When the cute and colorful iMacs were released in 1998, 2.7 million were sold that year. The problem is, after a few years they became outdated as Apple scrapped that design in favor for slimmer, sleeker models (isn't that always the way?) and people were left with these candy-colored monitors and CPU towers that they had no use for.
Fortunately, not all of them have been scrapped and some people have even come up with ingenious reuses for these obsolete iMacs. Trish Smith with Greenopolis has rounded up some of the coolest recycled iMac projects. My favorites include: the hamster cage, the mailbox and the mini kegerator.
This article appears in Sep 16-22, 2010.