Brand new Mac stuff
Following recent rumors and rumbles around the web, Apple "surprised" everyone with a slew of updates to many of its current Mac offerings. It's been a while since Apple refreshed its desktop Macs so it's rather expected that they would launch new iMacs and Mac minis around this time of the year. The Mac Pros on the other hand, remain as they are. What is surprising though is the trackpad-like multitouch mouse they call Magic Mouse.
Magic Mouse
Since the name Mighty Mouse is no longer available, Apple went with a new name for its new wireless mouse which is available with the new iMacs or sold separately for US$69. It's just a beautiful looking bluetooth mouse with no moving parts to remove and clean. Any action that used to require the little ball on the old Mighty Mouse now can be done by swiping your finger on the surface of the mouse. The mouse is powered by 2 AA batteries which will last through four months of use according to Apple.
Unfortunately Magic Mouse is not available in wired version but Apple is still selling the old USB Mighty Mouse, renamed as the Apple Mouse.
iMacs
Along with Magic Mouse, Apple is shipping brand new iMacs. Now in 21.5-inch and 27-inch sizes, the new iMacs lost even more of its Jay Leno-like jaw, and shaved more bulk from its back. The screens are now on a proper 16:9 ratio as you would find on a standard widescreen HDTV and the 27-inch model has a DisplayPort input that lets you plug in an external digital media source such as a DVD or Blu-Ray player, or even game consoles. All you need is a DisplayPort adapter which will be available in several weeks.
New in these iMacs are SD card slots which were introduced to the Mac line back in June with the current MacBook Pros. Apart from Magic Mouse, these new iMacs also ship with wireless keyboards, the ones without the numerical pad on the right. The back of the iMac is no longer black plastic but aluminum like the rest of the computer. It still uses the thick glossy glass panel on top of the LCD screen.
No, there is no Blu-Ray drive on these iMacs. Apparently Apple still considers it "a bag of hurt".
Mac mini
The Mac mini is the computer people love to ignore or hate. Plenty of claims of its demise since Apple went with Intel but still, the little computer that could, persists. In fact, this tiny box of aluminum and plastic has a sibling now, the Mac mini server. The server model comes with no optical drive. In its place, it has an additional hard drive giving the unit a 1TB storage which can be set up as a RAID. The Mac mini server also comes with Mac OS X Server.
MacBook
If you thought Apple was going to kill off or completely replace the white MacBook with something more revolutionary or economical, think again.
Instead of succumbing to the popular calls, Apple redesigned the white MacBook with a unibody frame to bring it back in line with the Pro machines after the previous unibody MacBooks were upgraded into Pro status back in June. Instead of aluminum though, it still uses the same polycarbonate material. The bottom case however has a non-slip surface added which removes the need for rubber feet.
With this new design, Apple finally brings the multitouch glass trackpad to the white MacBook, a built-in battery that can last 7 hours, a thinner and lighter unit, and one heck of a storage at 250GB. It also loses the separate audio in/out port, both now combined into one port like in the 13-inch MacBook Pro.
To differentiate it further form the Pro machines, its keyboard is not backlit and Apple has removed the Firewire port. While this has brought back the debate over Firewire, its effects may be lessened since the 13" MacBook Pro with Firewire is not too far out of reach. If you want to compare the MacBooks directly across the board, check out this page Apple put together.
Apple Remote
Apparently this is still around. Even though Apple no longer ships Apple Remote with its computers, Apple still sells them especially because the Apple TV needs it. The new Apple Remote comes in aluminum with the menu and play buttons relocated to below the circular navigation buttons instead of inside it. It works with any Mac since 2005 that has an infra red port. The new white unibody MacBook does not work with Apple Remote.
The bad news
None of these new Apples are going to be available immediately in Indonesia. Estimates on Apple's Online Store ranges from 2 weeks (optimistic) to December.
The new MacBook is estimated to arrive in 5 weeks, Apple Remote and Mac minis in 2-4 weeks, and the iMacs as well the Magic Mouse are expected in December.
