Chicago Tribune Binary Beat column.

By James Coates, Chicago Tribune Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Sep. 26--G5 IMAC HANDLES TASKS WITH FLAIR: If you doubt that adage about the grass always being greener on the other side of the fence, let me submit a review of Apple's brand new G5 iMac by a bona fide, certified Windows wonk: me.

A lot of money is riding on whether this machine, which looks like an iPod digital music player grown psychedelically gigantic, can win with the waves of PC users who own Windows-compatible iPods.

The Macintosh mavens are betting that elegance and ease of use will make a new G5 the Apple of your eye. It's a bet with steep odds considering one can buy a Windows computer with comparable power and features for only half the $1,300 asking price of even the least costly of the G5 iMacs.

That equivalent …