TIME -- Flat-out Cool! Jobs is betting the company that what consumers most want from technology is control of their digital lives. And what better way to do that than with the smartest-looking, easiest-to-use, best-engineered computer there is?
THE NEW YORK TIMES -- For Apple, to Be Flat Is a Virtue. The new iMac is an exceptional value and offers a surprising amount of horsepower, all you have to worry about is accepting its design. Some find it stunning, well proportioned and beautiful. Others find the base, small as it is, unsettlingly massive and white, like a guy in shorts with his foot in a cast. Either way, you may as well come to terms with it. Apple, the company that made standard features of the mouse, the CD drive and the wireless network, always seems to show the rest of the PC industry which way the future lies.
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE -- Please Lick This iMac. Yet another utterly annoying, nearly perfect gizmo gem from those shameless bastards at Apple.... But this new iMac. It's just quirky and weird and beautiful. It's unconventional, it's distinctive, it's simple and clear and refined and people will love it or hate it or snicker at it because some people just need to snicker at anything new or unusual. But no one will think it's boring.
USATODAY -- New iMac Dazzles with a Dome. Apple once again has the Mac faithful euphoric, this time over the completely revamped iMac. The original iMac, introduced in 1998 to rave reviews, sported a funky bubble look and bright colors. The new model, unveiled Monday at Macworld Expo in San Francisco, follows in the footsteps of the iBook laptop and the Titanium Powerbook G4 -- sleek, sexy and very grown-up.
BUSINESSWEEK -- The New iMac Makes Pictures Perfect. Pundits such as myself long expected Apple to upgrade both the iMac's computing firepower and fruity all-in-one gumdrop design. But our thinking was linear, our predictions modeled on what had come before. Apple CEO Steve Jobs surprised us all.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL -- Radical New iMacs Boast Power, Features at Competitive Prices. When you're actually working on the new iMac, with the screen lowered so it sits between your face and the base, it's a thing of pure beauty. You feel as if you're typing onto a gorgeous palette that's floating in the air. You're no longer conscious of the computer at all. With the touch of a finger, you can move the screen in any direction that's ergonomically comfortable -- even turning it all the way to the side to show someone what you're working on.
NEWSWEEK -- With a Little Bit of Luxo. [The iMac] is the kind of thing that you'd expect to see in an Architectural Digest photo shoot of Captain Kirk's bed table. ... As many of the moody geniuses portrayed in Steve Jobs's famous 1997 ad campaign could have probably told you, "thinking different" has its price. The genius of Steve Jobs is that through vision, inspiration, hard work and, yes, hype, he and his team have come up with a series of triumphs -- sleek titanium PowerBooks, groundbreaking AirPort wireless-networking devices, awesomely nifty iPods and now the world's brainiest desk lamp -- to overcome that continual handicap.
SILICONVALLEY.COM -- Can the iMac fix what's wrong with the PC? The two most vexing difficulties are that PCs don't communicate well with each other, and that they are too expensive because they waste resources. Of all the powers in the computing world, Apple is uniquely positioned to address this.
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE -- Apple's new iMac / Team develops unique ideas. Steve Jobs and his design team yesterday proved once again that they can come up with ideas no one else has -- no one at the dozens of Web sites that specialize in speculation about unannounced Apple products and, it seems, no one in the PC industry.
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE -- Suspense ends as Jobs unveils latest Apple innovation at Macworld Expo. You look at the rest of the PC industry, and the last time I checked, they were still shipping big beige boxes with wires hanging out of the back.
THE NEW YORK TIMES -- Apple Bets on Unorthodox iMac to Bolster Its Once-Popular PC. Industrial designers today generally reacted favorably to the fact that Mr. Jobs has continued to explore the question of what a personal computer should look like. "I think the design community is genuinely pleased that Apple pushes the envelope because there aren't a lot of people out there who do," said Jim Sacherman, a veteran industrial designer who is an executive at Flextronics International (news/quote), a global electronics manufacturing company.
THE NEW YORK TIMES -- Apple Delivers Hyperbole and Beauty. Now, there are plenty of people who don't particularly care about art. They simply can't understand Apple's obsession with making things look cool and architecturally perfect. They want a box with a lot of megahertz for not much money. As Apple's continued existence in the Windows era demonstrates, however, there will always be a minority that's passionate about doing things as simply and as beautifully as possible. From that perspective, the new iMac is, indeed, a huge idea. It seems to consist of nothing but a screen and a keyboard -- the computer box itself has evaporated away to almost nothing. And if this idea shakes up the world of design the way that the original iMac did, then the Apple hype will have been justified. As the old saying goes, "If you done it, it ain't braggin'."
WIRED -- The Round Mound of iMac Rebound. Mac users aren't just impressed with the design. They are also impressed with the machine's computing power and creative abilities. As well as the big, bright, flat screen, the $1,800 version of the iMac features a new G4 chip from Motorola and can burn CDs and DVDs. Previously, such capabilities cost at least $3,500.
WIRED -- Apple Gives Tech Good Name. But while other PC makers sunk their prices and hemorrhaged workers, Apple, with a mere 4 percent of the worldwide market, pushed the envelope technologically. It released about a half-dozen dazzling new products as well as recovering from a financial blight -- all while getting no respect from tech watchers.
WIRED -- New iMac Armed for Success. The company that made colorful computers commonplace is betting that people will now take to spherical systems and flat screens. On Monday, Apple unveiled the radically reinvented iMacs, which look more like desk accessories than their revolutionary predecessors.
BUSINESSWEEK -- Come On, Steve: Think Beyond the Mac. Apple's market share will keep shrinking unless it applies its design genius to other areas, like a wireless, networked media center.
THE NEW YORK TIMES -- Bold New Look, Tired Old Metaphor. Today's big technology companies are in trouble. Because they still cling to an obsolete metaphor, the buying public now believes (and rightly so) that new computers are a waste of money. The information world has changed radically, but desktop computers have been doing the same shtick for 18 years. No industry big shot is more likely than Steve Jobs to put things right -- by building a truly new machine. But the iMac isn't it. The original Macintosh was the best thing that ever hit desktop computing. Will Apple have the nerve to do it again? Build a new computer, not just a new Mac? Back to you, Mr. Jobs.
LOS ANGELES TIMES -- Apple's Pricey iMac Design Falls Flat. We're all terribly serious now. The new flat-display iMac is cute and hip to some--others find it clunky and unattractive--but at a starting price of $1,299, still well above the price of a speedy, fully loaded Windows box. ... Microsoft's monopoly power precludes any massive shift away from Windows, so how can Apple sell more boxes? The best thing Apple can do is to make computers that seamlessly integrate into a Windows network.
I’m a writer who can’t write right now. Obstructive sleep apnea keeps me gasping for air 150 times a night. Daytime symptoms include disorientation in the morning, a lack of concentration, forgetfulness, uncharacteristic irritability, anxiety, depression, and mood changes. Though I haven’t been able to write professionally lately, I do get to put a rubber hose up my nose. Literally. Thankfully, the Apple Store at Valley Fair pays me hourly to talk up all things Mac. Hey, wait. I just wrote something. I’m back!
Walter Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal wrote that the iPod “is simply the best digital music player I’ve seen.” A Slashdot poster named “Quaryon” wondered, “Why all this infatuation with the iPod?” To which “shilly” responded, “It takes skull-sweat and genius to make something be that simple and easy to use. That’s what’s revolutionary. Apple was never, primarily, about doing things that have never been done before. It was and is about doing things properly, for the first time ever.” Which might explain why Jonathan Ive, Apple’s chief designer, “often struggles for words, sounding like a man trying to describe God to a world without religion.”