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Apple iMac MB952B/A
by JonathonCross
My Parents run their own business. After getting the iPad and after me getting my MacBook Pro they decided to change their older Windows computer into something more modern and up to date. I naturally recommended an Apple Item to them specifically an Apple iMac as they love the features on our family iPad and on my Apple MacBook. It was ... then decided that they would drive to Cambridge to a John Lewis store to pick it up and give it a bit of a test drive before making a purchase. We have to say we are, as with all Apple products- very happy with it!!!! I shall first talk about why we bought it from John Lewis and then talk about the speed of the machine
Why John Lewis??
There was a very good reason for buying it from a John Lewis department store- It was simply because they offer a free 2 year warranty. This prospect is oddly better than buying it from the Apple Store as they strangely only give a 1 year warranty. Another factor of buying it from John Lewis was because they offered a wireless Apple keyboard and the Apple Magic Mouse (as do all other stores, so there is no compromise on the extra warranty time) as well as the latest software update (Lion OSX.) (I have a review published on Ciao on Dooyoo about the Apple Magic Mouse if you want more information please feel free to read it and rate it) On the other hand there is a bad point about buying it fom a retailer rather than the Apple Store this is, you cannot- unlike the Apple Store configure your iMac at John Lewis- you have to add parts later. (E.G Upgrading the processors)
Speed; We are very impressed the insanely fast processors on the Apple iMac. Although our Internet speed is rather slow (An update is coming to our area soon however) I find the iMac is both impressive on the Internet as it is running Applications. Now most top end Windows PC's have a Dual Core processor. In contrast the iMac doubles this! It has 4 processors running at 2.7 GHZ running I5 processors. That is a total of 10.8GHZ of speedy power. For those who have no idea what I am banging on about a processor is the system in the computer that keeps the computer running at the highest speed possible. Therefore the bigger the number is after the "I" the better the processer will be (The top being I7) as it is with the amount of processors. The higher the "GHZ" number the better. The power then is not only impressive on paper it really does show it's speed. It can for example have many applications open at once and it has never crashed or slowed in any way. Internet browsing is smooth and quick. Which is made faster by the Multi touch Magic Mouse (Please see my review)
Design; I love the design of the iMac. It really is a quality product. The machine is an "All in one Desktop" meaning it is a single unit- containing the screen and the actual machine itself. It is therefore surprisingly compact considering the screen size is 21.5". It only requires one wire to power it up meaning less clutter on the desk keeping it neat and clean. The Mouse that came with it is also wireless as is the beautiful and sleek keyboard. The iMac is crafted from a solid piece of brushed and polished aluminum as is the iPad tablet and the MacBook Pro Laptop. However the aluminum design has a couple of drawbacks. For example the 4 USB stick drives are located at the back of the desktop- which can make it awkward to insert- and if you are not careful you may scratch the desktop. This leads me on to say you cannot remove scratches from the aluminum casing. The only way to rid them is by replacing the entire Unibody. (Apples name for aluminum casing) which is very expensive. I do however love the beautiful 21.5" High definition glass display of the iMac. Your photos for example on the iMac are crystal clear and are enhanced. I love the quality feel of the buttons of the wireless keyboard too. They feel smooth. Unlike a Windows keyboard they do not require much pushing to type- making it faster. I also love the backlighting of the keyboard too. Simple touches are also taken care off. For example the green light on the cap locks button (which informs you that Caps Locks are on) It is located ON THE CAPS button rather than somewhere else like it is on a Windows PC. Little things like that make the user feel special.
Manufacturer Support; My Father has been ringing Apple quite allot recently and tries to make full use of the complimentary 90 days technical questions support. Apple gives this, so the user who will have questions (as they are very different from a Windows PC) time to adjust from a Windows to an iMac. As mentioned we were allowed a free 2-year warranty, which we were very pleased with!
