Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 28 April 2008 20:45
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 3
Apple has just broken with its Tuesday policy of launching new products
by launching updates to the iMac line – on a Monday (US time), with the
fastest iMac now screaming along at a whopping 3.06 Ghz!
Want another reason to ditch your PC and jump on the Mac OS X bandwagon? Apple has just
delivered it with a brand new set of iMac updates starting at US $1,199 – although the Australian price will sadly be much higher,
and at the time of publication, it isn’t available, although we expect local pricing to be announced in a few hours – we’ll update this story for Australian readers as soon as we can, which we can verify is AUD $1,599.
The improvements are across the board, with all three new iMacs getting a fast 1066 Mhz “front-side bus” – and Core 2 Duo processors with a 6MB L2 cache – with 2GB of RAM standard on all but the very cheapest US $1,199 / AUD $1,599 iMac, which only comes equipped with 1GB - but there's still no built-in Blu-ray drives.
The three new iMacs come in two screen sizes – 20-inches and 24-inches, with the 24-inch model able to not only be boosted to a whopping 3.06 Ghz in processor speed, but also able to be outfitted with an NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS graphics card with 512 MB of memory, which Apple says extends the “iMac’s lead as the ultimate all-in-one desktop computer for both consumers and professionals.”
Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing happily boasted that: “The iMac’s gorgeous aluminum and glass all-in-one design has been an incredible hit with our customers and is just one of the reasons Mac sales are growing three and a half times faster than PC sales. With the latest Intel processors, a faster new graphics option and more memory, customers now have even more reasons to love the iMac.”
All three iMacs can be boosted to a total of 4 GB of 800 Mhz DD2 SDRAM, while all also come with the built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n Wi-Fi adaptor, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR; Gigabit Ethernet; built-in iSight video camera; a total of five USB 2.0 ports (including two on the Apple Keyboard); one FireWire 400 and one FireWire 800 port.
Apple also happily reel off their green credentials, saying that the iMac “furthers Apple’s commitment to environmental progress with highly recyclable and durable materials including scratch-resistant glass and professional grade aluminium”.
In addition, Apple says that “every model in the iMac line is rated EPEAT Silver and the power-efficient iMac also meets the stringent Energy Star 4.0 requirements for power consumption”, and that “customers who purchase any qualifying Apple computer can recycle their old PC or Mac for free via the Apple Recycling Program.”
In addition, the rest of the usual software add-ons are there, including iLife ’08, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, compatibility with Time Machine, Back to my Mac, and more.
For details of the specifications of each new iMac, along with US and Australian pricing, please read onto page 2.
