[Review] 24 inch iMac 2.8ghz

[pawn3d]

i only wish it had the swivel base... but they'll probably bring that back in the next iMac ;)

[giga Veteran]

OSX on the other hand does badly on bold letters. They easily become somewhat blurry. To me it seems like OSX's font smoothing aims for what letters would look like if they were printed in a book, whereas Windows' ClearType is adapted to screen viewing.

And yes, the Mighty Mouse is a terrible POS for a mouse.

It's adherence to typography rules and like you said, to reflect how they are in print.

Sums it up nicely:

• Apple generally believes that the goal of the algorithm should be to preserve the design of the typeface as much as possible, even at the cost of a little bit of blurriness.
  
• Microsoft generally believes that the shape of each letter should be hammered into pixel boundaries to prevent blur and improve readability, even at the cost of not being true to the typeface.
  

Apple users liked Apple's system, while Windows users liked Microsoft's system. This is not just standard fanboyism; it reflects the fact that when you ask people to choose a style or design that they prefer, unless they are trained, they will generally choose the one that looks most familiar. In most matters of taste, when you do preference surveys, you'll find that most people don't really know what to choose, and will opt for the one that seems most familiar. This goes for anything from silverware (people pick out the patterns that match the silverware they had growing up) to typefaces to graphic design: unless people are trained to know what to look for, they're going to pick the one that is most familiar.

[C_Guy]

ps .. why is this front page news? It's a good review and all .. but really .. guys .. slow news day?

It's nice that Neowin users review all this stuff on their forums but it's odd that a slightly different iMac release gets the front page spotlight when rarely anything else does.

If new iMacs get front page attention then every "new" release by Dell or any other PC manufacturer deserves the same attention. Otherwise they may as well change the name to NeoJobs.

[Aperture]

Where did you get your USB hub?

Welcome to Neowin;

I believe this is the USB Hub StevoFC has in his picture...

D-Link DUB-H7 7 - Port USB 2.0 Hub External

[piehouserat]

im sorry but as nice as this mac is, i cant see this being front page news, i cant remember ever seeing a user hardware review as front page news before (correct me if im wrong) but all of a sudden here we have a front page mac review... sort it out neowin

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

im sorry but as nice as this mac is, i cant see this being front page news, i cant remember ever seeing a user hardware review as front page news before (correct me if im wrong) but all of a sudden here we have a front page mac review... sort it out neowin

There have been hardware reviews by members on the front page before.

[azure.sapphire]

Ugly as sin. I guess it really is just my personal preference. I really hate chrome (worse when mixed with black). It gives me really had memories of the bulletin board community and the RIP protocol from around 1995. I will at least say that it does look better than the big cheese grating tower. The hardware specs look nice though, and the screen is not bad.

[+StevoFC MVC]

Ugly as sin. I guess it really is just my personal preference. I really hate chrome (worse when mixed with black). It gives me really had memories of the bulletin board community and the RIP protocol from around 1995. I will at least say that it does look better than the big cheese grating tower. The hardware specs look nice though, and the screen is not bad.

good thing it's not chrome then, right? :rolleyes:

oh and about my usb hub... .mac was right. you can get it here currently for $16.99 after a $10 rebate. http://www.buy.com/prod/d-link-7-port-usb-...1/10342286.html

Edited May 14, 2008 by StevoFC

[Brony]

There have been hardware reviews by members on the front page before.

Last week i acquired a new pc, is that a frontpage news?.

[giga Veteran]

Last week i acquired a new pc, is that a frontpage news?.

Stevo's review was put on the front page because it was fresh, different and written well enough. If a staff member likes a review, then they might put it up for show on the front page--just like before.

Did you write a review for your new PC?

