Front Row Seat
So on Friday I got sent a 20-inch Intel-based iMac to do some game testing on. Universal binaries are still in short supply, so my testing is still only in the earliest stage, but so far the machine's proven to be a big win for me mainly for one reason: Front Row.
Front Row is Apple's application to ease media management, and it provides a unified interface for navigating the contents of your iTunes, movies, DVD and photos. The menus used in Front Row are in big type and easy to see -- designed to let you navigate from across the room.
What I love about Front Row is how seamless its operation is with the Mac, and how simple the remote control that comes with the new iMacs is to use -- a control surface with five zones, basically, and a separate menu button to activate Front Row from the Finder, and that's it. It's simple and intuitive.
I recognize that Windows Media PCs are light-years beyond Front Row and the Mac in terms of features and functionality, but Windows has a huge head start here -- Microsoft has been developing Media Center for a few years now. If Front Row is any indication of what Apple's got planned for the future, the company should be able to leapfrog past Microsoft in fairly short order.