Yes, it's New Mac Day, everyone's favorite day, after St. Patrick's Day, New Year's Eve, and Pretzel Day. What blessed gifts hath Apple bestowed on its faithful? Oh man, lots. Let's dive right in.
New plastic MacBook!
Um, that's polycarbonate to you, actually. The entry-level MacBook (actually, the only model not positioned as Pro or Air) is still around, still white, and still $999. But it's been redesigned, with a unibody shell that's more like the aluminum unibody MacBook Pros, just, you know, not aluminium. It has Apple's built-in, 7-hour battery, a departure from the last model's removable, 5-hour battery.
The display uses LED backlighting, just like the Air and Pro models. The last MacBook's display was TFT, so this is the first time Apple's entire notebook line has gone to LED-backlit displays.
And naturally, its specs are improved. It's got a 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor (the last MacBook's Core 2 Duo ran at 2.13GHz), and a whopping 250GB hard drive (the last one's was 160GB), for the same price. They also made it lighter, down to 4.7 pounds from 5 pounds.
How does it differ from the 13-inch MacBook Pro? No backlit keyboard, no FireWire port, no SD card slot. That's no FireWire at all, folks -- the last white MacBook still had a FireWire 400 port. But the new MacBook is on sale today, and you can check it out here.
iMac makeover!
The new screen sizes are 21.5 inches (up from 20) and 27 inches (up from 24), for a nice widescreen view. All the iMacs have LED-backlit screens now. Both models have four USB ports, one FireWire 800 port, and for the first time, an SD card slot.
Specs-wise, the 21.5-inch iMac can have an Intel Core 2 Duo processor running at 3.06GHz with a 3MB shared L2 cache, or 3.33GHz with a 6MB shared L2 cache. For graphics, there's an NVIDIA GeForce 9400M chip with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with the main memory, or an ATI Radeon HD 4670 with 256MB of dedicated GDDR3 memory.
The 27-incher is available in dual-core versions as well as a beefier quad-core version for pro-level usesrs who don't want to spring for a Mac Pro. Dual-core versions use the same 3.06GHz and 3.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo chips as the 21.5-inch models, and the quad-core iMacs use either a 2.66GHz Intel Core i5 processor with 8MB shared L3 cache and Turbo Boost performance up to 3.2GHz, or a 2.8GHz Intel Core i7 processor with 8MB shared L3 cache, Turbo Boost up to 3.46GHz, and Hyper-Threading for up to eight virtual cores. They feature ATI Radeon HD graphics, either the 4670 or 4850 chips.
All the iMacs come with 4GB of RAM standard, sporting four SO-DIMM slots for RAM upgrades up to 16GB. The 21.5-inch models start with a 500GB SATA hard drive, with upgrades to 1TB and 2TB drives. The 27-inch models start with a 1TB SATA hard drive, with a 2TB drive option. All those SATA drives run at 7200rpm.
The 21.5-inch iMacs start at $1,199 (3.06GHz Core 2 Duo, 500GB HDD, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics) and $1,499 (3.06GHz Core 2 Duo, 1TB HDD, ATI Radeon HD 4670 graphics). The 27-inch iMacs start at $1,699 (3.06GHz Core 2 Duo, 1TB HDD, ATI Radeon HD 4670 graphics) and $1,999 (quad-core 2.66GHz Intel Core i5, 1TB HDD, ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics). Buy them here.
Mac mini refresh!
The lovable little mini got some much-deserved attention from Apple. The new minis start at $599, the same price as the old ones, but feature faster processors. You can choose from a 2.26GHz, 2.53GHz, or 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, all with 2MB shared L2 cache. They've got double the RAM out of the box, with 2GB of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM in the entry-level model, but they still top out at 4GB of RAM in two SO-DIMM slots. And the hard drives are bigger, starting at 160GB with upgrades to 320GB and 500GB. (The last round of minis had 120GB, 250GB, and 320GB drives.)
The size is the same. The ports are the same (5 USB and one FireWire 800). The graphics card is virtually the same, an NVIDIA GeForce 9400M with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with the main memory (the last entry-level Mac mini's graphics card used 128MB of shared memory, no longer an option here). You can buy them starting today.
And there's even a Snow Leopard Server model! For $999 you can get a Mac mini running Snow Leopard Server and sporting two 500GB but no SuperDrive. Yep, an all-in-one server ready to go right out of the box, just BYO display. That is cool. Check it out here.
New Mouse!
The new iMacs come with a funky new mouse, Apple's Magic Mouse, "the world's first Multi-Touch mouse." Apple mouse haters who remember "the world's first crappy hockey puck mouse!" can be forgiven for rolling their eyes, but this thing actually does look pretty interesting.
It's got no visible buttons at all, but has "a Multi-Touch area" on top that responds to one-finger scrolling, two-finger swipes, and clicks and double-clicks anywhere on the mouse. Apple swears its secret-sauce software and chip will be able to distinguish a a scroll from a swipe, and "even knows when you're just resting your hand on it." Obviously we haven't tried it here at Mac|Life HQ yet, but if it works more like the iPhone touchscreen and less like, um, every other Apple-made mouse in history, it could be really something.
You can buy it today for $69.
