Amazon.com Product Description
Speedier than ever with the latest Intel dual-core processor, the Apple iMac all-in-one desktop PC sports a sleek, professional aluminum enclosure that's joined precisely to a 20-inch glass cover to create a virtually seamless front surface. It's powered by a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, which includess an amazingly fast 1066 MHz front-side bus speed and super-sized 6 MB L2 cache. Part of Intel's 45-nanometer (nm) Penryn series, this processor boosts both speed and efficiency while helping to reduce power consumption. This dual-core processor also provides an optimized, multithreaded architecture for improved multitasking, video, and gaming performance.
The iMac also features an ultra-thin aluminum Apple Keyboard--with an extended layout and dedicated keys for Mac features such as brightness, volume, eject, play/pause, and Exposé--as well as the wired Mighty Mouse. It's pre-loaded with Apple's Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard operating system, which enables easy backup of your most important data via Time Machine, a redesigned desktop that helps eliminate clutter. It also comes with the iLife '08 suite of applications--including iPhoto, iMovie, Garageband, and iTunes--and the newest version of the fast-loading Safari web browser.
Hardware features include a 250 GB hard drive, 1 GB of RAM (with a 4 GB maximum capacity), 8x SuperDrive for burning movies to DVD and music mixes to CD, integrated 802.11n wireless LAN, Gigabit Ethernet wired networking, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR connectivity, and ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT video card with 128 MB dedicated memory.
Power on a Pedestal
Designed with a recyclable anodized aluminum frame and glass cover, the iMac is friendlier to the environment.. |
The new keyboard's ultrathin anodized aluminum enclosure features low-profile keys that provide a crisp, responsive feel. |
With its anodized aluminum frame set upon a sleek pedestal, the new iMac instantly transforms your workspace from cluttered desktop to brilliant display podium. Because the iMac's housing is made from a single sheet of aluminum, you won't see any seams or screws except for a single compartment on the bottom that provides easy access to the memory slots. The glossy widescreen 20-inch glass display makes photos and movies come alive with rich color. And the built-in iSight camera and microphone are integrated so neatly you barely notice they're there. Aside from the design details, the iMac is also friendlier to the environment with highly recyclable and durable materials including scratch-resistant glass and professional grade aluminum. The power-efficient iMac also meets the stringent new Energy Star 4.0 requirements.
With its elegant anodized aluminum enclosure, the new Apple Keyboard looks equally at home in your living room or on your desk. Just connect it to the USB port on your iMac and start enjoying the crisp, responsive feel of its low-profile keys. The extended layout has a full complement of keys, including document navigation controls, a numeric keypad, and special function keys for Mac features such as brightness, volume, eject, play/pause, Exposé, and more. Two USB 2.0 ports provide high-speed connectivity for your iPod, Mighty Mouse, digital camera, and other USB-based electronic devices.
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Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
Experience faster, more nimble application performance and improved energy efficiency with this 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo processor from Intel's 45nm Penryn lineup. The new hafnium-infused circuitry--which reduces electrical current leakage in transistors--helps to reduce power consumption while delivering. powerful processing speeds. This 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo processor is aided by a 1066 front-side bus speed and a super-sized 6 MB L2 cache--both top-of-the-line for Intel's Penryn processors. (An L2, or secondary, cache temporarily stores data; and a larger L2 cache can help speed up your system's performance. The FSB carries data between the CPU and RAM, and a faster front-side bus will deliver better overall performance.)
The Intel Core 2 Duo's 128-bit SSE3 vector engine handles 128-bit computations in a single clock cycle, accelerating data manipulation by simultaneously applying a single instruction to multiple data. And its two execution cores are designed to share resources and conserve power, helping it to achieve higher levels of performance since it uses fewer watts.
Hard Drive and Memory
The 250 GB Serial-ATA (SATA) hard drive (7200 RPM) quickens the pace with a higher speed transfer of data--akin to FireWire and USB 2.0. The 1 GB of PC6400 DDR2 RAM (one SO-DIMM) has an industry-leading 800 MHz speed, and the RAM capacity can be increased to 4 GB.
Graphics and Video
The 20-inch widescreen TFT active-matrix LCD offers a resolution of 1680 by 1050 pixels. It has a brightness rating of 290 cd/m2 (candela per square meter), a contrast ratio of 800:1, and a viewing angle of 160 degrees (both horizontal and vertical). An ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT graphics processor powers the iMac with 128 MB of dedicated GDDR3 memory. It features some of the most advanced graphics technology available and delivers new levels of visual realism and a huge texture fill rate for smooth surfaces and complex character details. GDDR3 (Graphics Double Data Rate, version 3) is a graphics card-specific memory technology that's better able to deliver fluid frame rates for even the most advanced games and applications.
