iMac

iMac

iMac (Late 2009)
Manufacturer	Apple
Type	Desktop
Introductory price	US$1,199 £949
Operating system	Mac OS X 10.6
CPU	Intel Core i7, i5, 2 Duo Legacy: Intel Core Duo PowerPC G5, G4, G3
Memory	DDR3
Storage	Up to 2TB
Connectivity	802.11n Wi-Fi wireless networking Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet FireWire 800 port 4 USB 2.0 ports SD card slot
Power	241 or 365W
Online services	MobileMe
Dimensions	"21.5 inch" ("54.61 cm"): 17.75 × 20.8 × 7.42 in (45.09 × 52.83 × 18.85 cm) "27 inch" ("68.58 cm"): 20.4 × 25.6 × 8.15 in (51.82 × 65.02 × 20.70 cm)
Mass	"21.5 inch" ("54.61 cm"): 20.5 pounds (9.30 kg) "27 inch" ("68.58 cm"): 30.5 pounds (13.84 kg)
Website	iMac Home Page

The iMac is a range of all-in-one Macintosh desktop computers designed and built by Apple Inc. It has been the primary part of Apple's consumer desktop offerings since its introduction in 1998, and has evolved through four distinct forms. In its original form, the iMac G3, the iMac was gum drop- or egg-shaped with a CRT monitor, mainly enclosed by colored, translucent plastic. The second major revision, the iMac G4, moved to a design of a hemispherical base containing all the main components and an LCD monitor on a freely moving arm attached to the top of the base. The iMac G5 and the Intel iMac placed all the components immediately behind the display, creating a chunky unified design that tilts only up and down on a simple metal base. The current iMac shares the same form as the previous models, but is now thinner and uses anodized aluminum and black-bordered glass for its case.

The announcement of the iMac was a source of discussion and anticipation among commentators, Mac fans, and detractors. Opinions were divided over Apple’s drastic changes to the Macintosh hardware.^[1] At the time, Apple was trying to improve its retail strategy. Apple declared that "the back of our computer looks better than the front of anyone else’s".^[2]

Apple declared the 'i' in iMac to stand for "Internet"; it also represented the product's focus as a personal device ('i' for "individual").^[3] Attention was given to the out-of-box experience: the user needed to go through only two steps to set up and connect to the Internet. "There's no step 3!" was the catch-phrase in a popular iMac commercial narrated by actor Jeff Goldblum.^[4] Another commercial, dubbed ”Simplicity Shootout”, pitted seven-year-old Johann Thomas and his border collie Brodie, with an iMac, against Adam Taggart, a Stanford University MBA student, with an HP Pavilion 8250, in a race to set up their computers. Johann and Brodie finished in 8 minutes and 15 seconds,^[5] whereas Adam was still working on it by the end of the commercial. Apple later adopted the ‘i’ prefix across its consumer hardware and software lines, such as the iPod, iBook, iPhone and various pieces of software such as the iLife suite and iWork.

On March 3, 2009, Apple updated its offerings for the iMac, featuring new Nvidia chipsets, the new Mini-DisplayPort and a new standard keyboard featuring no numeric pad that has become standard in all new Apple computers.^[6]

On October 20, 2009, Apple updated the iMac, adding two new LED-backlit 16:9 widescreen screen sizes in 21.5" and 27" models, replacing the 20" and 24" 16:10 aspect ratio screens of the previous generation. In addition to memory and hard drive capacity increases, this release brought speed bumps to the Core 2 Duo technology and added Intel's new Core i5 and Core i7 chips in the high end model, signifying the first quad-core iMac.

Borrowing from the 1997 Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh, the various LCD-based iMac designs continued the all-in-one concept first envisioned in Apple's original Macintosh computer. The successful iMac allowed Apple to continue targeting the Power Macintosh line at the high-end of the market. This foreshadowed a similar strategy in the notebook market when the iBook was released in 1999. Since then, the company has continued this strategy of differentiating the consumer versus professional product lines. Apple's focus on design has allowed each of its subsequent products to create a distinctive identity. Apple derided the beige colors then pervading the PC industry. The company would later drift from the multicolored designs of the late 1990s and early 2000s. The later part of the first decade of the 21st century saw Apple using anodized aluminum and white, black, and clear polycarbonate plastics. Today many PCs are more design-conscious than before the iMac's introduction, with multi-shaded design schemes being common, and some desktops and laptops available in colorful, decorative patterns.^[7]

Apple’s use of translucent candy-colored plastics inspired similar designs in other consumer devices. For example, grilling machines, portable electronics, pencil sharpeners, video game consoles and peripherals (including the Nintendo 64, which was released in special edition ‘Funtastic’ colors) featured the translucent plastic. Apple’s introduction of the iPod, iBook G3 (Dual USB), and iMac G4, all featuring snowy white plastic, inspired similar designs in consumer electronic products. The color rollout also featured two distinctive ads: one called ‘Life Savers’ featured the Rolling Stones song "She's a Rainbow" and an advertisement for the white version had the introduction of Cream’s "White Room" as its backing track.

