Technology Guides

As expected Apple released its update on the Apple iMac. Aesthetically it has kept the same body but with some slight changes. First lets start off with the screen. Taking cues from a HDTV, the Apple iMac has a black border going to the very edges of the screen and the aluminum border that was present on the previous generation is gone. Both of these changes give the effect that the screen is bigger. As well instead of offering 20-inch and 24-inch screen, Apple upgraded significantly with 21.5-inch and 27-inch screens that are only offered in the glossy finish. I apologize on behalf of Apple for not giving you guys the option of a matte finish.

In my opinion 27-inch seems a little too big for the mainstream public and they may want to consider offering something in between; say bring back the 24-inch. On top of that, it is interesting to note that many observers have said that the 21.5-inch looks much bigger than the previous 20-inch mostly because of the changes noted above, but both use IPS technology to deliver consistent colour at most angles, 178 to be exact.

The new Apple iMac is the fastest ever with Intel Core 2 Duo processors starting at 3.06 GHz, and Core i5 and i7 quad-core processors for up to twice the performance of last years mddel. The Apple iMac comes with improved graphics across the board with NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics or ATI Radeon HD 4670 discrete graphics in the 21.5-inch model, and ATI Radeon HD 4670 discrete graphics or ATI Radeon HD 4850 discrete graphics in the 27-inch model.

Apple also upgraded in the RAM section with 4GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 with the possibility to expand to a whopping 16GB.

Prices for the new Apple iMacs come in at $1199(USD) for the 21.5-inch model and $1699(USD) for the 27-inch model. All come with a wireless keyboard and the new Magic Mouse, a world first Multi-Touch mouse. They also ship with a built-in iSight video camera, mic and integrated stereo speakers. On top of that the new Apple iMac includes built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n Wi-Fi networking, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, Gigabit Ethernet, a grand total of four USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port and a new built-in SD card slot.

Prices in Canada start at $1299 for the 21.5-inch model and $1799 for the 27-inch model.

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