Monster Technology

I hope the $2900 quoted here is a typo, because it’s WAY above list. You can get this for hundreds less at the Apple Store even if you get hit with California sales tax (and they won’t charge you shipping). Buyer beware!!!
Rating: 1 / 5

FROM VIEWPOINT OF PC TO MAC USER:

PROS:

Fast Boot-up and fast loading of applications.

Large, beautiful 27-inch display.

No fan noise. NOPE – now I can hear it “humming” – update: after one month, it now sounds like a laser printer (LOUD) running ALL the time. It’s as if the fan never started working until now, and it is NO LONGER putting out the heat as before – I guess that is a good thing. UPDATE2: The power switch is not very tactile, so it is difficult to know whether you have pressed the switch LONG ENOUGH to turn power on…apparently, if you depress the switch TOO LONG, it causes the fan to run at FULL POWER during the entire time that the machine is powered up. Fan is reset to NORMAL by shut down (completely) and pressing power button again.

No screen flicker.

No dead pixels.

No cracked glass.

Five stars for design and functionality.

CONS:

Runs very HOT. I have an APC surge protector / UPS to which I formally attached a color printer, laser printer, LCD display, flat bed scanner, DSL modem, and Dell desktop. The iMac draws enough power to cause the circuit to trip when the Laser Printer is included. Now, neither the Laser Printer, nor the scanner is attached to the UPS.

The display makes an ordinary DVD movie look like HD, but I could have gotten a HDTV screen TWICE as large for HALF the money, if that’s all I wanted to achieve.

“Magic Mouse” was a BIG disappointment. I had assumed that the mouse reacted like the mouse pad on a laptop. When I had to move the mouse to move the cursor, I had to go back to the “hype” in advertising to discover that it was 360-degree SCROLLING (only within an application), NOT the whole screen. In fact, I had to set the mouse’s TRACKING to its HIGHEST VALUE in order to move completely across the screen without lifting the mouse to start over. No mouse pad is large enough anymore and because of that, it is difficult to execute a “two-finger swipe” without causing the mouse to slide too.

Most applications DO NOT take advantage of the large real estate of the screen; something that is natural for Windows applications. In fact, Pages’09 gives me an image 9-inches wide, and dragging the lower right-hand corner only increases the background of the application. I may as well paste an 8-1/2″ wide paper to the screen. I understand the zooming, BUT if you accidently lift the mouse or move the cursor outside of the application, the whole display SHIFTS to a corner, and you have to zoom out, center the display, and zoom in, again. In addition, when printing to the laser printer from having chosen a template, print that is NOT BOLDED comes out soft and fuzzy (blue on the color printer) and not SHARP & CRISP as it has been under Windows.

“Time Machine” backup only useful if you buy more “wireless” equipment, whereas Windows XP did it on the available hard drive.

iPHOTO’09: was not difficult to transfer photos from Windows on a memory stick, HOWEVER, I DO NOT like the way this application creates an “untitled event” for EVERY photo I download from email. Then I have to “merge” all of those events into the event where I wanted them in the 1st place. (Had to buy the “Missing Book” to understand this application).

iCHAT (video) was the one application I REALLY WANTED TO USE; however it appears that I am going to have to fork out another $30 for a book to find out how to use this application. The “help” at APPLE.COM does not download the “how to” video for this application. I also REFUSE to pay a yearly fee to have a .MAC account. (FINALLY figured it out and had a very interesting chat with my son, who has two macs, and he was even able to project his screen onto ours as he explained how to use various applications). He says WORD for Mac is better than Pages’09.

“FINDER” is MUCH more DIFFICULT to use than was Windows Explorer, where I could transfer data into the folder where I wanted the data to be. I REALLY MISS Windows Explorer!

Loss of wireless network (printers are attached to iMac). I can see PC Laptop from Mac, but Mac does not share files with laptop, even though preferences are checked for file/printer sharing. I can print on color printer from laptop, but anything going to laser printer from PC disappears into thin air, literally.

Mac’s keyboard is better than my laptop keyboard, but I really miss the End, Home, Delete, Insert keys. Mac’s “delete” is really the Backspace key.

I have to give the Mac software and OS one star, because it did NOT live up to my expectations.

Thanks to ALL of you who have replied to this review to try to make my experience more bearable. This is my WIFE’s toy – - you know what would happen to me if I sold it !
Rating: 3 / 5

The only thing really positive I can say about this thing is I didn’t pay for it, and thank (insert your personal deity here) I still have my PC.

Don’t get me wrong the machine runs well, the display on mine is ok, and set up was a breeze. BUT Snow leopard and the other software that came with it were a major let down.

For all intents and purposes its useless for me. So this has become the family E-mail machine which is all we can really use it for. Until more Non-Apple software becomes available

for the Mac and they become a lot more user friendly I’m sticking with a PC.


Rating: 2 / 5