The original iMac was the first Macintosh computer to include a USB port. Subsequently, all Macs have added it.

Via the USB port, hardware makers could make products compatible with both PCs and Macs. Previously, Macintosh users had to seek out certain hardware, such as keyboards and mice, specifically tailored for the "old world" Mac's unique interfaces. Only a limited number of models from certain manufacturers were made with these interfaces, and often came at a premium price. USB, being cross-platform, has allowed Macintosh users to purchase a large selection of the very inexpensive devices, such as hubs, scanners, storage devices, USB flash drives, and mice. This came at a price, however. As USB was far slower than a number of ports available at the time such as SCSI, unmodified iMacs and iBooks were badly crippled until adequate replacements such as FireWire and USB 2 became standard.

After the iMac, Apple continued to remove older peripheral interfaces and floppy drives from the rest of its product line.

In October 2009, Apple released a refresh of the iMac line. An LED-backlit 16:9 widescreen was introduced in 21.5" and 27" models, replacing the 20" and 24" 16:10 aspect ratio screens of the previous generation. The 27" models also have a digital video input port to allow the system to serve as a display for other systems or devices. Video card options entirely switched to ATI, save for the standard onboard Nvidia card in the base model. The iMac's processor selection saw a significant increase. Existing Core 2 Duo technology offered speed bumps in the lower models, and Intel's new Core i5 and Core i7 chips are now available in the high end model, signifying the first quad-core iMac. Default RAM has also been increased across the iMac range. With the advent of larger screens, Apple doubled the number of memory slots from two to four. Consequently, the maximum memory capacity was also doubled (to 16GB).

Some of the 27 inch iMacs have experienced problems with their screens such as flickering and blackouts. Apple released a firmware update to alleviate the problem but some users reported continuing problems after the update^[9]

Timeline of iMac and eMac models (sorted by screen sizes) v t e
See also: List of Mac models

The iMac has received considerable critical acclaim, including praise from technology columnist Walt Mossberg as the “Gold Standard of desktop computing";^[10] Forbes magazine described the original candy-colored line of iMac computers as being an “industry-altering success”.^[11] The first 24" Core 2 Duo iMac received CNET's “Must-have desktop” in their 2006 Top 10 Holiday Gift Picks.^[12]

Apple is facing a class-action lawsuit for allegedly deceiving the public by promising millions of colors from the LCD screens of all Mac models while its 20 inch model only held 262,144 colors.^[13] This issue arose due to the use of 6-bit per pixel Twisted nematic LCD screens, instead of higher quality technologies.

While not a criticism of the iMac per se, the iMac's integrated design has some inherent tradeoffs that have garnered criticism. In The Mythical Midrange Mac Minitower, Dan Frakes of Macworld suggests that with the iMac occupying the midrange of Apple's product line, Apple has nothing to offer consumers who want some ability to expand or upgrade their computers, but don't need (or can't afford) the Mac Pro.^[14] For example, the iMac's integration of monitor and computer, while convenient, commits the owner to replacing both at the same time.

Similarly, though the graphics chipset in some recent models is on a removable MXM, neither Apple nor third parties have offered retail iMac GPU upgrades, with the exception of those for the original iMac G3's “mezzanine” PCI slot. Models after the iMac G5 (excluding the August 7, 2007 iMac update) made it difficult for the end-user to replace the hard disk or optical drive, and Apple's warranty explicitly forbids upgrading the socketed CPU. While conceding the possibility of a minitower cannibalizing sales from the Mac Pro, Frakes argues there is enough frustration with the iMac's limitations to make such a proposition worthwhile.

• ASUS Eee Top

Wikimedia Commons has media related to iMac.

• Apple – iMac
• Apple – Support – Specifications
• Apple – Support – How to identify your iMac
• Apple Developer Connection – Comprehensive technical details (Latest developer notes)