NEW APPLE RELEASES - powermac, powerbook, aperture

[Drake]

Check this out:

Imagine a dual dual core powermac. Maxed out with 16Gb ram and a price tag of AU $32,ooo with an EU discount. (Drools...)

...Food for thought...

-The powerbook upgrades are nice, although I think they should have had 512ram embedded in the 12" powerbook.
-The superdrive across the line is a good money saver, with dual layer burning stock on the 15" and 17".
- Upgraded resolutions will be a godsend for digital photographer enthusiasts like me or professionals, who want heaps of screen space.
- Bigger HD sizes and the option for a 7200rpm 100GB is good, but as usual, overpriced.
- the 15" and 17" have built-in optical digital audio input and output, for connecting to decks, receivers and .1 surround systems. Nice.

(the 12" has been left out of all upgrades except for superdrive and 80GB HD standard. This maybe evidence for the 12" to be phased out for the mactel lines. Or simply they didn't have much more room in there...)

And lastly Apple's new iPhoto on steroids - Aperture.

From first look, it seems awesome for enthusiasts like me. With an emphasis for support for RAW imaging, this will make importing and the like easier. It also has the great and simple organising and catalogging tools of iPhoto. "Aperture offers an advanced RAW workflow, powerful compare and select tools, nondestructive image processing and versatile printing and publishing". Shame the recommended ram is 2GB and Dual 2GHz Power Mac G5 or faster processor.

Again, the 12" is left out even with a fast enough processor and ram (minimum 1GB). Ok, the screen size would be a major problem, but you can just hook it up to a larger 19" or 23" screen. (http://www.apple.com/aperture/specs.html)
Price? US$699 RRP - quite expensive compared to similar products that can do the same things - but of course they don't have the Apple style or smooth functionality. The EU discount is quite good at AU$399 - 40% off!

(Note this is not to be a direct contender with Adobe Photoshop CS - it does not have all of the advanced editing tools available with Photoshop CS.)

These revisions throw up several speculative questions (like nothing really new with the 12" powerbook, just a price saving (which I'm not complaining about!)), and the eventuality of the Mac mini 3G is that little bit closer...

Lastly an event coming up that will really only affect 21 or so million people will be the launch of iTunes Music Store Australia! Finally after months of waiting!
Only a couple or weeks to wait now...
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