It seems the fading Gateway still has some fight left in it. The former computer giant has unveiled its contender for the iMac throne with something Gateway calls, simply, One.

Tale of the tape:

• 3.6″ thick all in all
• 19-inch widescreen LCD
• 2 models at US$1300/US$1800
• 1.5GHz/2GHz Core 2 Duo
• 2GB/3GB memory
• 320gb/500gb hard drive
• special online-only model at US$1500
• all black front
• metal shell
• all cords and most ports out of sight (all on the power adapter)
• side-mounted slot-loading DVD burner
• no announced date of availability, but soon

Now call me silly, but doesn’t that look like something we all know?

Apple’s just issued iMac Software Update Ver. 1.1 for the new aluminum iMacs. The usually loquacious company says

This update provides important bug fixes and is recommended for 20-inch and 24-inch iMac models with 2.0, 2.4, or 2.8GHz processors.

Gee, thanks for that. Other sites say that the update fixes monitor concerns and upgrades the the ATI Radeon HD cards that ship in the iMacs. Available through Software Update, or directly here.

I haven’t updated yet (requires a restart, and I wanted to post this first just in case it tanks the computer), but will do so after posting and tell you what improvements show up, if any.

UPDATE: Didn’t tank. No visible improvements either. Will keep looking.

Been using a new aluminum iMac for a couple of weeks now and been loving it.

I’ve been a Mac user for so long I’ve acquired the hard carapace of a smug veteran who doesn’t know half as much as he thinks he does, and as such, regularly doesn’t even deign to crack open a manual, thinking it’s beneath him. There are piles of immaculate, pristine, never-touched shrink-wrapped manuals from generations of Macs and iPods in a box somewhere in the house. This iMac’s is still in its big box, untouched.

I picked up a new Macworld issue the other day and was leafing through it. I found a review of the new iMac, and wondering if the writer and I had the same observations, read it. Also, I’m writing up one of my own, and was curious to see if I’d missed anything. I haven’t yet, so I was miffed to read something I did - that the new iMac can continue to charge iPods hooked up to the USB ports even if the iMac was asleep, something it couldn’t do before.

Hah. Ok. Something I would’ve know if I regularly RTFM.

So moral of the story? Read the effing manual! And, that the new iMacs can charge iPods off the USB ports even if the iMac is asleep! So there.

Nothing really. Just wanted to say I got a tricked-out 20-inch 2.4GHz aluminum iMac this morning, and I am in love.

I can’t get over how nice this thing is. I’ve had troops of our graphic artists and editorial folk coming in and out of my office oohing and aahing at everything from the thin keyboard to the silver casing to the black logo and glorious screen. Man.

Full review coming soon.

Ok, now back to regular programming.

Of course you knew this was going to happen. Someone up and did it already, the butchers.

Go, then. Look at the carnage. You know you want to.

It’s over here.