This iMac also enables you to connect a second display in either extended desktop mode or video mirroring mode. The mini-DVI port connects to DVI displays, VGA monitors and projectors, and S-video and composite devices using the appropriate adapter (sold separately).
Wired and Wireless Connectivity
You get a full complement of ports on the back of the iMac, including three USB 2.0 and two flavors of Firewire--400 and 800. |
The iMac gives you plenty of room to grow, accommodating as many as five peripherals at a time thanks to its three USB 2.0 ports and the two USB 2.0 ports on the Apple Keyboard. It also includes two powered FireWire ports--one FireWire 400 and one FireWire 800 (one of the fastest peripheral standards available)--enabling you to quickly transfer content from digital video cameras, hard drives, and other high-speed devices.
Share files around your house with built-in 10/100/1000BASE-T Ethernet as well as the next-generation high-speed wireless 802.11n technology, which is integrated into the latest Apple Airport Extreme Base Station. The iMac is also Wi-Fi Certified to work with base stations and routers that use industry-standard 802.11a, 802.11b, or 802.11g wireless technologies.
The integrated Bluetooth wireless connectivity--version 2.1 + Enhanced Data Rate (EDR)--allows you to use a wireless keyboard or mouse, and synchronize peripherals such as cell phones and PDAs. Enjoy high-quality sound on almost any speaker system with double-duty analog/digital audio. Record digital and analog sources through audio line in, perfect for your latest podcast in GarageBand.
SuperDrive
Integrated neatly into the iMac is a slot-loading SuperDrive that lets you play and burn your own CDs and DVDs--including double-layer DVDs. And there's no disc tray--just slide the disc right in. It offers the following speeds:
Writes DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL discs at up to 4x speed Writes DVD-R and DVD+R discs at up to 8x speed Writes DVD-RW at up to 6x speed and DVD+RW discs at up to 8x speed Reads DVDs at up to 8x speed Writes CD-R discs at up to 24x speed Writes CD-RW discs at up to 16x speed Reads CDs at up to 24x speed
Other Features
Two SO-DIMM slots support up to 4 GB of RAM Built-in stereo speakers with internal 24-watt digital amplifier Support for external display in extended desktop mode: 1920 by 1200 pixels for digital and 2048 by 1536 pixels for analog Meets ENERGY STAR requirements with maximum continuous power rating of 200 watts Dimensions: 19.1 x 18.5 x 7.4 inches (WxHxD)
Preloaded with Leopard, you'll enjoy enhanced productivity and a clutter-free desktop (thanks to the the redesigned 3D Dock with Stacks). |
Preloaded with Leopard and iLife '08
The biggest Mac OS X upgrade ever, the Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard operating system features over 300 new features, including:
Time Machine, an effortless way to automatically back up everything on a Mac A redesigned Finder that lets users quickly browse and share files between multiple Macs Quick Look, a new way to instantly see files without opening an application Spaces, an intuitive new feature used to create groups of applications and instantly switch between them A brand new desktop with Stacks, a new way to easily access files from the Dock Major enhancements to Mail and iChat
Leopard's new desktop includes the redesigned 3D Dock with Stacks, a new way to organize files for quick and easy access with just one click. Leopard automatically places web, email and other downloads in a Downloads stack to maintain a clutter-free desktop, and you can instantly fan the contents of this and other Stacks into an elegant arc right from the Dock. The updated Finder includes Cover Flow and a new sidebar with a dramatically simplified way to search for, browse and copy content from any PC or Mac on a local network. Time Machine lets you easily back up all of the data on your Mac, find lost files and even restore all of the software on their Mac. With just a one-click setup, Time Machine automatically keeps an up-to-date copy of everything on the Mac. In the event a file is lost, you can search back through time to find deleted files, applications, photos and other digital media and then instantly restore the file.
The iMac also comes with the iLife '08 suite of applications that make it easy to live the digital life. Use iPhoto to share entire high-res photo albums with anyone who's got an email address. Break into indie filmmaking with iMovie and iDVD. Then take all the stuff you made on your iMac and share it on the web in one click with iWeb.
iLife '08 also features iWeb '08, with live web widgets such as Google Maps that let you create even more dynamic websites, and GarageBand '08, with its new Magic GarageBand feature that makes it fun and easy for both musicians and non-musicians to create great sounding songs.
