iMac G4

iMac G4

The iMac G4 15 inch
Developer	Apple Inc.
Type	Desktop
Release date	January 7, 2002
Discontinued	August 31, 2004
CPU	700 MHz – 1.25 GHz PowerPC G4

This article is part of a series on the
iMac
iMac G3
iMac G4
iMac G5
iMac (Intel-based)

The iMac G4 "Sunflower" was a computer that was produced by Apple from the beginning of 2002 to mid 2004. It replaced the aging iMac G3. The computer had a new design compared to older Macs.

The G4 had a 15-inch LCD which was mounted on an adjustable arm above a hemisphere containing a full-size, tray-loading optical drive and a sixteenth-generation CPU (the PPC 74xx-series). This LCD computer was known and sold as The New iMac, while existing egg-shaped iMac was renamed the "iMac G3" and continued to be sold for a few months. After the iMac G3 was discontinued, it was retroactively labeled iMac G4 to distinguish itself from the succeeding iMac G5.

The iMac G4 was sold with the "Apple Pro Keyboard" which would be later renamed the Apple Keyboard and an Apple Pro Mouse which would be later redesigned and named the Apple Mouse. Also, there was an option to buy the "Apple Pro Speakers", which were better quality than the internal speakers, which were low quality due to their size. Apple Pro Speakers had a unique, small adaptor and only worked on a select few Apple Macs (such as this one).

Apple advertised it as having the flexibility of a desk lamp and it was nicknamed the "iLamp", similar to "Luxo Jr.", who was featured in a short film produced by Pixar, another venture of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. It was featured in an ad, sitting in a store window and "reacting" to every move made by a passer-by on the street. At the end, when the man sticks out his tongue, the iMac responds by opening its optical drive.

The iMac G4 was incrementally upgraded. They were made available with 17-inch (43 cm) and then 20-inch (51 cm) widescreen LCDs over the following two years. By then, Apple had all but eliminated the CRT machines from its product line. However, the LCD iMacs were unable to match the low price point of the previous iMac G3s, largely because of the higher cost of the LCD technology at the time.

The iMac G3 was obsolete by this point, but low-cost machines were particularly important for the education market. It was still being sold for a while after the iMac G4 debuted, until the G3 found a permanent replacement in April 2002 with the eMac.

The iMac G4 was replaced by the iMac G5 on August 31, 2004. Reaction to the iMac G5 was mixed: though it was a more powerful computer, reviewers commented that it was less aesthetic since it did not retain the flexible adjustable arm.

Technical specifications

The Generations of iMac G4

The iMac G4 included Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X due to it being released the year Mac OS 9 was discontinued. The computer was separate from the previous, half egg shaped G3 models.

New features included a flat-panel LCD screen, with diagonal measurements up to 20 inches (released Nov 18 2003), and a tray loading DVD+CD drive. The floating monitor was adjustable, and stood at any angle around the dome-shaped bottom. Unlike previous iMac models, the iMac G4 came only in white, and was not translucent like the iMac G3s.

The Gateway Profile attempted to compete with the iMac G4 in the all-in-one LCD computer market.^{[citation needed]} A reviewer noted that the Profile had better processing power, due to its Intel Pentium 4, whereas the iMac was hampered because its G4 chip lacked the 1MB L2 cache that the Intel chips had. The iMac had clear advantages in LCD screen quality (it uses a digital LCD as opposed to an analog LCD), aesthetics (particularly the flexible monitor arm), and multimedia.

The reviewer concluded that the iMac was good for introducing users to a Macintosh, but he noted that their (relatively) high prices were approaching that of laptops, which are actually portable and have higher resolution LCD screens. The Profile would also be undercut by numerous OEM offerings (including one from Gateway) that bundled an LCD screen with the box containing a Pentium 4.

When running newer versions of Mac OS X (Tiger and Leopard), the iMac G4's GeForce4 MX GPU is not capable of Core Image rendering. This causes some minor graphical issues. One such issue would be the lack of the Dashboard ripple effect when a widget is introduced. Another would be an opaque menu bar in Mac OS X Leopard.

• January 7, 2002 — Apple introduces a new iMac line with three models. It has a new futuristic form factor and contains a 700 or an 800 MHz G4 processor, and is only available in white. The display is now a 15-inch LCD, easily positioned by the "swing arm" attaching it to the base. (15-inch, 800 MHz model is M8535LL/A)
• July 17, 2002 — A new 800 MHz model with a 17-inch screen and an updated GPU is added to the line. (M8812LL/A)
• February 4, 2003 — The line is slimmed down to two models, one with a 15-inch LCD and a new 1.0 GHz model with a 17-inch LCD (M8935LL/A). AirPort Extreme as well as Bluetooth are available on the 17-inch model. The 15-inch model is largely identical to the January 2002 models.
• September 8, 2003 — The iMac 15-inch and 17-inch models are upgraded to a 1.0 GHz and 1.25 GHz G4 processors, respectively (M9285LL/A, M9168LL/A). New features are USB 2.0 and DDR memory, and they both now support AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth.
• November 18, 2003 — 20-inch screen model (M9290LL/A) is added that is capable of a 1680 x 1050 pixel screen resolution, and features a 1.25 GHz G4 processor.

