Opinion: iMac, the morning after

Mac fans may want to skip this one: I finally got my hands on an iMac thisweekend and the reality of this little box (and it is far smaller than Iexpected) is even worse than I imagined. Cheaply made, the iMac is one ofthe clearest signs that the new Apple isn't in the same league as thecompany that once wowed the world with innovative engineering and designskills.

Case in point: The iMac is clearly a laptop computer attached to a low-end,low-cost 15" monitor. The evidence of this is everywhere, from the cheaplaptop CD-ROM drive that any small child would snap off within minutes ofuse to the obvious small, black laptop keyboard that most people wouldfind uncomfortable to use on a daily basis. The tiny laptop-like speakers(which, to my knowledge, are actually only laptop-sized, and not actuallyseized from some PowerBook parts bin like the rest of this machine) givelaptop-like sound. And that mouse.

My God, that mouse.

The one thing that looked so cool in those ads will be the first thingmost iMac users will want to replace. Too small for anything but a child'shand, the iMac mouse is easily the most questionable part in the entire package. It makes hotel soap look enormous by comparison (OK, that's anexaggeration).

Anyway, I spent a good part of the weekend trying to come up with somethingpositive to say about the machine, and I'm still struggling. MacOS 8.1,which accompanies the iMac, is an attractive OS, though it still suffersfrom single-mindedness, as I mentioned in Friday's WinInfo. And the easeof setup for iMac is simply incredible: Plug in a few wires and you're ready to go. But frankly, the machine itself suffers from an overbearing sense of cheapness, like an old Hyundai, and doesn't look like it will stand up to any real world use. Apple fans have got to love the amount ofpress coverage this little hunk of junk has generated, but real Apple defenders should look elsewhere should they wish to crow about the superiority of products from Cupertino: The iMac just doesn't live up to the hype.

OK, I'll try to shut up about the iMac now. Really. If you're looking fora more Mac-centric (but still very fair) review of the iMac, please check out MacWorld's review.

--Pau