Power Mac is pretty on the inside

The anodized aluminum case is supposed to look sleek and minimalist. Instead, it looks like an aluminum ingot with handles, and badly designed handles at that. Pick the thing up, and the grips cut into your flesh, as if you were holding the business end of a trowel. What were the designers thinking about?

Well, they must have been focused on other things, like building a personal computer so muscular you'll wonder what to do with all the horsepower.

The review unit that turned up at the Globe is the $3,000 top-of-the-line model, with a pair of 64-bit PowerPC G5 chips made by IBM Corp. The ferocious computing power lurking inside the box goes a long way toward explaining its homely design. The slab-sided case is perforated front and back with thousands of vent holes to carry off waste heat. And the G5's innards are carved into a series of miniature wind tunnels to concentrate the ventilating power of nine computer-controlled variable-speed cooling fans. The interior layout is lovely to behold. Apple should have gone with a see-through case.

But never mind: With its spectacular performance, Apple could have built the G5 to look like an old milk crate and still have sold a few million of them. Never mind the silly television commercial showing a G5 user being literally blown away. What's amazing about the G5 is the silent subtlety with which it flexes its muscles. You push a button or click a mouse, and stuff just happens, fast.

Start up a 3-D game like ``Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon,'' and the game launches almost instantly. Or edit some video footage with Apple's built-in iMovie software. You can carve up multimegabyte hunks of video, import them, export them, swap them around, and the machine doesn't even stutter. We even tried editing one video while running two others at the same time. There were no flickers, no frame drops, nothing but results.

One's first impulse is to say that no home user needs a machine this powerful. It's a stupid impulse. Of course, graphic artists, genetic engineers, and such need all the power they can get. But these pros also know tricks and gimmicks to get the most from a slow-running computer. It's the amateur who can't be bothered to learn these dodges who needs a machine that will just do the deed. The dual G5 is exactly that machine, especially now that Apple has introduced Panther, the latest iteration of its OS X operating system.

Apple's habit of charging a rather severe $129 for each OS X upgrade has met with understandable resistance. Even Microsoft Corp. doesn't levy so stiff a tariff for new versions of Windows. Besides, each new Windows has usually offered major improvements, not the relatively minor tweaks delivered by some OS X upgrades.

And then along came Panther, a software upgrade worth every penny for its delicious new user interface, powerful multiuser features, and enhanced security.

Some of the new features were plainly inspired by archrival Microsoft. Despite Apple's reputation as master of the user interface, Windows sometimes does it better. For instance, hold down the Alt and Tab keys in Windows, and you get a little listing of running programs. Panther finally brings a similar convenience to the Mac. There's also the new Finder window, with a left-hand sidebar showing key computer resources, like software applications and available disk drives. Again, it's old hat in Windows. But having embraced the idea, Apple does a better job of implementing it, with a cleaner, less-cluttered design.

Speaking of clutter, those of us who work with lots of open windows often lose our way. Panther's new Expose screen management system offers the best solution yet. Tap F9, and the monitor zooms out to offer a view of every open window. Just mouse over to the one you want. Have five different browser windows open? Tap F10, and they all appear while the other programs fade into the background. Need to find an icon on the desktop? Hit F11, and all the windows zip out of sight, and you have a clean slate. Again, it's Expose's simplicity that impresses even more than its power. Just press a key, and the magic happens.

Apple's new fast user switching is almost as magical. If you share your home computer, this feature lets your spouse or child log on and run his favorite programs while yours whir away safely in the background. Again, Windows XP has long had this feature, but switching is easier to activate on the Mac, and the transition between users happens almost instantly.

And another thing: Why did it take so long for somebody to add built-in file encryption to an operating system? Panther lets each user set his home directory for automatic 128-bit encryption, a standard so high that the CIA probably can't crack it. It's invisible to the user. You just switch it on, assign a password, and that's that.

There's that theme again, simplicity of design and function, backed up by a savagely powerful machine that looks as if it had been decanted from a blast furnace.

Never mind. The Panther-equipped G5 makes its fashion statement when you touch the keyboard and stuff happens, gracefully, smoothly, and right now. It doesn't get any prettier.

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.