![]() ![]() The iSight camera is concealed at the top of the display, but the microphone is invisible.The system is quiet and cool, even with 5 fans, a 7200 rpm hard disk drive, and server-grade CPU and graphics.The (removable) screen glass is a fingerprint magnet. ![]() It takes much longer to boot than my other Macs – the Apple logo, “circular file”, and desktop all wait long enough for me to wonder if something is wrong.BONG!!! The startup chime is very loud!.I have trouble finding the right port and orientation since they all look too small to fit my cables! The ports appear impossibly tiny since they are flush with the back.It has even fewer ports than my Mac Mini: Audio in and out, 4x USB, FireWire 800, Mini DisplayPort, Gigabit Ethernet, and power.The power button is hard to find by touch: It’s so nicely integrated into the left rear panel that your finger can brush right over it.Initial setup revealed more about The Beast: Also in the box were glossy white Apple stickers, a slim book, iLife and Snow Leopard DVDs, and an inexplicable package containing some kind of black cloth.The only “wire” in the box was the power cord! The keypad-less BlueTooth Keyboard and Magic Mouse look positively tiny next to this giant computer. It’s not as tall installed as you might think (20.5″ is enough headroom), but it’s almost 26″ wide and more space is needed on the right for the Superdrive and SD card slot.It balances nicely on its pedestal, tilting with a soft touch, but this thing is a beast made of aluminum and glass! Although it only weighs 30 lbs, the 27″ iMac is not easy to handle.At 30″x25″x10″, it’s small enough to be checked as baggage (more on that later) but does not fit in a Mazda MX-5 Miata (ditto!) The shipping box is huge – much larger than the iMac itself.Later that evening I did get a chance to unbox it and was amazed by a few things: How to attract attention: Lug this box around! I cabbed the (huge) iMac back to my (tiny) hotel and headed over to the Interop conference where I was presenting – I would have no time to play with my new toy for much of the week. Luckily, I chose the perfect store (the Fifth Avenue Apple Store in New York) and day (Tuesday, November 17) to go shopping: This store received one of the first shipments of Core i5 iMacs just that morning! In fact, the helpful Apple dude mentioned that I was the first i5 buyer – could my new Mac be the very first Core i5 iMac in consumer hands? ![]() I decided that the 27″ iMac would be the perfect editing station, especially with a the impressive new quad-core Intel Nehalem CPU. Amazingly, Amazon was able to arrange same-day delivery in New York City, and the total price tag was more than US$100 cheaper than the local Apple Store.įinal Cut was way too much for my MacBook Pro or Mac Mini to handle, however, and my old 20″ 1680×1050 screen wasn’t much help either. I thought to use Bing Cashback to find a discount and rebate, but time pressures meant would have to do. I’ve long wanted to learn Final Cut, but the US$999 list price is certainly quite steep. The project was so large I had to make a Fry’s run and buy a new 1.5 TB hard disk drive just to move it around! After casting around for an inexpensive way to process the video, I realized I would have to bite the bullet and buy Apple’s professional Final Cut Studio suite. The Tech Field Day video was recorded in DVCPRO 720p60 format with four tracks of 48KHz audio. The massive display and speedy quad-core CPU and graphics continue to impress: This new iMac is a keeper! Purchasing Genius The 5th Ave NYC Apple Store is truly amazing (it's downstairs!) My new iMac has become a video editing workstation, running Apple’s Final Cut Studio software to process the video footage from Gestalt IT‘s Tech Field Day. Last week I bought my third (modern) Mac, a new Core i5-powered 27″ iMac desktop. The 27" iMac is simply gorgeous, and it has the technical chops to match! ![]()
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