Ease Of Use; My parents were made aware that an iMac is a very different machine to a Windows machine. They were warned that they (as I already have Apple products and would be completely at home using it) actually at first they may very much dislike it, as sometimes the iMac can appear overly complicated as it is more advanced than other computers.. Hence the 90-day Apple support- who are known for their service! However now my parents have got used to the iMac my mother in particular loves it as much as I love my Apple MacBook Pro. She loves the Magic Mouse for example It can for instance, scroll webpages by swiping your 3 fingers across the mouse. She also loves the way you scroll downwards with the touchscreen like interface. She also loves how the emails all come together and she can see the previous conversations she has had with there customers as it would on Skype or Facebook for example when having a conversation with friends. My father also is a fan of the iMacs ease of use. He likes the way you can easily zoom in on business images, how he can crop photos etc. The "all screens" button is also fantastic because you can see all open pages open and switch between them. My mum also loves the easy searching methods of the Safari Internet browser.
Range of Extra Features; You get allot for your £1000 as you would expect. For starters we were given a free software update worth £20.99 (Lion OSX) This software has 250 extra features over the Snow leopard system- I shall give more detail on this later. One of the main benefits of switching to Apple is that Apple creates their own Virus Software. This means that they work together in perfect harmony, unlike a Windows PC were another company such as Norton build security for Windows. This means that an Apple iPad, iMac or a MacBook will NEVER get a virus. People who make viruses also prefer attacking Windows PC's as they are more common against an iMac for instance. I also love the many commands you can use to control your iMac. For example CMD (command) shift, 3 will screen shot anything you have on the screen. Commands like this simply make it easier to use. We also love the electrically operated Disk drive. Disks and Cd's come out of the machine at a touch of a button. The recent Lion upgrade another great feature. One of the most recent updates is a piece of software called iCloud. This can control all other Apple devices synchronised with the iMac (or another Apple product) So for instance if you were to write out an appointment on your iPhone on your calendar it would also be written on all of your other Apple products. Another great feature of the Lion update is this. If for example you synchronised all of your Apple products together and lost for instance your iPhone you could open the iCloud application and locate your iPhone on your iMac. Other great features on the iMac to mention is the Application Store. This allows the user to customise their iMac to suit them. For example if the user was into photography then they could download applications to assist him. In my parents case they use their iMac for business. There are many Applications for business users such as the business address book. One of the drawbacks of the Apple Application store however is most of the best applications cost money.
Value For Money; I have to say that although some may not be able to afford an iMac still feel it to be very good value for money. For one thing you will not have to pay for virus software- or pay for a new computer because of the result of viruses! I think it is also important to remember that the build quality of these machines is amazing. The graphics revolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels is also stunning. it was nice that the high quality Mouse and the Keyboard comes as standard too.
Reliability; Apple products are proven to be reliable and the latest iMac should prove to be equally reliable. It comes with a 1-2 year warranty depending were you buy it from. Apple's products rarely crash- and my products have proven that. This is again because of apples own made software.
Capacity of the Hardrive and the RAM
Our iMac came with a 500GB Hardrive which is expandable to 2 TB (which is 2000GB) However we found that 500GB is more than enough space for all our business files. The RAM or Random Access Memory is 4GB, which is also pretty good.
Instruction Manual; Because I have Apple products already and knew how to set them up we found no use for the manual, as I set the iMac up for family and business usage. However after a glance at it I felt the writing might be a little to small for some.
Cleaning; I would advise you to buy a microfiber cloth to keep the glass screen looking glossy. A soft duster will be fine for cleaning the Unibody and the wires.
Verdict; Hopefully this has given you an insight on why many such as my family are willing to pay for the Apple products- and not just for the name!!
This review has also been published on Ciao by jjcross
Today and today only you can buy this machine at a discounted price on the Apple Store (25th November 2011)
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Zoostorm Intel Core2Duo E7500
by loopy-lou33
As regards my title: "Have you ever heard of Zoostorm?" the answer, for me, would have been no. However, this all changed about 18 months ago when we found we were eligible for a free computer under the government Home Access Scheme. Once we had been approved for a new computer, we were given a pre-loaded credit card with £400, ... which we were able to redeem against a new computer from a selected supplier. I presumed that we would get a laptop, but we were given the option of a PC, which I preferred.
The model was the Zoostorm Intelcore Duo E7500. As I was not familiar with the brand I wasn't really sure what I was going to get. To be honest, if I had been buying a PC rather than getting a free one, I wouldn't have even considered this brand and I would have gone for something more mainstream with a proven track record.
The PC comes with everything you need to get started, apart from a monitor. My pack included a Hanns G monitor, but if you were to buy the PC from Amazon or another retailer, the monitor would not be included, so you would need to buy one separately. The PC did include a keyboard and optical mouse though.
