Apple announces new Intel-based iMac, MacBook Pro
If you've been following our chatcast extravaganza of the Macworld 06 keynote that just wrapped up, you might have heard that Apple announced both a new Intel-based iMac and a "MacBook Pro," which will be replacing the PowerBook line. Both of these zippy new Macs feature Intel Dual Core processors, essentially meaning that two processors are on one chip, which will offer incredible boosts in speed. Each core of the new iMac is faster than the previous G5 chips, offering a 2-3x increase in speed and power, while the MacBook Pro's 1.67 or 1.83 GHz Dual Core Intel chip will bring a 4-5x increase in speed over the previous G4 chips.
The iMacs are shipping today, while MacBook Pros will ship in Feburary, with preordering open for business. Here's a rundown on specs for each model. Most of the now-standard specs such as SuperDrives and lit keypads are present, so I won't bother listing them. Commence drooling:
new Intel-based iMac, starting at $1299:
- Up to 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo processor
- Click, squeeze and scroll Mighty Mouse
- Get the big picture with a 17- or 20-inch widescreen flat-panel display
- Play fast with PCI-Express ATI Radeon X1600 graphics processor
- See and be seen with built-in iSight camera and iChat AV5
- Enjoy truly personal theater with Front Row and Apple Remote
- Burn DVDs or CDs with 8x SuperDrive
- Banish clutter with built-in wireless
- Extend your desktop on your TV, display or projector with optional adapters
- Connect to a Windows network
- Organize and share music, movies and photos with iLife ’06 featuring iWeb
- 15.4-inch widescreen display
- 1.67 or 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo
- built-in isight
- 667MHz frontside bus and main memory
- PCI Express architecture
- Up to 120GB Serial ATA hard drive
- ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 with up to 256MB memory on 16-lane PCI Express
- Dual-link DVI, VGA adapter included
- Optical digital and analog audio I/O, built-in microphone and stereo speakers
- Mac OS X Tiger with iLife ’06 featuring iWeb, iWork ’06 trial, and more
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Jacob Varghese said 2:12PM on 1-10-2006
I'm disappointed that there was no Mac mini update.
I was expecting to hear that movies would be available and that the Mac mini would be a new set top box.
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Joey said 2:12PM on 1-10-2006
Woot first to comment, everyone lese is busy lookin at the macbook
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Matt said 2:15PM on 1-10-2006
I want one...and damn it, wish it would ship faster
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Joshua said 2:15PM on 1-10-2006
And before anyone else says they don't:
Both the MacBook Pro and the new iMac have FireWire.
(look at the iMac page, and Apple touts easy transfer of settings from your old mac to your new via FireWire. on the MacBook Pro, look under the specifications: FireWire 400 - seems that FireWire 800 hasn't been the awesome solution that FireWire 400 was.)
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Luis said 2:16PM on 1-10-2006
did anyone else notice the lack of firewire 800 on the macbook pro?
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Ted said 2:16PM on 1-10-2006
Extended desktop mode on the iMac!
That is an amazing feature long overdue. This instantly makes the intel iMac a competitor with my G5 tower once dual binary pro-apps are released.
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beelz said 2:18PM on 1-10-2006
Any word on battery life?
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Thomas said 2:18PM on 1-10-2006
I love the speed increase. Wonder when the non-pro options will arrive. Way to go APPLE!
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ivan zhao said 2:18PM on 1-10-2006
man, how lovely yet hateful apple is. i just got my powerbook g4 less than half a year ago. now i am thinking about this baby. man. man.... apple makes me greeeeeeeeedy.
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Andy Washkowitz said 2:18PM on 1-10-2006
Are they not going to redesign the macbook? Is it going to look the same as the powerbook?
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Johnny Lai said 2:18PM on 1-10-2006
See all technical specifications for MacBook Pro. under software section they come with OS X v10.4.4 ....
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Vlad said 2:19PM on 1-10-2006
Awesome stuff, will get one in March!
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Maarten said 2:19PM on 1-10-2006
I love it... but I hoped for a high resolution lcd, maybe in the near future!
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justin said 2:19PM on 1-10-2006
Yawn. Nice first start, I mean, instead of shoehorning a G5 into a 'Book they stuck in a Core Duo. It's a good move and all, but I was realllllly hoping for a new iBook - thinner, lighter, faster, etc. Booo!
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Neil said 2:22PM on 1-10-2006
A few weeks ago I spent 790 on an iMac G5 with iSight, which Apple tried oh-so-hard to promote to me. Now they're saying I can have a newer model, with a future generation processor that is twice as powerful for about 15 more? Are you kidding me?
I'm totally miffed by this. Even the fact the new new iMac has a better graphics card - what was wrong with building these into the G5 iSight ones?
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lokipo said 2:23PM on 1-10-2006
Where the heck did FireWire 800 go?
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kevin said 2:23PM on 1-10-2006
i dont see any specs on battery life, even on the official site. whats with that?
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KFR said 2:24PM on 1-10-2006
OK... I can't seem to find any information on this processor.
G4 and G5's were 64bit.
What about this Intel Core Duo?
Is it a 32bit?
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Tomm said 2:26PM on 1-10-2006
I have to say this is slightly disappointing. They should have called it a Powerbook Pro or something - the name "Macbook" doesn't really do it for me. Also it is inside a Powerbook case, essentially. Ok, they've changed a few things around, but it's still essentially the same thing.
However, a 4 times increase in performance is nothing to be sniffed at. Perhaps I'm just miffed that I've just bought a new Powerbook and Apple seem to be dissing it somewhat :-)
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Tom said 2:26PM on 1-10-2006
It looks like the Superdrive is no longer a dual-layer burner and can only burn at 4x. That's pretty crappy.
From the site:
Maximum Write: 4x DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD+RW, and DVD-RW; 24x CD-R; 10x CD-RW
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