Size Matters
I just bought a new 24-inch iMac and it is gorgeous! Its like a work of art - something you'd expect to see at MoMA. Since I'd been using a 13-inch Macbook for the last 6 months as my first venture into the modern Mac age, I hadn't really had the experience of sitting down in front of a real Mac workstation with a real keyboard, mouse and display. And boy is this display nice! I was looking at photos of my kids full screen and they seem life size. (I think I'm going to have to start using my Canon 10D's RAW image format more now that I have a worthy display).
Out of the Box
Opening any Apple product is an experience in itself. I sometimes think they put more though into the packaging of their products than many companies put into the actual product itself. Then once you unwrap the product, there are those first few minutes where you marvel in the simple, elegant and clever design and engineering. It doesn't seem to matter if its a monstrous 24-inch iMac, a sub $100 iPod or even a wireless access point. Opening a box that says "Designed by Apple in California" puts a smile on my face and brings back the same feelings I had as a kid when opening a Christmas present. (But now my toys are a lot more expensive).
Hardware
The iMac is very clean: it has a flush-mounted power cord that when inserted seems to emerge right out of the computer's case. There is a guide hole in the back of the stand to lead the cord through so it is mostly hidden from view. The various I/O ports are hidden behind the lower right of the display, leading cables back and away (rather than out the side of the display where they would be more noticable). The large power button is in the back of the lower-left corner of the display, keeping it hidden, but easy to find by touch.
The display is properly balanced on a hinge in the stand so even though its large and heavy, it takes very little effort to tilt the display when adjusting it. This is easily accomplished with one hand pushing or pulling on the lower edge of the display. There is just the right amount of friction to keep it in place but allow for fine adjustments without jerking the display.
And then there is the remote control: simple and small, but it does what you need it to when driving Front Row. When I opened the accessories box, I thought to myself "I probably won't use the remote that much but I don't want to lose it. Maybe I should just leave it in the box." Yep, someone at Apple thought about that too. That's why there is a magnet inside the right edge of the display so you can just stick the remote right on the side of the display. Its out of the way, but easy to find when you need it. Nice.
The display is beautiful. A 24-inch widescreen may not sound that big these days when 20-inch monitors are commonplace and many people have two or even three monitors, but when you are sitting a foot and a half away from this display it feels very large. I actually found myself initially having to move my head a little bit to see the different corners of the screen. I have 2 side-by-side 20-inch LCD displays at work but there's something about one complete workspace that feels a lot bigger. Two separate displays feel like, well, two separate displays. The borders of the monitor break up the display surface so you rarely want one window to span across them. It takes constant fiddling to keep them exactly the same height such that the two screens line up correctly, and frequently there will be slight color variations between one and the other that is both annoying and distracting.
The colors are rich and the display is very bright. And watching a DVD felt like I was really in a theater (or at least in front of a very nice TV). This display covers so much of your peripheral vision that its easy to get lost in the movie and forget you are watching it on a computer. I never had that feeling on the Macbook because everything around the smaller display was constantly in my attention zone and can easily become a distraction. This display really grabs your full attention.
Note that while I was very impressed with the out-of-the box experience of my new iMac, I did, however, run into a few snags with the new machine, which you can read about here.
Where are the Beautiful PCs?
As I was playing with my new iMac, I kept wondering why can't you buy such a machine from a PC manufacturer? Apple now has the price of their line of computers competitive with equivalent PCs, so its not like they would be so expensive that people wouldn't buy them. And its not like people don't appreciate good hardware. People pay a premium for all kinds of specialties: size with ultra-portables, performance with high-end gaming machines, quiet PCs, small form PCs, PCs with large displays. So wouldn't it make sense that in such a large market there would be a segment of people who would pay a premium for a beautiful, well-designed, all-in-one PC that is simple to setup, just works and is a pleasure to use? Of course, with Bootcamp, Parallels, and now VMWare, there is. The iMac.