The exterior of the PC is rather sleek and in my opinion, it looks like quite a high end product, due to its glossy black finish at the front. The rest of the PC box has a more matte black finish, but as it is only the front that is usually visible, all the effort has gone into making it look as stylish as possible. There are 2 DVD drives at the top of the unit and a DVD rewriter, although I have never personally had to use that feature in the 18 months I have had the PC. The DVD drives are easy to open via a button at the side of each drive which allows them to flip open. The DVD drive has an LG logo at the front, which is synonymous with high quality and I certainly have had no problems playing DVDs or games as they always run smoothly.
Underneath the two drives, there is a slim silver panel which has two small phono jacks for headphones or microphones, and two USB jacks, very handy for plugging in my digital camera to upload pictures for my reviews on other sites. Beneath the panel is a large square blue button, which lights up. This is the power button and you can't miss it! Unfortunately, as I have my PC in a computer cupboard, the button is quite low down and has a tendency to get knocked by my foot as I type, which can be a bit disastrous if I have just spent an hour tapping in a review! I would have actually preferred an on/off button which was a bit more tricky to access to prevent accidental loss of work!
The computer was a doddle to set up, with all of the Windows 7 software pre-installed. This meant that setting up the computer was a simple as plugging in the mouse, keyboard and monitor into the various jacks at the back of the PC and then I was ready to go, which was ideal, as I am not technically minded at all! Later on, I was also able to set up my printer, which again was relatively easy, although it did require me downloading a driver from the internet, as the CD that came with the printer was not compatible with the new computer. Despite that, it was still a painless job, and I have had no major issues with printer connectivity.
The computer runs very smoothly and quietly, compared with my previous PC which had a noisy fan. I haven't had any problems with the computer crashing or freezing up on me. I tend to use it for internet browsing and word processing, so I don't place any huge demands on it. It suits me fine for what I use it for.
The graphics are well defined and sharp and I have no issues with visuals at all. The sound, on the other hand, is a bit of a problem. The sound does not play through the PC tower, so you need either separate speakers or speakers on the monitor. I use the speakers on the monitor, which are pretty basic and the sound is a bit muffled and quiet, adequate for most things, but not great if you are watching video clips or DVD's.
The optical mouse is a pleasure to use and glides nicely over the mat, a nice change from my previous mouse, with its tracker ball which was always getting clogged with lint! The mouse has a roller in the centre that glows red, which is great when working in limited light. The mouse is also a perfect shape for a comfortable hold.
The keyboard on the other hand, was a huge disappointment. Within a couple of weeks, my prolific typing had worn off nearly all of the letters from the keys and the kids had trouble typing when they came to use it, as they are not as familiar with a keyboard layout as me. I have since replaced the old keyboard with a new one.
In conclusion, I am more than happy with the Zoostorm brand and would definitely buy another computer from them in the future. The PC fulfils all of my computing needs perfectly and it is very easy to set up and use, even for a beginner or someone with limited technical knowledge. The specs, from the Amazon website are as follows:
* Zoostorm Advanced PC with Intel Core 2 Duo E7500 Processor
* 3 GB DDR2 800 RAM, 500 GB SATA HDD
* Keyboard and Optical Mouse
* 22x Super Multi DVDRW
* Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
Technical Details
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E7500, 2.93Ghz, 3MB Cache, 1066Mhz FSB
Hard Drive: 500 GB SATA 2 HDD, 7200RPM, 16MB Cache
Memory: 3 GB DDR2 800Mhz
Graphics: Intel® GMA 3100
Optical Drive: 22x Super Multi DVDRW
Connectivity: 6 x USB 2.0 ports (2 Front)
10/100 Ethernet LAN
1 set 5.1 channel Audio jacks (3 jacks),1 x PCI Express x 16 Slot, 1 x PCI Express x1 Slot, 2 x PCI Bus Slots
2 x PS2 Ports (Keyboard and Mouse), 1 x Parallel Port, 1 x Serial Port, 1 x VGA Port
Operating system: Windows® 7 Home Premium
Additional Hardware: PS2 keyboard and optical mouse
In conclusion, this is a great PC for less than £400 and in my opinion Zoostorm has performed as well as my previous mainstream branded computers.
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