The iPod of home computers
Apple has announced a brand new iMac. Basically they took the previous iMac G5 and added a whole lot of new features, both hardware and software.
It's got a built in iSight for video conferencing (apparently it's even higher quality than the normal iSight, which is already way above standard for webcams). It's obviously intended for video conferencing, but we all know how that works (If you don't, google for iChat AV), what I want to talk about is the new application called Photo Booth, which is for taking pictures of yourself with the iMac. It's a tiny app but really fun, basically it uses the iSight to take a picture of you, complete with live preview of what it will look like on the screen, you can easily pick from a handful of fun special effects to apply to the picture (everything from sepia tone to high end core image filters like Light Rays). Just incase you're in a dark room, it will flash the screen white at full brightness to create a primitive but effective "flash", and the whole UI is done with slick animations and sound effects that generally just make the whole app fun to use. It's pointless but extremely attractive and entertaining, and as steve said this is going to hurt productivity for a good few hours after you stick one on your desk.
But even cooler than a built in video camera is the new "Front Row" feature. Which is similar to what I assume windows media center would be like (I've never used or even seen media center). It allows you to easily use your mac to listen to music, watch DVD's, browse your photo library, and watch any home movies/music videos/tv shows/etc that you have on your mac. All of this is done with a well designed user interface that can easily be used from the other side of a large room, it's controlled by a 6 button remote control that comes with all new iMacs, the remote control and user interface is somewhat similar to what you see on an iPod with the exception of a lot more "goo" since it's running on fast hardware. Actually, I'm pretty sure it's very different from windows media center. The [hilarious] slide comparing Apple's remote to the ones used with WMC was enough to make that very clear.
And that's just the major two features, there are tons of other improvements ranging from a significant speed bump on the CPU and GPU, to an ambient light sensor tied to the brightness of the throbbing sleep LED that allows it to be clearly visible in a bright room without disturbing your sleep if you have it in your bedroom.
To top all that off, they also managed to make it thinner, while still being able to drop the price of the 17" SuperDrive model to what the 17" Combo Drive used to be (which they have discontinued). The 20" model also was graced by a $100 price drop.
Oh and they also released a video iPod, and you can buy a handful of TV shows on the iTunes music store (I'm sure more will come, this is the TV producers dipping their toes in before wading out into what is almost certainly pleasant water). I love the new iPod, and iTunes 6 is pretty cool stuff too, but the iMac overshadows them in my opinion.
I'm calling it "The iPod of home computers" because I feel this is the first computer that's truly perfect, which is exactly what I thought when I replaced my cd walkman with a 4G iPod. I don't really fit very well into the iMac's target market, but I might buy one of these.
It's got a built in iSight for video conferencing (apparently it's even higher quality than the normal iSight, which is already way above standard for webcams). It's obviously intended for video conferencing, but we all know how that works (If you don't, google for iChat AV), what I want to talk about is the new application called Photo Booth, which is for taking pictures of yourself with the iMac. It's a tiny app but really fun, basically it uses the iSight to take a picture of you, complete with live preview of what it will look like on the screen, you can easily pick from a handful of fun special effects to apply to the picture (everything from sepia tone to high end core image filters like Light Rays). Just incase you're in a dark room, it will flash the screen white at full brightness to create a primitive but effective "flash", and the whole UI is done with slick animations and sound effects that generally just make the whole app fun to use. It's pointless but extremely attractive and entertaining, and as steve said this is going to hurt productivity for a good few hours after you stick one on your desk.
But even cooler than a built in video camera is the new "Front Row" feature. Which is similar to what I assume windows media center would be like (I've never used or even seen media center). It allows you to easily use your mac to listen to music, watch DVD's, browse your photo library, and watch any home movies/music videos/tv shows/etc that you have on your mac. All of this is done with a well designed user interface that can easily be used from the other side of a large room, it's controlled by a 6 button remote control that comes with all new iMacs, the remote control and user interface is somewhat similar to what you see on an iPod with the exception of a lot more "goo" since it's running on fast hardware. Actually, I'm pretty sure it's very different from windows media center. The [hilarious] slide comparing Apple's remote to the ones used with WMC was enough to make that very clear.
And that's just the major two features, there are tons of other improvements ranging from a significant speed bump on the CPU and GPU, to an ambient light sensor tied to the brightness of the throbbing sleep LED that allows it to be clearly visible in a bright room without disturbing your sleep if you have it in your bedroom.
To top all that off, they also managed to make it thinner, while still being able to drop the price of the 17" SuperDrive model to what the 17" Combo Drive used to be (which they have discontinued). The 20" model also was graced by a $100 price drop.
Oh and they also released a video iPod, and you can buy a handful of TV shows on the iTunes music store (I'm sure more will come, this is the TV producers dipping their toes in before wading out into what is almost certainly pleasant water). I love the new iPod, and iTunes 6 is pretty cool stuff too, but the iMac overshadows them in my opinion.
I'm calling it "The iPod of home computers" because I feel this is the first computer that's truly perfect, which is exactly what I thought when I replaced my cd walkman with a 4G iPod. I don't really fit very well into the iMac's target market, but I might buy one of these.
posted by Abhi Beckert at 2:36 PM
1 Comments:
It is really amazing that ipods and home computers are continuously upgrading in this modern world of technology. Most people especially those at home and at work are looking forward on how to make video conferencing and enjoying the music at the same time. Sites like this give you more knowledge on how to be more abreast of modern ipods and home computers.
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