Included Software
Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard (includes Time Machine, Quick Look, Spaces, Spotlight, Dashboard, Mail, iChat, Safari, Address Book, QuickTime, iCal, DVD Player, Photo Booth, Front Row, Xcode Developer Tools); iLife ’08 (includes iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iWeb, GarageBand)
What's in the Box
iMac, Apple Keyboard, Mighty Mouse, Apple Remote, cleaning cloth, power cord, install/restore DVDs, printed and electronic documentation
Customer Reviews
Not for professionals
I've been using iMacs since the iMac DV Special Edition. They have always been insanely great. Overall the best has been the iMac G5: design, performance and the LOOK AND FEEL of the screen are out of this world.
I'm giving only two stars to the new Aluminium iMac 24" (purchased in late January 2009, the one with a black edge around the screen) because of the following. Notice I am referring to the iMac 24". I don't know if the same problem of excess brightness applies for smaller models.
Cons:
1. The screen is so massively bright that it hurts the eyes. I mean, it really does. It's crazy. The control panel doesn't do much to reduce brightness. In almost any other computer you can decrease brightness, if you so desire, almost until the screen gets black. Not with the iMac 24". Even if you move the luminosity slider all the way to the left, there's no real reduction in brightness. At night you could almost use this computer to lit your room. Seriously. It is so bright that you cannot possible do any serious work: certainly not anything that takes more than a couple of minutes. It simply kills your eyes. The only workaround has been really weird: using sun glasses. It sounds dumb, but it's actually true. There's also a program called Shades which allows you to increase or decrease brightness at will. But it also alters color and the entire perception of images on screen, so it's not really a solution for anything where accurate color is critical. It's OK for email, web browsing, writing and other uses, but certainly not very good for photographers, graphic designers, animators and video editors.
2. This toy is extremely glossy. Like a mirror. You will have so much reflection of yourself and your surroundings that it becomes really nasty. It's distracting, eye-tiring and frustrating. It's probably because if this that Apple decided to make it so bright: the only way of reducing glare is to increase brightness. But again, for visual professionals of any kind, that amount of incontrollable brightness and glare is a no no. You can't really spent the night retouching photos, designing that new ad, or editing that pile of video footage with your unhappy face reflecting on the screen all the time!
3. Compared with the previous white model, I personally find it ugly. This is of course a totally subjective appreciation. I mean, one of the great things about Mac has always been its aesthetics. I happen to strongly dislike the black square surrounding the screen.
Pros.
I concede that for the consumer the Aluminium iMac 24" could be great. It's blazing fast, it's big. Tons of desktop real state. With 4 GB RAM as I have, it's a dream of performance. And the very same brightness that renders it useless for professionals, may prove nice if your primary usage of the computer is entertainment and multimedia: movies look terrific on this baby. The iSight camera works flawlessly, as does FrontRow and all other amenities.
Bottom line: I have went back to my old friend, a 17" iMac G5, with a display so sweet that I can work long days and nights without destroying my valuable eyes. My recently purchased Aluminium Intel iMac 24" lies now forgotten on a remote corner in my office. For me it has been just a sad waste of money.
No One Beats An Apple! ABSOLUTELY NO ONE!
I just got mine Monday (2-9-09) and have already spent hours in front of it playing and enjoying all that the new IMac offers me over my previous IMac of 2007.
1. The keyboard is so thin on this new one. And you barely touch the keys to type your sentences. My fingers are still trying to adjust but in a happy "trying" mode. For it is so easy and light to the touch.
2. The new screen is FAB. Especially if your background on the internet page is black. For then you can enjoy the beauty of the screen even more as it appears you are gazing through a glass into a whole new world. I love it.
3. Though I have ONLY the 20" one, it is larger than my former IMac which I bought new in 2007 and by far surpasses the previous one.
I could tell you all the "tech" stuff. But if you know anything about computers you can read it for yourself. What is important to me is that this is by far the finest Apple has yet created. And the greatest personal computer on the market--bar none! No other personal computer can equal or surpass the 2009 IMac.
One other note: I ordered mine from Amazon and the service and all was excellent. Like Apple, you can't beat Amazon for quality.
Hugs
Toni
Perfect media center and a work station
This is a great computer for everyone from enthusiastic to artistic. It's a piece of art that not only looks good but works too :). I have owned 24" for about an year and I am in love with it. I am a hardcore programmer and this is my main machine (that you see). Though i have other machines (linux and windows) which I rdp to this machine - 24" screen + spaces, you gotta love it. This way all my machines are accessed via this beauty with no wires :)..and that's what i call technology.
My typical setup - imac hosts all my media (photos, videos, ripped/digital movies), syncs 2-iphones, apple tv. Spaces share linux, vista (i720), xp @ work via vpn, wireless keyboard/mouse, Gigabit N extreme access point + G router (for slower channel). They all just work flawlessly with this baby.
Price: $1,169.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. 
