Apple’s newest 24-in. iMac

Michael DeAgonia has logged his impression of the new iMad saying “Apple’s newest 24-in. iMac ‘a sight to behold’ … better than that, it’s also $300 cheaper than before. What’s wrong with this picture?

I was at the Apple store today shopping for a very small laptop for a family member. I love the new products, but several things seem rather stupid on Apple’s part:

1. Firewire is gone

Although the young lady at the store claims that the new Firewire is faster than FireWire, that seems hard to believe. The big problem with that scenario is that you cannot bridge two Macs using USB. So, you can no longer set up a new Mac “based on” an old one. The other slam is how to get video from a Firewire ‘only’ video camera into a new Mac? Dealbreaker: yes.

2. Polished, high-reflection screens

I don’t know which brain-child at Apple decided to put polished glass on the monitors of the Macs, but they would have been better off hiring someone who actually uses a computer to make that decision. In the store it was nearly impossible to really see the monitor — much less getting something productive done. Unless you plan to use your new Mac in the dark, you may want to consider an alternative monitor and a Mac Mini or Tower. If you get the iMac, you’ll get a chronic headache and eyestrain. What were they thinking?

Michael DeAgonia for Computerworld seems thrilled, and writes :

Earlier this month, Apple completed a round of hardware updates to its Mac Pro, iMac and Mac mini lines, offering up modest speed boosts, some pricing tweaks and — most importantly — the Nvidia 9400M chipset for graphics.

Best of all for iMac fans, Apple also made the 24-in. version of its popular all-in-one configuration a more tempting proposition by making it less expensive. Smart move in the middle of a recession.

For those who’ve waited almost a year for an iMac update, the latest round of changes has made all of Apple’s computers Snow Leopard-worthy, putting in place hardware that can best handle Mac OS X 10.6, due out later this year.

While to some, it might be all about speed, to others (like me) it’s about keeping the computing work productive and transparent. Fighting screen reflections all day is not what it’s all about. I believe this is a real feature flaw that will turn away many serious computer users. In today’s business economy, no business can afford to intentionally send customers out the door empty handed!

You can read Michael’s account of Apple’s newest 24-in. iMac in www.computerworld.com