“When Apple first unveiled its one-piece, shiny white iMac G5 computer, its resemblance to the one-piece, shiny white iPod was unmistakable. The updated iMac G5, introduced last week in 17- and 20-inch screen sizes ($1,300 and $1,700), takes that resemblance a step further: it now comes with a shiny white remote control, with buttons in an iPod-esque circular layout,” David Pogue writes for The New York Times.
“The Menu button summons a large, three-dimensional ‘menu’ that lets you start playback of your music, video or photo collections – or control the playback of a commercial DVD – from across the room, without a keyboard or mouse. The iMac has always been beautiful enough to sit in public areas of your home; this new entertainment-centerish, large-screen mode earns it a spot opposite your couch,” Pogue writes.
“The iMac’s sleek, virus-free, spyware-free operating system helps all of this work smoothly and quickly. And although there’s room for growth in the TV department, the new iMac is yet another indication that Apple Computer is rapidly transforming itself into Apple Entertainment,” Pogue writes.
Full article here.
Advertisement: The New iMac G5 – Built-in iSight camera and remote control with Front Row media experience. From $1299. Free shipping.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Apple’s new iMac G5, iTunes 6, iPod video designed to bait Hollywood – October 13, 2005
Apple’s Front Row with Apple Remote and iMac G5: media center done right – October 12, 2005
Apple introduces new thinner iMac G5 with built-in iSight video camera, ‘Front Row’ media experience – October 12, 2005
I’d love one, but I’d have to give up the Cube.
Not hapnin’
Man I’m on a first post roll here!
LOVE my Cube!
Personally, I love dodecahedrons.
Umm…icosahedron!
only problem with the imac is screen size…
20″ just doesn’t cut it these days for a TV…now if you could get front row and the remote for a mac mini with a lcd tv…or a powermac, or whatever, that’d be nice.
Enderle, the breathless Microsoft hack.
Pogue, the breathless Apple hack.
Fortunately there’s Mossberg in the middle, a breath of fresh air.
Not only is the iMac Screen too small to watch it across the living room, it gives no advantage in terms of integration with existing Home Entertainment systems … ala hooking into my Surround Sound Amp and TV.
I think the best solution for this would be the Mac mini. If this was updated with the predicted Yonah Chip in Jan, included Front Row, and provided Digital Audio out, the integration solutions just increased tenfold. Imagine using your Mac Mini as a DVD player replacement, the home of all your Digital Music (with iTunes Visualisations for your screen), Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse, etc.
I’m getting excited just thinking about it …
MDN Word Special … as in this would be so “special’ if it came into the market.
if 20″ is too small…just use the tv out to your 2000′ TV
…and digital audio out is available via firewire or usb
…or get a smaller tv room
20″ too small? Maybe…
…keen to bring up my kids without too much TV influence, the biggest one in our home is a 14′ Sony combi.
In my office, family say they say “oooh isn’t the iMac biiig!”
Would like surround though.
…or get a smaller tv room
Now that is thinking different. Of course if you hold the iPod a foot away from your face it is the equivalent of a 30in screen. Now there’s an idea make your tv room portable, until you walk into a bus anyway.
The iMac is hopeless as an HTPC solution. Small screen. Puny stereo sound. Relatively noisy. No TV tuner. Limited graphics card so only basic DVD playback quality. Advertising hype only.
Why does the iMac need a remote, when the screen is so small that you need to sit within arm’s reach of it anyway?
Bill, you really need to wank off that denial attitude of yours. It keeps you out of touch… you know, right as when you wondered why people needed internet at all or computers a bigger memory. Those kind of issues you simply do not get…
What? You still are into floppy disks, right? That one is difficult for you to let go.
Yeh I agree, I mean Windows Media Center Edition is so much better isn’t it? Remember when Billy-Boy demoed it, and couldn’t even get a Slideshow to work? Miles better than Front Row, and it’s been out for how long? How many have sold? Hmmmm, I think you’ve missed your medication.
MW: needs – Reality Check needs a lobotomy so he can become smarter!
qka,
I think your are slightly off in your depiction of Mr Pogue. While yes, he is a Apple fan like most of us here, he has given many honest review for Apple products and in fact most of his articles for the NY Times don’t mention Apple at all. He is a good general technology writer who admits that his primary way to “write” is to use Naturally Speaking on a Microsoft Windows machine.
MW =”try” as in try reading David Pogue’s Circuits articles before labeling him.
Don’t think so. An iMac has no place in my living room. When Apple releases an Intel based Mac mini, then we can talk. But Front Row on an iMac is only useful if you live in a dorm room or something.
Or you could put an iMax in your kitchen, or bedroom and use it with an elgato box to act as a TV, Hi-Fi, Computer all in one. Convergence is a gradual, natural process with apple.
While I agree that David Pogue can be a little rah-rah about Apple products (at least on his articles that MDN links to), if we’re going to compare him to Rob Enderle, then we should at least compare the two men’s journalistic credentials. Pogue has shown he knows his stuff well enough to be a featured columnist for one of the most highly respected newspapers in the world. Rob knows his stuff well enough to be the featured writer for … the Enderle Group.
#1 CUBES RULE!
#2 MXNT, I was thinking the same thing. I have a 9″ TV in my bedroom and a 17″ Monitor in my office. 19″ would be great update in both places. Attach an eyeTV or the new myTV to one of them and there is your TV tuner, PVR etc.
#3 This is the fun part, Add a new Mac mini to your massive 42″ TV in your living room and use your internal home network to get all of this great content to that huge screen.
#4 For people with kids who travel – A video iPod can output video to your portable DVD player (if it has the right connectors) Those 7″-9″ screens wont suffer as much from the lower resolution of the iPod videos. Then you wont need to carry all of your kids DVDs on your travels. OR just install an iMac in your car, you choose ^_^
>What? You still are into floppy disks, right? That one is difficult for you to let go.>
Bill doesn’t like to let go of his floppy.
The reason we sit across the room from our TV’s is the CRT. Well, guess what. Modern TV’s do not need CRT’s. You no longer have to be on the other side of the room to watch video. A 20″ screen a foot and a half from your face is really big. Save a bundle. Buy 17″ LCD HDTV’s for every family member instead of that 62″ plasma. No more bitchin about what program to watch either.
i gotta get me a cube. what a pimp computer. that thing has no excuse for not taking off like a rocket ship. all computers should look like that. the vertical slot loading drive was amazing!
I love what they’re doing with the iMac, but it’s still more suited for the bedroom, den or study than it is for the living room. Now, if Apple adds a TV tuner and PVR capabilities to it when the Intel version comes along, then it might be ready for the living room. A 23″ version wouldn’t hurt either if that’s the target Apple is aiming for, but I still think a Mac mini with the Front Row/PVR functionality would be even better.