My New iMac

My new iMac arrived today, a little earlier than expected (total time from order to delivery at my door was 5 days, including the weekend). So I've spent the last few hours setting it up and trying it out.

First impression: wow, it's fast! Granted, I'm upgrading from a 5-year old model, and in the last few months (since my original iMac's hard drive went), I've been using a 5-year old MacBook with orange juice in its innards, but still, massive improvements. No more waiting for apps to load, no more horrid beach balls. I've even noticed improvements in webpage responses - a problem that I'd attributed to our internet connection but clearly was due to my system really not being up for the challenge.

I was running Snow Leopard on the old computer so no surprises as far as the operating system goes. I'll qualify for Apple's free Up-To-Date Program once Lion comes up, so there'll be a new learning curve.

I already had a full keyboard from my old iMac, so I got the mini keyboard (similar to a laptop keyboard) for this one. The space saved on the desk is nice, and I don't use most of the extra keys on a full keyboard anyway, but I may miss the forward delete key. I figure I'd rather have two different keyboards than two similar ones, and I can always switch them around further down the track.

I ummed and ahed for a while on the Magic Mouse vs. Magic Trackpad decision. I eventually decided to go for the trackpad on the grounds that Lion is going to use even more gestures than Snow Leopard does, so the trackpad will let me try out all the funky new moves. Plus, I'm used to using my iPad/iPhone, and using a trackpad on a laptop, and I do have an old-style Apple Mouse I can fall back on if I need to. I'm still not sure that I made the right choice - using the trackpad all the time feels a little wearing on my fingertips, but I'll see whether I adjust as I use it a bit more.

Now I face the overwhelming task of moving all my data over to the new computer. I have the files on my MacBook to copy, plus the Time Machine backup of my old iMac, frequently containing different versions of the same file (although sometimes the MacBook is more up to date and sometimes the backup is more up to date). Still not sure what the best way to tackle it all is, but I guess I'll get there eventually.