Apple iMac G5 (iSight)

By Joel Santo Domingo
The first two versions of the Apple iMac G5 were wonders of design and engineering, and the newest version continues on that same path. The newest 20-inch iMac G5 ($1,699 direct) adds a few features, including upgraded graphics and a slightly faster processor, while cutting the price by $100. On the whole, the iMac G5 (iSight) is an evolution of the design we first saw a year ago, and we consider it an improvement. The iMac G5 is a great desktop for Mac users whose needs go beyond simple Web browsing and e-mailing.

The iMac G5's appearance hasn't changed much from the previous version: Sharp-eyed users will notice the now-curved back panel, which makes the iMac seem more organic and less bricklike than the previous version. The power button has been moved from the back right to the back left, no doubt to prevent people from accidentally turning the iMac off when plugging in a cable. Speaking of cables, the USB, FireWire, and VGA/video adapter ports now run horizontally instead of vertically. And with the multibutton Apple Mighty Mouse now standard, the people switching from Microsoft Windows will finally be able to right-click and scroll with an Apple mouse.

The integrated iSight camera—the main focus of the new iMac upgrade—provides iChat A/V video-conferencing capabilities as well as the usual picture and video webcam duties. A neat novelty program called Photo Booth lets the user select filters for self-portraits, giving your iChat/AIM buddy pictures visual qualities such as sepia toning, "X-ray" coloring, and other effects. In theory, this could turn people into avid webcam users, though in practice, most adult users are likely to take their picture once when they first get their iMac, then forget it's there.
The Apple Remote with Front Row interface is another story. The remote gives the iMac features very similar to those of a Media Center, albeit without the TV tuner.

Front Row is a simple yet powerful control panel with the same sort of "10-foot interface" found in Windows Media Center Edition. You can see song titles and the like from across the room, from the comfort of your bed or couch. The included infrared Remote looks like a shrunken, thinner iPod shuffle, with the same five-way control pads for volume, track forward/back, and play/pause, as well as a menu control button.

Using the remote and the Front Row software lets the user control iPhoto (slide shows), iTunes (music), Videos (downloads and Video podcasts), and DVD movies from the comfort of an easy chair. Once set up, the combination works well, with the "no-look" interface you're used to if you have an iPod. This is a big improvement on most MCE remotes (or even consumer electronic remotes like the one for your cable box), where you have to look at the remote constantly to see if you're hitting the right button. The Apple Remote also works with the new iPod Universal dock ($39), which has IR built in to control a docked iPod, iPod mini, or iPod nano.

One issue we found is that if you don't have all the media software (iTunes, QuickTime, and so on) set up yet on the iMac, Front Row will come to a halt trying to figure out what to do. Even the End User Legal Agreement (EULA) screen that appears when you start up iTunes for the first time after installation or an upgrade will halt activity. Since Front Row accesses the iTunes library through its interface with that program, it freezes because it doesn't know what to do when iTunes wants you to hit "Agree" on the EULA screen. Similarly, you can't view movie trailers in Front Row until you set up QuickTime 7, including entering the speed of your Internet connection. It would be nice for future versions of Front Row to take care of this stuff through a setup wizard, in case you're using your iMac for the first time. Once you have iTunes and QuickTime set up, Front Row is a joy to use.

Apple didn't build TV-tuner capabilities into this iMac/Front Row combo: The company left that to third-party manufacturers like Hauppauge/Eskape and Elgato. This means you'll need another remote if you want a TV tuner, which complicates things. TV and video weren't really an issue until recently, when Apple introduced the 5G iPod with video capabilities. Right now, iPods are limited to the video content from iTunes Music Store, TV programs, and downloaded video podcasts. Any home movies you put in the Movies folder on your iMac will be viewable using Front Row, but there's no easy way to get those onto your iPod. Yes, you can convert your QuickTime-based videos to an iPod-friendly format, but there should be an easier way to get DVR-recorded or DVD-based video content on your iPod via your iMac. We're sure the third-party developers are working on solutions as you read this.

In PC Magazine Labs, we tested Adobe Photoshop CS2's performance, which was very good. The scores—Gaussian Blur at 5 seconds, Unsharp Mask at 3 seconds, Lighting Effects at 9 seconds, and Image Resize at 10 seconds—show that the iMac is powerful enough for light to medium graphics duties. These tasks, particularly Image Resize, often take more than a minute on older Macs with previous versions of Photoshop. The iMac G5 is certainly powerful enough for day-to-day office and graphics tasks, and it's a step above the Mac mini, which is best used for basic tasks. Anyone who uses a quad-core PowerMac at work should be happy with the iMac's performance at home.

Doom 3 performance is still fairly anemic, at 20 frames per second, though this is an improvement over the previous iMac G5, a 2.0-GHz machine that came with Radeon 9600 graphics and got a score of 14 fps at the same 1,024-by-768 resolution. We're sure the improvement is due to the upgraded graphics (X600 XT) and the new PCIe-based motherboard. But Doom 3 performance still lags behind that of mainstream Windows PCs with discrete graphics.

The iMac G5 with built-in iSight is a very good reworking of an excellent product, with additions that enhance the all-in-one nature of the iMac. It's a great mainstream Mac desktop for people whose computing needs extend beyond simple Web browsing and e-mail.

Sourtce:pcmag