done this.  If others can add 3rd party apps and improve the iPhone this will make it more difficult for Apple to find features of it’s own to add to the next iPhone.

In addition to these corporate decisions another thing that has annoyed me is the attitude of the sales staff in the Apple Resellers, now I don’t know if this just applies to the Netherlands and Belgium,  the staff  just do not seem interested in whether you buy something or not.  They seem to have the attitude that they are doing you a favour selling you a computer.

And finally I tried out a hacked version of Tiger on my laptop just to get a feel of what it was like.  Now please no one get upset here my experience could have been marred by the fact that my graphic card was unsupported so could only run a 1024×768.  But having never used a Mac OS before and going on how Apple fans rave about it I was somewhat underwhelmed.  It just looked so basic and I really did not like the idea of having the application menu bar continually at the top of the screen this just did not seem right to me.  Another thing I found strange was that you could only resize the windows from one corner; would it be so hard for Apple to make so you could resize from any edge of a window.

Some stuff looked cool like the genie minimise and the dock is very smooth and I really like the idea that most of the components of an app are kept together making it easier to remove them if required.  Anyway this is only a few observation from using the OS for 10 minutes I will comment more when I have more experience.

Resisting getting the iMac gets harder

When I decided that I would get an iMac, when Leopard was released, so did a friend of mine.  However over the weekend I logged onto Live Messenger and my friend came online.  I noticed that his display picture said aMSN, I instantly knew what he had done.  He couldn’t wait and bought an iMac, now I really want mine.  He was talking about it at work today and so far he is loving it.  We have even been contemplating selling our laptops and Macbook Pros.  He really is turning into an Apple fan boy.  I pinned a picture of Steve Jobs up in his office for him to worship when he feels the need.  Could I be next??

Must Resist!!

My wife and I went into Maastricht town centre today and we popped into the Apple store.  They had the 24″ iMac on display.  It is the first time my wife has seen the 24″ model.  She looked at me and said why haven’t you bought it yet.  I explained that I was waiting for Leopard to come out. I ended up chatting to the guy on the counter.  Must confess he didn’t seem that motivated to sell anything.  I can honestly say if they had stock I may be have been typing this blog  entry on the iMac today.

I am in a fairly nice position because I am in the military working overseas I can buy the iMac TAX free so that is a very nice saving.  I am also considering popping to the nearby US base to check if they have stock.  With the current $ exchange rate and the slightly better US pricing I could save a nice amount.

The Decision to purchase an iMac.

Let me first start by saying this is my first foray into the world of blogging.  I know there is always a lot of interest in the Mac vs Windows debate, and if I am honest, in the past I always fell into the Windows camp.  I mean no disrespect when I say that I have always found it annoying when Mac and Linux users would put down whatever Microsoft released no matter how good.  In my opinion Microsoft is no greedier than Apple, but that is another story.  Let me also state for the record I am not anti-Apple I have owned several Ipods over the years and am just planning my upgrade to the 160gb Classic.

My new journey began several weeks ago when my aging PC desktop died and needed replacing.  This event roughly coincided with the release of the new aluminium Imacs.  I saw these and from a hardware standpoint I was smitten.  The clean lines the uncluttered design, it was just what I needed to sit nicely in my living room, I was sick of having to hide an ugly PC desktop.  Another big thing was it was the first time my wife looked at a computer and said it looked nice. 

My initial thought was why the hell don’t PC makers make standard PC look like this, there is no reason that they couldn’t, both PC and Macs share the same architecture now.  But then a thought entered my mind that sent shivers down my spine, maybe I should just buy the iMac.  My initial thinking was I will just buy the iMac and stick Windows Vista on it and never touch OS X.  But over the past few weeks this has changed to well I’ll give OS X a chance and now this has evolved into me seriously thinking that I could move almost entirely to OS X.  Now the thing to consider here is that up until now I have never touched a Mac for more than maybe 2 minutes in my entire life.  So I will be entering this experience as a total Mac virgin.

Now I will start by be totally up front, before now I have been totally pro Microsoft.  Since my early days of using the Commodore Vic 20, C64 then Amiga I have always used a Microsoft OS.  I use Microsoft Office and program with Microsoft Visual Studio.  So if OS X wins me over, this will have true meaning because, at this point, I could be classed as having a MS bias.  But let me state this bias does not make me blind to other things like a lot of fan boys out there.  In fact this was one of the biggest reasons I did not want to try the Mac, I did not want to turn into the stereotypical Mac fanboy that in my eyes seemed to wear rose tinted glasses, everything Apple did was amazing and they worshiped Steve Jobs like a god.  I also took insult from the Apple ads that insinuated that all PC users were stupid.  I am of the thinking that every OS as its place be it Windows, Linux, Unix, OS X etc.  I have no time for people who just blindly insult other people choice of OS.  What ever suits that particular user is fine by me.

Anyway, so now I am at the stage that the decision is made to buy the new iMac.  The only thing holding me back is the release of Leopard, it just seems silly not wait a few months and get the new OS.  I will be going for the mid/top end model (24” Screen, 2.4Mhz CPU, 500gb drive, 1gb RAM).  I will definitely need more ram but this leads me to my first discovery, and something for other people in my position to consider, Apple charge stupid amounts for upgrades. Examples below (correct as of 7 Sep 07).

1.         To upgrade the iMac’s RAM from 1gb to 4gb the extra 3gb will cost you  £539.99; that works out at £180 per gb.  From crucial 4gb of memory for the iMac will cost you £316.06 that is £79 per gb.  Making Apple memory more than double the price.

2.         To upgrade the iMac’s hard drive from 320gb to 750gb will cost you £160.  A 750gb drive can be purchased elsewhere starting at £121.  Remember that apple is also keeping the 320gb drive.

Now not having made my purchase yet even I don’t know what the outcome of this experiment will be.  Check back and I will keep this blog updated with all my experiences from build up, to purchase, unboxing and user experience.  If truth be told I am rather excited about the journey it seems I have experienced most things that Windows has to offer and relish the chance to try something new.