Date: Thursday, August 16, 2007
The iMac is back
The iPhone may have been the Apple product hitting the headlines in the past few weeks, but the new iMac model takes the brand back to its roots.
There was a quiet rumble surrounding the unveiling of Apple’s new desktop this week, albeit not as much excitement as its iPods and iPhone, but none-the-less for a product which has been overhauled four times there was still a substantial amount interest as to what the fifth version would bring. For those who eagerly awaited the reveal, some have been disappointed as the apparent lack of upgrades. Although the appearance of the iMac is noticeably different, with brushed chrome replacing the familiar white plastic, the software has not changed all that much. Slight adjustments such as the ‘open apple’ key being rename the ‘command’ key, and a new iPhoto feature called Event which groups pictures according to the day they were taken on, are the sort of changes that can be found. Some more fundamental changes include the addition of a spreadsheet application called Numbers featuring templates of common graphs and charts, as well as an increased 4GB memory and a terabyte of hard disk space. Other innovations include the Web Gallery, which allows users to share their iLife photos and videos with others direct to their Mac, PC or iPhone. Other changes have been made to iMovie which has been totally overhauled, from which users can now upload their clips direct on to YouTube, further demonstrating the increasing relationship between YouTube owner Google and Apple. The iWeb application has also had slight adjustments made to it, and users can now include live web widgets such as Google Maps into websites they have created.
The chief executive of Apple was keen to stress the green qualities of the materials of the new iMac, particularly as Apple has been criticised in the past for its lack of environmental concern with its products. The new developments should do nothing but add to the already phenomenally popular Apple brand, with its iMac computers reportedly outsold PC by a third in the last quarter.
Sources:
Times Online
Guardian
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