It's a New iMac, iLife '08 and iWork '08 at the Apple Special Event

[8/8] [Updated] It's a New iMac, iLife '08 and iWork '08 at the Apple Special Event

Although it doesn't look exactly like Apple's Cinema Displays as rumored, the new iMac is indeed cased in aluminum just like the Cinema Displays, MacBook Pros and Mac Pros. It's thinner than the old iMac and with a glossy screen but it retains the "chin" below the screen.

There are now only 2 sizes, 20" and 24". The 17" iMac is no more. The prices are as rumored: $1199, $1499 and $1799 with the 24" model coming in at $1799, $200 less than its predecessor.

The new iMacs use the same "Santa Rosa" Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs at 2.0 to 2.4GHz as the latest MacBook Pros. However, the 24" model has an optional 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme CPU for $250.

The graphics are ATI's latest Radeon HD models, the low-end 2400 GT with 128MB VRAM in the $1199 model and the mid-range 2600 PRO with 256MB VRAM in the $1499 20" and the 24" models. The graphics are ATI's state of the art offerings and are much faster and better than the previous offerings.

A new Apple keyboard, wired and wireless, was introduced. It, too, is aluminum with white "chicklet" keys. Though inclined, it is much lower to the desktop than the previous model and looks really cool.

The only issue that we have is that the wireless model lacks a numeric keypad so it's like a notebook keyboard.

The other details, including more base RAM (1GB), of the new iMacs are available from this Apple Web page.

We got the iMac correct but blew it on iLife '08. We should have realized that iLife would be updated since it has been tied strongly to the iMac. iPhoto is substantially improved, including the new organizing mechanism of storing and searching photos by "events". iMovie is an all-new application with "event" organization, skimming though videos and expanded format support. iWeb can post a Web page under your personal domain name obtained from registrars. GarageBand and iDVD are also improved. iLife '08 comes with the new iMac or is $79 ($99 family 5-pack) alone.

Apple also issued iWork '08 so we blew that too. Pages and Keynote are substantially improved but the big news is that a "spreadsheet for the rest of us" called Numbers was added as a third application.

Pages was introduced largely as a layout application but one can now switch between a word processing mode and a layout mode. In addition, change tracking was added which, hopefully, is compatible with tracking changes in Microsoft Word.

We use Excel a lot, so we'll have to try out Numbers which looks very easy to use. [Update: Get a trial copy of iWork '08.]

iWork '08 is still $79 ($99 family 5-pack) alone.

The $99 .Mac service was upgraded. It now includes 10x the storage split between iDisk and Mail, up to 20MB attachments, and Web hosting using your own personal domain name from a registrar. It still costs $99.95 and there is a $179.95 family 5-pack with full service for each sub-account.

A rebroadcast of the Apple Special Event can be viewed from this Web page.

The new iMac and consumer software are significantly improved. We immediately ordered a new 24" iMac with 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo Extreme CPU to replace our 20" iMac Core Duo. We'll do a review when it is received. [Bill Fox & Dana Baggett]