I am finally back up in Hull and it's like an early Christmas for me. The minute i got in it was all systems go to get the iMac out the box and running as quick as possible. With a little help from my friends (it was a bit of a task to get it safely out the extremely well packaged box) I got it out and setup. I have to say it didn't fail to amaze. The design is amazing, screen quality is better than anything I've ever seen. Leopard was installed before the night was over and I am yet to have a problem.
So there it is in all it's glory. I am currently installing all the software I need to get me through my degree and develop. The Spyder3Elite (screen calibrator) is hopefully going to be shipped on the 16th of this month. I have also ordered a Western Digital MyBook PRO 500GB (firewire 800) to run with Time Machine.
I was at nzime today continuing with my work on the e-commerce system I am building and decided to check my order status on the apple website to see if the date had been pushed forward from the 12th-13th of November. On first look it was still the same date, but when I ventured deeper into my orders I found that everything was due to be delivered today. 6 days early! Usually I would be pleased at the speedy service but unfortunately I am stuck 80+ miles away from my new toys.
In another daft spending moment this week I ordered myself a screen calibrator as I was amazed at the difference in colour and quality when nzime had all of there new screens calibrated. The iMacs are renowned for being extremely bright and this doesn't help when your building websites or spending 8+ hours a day staring at the screen.
After much research I decided to go with the Spyder3Elite . I will no doubt post on it's actions when it arrives.
I have finally ordered my new iMac. I went into the apple store today and spoke to them to see if it would be quicker to order via them or off the apple website. I was informed that I would not be able to get my educational discount from the apple store and would need to use the online store.
Also during this conversation with the apple man I was informed that the Macs would not be shipped with leopard until after Christmas.
This was slightly annoying as I would have bought my iMac as soon as the official release date for leopard was given.
The specification I have gone with is:
+ 24" Screen
+ 2.8Ghz Intel Core Extreme
+ 2GB ram (I will upgrade to 4GB but not at apple prices)
+ 500Gb hard drive (they wanted over £250 to double the size when I can get 2 500GB firewire 800 externals for a little over £200)
Apple do have a nice little promo at the moment that gave me a free iPod nano. How could I say no to that.
The estimated delivery date is the 12th November. It's going to be a long agonizing wait. In the waiting period I can work out how to arrange my room for optimum mac usage.