Grassroots iMac repair

We have a 21.5" iMac that sits on the counter between the kitchen and dining room. We love it, but there's one thing I really don't like one bit. All the connections are on the rear of the computer. For me, not a huge deal, just a dumb oversight. For my kids though, it's a bit of a pain in the butt. See, they'll unplug the speakers regularly to plug in headphones (there's only so much Weird Al a man can take). There should be one USB port and the headphone jack on the front. Because of this, my kids have to spin the computer partially around to plug in the headphones. My 7 year old was spinning it and it toppled over!!! The glass screen broke, but the LCD panel survived, and the computer still works.
I didn't even call Apple to see how much it was going to be, but I heard people talk about $400-$500 to replace it!! I went on the Amazons and found a glass panel for $60 and set about fixifying it myself.
Here's the damage:

So, just lay the computer down on its back and tape over the cracks to prevent the glass from breaking, dropping, and damaging the LCD panel. Here's the first strip of tape in place, half a dozen more to come:

A suction cup has to be on one of the top corners to get the glass out. I used the suction cup from my Garmin GPS on the corner that wasn't cracked (the cracked corner wouldn't support suction).

Pull straight up (away from the LDC panel) gently and the glass panel will come free. It's only held on with magnets!!

I gently vacuumed the glass shards that were in there, and used Windex and toilet paper to clean the LCD panel. Then stand the computer back up, set the metal tabs on the bottom of the panel in the guide slots in the computer. Then just hinge the panel up until the magnets take hold. All done!!

Two things.

1. A $15 USB powered hub will fix one problem. http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=103&cp_id=10307&cs_id=1030702&p_id=5328&seq=1&format=2

2. a $1 Audio cable extension will fix the other. http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=102&cp_id=10218&cs_id=1021808&p_id=648&seq=1&format=2

^^ that's where I'm heading. Originally the idea was to set the computer under the kitchen cabinet, but it's about .25" too tall. I was going to mount it on the underside of the cabinet on a swivel. Instead, I set it here and three years later it gets knocked over. I guess that's what you get when you procrastinate.

You don't have usb ports on your keyboard?

No, Apple tries to go sleek with everything.
Wireless keyboard
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Apple-wireless-keyboard-aluminum-2007.jpg
and track pad
http://images.apple.com/magictrackpad/images/hero_1.png
and of course the computer itself
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/Imac_16-9.png

It seems that, somewhere on that 3" of sleek aluminum they could have put one USB and the headphone jack and it would have looked nice. Or the headphone jack could have been on the side of the case.

My speakers have a headphone jack on them so you don't need to go to the back of the case to hook them up. I assumed that was pretty much standard at this point.

I hated the glass (or acrylic) panel on my imac...too much glare. So I pulled it off and used a matte film on the lcd I bought from somewhere and made a 'frame' out of black mat board to hide the edges. Someone makes an aluminum frame to cover the edge if you take off the glass like I did, but mat board works fine... if you're good at cutting mats.

moparman76_69 wrote: My speakers have a headphone jack on them so you don't need to go to the back of the case to hook them up. I assumed that was pretty much standard at this point.

My speakers are on top of the kitchen cabinets. I'll either get an extension for the headphone jack, or use bluetooth headphones.

In reply to nedc:

You can get glare reduction film for the iMacs for not that much money. I'd prefer to leave the glass in place as additional protection.

Virtually every item sold by Harbor Freight eventually becomes a tool that can fix that!