Box Sweet: Apple Gets Right to the Core of Sleek Technology

Credit: Mark Madeo

Apple Computer has long defined how consumer technology looks when it looks good. The Cupertino, California, company used to advertise "the computer for the rest of us," by which they meant, frankly, that "we" were more fully evolved than "they." And when it comes to art appreciation, that small minority of Apple loyalists probably is.

When Apple introduced the byte-size little Macintosh SE back in 1987, it also introduced the revolutionary concept of a one-piece computer (not counting the separate keyboard and mouse). Banished and vanished was the kludgey collection of boxes, monitors, and whatnots so reminiscent of the mixed-and-unmatched early days of stereo components. Now, with the introduction of the iMac G5, the unibox has reached its most elegant expression to date.

The anodized aluminum desktop computer has the look of a particularly alluring flat-screen monitor, yet Apple's engineers have managed to nestle the entire brain into the slender body behind the screen -- barely 2 inches deep in the 17-inch-screen model, and 2.2 inches thick in the 20-inch version. As gizmo-laden more-bells-and-whistles-for-the-buck operating systems, along with the nattering Internet, bring increasing complexity to what goes on inside our computers, the new iMac offers some welcome balance by simplifying -- and beautifying -- the box.

iMac G5
www.apple.com [1]
1.6 GHz-1.8 GHz / $1,300-$1,900

Owen Edwards is a contributing editor for Edutopia and Smithsonian magazines.