The iMac G4, released by Apple in 2002, was a distinctive all-in-one desktop computer known for its unique “sunflower” design. It featured a dome-shaped base containing the computer’s components and a flat-panel LCD display mounted on an adjustable arm, allowing users to effortlessly position the screen.
Powered by a PowerPC G4 processor, the iMac G4 included a CD/DVD optical drive (initially a tray-loading, later a slot-loading SuperDrive), built-in speakers, and support for USB and FireWire. It ran Mac OS X and was aimed at home and creative users.
Its combination of sleek design and engineering innovation made it a standout product, and it’s still considered one of Apple’s most iconic hardware designs.
July 17, 2002: Apple ships a new super-sized iMac G4 with a 17-inch widescreen LCD display that becomes the envy of most computer users at the time.
“The best consumer desktop just got even better,” says Apple CEO Steve Jobs of the company’s new all-in-one computer in a press release. “Having this gorgeous 17-inch flat screen floating in mid-air right in front of you is simply breathtaking. There’s nothing like it in the PC world.”
He wasn’t wrong!
November 18, 2003: Apple debuts its 20-inch iMac G4, the company’s biggest flat-panel all-in-one computer ever.
The introduction makes an already superb Mac even better. Somehow, though, the additional screen real estate makes the new Mac weigh twice as much as the 17-inch model.
Today’s Mac Pro and smart TV setup is a rare find for two reasons. First, Mac Pro costs so much that we rarely see it in the wild. Second, while big smart TVs used as computer displays continue to gain popularity, we don’t often hear users saying they’re one of the best they’ve ever had. But that’s the case with this LG C2 smart TV setup, used by a photographer and musician.
In it, a powerful cheese-grater Mac Pro drives a gargantuan 42-inch smart TV as an external display.
It’s somewhat rare that we come across a Mac Pro setup on social media for the obvious reason that Apple’s top desktop computer costs a fortune. And the ones we see are often older than 2019’s cheese grater design. But today’s Mac Pro and smart TV setup is a welcome exception to that rule.
It sports a powerful cheese-grater Mac Pro driving a gargantuan smart TV as an external display.
And what’s more, a classic iMac G4 that still works and Wall-E and Eve toys from the Pixar movie look on from a shelf!
That old iMac doesn’t have to gather dust on a shelf. One guy is drawing a crowd by showing off an iMac G4 that he upgraded by merging it with a Mac mini sporting Apple’s latest M1 processor.
Considering Colby Sheets started with little experience tinkering with hardware, his project is likely to leave many people looking speculatively at their old iMac.
Over the past two decades, the iMac repeatedly set a high bar when it came to desktop design. But which iMac design reigns as the greatest of all time? And which, conversely, proves the least inspiring?
Cult of Mac gives you the authoritative (and totally subjective) ranking of the best iMac designs.
Albanian-Italian Apple fan and 24-year-old designer Xhakomo Doda went back to the past for his latest concept, showing one possible direction Apple could take when it eventually releases a redesigned iMac. All the way back to 2002, specifically.
Doda’s iMac G4 New Edition is, as its name suggests, a refreshed take on Apple’s iMac G4: the sunflower-inspired iMac with a floating display on an adjustable arm. And it’s pretty darn stunning.
It’s obvious that the new Mac Pro, unveiled this week during Apple’s WWDC keynote, is a reboot of the venerable Power Mac G5, a machine released in 2003 that featured a distinctive “cheese grater” grille.
Aside from looks, there are many similarities to the G5, plus a couple of ideas from other older Apple machines. Here are some of the clearest design influences on the new Mac Pro.
Today marks 35 years since the launch of the original Macintosh computer, the product which most defined Apple until the iPod and iPhone came along years later. The Mac changed the course of personal computing history, and started a product line which Apple continues today. But which Macs along the way rank as the biggest game changers?
We went right back to the start to bring you our picks for the top 20 most important Macs of all time.
The 2002 iMac G4 is one of our favorite Apple products ever. It had a dramatic design that no one had ever tried by emulating the sunflowers growing in Steve Jobs’ backyard.
Apple discontinued the iMac G4 in 2004, but thanks to Apple’s solid build quality and engineering, a herd of over 1,300 iMac G4’s have lasted a full decade in the service of Australia’s Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) offices. Sadly, they’re getting thrown away and replaced by Acers.
Oh man, this is awesome. Check out this killer iPad stand that Reddit user cwtfozzy built for himself out of the base of a lampy old iMac G4. Wish I still had one bunging around so I could get Ive’s Lamp back in my office. That thing just had such panache.
Damn cool work, Foz! How about posting a step-by-step DIY?
Source: Reddit
Jon Berg injected some fresh life into his broken 17-inch iMac G4 by cramming a touchscreen PC’s guts inside and re-skinning the desktop to resemble OS X.
I wonder, though, why he didn’t decide to make it a dual-boot hackintosh. Windows 7’s multitouch is a total hack job. It’s hardly worth sacrificing OS X as your day-to-day operating system.