Jericho: iMac

Did I blog about the fact that we had a death in the family a while back? I think I told you all that my Mac G4 died. A combination of bad circuitry in the house and a wind storm seems to have fried the power supply. I will eventually take the carcass to a repair expert to find out if there is any hope, but for the most part it's just dead - and it's not even paid off yet!

Anyway, for the last few months, we've lived without a primary machine. We have the G3 in the basement, but it's slow, we use it primarily for surfing. We have the PC laptop, it's tough when I want to play a game and Steph wants to do work from home or look something up. We needed an additional machine.

So, I have been lusting after the iMacs, especially the ones with the 20 inch screens. Sure, a full blown G5 with a huge monitor would be nice. But, the iMacs have everything all in one small package. We have limited room in the house, so a small computer with a small footprint was exactly what we needed. I did some research, and then I pitched my ideas at Steph. The idea was that when Apple releases a new version of their machines, they usually also announce a price drop on the previous model.

Steph wasn't convinced. The "iPod" styling on the iMac is, well, unusual. If they had made one in black or even their famed titanium, it would have been better. I can ignore the huge white nothingness at the bottom because of the screen. Steph found this more difficult. Steph also felt that a PC might be a better choice on price. (Later research found that, for what we wanted, Dell or Gateway were either close or more expensive.)

Apple did as I predicted. They released new models and the previous models dropped ... wait, no, they didn't! They dropped a little, but not when compared to the new model. The new model had more features, a faster processor, more memory and was only a couple hundred dollars more! The new built in iSight camera seemed like quite the awesome coolness! I hooked Steph! As soon as my year end bonus came in, we'd scrape the rest of the price together and get one.


For the first time in my life, we were planning to buy a computer with cash! This is a big deal for me. We just finished paying off the G3, the dead G4 is nearly paid and the laptop will be paid off in the next few months. The new Mac would be a large pile of money, but it would be mostly my bonus - it would be instantly paid for. For once, I would feel like I am making the amount of money that I actually do make!

We decided to wait until after the Christmas trip to Maine to buy the machine. I'm glad we did! We got a VERY generous load of gifts from my in-laws, including cash! The iMac was ours. We walked into the Apple store the two days after we returned from Maine and walked out with the new hotness! We then went to Best Buy and bought a surge protector that is insured for up to $75k of damage. We came home, cleaned up the old computer desk and loaded it up.

The first question out of one of my co-workers: "Load it up? I thought Macs came with everything already loaded!" Anything to harsh my buzz!

Yes, you still have to load software on a Mac. Start with all the updates that came out since the device went into the box. Next, there's Microsoft Office. Then, I loaded up Virtual PC - hearing a Windows start up sound come out of your Mac is a chilling thing! Then I loaded up MS Office for the PC. Tons of XP updates, too. I loaded up three browsers (IE, Netscape and Firefox) back on the Mac side. Today, I'm loading up music - most of our music is on the HD of the G4.

In all, I'm in love. It's gorgeous, it's big, it's fast, it's powerful, and, best of all, it's paid for!