It takes a lot to faze the hardened computer nuts of Times Online, but you could hear a pin drop here when Apple's new 27-inch iMac arrived this morning. Our machine was the £1,349, 3.06GHz dual core model, but for £250 more, a faster quad core version is available. As with all new Macs, setup is a cinch. You take the machine out of the box, plug it in and hit the power button. Then answer a few questions about internet, email and so on, and you're set up and ready to go.

Now, I spent much of yesterday working with Windows 7, which I think is the best OS to come out of Redmond for years. What struck me, however, was just how little you get with it. With a Mac, everything from e-mail programs to music-making is included as part of the package. The only omission is a decent word processor. Text Edit is OK for basic typing, but if you want more, a quick download of the free OpenOffice is only a couple of clicks away.