An Italian blog site notices a mention of a $899 iMac on Apple's education site. Currently, Apple is offering only iMacs in 20- and 24-inch screen sizes, starting at $1,199. But it's unclear whether the 17-incher is really new or not.
Accompanying updates to Apple's line of desktops Tuesday is a new compact, wired keyboard with no numeric keypad. It's included with each new iMacs by default, but can be swapped out for one that does include a numeric keypad at no additional cost (when ordering online).
The number of digital storefronts reflecting availability of Apple's high-end iMac configuration is dwindling this week in yet another sign that long-overdue updates to the all-in-one desktop line may be inching their way closer to market.
A technology licensing suit between Intel and NVIDIA over controller chipsets and the next generation of Intel's Core i7 CPUs may complicate Apple's immediate plans for the next iMac and Mac Pro, and disrupt the company's long term strategy for standardized GPU acceleration using OpenCL.
A Wall Street analyst who recently reported that Apple was torn between using dual-core processors and quad-core processors in its next-generation iMac line now believes the company will adopt both.
Apple this week is advising members of its reseller channels that supply of iMacs will be constrained in the immediate future, a move that may signal new models are nearing production.
Great, just after I bought one. Sigh.
Apple could be waiting to time the launch of the new iMacs with the launch of Mac OS X Snow Leopard operating system, which is expected to ship sometime around June.
"We wanted to give an update on the Mac business from what we are picking up from our latest supply chain checks," Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu wrote in a report to clients Monday. "While new the iMac appears to be almost ready for primetime, what is holding it up appears to be business reasons and a potential small technical hurdle."
We've already seen the iSight indicator light "disappear" behind the bezel of Apple's MacBook and iMac computers. A recently published patent application could make the iSight itself not only disappear, but move to the middle of the screen. MacBooks, iMacs, and even iPhones and iPod touches could take advantage of the new technology.
From iPhone to iMac, we look back over the innovations Apple has announced at previous Macworlds.
