Apple iMac goes bigger and metallic

Stan Beer
Wednesday, 08 August 2007 05:41

Your IT - Entertainment

Apple has unveiled its new all-in-one iMac range, moving screen-sizes up a notch, encasing both display and keyboard in aluminium and dropping prices. The entry level iMac now has a 20 inch display and, at AUD$1698, is now the same price as the previous 17 inch model.

Another 20 inch model at $2199 has a faster processor, more powerful graphics card and bigger hard drive, while the 24 inch model at $2599 is $400 less than the previous 24-inch iMac.

All three iMacs feature Core 2 Duo processors, with the CPU running at 2.0Ghz in the entry level machine and 2.4Ghz in the two higher end models. As is the case with the CPU, the ATI graphics card with 128MB on board in the entry level model is a lite version of the 256MB card in the more expensive iMacs. The other main difference is the hard drive - 250GB for the entry level iMac and 320GB for the other two models.

All of the new iMac models come standard with 1GB RAM, expandable to 4GB. Disc storage is expandable to 1TB.

The displays pf the new iMacs are housed in an aluminium and glass case. The iMacs feature a new thinner aluminium keyboard and come standard with built-in iSight video camera and the iLife '08 photo and video management software.

Apple also announced a new version of its iWork productivity software, which features a new spreadsheet called Numbers. iWork '08 will retails for AUD$99 and a 30 day trial is included with iLife '08 on new iMacs.

For subscribers to the .Mac online service, Apple announced an upgraded offering. Costing  AUD$139.95 a year for individual members and AUD$249.95 a year for families, .Mac members now have 10 times more online storage space for photo and movie sharing, email, website hosting, exchanging files and backing up documents, increasing from 1GB to 10GB for individuals and from 2GB to 20GB for Family Pack customers.