Apple Pie A closer look at every member of Apple's product line of Macs

They're responsible for the boom in translucentcandy-colored tech products. They're all the rage when it comesto sizing down and sleeking out desktops. Don't look now . . .they're knocking at your office door. Say hello to iMac, iBook,PowerBook, Power Mac G4 and now the Power Mac G4 Cube. (What theheck is that thing?) Whether you've been a Mac Head all the wayor you've finally gotten fed up with Windows, there's anApple for every office occasion. We'll pick apart the productline and see what flavors go best on which plates.

They're cute. They're cuddly. They come in indigo, ruby,sage, graphite and snow. And starting at a street price of $799,you can almost say they're cheap. The focus on ease of use overbells and whistles makes iMacs ideal for computer novices and"I just need to get online" users. But you might not wantto run your business with one of these. Heavy-duty spreadsheet andgraphics applications will drag their feet a bit with the basic350MHz G3 processor. Consider an iMac if you're looking for aninexpensive way to add employee desktops to your Mac-basedoffice.

The cream of the iMac crop is the $1,499 DV Special Edition. A500MHz G3 processor, 128MB RAM, a 30GB hard drive, a DVD-ROM driveand two firewire ports position this iMac as a multimedia monster.Compare the DV specs to the slightly pricier G4 desktop we coverlater. This is definitely the iMac of choice for intensiveresource-consuming graphics and business applications. Still, thebuilt-in 15-inch monitor can be a put-off, especially when it comesto graphics work.