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Filed under: Desktops

We’re not ones to peer too deeply into the Apple crystal ball, but Geeksugar says that spec-bumped iMacs are due on Tuesday, and the timing seems about right. Nothing major, apparently, just a speed bump and some bigger hard drives, but prices should stay the same. It’s still just a rumor, of course, but Geeksugar was right on the money about that MacBook / MacBook Pro bump last time around, apart from saying that multitouch trackpads would hit all of Apple’s portables. Perhaps some Best Buy / Future shop employees will let us take a peek in the database and let us know what’s up, hmmm?

Update: We’ve gotten a couple sketchy reports that entries for new iMacs are in fact popping up in retailers’ systems, but it’s getting hard to focus what with all the grains of salt we’ve taken.

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Source: Nilay Patel

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Filed under: Cellphones, Desktops, Laptops, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Although Apple has said that it’s still on track to ship 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008, it looks like that rumor about scaled back production may have been true after all: several analysts are now reporting that the company’s pulled back iPod touch, iPhone, and MacBook production for Q1. Of course, Apple is known for managing its channel inventory pretty ruthlessly, so it’s not known if this is a permanent decrease or just a reaction to what some analysts are calling “overbuilding” in Q4, but there is some good news out there — strong sales of the iMac have led to a forecasted 35 percent production increase. You know, the last time the economy soured, Steve promised that Apple would “innovate out” of the downturn — we’d say some new MacBook Pros would be a fine start this time around, eh?

[Via X-bit Labs, thanks Mack]

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Source: Nilay Patel

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Peripherals

Apple’s always enjoyed patenting the near-absurd, just to get us speculating in the wrong direction or to give its thousands of patent lawyers something to do during a slow design cycle. We can’t really imagine Apple has this pair of “products” prepped and waiting in the wings of Macworld, but it’s still fun to look. First off we have a MacBook dock that conveniently looks just like an iMac. Not much explanation is needed, you just slide the laptop into the side of the iMac and start desktoping away on the big screen. The second patent deals with a quite familiar keyboard concept: OLED screens in every key. It’s not the first time an Apple patent has overlapped with a Lebedev design, but who knows how it’ll go down if Apple tries to build one of these Lebedev-ish ideas — Apple patented this keyboard concept about a year after the Maxiumus concept was first shown off.

Read - iMac MacBook dock
Read - Apple Maxiumus

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Source: Paul Miller

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Filed under: Desktops

Now that you’ve had time to watch us fool around with Apple’s latest iMac and even chew on a few benchmarks, it’s about time the aluminum-clad machine suffered through its own gauntlet of reviews. Overall, the response to the new 2.4GHz 24-inch iMac has been mildly positive, and while it was noted that the update is far from revolutionary, the aesthetics are undeniably sexy. Interestingly, the glossy display didn’t prove to be the disaster that some folks expected, and MacWorld even stated that it was “really more of a personal preference than a design flaw.” Performance wise, the hardware updates provided respectable — albeit not life-changing — increases, and yes, the keyboard was well regarded whilst the white Mighty Mouse now seems so “out of place.” So if you’ve been lured into thinking that the iMac may be right as your next machine, it doesn’t sound like you’ll be disappointed, but do yourself the favor of peeping one up close before pulling the trigger.

Read - MacWorld (4.5 out of 5)
Read - AppleInsider (3.5 out of 5)
Read - PCWorld (”Svelte and appealing, but wait for Leopard to come bundled in”)
Read - CNET (8.2 out of 10)

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Source: Darren Murph

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Filed under: Desktops

Although we certainly noticed that Apple’s latest iMac felt snappy enough, the folks over at Primate Labs have cranked out a few numbers for the data freaks in the crowd to chew on. Granted, these benchmarks do not include the Core 2 Extreme iMac nor are they the most complete set of tests we’ve ever seen, but they do seem to give those on the fence a decent look at what level of performance increases they’ll be dealing with. Put simply, the new 2.4GHz 24-inch iMac posted “modest gains” across the board compared to the previous iterations that clocked in at 2.33GHz / 2.16GHz, and while the results don’t seem earth-shattering, those who rely on “memory-intensive applications (like Aperture or Photoshop)” would likely benefit most from the improved “integer, floating point. and memory / stream performance.” As you’d expect, the full skinny on the test results await you in the read link.

[Via AppleInsider]

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Source: Darren Murph

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Filed under: Desktops

And who, exactly, can resist taking apart the latest hotness? (Or, for that matter, writing a post about it?) Kodawarisan over in Japan ever so delicately tore their new iMac apart, and what a surprise, it’s got all the trappings of a regular PC (SATA drive, DVD burner, CPU, etc.). Still, it’s fun to see how Apple crams all that crap in there, you know?

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Source: Ryan Block

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Filed under: Desktops, Features, Peripherals

Our spankin’ new fully-loaded 24-inch fourth gen iMac just arrived via FedEx, so for those that can’t get enough of the most aluminum and glass clad Apple PC to date, we’ve got a ton of pics for you to pore over. Some first impressions on the device:

• The friendly, white packaging betrays the slick sense of style of the machine inside. (MacBook Pros and Mac Pros have much more appealing matte black boxes.)
• Its 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo and full-size drive is way snappy — the machine boots from cold to desktop in 26 seconds (granted, it’s a clean install without any third party software installed).
• Upon closer inspection we weren’t too stoked about the screen. The colors are rich, but compared to our Dell 24-incher (at 400 cd/m2, 1000:1 contrast ratio), the iMac was still dissatisfying. Despite its very decent 380cd/m2, 750:1 CR display, contrast was still very low, and working with objects and icons white window space was even at times strenuous on our eyes.
• We love — really love — thin keyboards, and the new Apple keyboard is as thin and aesthetically pleasing as they come. Unfortunately, it’s just not too usable since, like the MacBook keyboard, the keys aren’t shaped with ridges to help your fingers find their way. (And what can we say? We really dislike the Mighty Mouse, always have.)
• We also suspect Mac laptop and Apple Pro Keyboard users will be irritated by the function-key shortcuts having been moved around; or example, laptop volume keys went from F3-5 to F10-12, Exposé went from F7 to F3, etc. Also, what’s up with F16-19?
• The RAM bay is super easy to get to with the machine on its face. As usual, you get two slots. We really wish the hard drive was this easy to get at.
• Despite our niggles, it’s straight up the thinnest, sexiest Mac desktop machine Apple’s produced to date; Cupertino really needed to drop the white, plastic overgrown iPod look, and we’re grateful Jobs & co did.

So, is there anything about this thing you want to know?

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Source: Ryan Block

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Filed under: Desktops, Peripherals

Yeah, we know there was a lot going on in the Apple world today — here’s the low down.

Live coverage
Live from Apple’s summer Mac product press conference
Apple’s new iMac and keyboard: first hands-on

iMac (4th gen)
Apple’s new iMac
Apple’s new metallic keyboards: in wired and Bluetooth flavors
Apple calls multitouch Mac a “research project”
Apple’s new iMac and keyboard: first hands-on
Apple’s new wireless keyboard hits the FCC

Software
Apple introduces iLife ‘08
Apple debuts iWork ‘08
Apple updates .Mac
iPhones automatically updated with “Send to Web Gallery” feature

Other hardware
Apple refreshes Mac mini, now with Core 2 Duo
Apple tosses in gigabit Ethernet on refreshed AirPort Extreme
Apple offers PCI Express RAID Card in Mac Pro

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Source: Ryan Block

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