New Imac First Impressions

[telemark948]

My first ever imac has just arrived. Day 3 of using the MAC, this is my first experience of a MAC, although I bought my wife one 18 months ago. (now she wants a 27" screen)

27" i5 with 8GB Ram and SSD/ 1GB HD and Trackpad.

I have moved from an old 3GHz single core with Hyper-threading, 4GB ram on windows XP, RAID installed for files not OS. (Recently re-installed everything so a fresh install) also two 17" monitors. My wife would be surfing the net and reading e-mails by the time my machine booted and logged in. So anything I bought, would seem fast.

First impressions is WOW, it is a thing of beauty. No problems, no yellow tinge, no HD noise, no dead pixels. The screen is not too big IMHO, I use a 30" at work, so maybe I'm used to the size. Application and start up is lighting fast, I haven't pushed this machine as of yet, but I downloaded a trial of photoshop which opens up in under 2 seconds, editing 16GB raw photographs is extremely quick. I have also bought office for MAC (some habits are hard to break) all these apps are very very quick.

The trackpad takes some getting used too, not there yet. I'm struggling with the equivalent right mouse click, just doesn't seem to flow, have tried both settings bottom corner or two finger secondary click. Sometimes I also zoom in and out on webpages by accident, I will persevere though and probably stick with it, mouse is at hand just in case.

I miss the number pad etc on the keyboard, maybe switch to a wired one, not sure yet, but I like the lack of cables.

I have been geektooling the desktop, very nice app, I like the logs and resource monitoring in text format very cool.

I have moved my folder to the 1GB HD, I thought that this would be better in managing my SSD drive.

At the moment waiting for a 2TB WD firewire HD for backups (hope this is the right choice)

Still playing, still discovering, but I am a satisfied customer, no complaints.

 

[TheBritishBloke]

Glad you got a good machine. Its generally being blown out of proportion on here.

Oh, and it's Mac. Not MAC

 

[Spike88]

For my family...

- Bought the iMac 21.5" / 3.2 GHZ / 4 GB Ram / 1 TB HD model. As I often call it, "middle of the iMac 21.5" pack" selection.
- Got the "wired" larger sized keyboard - wife wanted numeric pad. And I'm glad we got this larger size keyboard as well.
- Got the "wireless" trackpad. Wanted to "give it a try" - to see if it works for us.
- Went from previous 19" to new 21.5". Limited to 21.5" screen size due to limited desk space. Thus, smaller physical size iMac 21.5" is ok with us.

Luckily, my family's new iMac system is in perfect condition as well. As my wife says, "she's a keeper".

First things.
- Don't know how, but I made the Mac's HD icon appear on the screen. By default, its a hidden icon. For me, I like seeing this icon - which allows me to manually `drill downs` into its custom Mac HD\DATA\ folder. (see below for more details).
- Within settings - mouse - enabled "right" button on its wireless mouse. Changed the travel speed of the mouse as well.
- Enlarged the size of its DOCK. My older age eyes need larger size icons and text.
- Slowly learning how to enlarge its fonts and text. Wish there was a simple way to "globally" enlarge it all (like Win XP / 7 systems). But, slowly learning how to enlarge each area within each application.
- Realized some of its selections are on the right - instead of on the left (like in Windows xx). Its like driving on the "other side" of the road. Where possible, I've been manually moving things over to the left - like its Mac HD icon.
- Installed iStats Nano (widget from Apple download site) to monitor its many temps and Memory usage. Temps seem to be within 28 to 63 degrees. Mostly within 35 - 45 range. Well within normal operating range. And the few times I did check, it had 2.8 GB of "remaining" memory. Thus, showing its default of 4 GB memory is a good choice. Ordering 6 or 8 GB of Ram (for my usage) would have been an over kill. But, it may need more future memory - as our computer usage increases. Only time will tell...
- Yesterday, I got its Mail program working. Had to cut / paste in many email ids (into its address book) and learn how to receive/send emails. Still learning this application (and how to change its font sizing).

