Remember those “amazing products” Apple promised when it announced its Q3 earnings? They’re here! Leading the way is an incredible new battery charger that…uh…recharges batteries! This $29 product comes with six rechargeable batteries and features extremely low “vampire drain” when the AAs are full. Okay, that wasn’t the really exciting product announcement today. Here’s a clip from the press release on the new iMacs and Magic Trackpad:
Starting at $1,199, the new iMac line is the fastest ever with dual-core processor speeds up to 3.6 GHz, quad-core speeds up to 2.93 GHz and discrete graphics including the powerful ATI Radeon HD 5750. The new Magic Trackpad, with a smooth glass and aluminum design, gives iMac users the same intuitive Multi-Touch gestures that Mac notebook customers have come to love and is available separately for $69.
iMac displays feature IPS technology to deliver a brilliant image across a wide 178 degree viewing angle. The SD card slot on the iMac now supports the SDXC format to handle the latest high-capacity storage cards. Customers of the 27-inch iMac have the option to order a 256GB solid state drive (SSD) as a primary or secondary drive. The iMac SSD supports up to 215 MB/s data transfer rates for faster startup and application launch times.
The Magic Trackpad is a pretty interesting device. First of all, it’s magical, which is always impressive. For work purposes, I think mice are stupid and inefficient. I prefer working with a Kensington Trackball; I love the cursor control and that my hand never gets too far from the keyboard. The gesture capability of the Magic Trackpad has the potential to speed up workflow. It’s kind of crap that it’s not included with the new iMacs.
Speaking of which, the new iMacs have me drooling and crying at the same time. I really want to start doing video on the site and need a Mac to edit on. A 27-inch iMac with an i7 processor, an SSD drive for apps, and a 1TB drive for scratch space sounds like a brilliant video-editing machine for my purposes. That’s why I’m drooling. I’m crying because there’s no way I can afford one right now. Ha!
Any of you excited by Apple’s new products?
I want one pretty bad… but i have priorities right now.
In May I bought the 27inch with i7. It's a great machine. I think the reason that the trackpads aren't being bundled with them is because Apple puts a bluetooth keyboard and magic mouse in the box already. The magic mouse will recognize swiping gestures, but not the pinch and zoom.
I think the multitouch pad is the best way to interact and use a portable machine. On a desktop it would seem more niche for specific tasks. I can't decide if I will get one or not yet.
I think trackballs are horrible. My opinion though! ha!
@N8R I knew one of you would want the battery charger. :P
@ Ray
My son kills those Wii-motes fat, ya know.
* fast
(typing from a bulky Windows keyboard. I miss my aluminum, slender Mac keyboard)