Component	iMac G4	iMac G4 (Mac OS X Only)	iMac G4 (1Ghz, DDR)	iMac G4 (USB 2.0)
Release date	January 7, 2002 (15"), July 17, 2002 (17")	February 4, 2003		September 8, 2003 (15 & 17"), November 18, 2003 (20")
Display
	15" TFT LCD, 1024 × 768		N/A	15" TFT LCD, 1024 × 768
	17" TFT Widescreen LCD, 1440 × 900	N/A	17" TFT Widescreen LCD, 1440 × 900
	N/A			20" TFT Widescreen LCD, 1680 x 1050
Processor	700 MHz or 800 MHz PowerPC G4 (7450)	800 MHz PowerPC G4 (7450)	1.0 GHz PowerPC G4 (7445)	1.0 GHz (15"), 1.25 GHz (17 & 20") PowerPC G4 (7445)
Cache	64 KB L1, 256 KB L2 (1:1)
Front Side Bus	100 MHz		133 MHz	167 MHz
Memory	128MB, 256MB of PC133 SDRAM Expandable up to 1GB via one factory installed memory module in a 168-pin DIMM slot and one 144-pin user-accessible SO-DIMM slot.	256MB of PC133 SDRAM Expandable up to 1GB via one factory installed memory module in a 168-pin DIMM slot and one 144-pin user-accessible SO-DIMM slot.	256MB of PC2100 (266 MHz) DDR SDRAM Expandable up to 2GB via one factory installed memory module in a 184-pin DIMM slot and one 200-pin user-accessible SO-DIMM slot (officially only 1GB is supported)	256MB of PC2700 (333 MHz) DDR SDRAM Expandable up to 2GB via one factory installed memory module in a 184-pin DIMM slot and one 200-pin user-accessible SO-DIMM slot. (officially only 1 GB is supported)
Graphics	nVidia GeForce 2 MX with 32MB of DDR SDRAM (15"). nVidia GeForce 4 MX with 32MB of DDR SDRAM (17")	nVidia GeForce 2 MX with 32MB of DDR SDRAM	nVidia GeForce 4 MX with 64MB of DDR SDRAM	nVidia GeForce 4 MX with 32MB of DDR SDRAM (15"). nVidia GeForce FX 5200 Ultra with 64MB of DDR SDRAM (17 & 20")
Hard drive	40GB, 60GB, 80GB	60GB	80GB Supports Hard Drives larger than 128 GB	80GB Supports Hard Drives larger than 128 GB
Internal Combo drive	8x DVD and 32x CD read; 32x CD-R and 10x CD-RW write		N/A	12x DVD and 32x CD read; 32x CD-R and 24x CD-RW write 1Ghz only
Internal SuperDrive	6x DVD and 24x CD read; 2x DVD-R, 8x CD-R, and 4x CD-RW write	N/A	10x DVD and 32x CD read; 8x DVD-R, 24x CD-R, and 10x CD-RW write	12x DVD and 32x CD read; 8x DVD+/-R, 4x DVD+/-RW, 2.4x DVD+R DL, 24x CD-R, 8x CD-RW write
AirPort	Built-in antennas and card slot for optional 11 Mbit/s AirPort Card; IEEE 802.11b compliant		Built-in antennas and expansion slot for optional 54 Mbit/s AirPort Extreme Card
Standard Features	3 Built-in USB 1.1 and 2 Firewire 400 ports, Built-in microphone, headphone/audio out, mini-jack for external Harman Kardon speakers, Built-in modem, 10/100Base-T Ethernet, Mini-VGA Port			3 Built-in USB 2.0 and 2 Firewire 400 ports, Built-in microphone, audio in, headphone/audio out, mini-jack for external Harman Kardon speakers, Built-in modem, 10/100Base-T Ethernet, Mini-VGA port
Maximum Operating System	Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger” and Mac OS 9.2.2 Unofficially, can run Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard”	Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger”. Unofficially, can run Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard”	Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard”
Weight	15": 21.3 lbs. / 9.7 kg, 17": 22.8 lbs. / 10.4 kg	21.3 lbs. / 9.7 kg	22.8 lbs. / 10.4 kg	15": 21.3 lbs. / 9.7 kg, 17": 22.8 lbs. / 10.4 kg, 20": 40.1 lbs. / 18.2 kg

Timeline of iMac models

See also: Timeline of Macintosh models and Timeline of Apple Inc. products

Modern Uses

The iMac G4 is now obsolete, but continues to be desired due to its radical design. Many new uses for older iMac G4s have been created. Many interior design companies and individuals have reworked them into items such as lamps and mirrors.

iMac G4s are still used in a computing sense. Many are used as legacy machines which still have a large user base due to their PowerPC architecture, allowing them to run native PowerPC applications at speed without the need for emulation, making them in some instances faster than many more modern machines. Also, there is a large modification community, who either wish to upgrade their iMacs to a more usable machine by today's standards or find other uses for them. For example, one alternate use is to repurpose them into second monitors for another computer by using a VNC client and other appropriate software. Due to the largely proprietary hardware and specifications, finding replacement parts (such as LCD panels) or upgrading the hardware can be a difficult and tedious task, with mixed results and often a relatively large outlay in monetary value compared to the improvement in performance or usefulness.

Although Apple (and consequently most software vendors) no longer support the G4 architecture, many Linux distributions, including Debian and Gentoo, continue to provide free, open source, modern operating systems that work well on this machine. The advantage to this is that updated browsers can be installed, allowing the machine to continue to be useful (although Flash support is limited.)

References

An iMac G4 that has been repurposed into a lamp (photographed next to a Mac Classic and a flip phone).

External links

• Apple Product Page
• Profile: 15" iMac G4/700, 800
• Video of Jobs launching the iMac G4 at Macworld 2002