After "start up" and all iMac items passed my wife's "its a keeper tests", I then purchased / connected a FW800 external HDD. For me, WD My Book Studio 1 TB works great. Simply "plug in", allow Time Machine to use it and "it works". Clean and simple. For my family, "backups are a must".

Within the next few days, I plan to get its connected HP 4480 Scanner working. If I remember correctly, I need to download new drivers from HP site. Apple's included "factory" drivers work great for printing but they lack the needed "scanner" driver. Thus, a quick driver update from HP web site. If HP C4480 scanner feature won't work, I'll use a different printer for scanning. Luckily, we don't scan very many things.

Today, I plan to apply its "brightness" fix. This fix is only for "mid 2010" iMac 21.5" screens. It appears this fix is working great for others. re: results are 20%-30% brightness increase. For more details, surf: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/992515/

I might attach a 3rd party USB mouse (from my older "broken" Win XP box) and try it for a while. Perhaps this older mouse might feel better? (not too sure) For me, the Apple wireless mouse doesn't feel right. Perhaps it's too much of a change for my large size hands? For the Apple Wireless mouse, many say "one either loves it or hates it". So far, I'm liking the older "real buttons" bulky mouse better. Only time will tell...

Last night, my son moved his many iPod Touch music files from our broken Win XP box to our new iMac system. Man, talk about a "quick learner". He's clicking this, clicking that and next thing I know, his many songs are transfered over (using an 8 GB memory stick - several times). He's learning this new iMac faster then I am. Scary how fast he's learning our new iMac system. Must be the younger age thing.

Last night, my son & I moved our many DATA files (recovered from our broken Win XP box) to our new iMac system. I didn't want to implement different user accounts - which is too complex for my liking. Thus, I SAVED all user data files into new Mac HD\DATA\User_Name folders. For me, this is "clean and simple". I like simple and easy things. Especially for computer systems.

Last night, my son & I installed a free program to allow us to play Windows .WMA files on our new iMac. If I remember correctly, we down loaded / installed this FREE conversion program from Microsoft . Now, we can play our many previously created .WMA extension files on our new iMac.

Note to self... Write down its Admin and Main User ID passwords. I almost forgot the main Admin password. Luckily, my wife re-freshed my memory. I honestly forgot its password. (ouch!!!).

During 3-5 days time blocks, I'll take 1 program and try to fully learn it. Slow and steady - like that old racing turtle. If I try to learn "too much" of its many different programs, I will get confused and over frustrated. Learning one application then moving onto a different application works best for me.

These are the items we applied to our new 21.5" iMac.

First impression, the iMac is very graphical based. To me, its "native" in graphics. Our older Win XP and other Win 7 laptop is like a text based OS trying to be graphical. The Mac OS is a true graphical based system. And its quick as well. Easy to use and easy to learn new things. Its menus are consistant and its many applications seem to be nicely integrated with each other. Its like a true `single framework` OS compared to `multiple apps glued together` (like in the Win xx systems).

For my family, we still use a Win 7 laptop (for portability and easy HDMI to large screen TV connectivity). And, we have a new mid-2010 iMac 21.5" system as well. My kids will use our new iMac mostly for multi-media, Internet connectivity, mail and typical home application tasks. Our laptop will be used mostly for "portability" with Web Surfing and movie / HDMI tasks. At end of 3-4-5 years, my wife & kids will have "their own hands" experience of using both computer systems. At that future time (when all computers eventually need to be upgraded / replaced), "they" will pick their next platform replacement (not me). re: Do they want another iMac or another Win 7 system - from their own eyes perspective? This is another reason why we still use both computer systems platforms in my house. re: My family gets direct experience in learning both systems "themselves". As they say, Real "hands on" education is priceless...

Hope this helps others...

.

 

[AlexisV]

First impression, the iMac is very graphical based. To me, its "native" in graphics. Our older Win XP and other Win 7 laptop is like a text based OS trying to be graphical. The Mac OS is a true graphical based system. And its quick as well. Easy to use and easy to learn new things. Its menus are consistant and its many applications seem to be nicely integrated with each other. Its like a true `single framework` OS compared to `multiple point apps glued together` (like in the Win xx systems).

I agree!