Apple fans have been waiting anxiously for news of new
products on September 12th, including the long-awaited iTunes Movie Store.
However, visitors to Apple's online store got a surprise today as the iMac lineup received a quiet but
significant update.
Apple has added the Core 2 Duo chip to the entire iMac family while
simultaneously lowering prices. The base-level iMac now comes with a 1.83GHz
Core 2 Duo, and costs only $999.
The star of the show, naturally, is the brand-new 24" iMac, affectionately
dubbed by some as the "iMac HD." Its 24" screen is up to 40%
brighter than the previous iMac, and features a 1920x1200 resolution, and is able
to show 1080p content with no scaling. The inclusion of a FireWire 800 port on
the 24" iMac allows for high-speed video copying as well. Standard
equipment on the 24" iMac includes a 2.13GHz Core 2 processor, 1GB of DDR2
(unfortunately for upgraders, it comes in a 2x512MB configuration), a 250GB
SATA hard drive, a double-layer 8x SuperDrive, and an nVidia 7300GT
graphics card. This base configuration costs $1999 and is upgradable with more
RAM, up to a 2.33GHz CPU and an nVidia 7600GT with 256MB of GDDR3.
All new Core 2 Duo iMacs are available for purchase immediately, with shipping
dates of "within 24 hours" for the base model and up to "2-4
business days" for the new 24" model.