Apple News: The Refreshed and The Rumored

[Roger]

While many a Mac fan's wonder has been tuned to next week's big press event (see previous post), Apple went ahead and dropped some amped-up new versions of the iMac and the Mac mini.

The first big news is that the iMacs have been outfitted with Intel's new Core 2 Duo processors, which Apple claims up to a 50 percent faster performance than the Core Duo. Adam Engst over at TidBits throws some water on that:

"In testing done by PC World on PC laptops, the Core 2 Duo chip improved performance by only 5 to 10 percent over identically configured laptops with the older Core Duo chip. To paraphrase Mark Twain, there are three kinds of lies: lies, ****** lies, and benchmarks. My guess is that the new iMacs with the Core 2 Duo will be faster, perhaps noticeably so in some tasks, but not so much that it would make sense to upgrade from an existing Core Duo-based iMac to a new Core 2 Duo-based model."

However, he does find a compelling reason for a trade-up in the new top-o'-the-line iMac, which sports a 24-inch screen with a native resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels, is serviced by an Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT graphics processor with 128 MB of GDDR3 SDRAM, and offers a wider viewing angle than the smaller displays. The Mac mini also gets a power boost, and the line moves completely to the Intel Core Duo processor (though not going so far as the Core 2 Duo). The $800 model moves to a 1.83 GHz Core Duo (from a 1.66 GHz Duo) while the $600 model jumps from a 1.5 GHz Core Solo to the 1.66 GHz Core Duo. (Rats... if only I'd waited a couple of months on the lower-end model! Oh well, I'm loving it as my entertainment center; more on that in a future post.)

OK, enough with the numbers. Onto the rumors! Erica Ogg over at CNet's Gadgets blog reports:

"Shaw Wu of American Technology Research says 'the kinks have been worked out' of an Apple-designed smart phone that will 'very likely' be released in 2007.The phone's form factor will be candy-bar style and will come in black, white and silver, according to Wu. He says he suspects Apple will be sneaky about getting its FCC approval by filing under an OEM manufacturer, but isn't sure exactly how the iPod maker will enter the cell phone market. Will the company partner with traditional carriers or use a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) model that allows more control over the user experience? That decision, Wu said in an e-mail on Tuesday, is a big determinant in when the phone will be released."

Engadget notes that the September 12 media event--which could unveil video downloading from the iTunes store--might includes a slew of video-related products, such as a video streaming-enabled Airport Express.
Anyhoo, check out all the refreshed iMacs and Mac minis while you're waiting for the big show next week.

--Posted by Agen



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