New IMAC G5 Short On Extras

New IMAC G5 Short On Extras
For six years, iMacs have set the standard for the PC industry with eye-popping designs, clever utilization of space and leaps forward in usability. Lately, though, Apple Computer Inc. seems to be making more waves with iPod music players than its venerable consumer PCs.

But fear not, Apple fans and design aficionados.

The iMac line whose debut machine looked like a giant egg, and that later morphed into something resembling a table lamp, now has a third generation. It looks sort of like an oversized iPod.

The iMac G5 is Apple's most streamlined and polished design yet, squeezing all the innards into a white plastic flat-panel display. It distances Apple even further from the bulk of Windows-based PC world, where variations of gray, beige and black are all too common.

Still, style alone does not a great computer make. Though Apple uses its most capable processor ever, it skimps on memory and other extras. Out of the box, a new iMac is an incomplete masterpiece.

You can finish the job, but it's going to cost you.

The default configurations range between $1,299 for an iMac with a 1.6 gigahertz processor and $1,899 for a 1.8 GHz system. To finish the job, you'll have to shell out $75 to double the memory to 512 megabytes; $80 for Apple's Wi-Fi card; $50 for Bluetooth; and $70 each for a wireless keyboard and single-button mouse.