<img align="left" src="{data}/news/old_attachments/images/indextop01072002.jpg" alt="IMac 2002">The Mac Expo last week announced the latest IMac. I think <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/morford">Mark Morford<a> summed it up best in <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2002/01/09/notes010902.DTL" title="Please Lick This iMac - Yet another utterly annoying, nearly perfect gizmo gem from those shameless bastards at Apple">Please Lick This iMac</a>: <span class="quote"><q>It looks like a big vanity mirror stuck atop a large scoop of white rice. It's utterly annoying in that whole getting-it-right sort of way. It forces you to justify instant feelings of rabid consumerism. It makes you want one. Immediately.</q></span> The <a href="http://www.nytimes.com">New York Times</a> had an equally delirious article, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/10/technology/circuits/10STAT.html">For Apple, to Be Flat Is a Virtue</a>. <span class="quote"><q>In other words, Apple's new design manages to shove PC design several years into the future, without sacrificing the one-piece simplicity that people loved about the original iMac. Despite its radically different look, a single button still turns on the entire system. A carrying handle is still built in (you grab the support arm itself). And once again, only two cords emerge from the base (power and keyboard), preserving the purity of your desk surface.</q></span> Technically, the top-end model has an 800MHz G4 chip, an NVidia GeForce2 MX card with 32MB of DDR Ram, 256MB of PC133 RAM, 2 Firewire ports, 5 USB ports, 60GB Hard Drive, and a Super-Drive (writes CDs <i>and</i> DVDs). All for $1800, a price point that makes it very good competition for Wintel PCs.