iMac G5...First Impressions

When Apple announced the iMac G5, I was immediately in love. This machine looks like one of Wired's artifacts from the future. The iMac G4 hit my usage pattern right now in the sweet-spot. I have limited space to put a machine, but I wanted more than iBook power for less than PowerBook or PowerMac money. The new iMac was perfect. I picked mine up in at the Apple Store in Corte Madera, CA. This is the middle of the road model, which means: - 17" widescreen - 1.8 GHz G5 - 256 MB RAM - 80 GB HD - I added an Airport Extreme card In Short: The machine is fantastic. Out Of Box Experience One of the most impressive parts of the iPod experience is opening the box, you know you are getting quality, the box is meticulous. The iMac G5 also has an excellent out of box experience. After getting all the pieces out, first thing I did was open the back panel and install the Airport Extreme card. This is amazingly simple, and I just had to stare at the interior of machine for a few minutes, everything is so incredibly put together. Installing the card is a snap, even a little easier than in the iBook. I set the iMac on my desk and I again marvel at how well the unit balances. I plug the power cable in, mouse and keyboard (I use the Microsoft Intellimouse Optical, more on this bit later), and away I go. First Boot I can immediately see the iMac is a lot faster than my iBook G4. The system starts and launches into the new Setup Assistant. I had read about this and really wanted to use the Setup Assistant, but I have no Firewire cable, or so I think. I forget that the iSight uses a regular Firewire cable to connect to the Mac, so I actually don't run the Setup Assistant until after the system is up and I have moved some files over from the iBook using WiFi. Once the system is up, I run some apps and again I am really impressed by how fast the system is compared to the iBook. I love it. And After A Couple Days of Usage I finally realize I can use the iSight firewire cable and start Setup Assistant to copy all my stuff off the iBook onto the iMac. This process is tremendously easy, with a few minor unexpected results. First, there is an option to move Network settings from the old machine to the new machine, but no explanation as to what this means. It turns out it copies the machine name over from the old machine, so I have to rename the new machine back to the name I had given it, no biggie. Since I was on the iBook before, I had the battery meter in the menubar. The iMac has no battery, but the meter is still in the menubar. The Energy System Preferences don't contain an option to show or not the battery meter on a system without a battery. I command-drag the meter out of the menubar, no problem.