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My current rig is an iMac G5 and I'm very happy with it. Very very happy. It's the last of what I call the tombstone model; that is, the model where the back panel is flat so it's just this white slab. It doesn't have the built in eyesight camera, and I'm glad. It would bug me no-end having that little black square spoiling the clean lines. But that's just me. So here I am, reveling in what my computer doesn't have: No visible screws, no doors or flaps, no badges, no annoying lights, no color anywhere except what's on the display... So where was I ? Oh yes, in minimalist nirvana. Except there is one thing I don't have and I wish I did: that's Front Row, only available on the camera and remote equipped models—until now, that is. Because now there's a hack, called Front Row Enabler, and very slick it is too. It's 2:00am and I'm feeling punch drunk and a little reckless when I see that there's a new version so I take the plunge and install it. I still don't have any kind of a remote, and I probably won't use Front Row once the novelty wears off, but now I can impress my buddies who don't get the whole minimalist-less-is-more thing, but really get the whole whooshy graphics—see it from across the room thing. Please remember: the Front Row Enabler is a hack, so it's obviously not endorsed by Apple. You may encounter problems when you run it. I didn't, but you have been warned. The requirements include Apple's Front Row updater (via a link on the Enabler website, accessible via the ReadMe file), OS 10.4.5, iTunes 6.0.4 and iPhoto 6; although iPhoto 6 is only required for fetching photos using Bonjour. They also recommend having a backup of the software update to 10.4.5 in case things go horribly wrong. I needed to upgrade my iTunes from 5.0 to 6.0.4 before I began. Ew! Somewhere between iTunes 5 and 6 they put a hundred watt bulb behind the pseudo LCD screen at the top of the interface. Why didn't anyone tell me? Once I got beyond that it was: run the first part of the hack (no Terminal knowledge required—it's all handled via the simple interface), restart, install Front Row, restart, run the second part of the hack, restart, check that the keyboard shortcuts and sounds are enabled in system preferences, and we're done. Works like a charm. Cmd-Escape and we're in—Tab and we're back to the desktop. I have noticed two minor glitches, but they're certainly not deal breakers. The first is that on a couple of occasions I'd jump back from Front Row to the Desktop to find that part of my menubar was missing—jumping back into Front Row then out again restored it. The other was that Front Row wouldn't play enhanced podcasts. It asked for my iTunes music store account number. I don't have an account because I live in New Zealand, and we can't access the store from here. The curious thing is that these enhanced podcasts were downloaded directly from sites—in fact one of them was created by me. I guess the software's default is that if it's enhanced, it must be from the store. Not to worry. Changing the genre fixed that. Like I say, minor glitches. http://andrewescobar.com/frontrow