After so many years I upgraded my mac. My previous G4 machines where no longer coping with the processing needs of my RAW photography, specially as I needed to run Aperture.
The new iMacs where launched o monday and I checked when my local Apple store would open late, and they only did wednesday so I ran there after work on wednesday. They said they just packed the brand new iMacs that morning! Ah the advantages of having a local Apple store, no longer the month long wait for new models. The store only just opened few weeks earlier, on last week of march with the opening of the Cambridge Grand Arcade, latest and shiniest shopping mall extension here.
I got the second model up, the 2.6 GHz with the wireless keyboard and mouse option, which to my surprise came as a boxed standard model. I opted for the slightly better model because of increased 2Gb RAM and better graphics card required for Aperture. I also got Aperture, iWork, Final Cut Express and later Photoshop Elements 6 and Quake Wars.
I am impressed by the machine, the built in 20" cinema display in glass is the best monitor i have ever seen, shows every flaw in the photos without needing to zoom. Only problem is that watching TV via eyeTV is dreadful because you can see every macroblock! The speed is amazing, does any apps for breakfast! Does quake wars with all the settings up with no hitch! The fast HD is also great factor, real change compared to to my PowerBook 12" G4.
Aperture itself is amazing, several editing modes, I particularly like editing photos in browse mode, the white balance is amazing and batch editing is great and what I missed in iPhoto. On the iMac it also runs like a dream, can edit everything in realtime, no longer 10 minutes per photo like in iPhoto.
One note to Quake wars, I got found of it, its like a RTS where u play a single character like FPS and has all the modern games goodies like friends list, online ranking etc.