[Galley]

As soon as they offer a BD drive as an option, I will jump on the 24-incher. :)

[jesseinsf]

It would look great if the bottom part wasn't so huge which makes the thing look bulky and ugly. other than that, everything is great:)

[BilliShere]

"I almost forgot how much quicker OSX in general is at launching applications. In terms of overall responsiveness there is no comparison between the iMac and my computer at work. Safari opens instantly...iTunes, even with a 10,000 song library opens in a fraction of the time that it does on my other computers. It takes a little under 2 seconds to be exact. Photoshop launches quicker than I have ever seen. I could go on and on, but I'm sure you get the general idea."

the reason why your computer is sooo quick. is not entirely because of the operating system. Its mostly because you have a wonderful 4GB RAM!!! and lotsa good hardware specs. meh... <-- that is NOt low end.. lol.

my hardware specs suck compared to that but i must say linux runs quite fast nonetheless. my point being that yes operating systems do matter in how fast your apps launch. but even more so does the hardware.

"At one point yesterday I saw I had a little over 800mb of ram free."

ooo that is bad... what where you running? was it a memory leak or what?

yes indeed the mighty mouse is really wierd.. i was shocked when i first got to use an imac at my uni's bookstore. I was like what the hell? one button?

[giga Veteran]

"I almost forgot how much quicker OSX in general is at launching applications. In terms of overall responsiveness there is no comparison between the iMac and my computer at work. Safari opens instantly...iTunes, even with a 10,000 song library opens in a fraction of the time that it does on my other computers. It takes a little under 2 seconds to be exact. Photoshop launches quicker than I have ever seen. I could go on and on, but I'm sure you get the general idea."

the reason why your computer is sooo quick. is not entirely because of the operating system. Its mostly because you have a wonderful 4GB RAM!!! and lotsa good hardware specs. meh... <-- that is NOt low end.. lol.

my hardware specs suck compared to that but i must say linux runs quite fast nonetheless. my point being that yes operating systems do matter in how fast your apps launch. but even more so does the hardware.

"At one point yesterday I saw I had a little over 800mb of ram free."

ooo that is bad... what where you running? was it a memory leak or what?

yes indeed the mighty mouse is really wierd.. i was shocked when i first got to use an imac at my uni's bookstore. I was like what the hell? one button?

Memory management is different in OS X.

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?sto...010613140025184

http://developer.apple.com/documentation/P...boutMemory.html

And yeah, the mighty mouse does suck but just a correction that it is a two button mouse.

[instant.human]

^actually, its even a 4-button mouse. ;)

however, nice review. =)

a good friend of mine just upgraded from his beloved mac mini to the 24"... man this is an awesome machine. so beautiful, so powerful, so... lovely. or whatever. :p

[sundayx Veteran]

My friend just purchased a 24"@3GHZ and he doesn't seem to be enjoying the switch. He said it's hard to adjust and it just seems he is limited to what he does.

[Airlink]

Two questions: How much did you pay for it, and what's the video card?

[giga Veteran]

My friend just purchased a 24"@3GHZ and he doesn't seem to be enjoying the switch. He said it's hard to adjust and it just seems he is limited to what he does.

It'd be helpful to know what exactly he's having trouble with. Redirect him to the forums? We even have guides stickied in the mac forums.

[sundayx Veteran]

I think the problem is nothing technical, just a matter of doing things differently on a Mac and having to adjust to it. Though it seems he thinks Windows is more convenient.

[Cara Veteran]

I think the problem is nothing technical, just a matter of doing things differently on a Mac and having to adjust to it. Though it seems he thinks Windows is more convenient.

Send him our way, I'll be more than happy to talk to him and see what his concerns are and see how we can help resolve them. :)

[Horrocks Veteran]

i only wish it had the swivel base... but they'll probably bring that back in the next iMac ;)

The metal arms were awesome. There was much more freedom in the positioning of the screen.

:woot:

[+StevoFC MVC]

I have to get rid of this mouse. The mouse pointer keeps jumping across the screen randomly for no reason.

[jesseinsf]

I can't wait for a certain company to build Macs without the apple blessing.....cause this iMac looks ugly and bulky...and when you say responsiveness....that is because whatever is so responsive is already loaded into memory....there are other operating systems that do the same thing...and I shall not mention those because you guys will start arguing and fighting. :D

[jesseinsf]

Send him our way, I'll be more than happy to talk to him and see what his concerns are and see how we can help resolve them. :)

stop converting people...you guys remind me of what the mormans do to convert....haha

[russdaplaya]

Whats the name of the program with the red/pink icons in the pictures? :blush: