As quickly as I really began falling in love with my new iMac I’ve got to send it back for a replacement. I’ve spent over 4 hours today on the phone with tech support (most of that time on hold, obviously) trying to get my iSight camera working. It still won’t work, and it’s quite obviously not a software problem. I talked to your vanilla Apple tech support and then was transfered to a “specialist” and after he had me do a number of troubleshooting things he told me that the issue is hardware. He said that it could be any number of things from a bad logic board to a bad iSight camera to a simple cable being unplugged. He told me that I could try to get it repaired if I wanted.
I then asked for the nearest Apple certified computer repair shop in my area. Then I called that store and spoke with the head honcho. I told him what was happening and he said, “Well, it could just be a cable unplugged.” But then he got honest with me. He said, “Look, I’d love to get some more business and make some money off of you, but I want you to have the best Mac you can get. If this were my Mac and I just got it this morning and it didn’t work 100% out of the box I’d replace it. You just paid how much for that computer? It should work out of the box. You shouldn’t have to repair a brand new machine.” I think he’s right.
So, tomorrow I’ll have a re-boxing and will FedEx the computer back to Apple, awaiting a new one. Apple is being very accommodating through all of this. They’re going to email me the shipping labels (pre-paid) and then, once I get a tracking number to them to verify that I am indeed mailing their computer back to them and not trying to pull a fast one, they’ll put a new computer in the mail to me straight away. Customer service was excellent, even the man with the Indian accent was very pleasant. 
I’m still a little peeved though. I love this machine. I hate to have to send it back, but if I’m going to go Mac it’s going to be a Mac that works right out of the box. Unfortunately I installed and activated Photoshop CS3 on this Mac before I discovered that the iSight was borked. I hope I don’t have a hard time reinstalling it on a new computer when the new iMac comes in a week. But my gut tells me that I probably will have to call Adobe and somehow prove to them that I’m not trying to steal their software by installing it on two machines.
Though, now that I think of it, doesn’t a license typically allow for two installations if the same person owns both computers? One for desktop and one for laptop?
Anyway, I’m totally addicted to this thing now. It’s teh awseome.
