OK, no more rumors! Today, it's about the real thing, coming straight from Apple! Even better, it's not just some minor software update, or news regarding iTunes' market share, because Apple has just announced what everyone was waiting for - the refresh of their iMac line-up!


About a day ago, Apple revealed its updated iMacs, powered by the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processor, just as expected, but also featuring the NVIDIA 8800 GS video card. The design remained the same, with the build-in iSight camera, and the "old" aluminum case used for the iMacs previously released.

The new Apple iMacs are available for prices between $1,199 and $1,799, with detailed features looking like this:

- 20- to 24-inch LCD display
- 2.4 GHz to 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with a 1066 MHz front-side bus
- 1 GB or 2 GB of memory, expandable to 4GB
- 250 GB or 320 GB Serial ATA 7200 rpm HDD (1 TB option for the 24-inch model)
- a slot-load 8x SuperDrive® with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
- ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT with 128MB GDDR3 memory or HD 2600 Pro with 256MB GDDR3, but there's the NVIDIA 8800 GS option available for those that want to get the most out of their iMac
- built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking & Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
- mini-DVI out (adapters for DVI, VGA and Composite/S-Video sold separately)
- built-in stereo speakers and microphone
- the Apple Keyboard, Mighty Mouse and infrared Apple Remote

These being said, I'll leave you now, while I check another rumor on my list that became reality...

Since it's Easter for a lot of people, and there are still things to be done, I don't want to keep you waiting. Today, I just found an older picture of Apple's Mighty Mouse, and I think it's something great to see. Yes, it's a hardware Easter Egg. No, this is not a fake image, is a picture made more than 2 years ago, but I guess this is still true today.


Can you see the Mighty Mouse projection? I am sure you do, but I really regret the fact that I don't have one around now. Could you help me and send your pictures of this optical pattern created by the Mighty Mouse? That would be simply great, thanks in advance!

Back in January, when NVIDIA claimed that the 8800 GT cards will become available for older Mac Pros "in a few weeks," I wasn't expecting for such a long wait, and I am sure those in need for a video upgrade to their older Mac Pro almost lost their hope since then. Well, the good news is that, finally, NVIDIA kepts its promise, so...


...less than a day ago, the long-awaited upgrade for older Mac Pros was released to the public! With 512MB of GDDR3 memory, the PCI Express NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT upgrade is capable of driving one or two Apple Cinema HD displays, thanks to its dual-link DVI ports.

All that you need is a Mac Pro with a bus speed of 1.33GHz, and a free PCI Express slot, of course. Priced at $280, this new video card for older Mac Pros can be acquired as a standalone item, or a build-to-order option for Early 2008 Mac Pros through the online Apple Store.

Despite the fact that the MacBook Air or the iPods are more popular than the Apple TV, this one may have a hidden potential, estimated to be huge by the analysts. I guess you probably heard about this already, but let me remind you that Apple's latest digital video recording patent filling is boiling hot, as we speak. Do you see the link?


Basically, the third generation of the Apple TV is expected to have DVR capabilities, so for only a small difference in manufacturing price, Apple's niche media hub business may turn into a solid source of revenue, some say it may worth even a few billion dollars annually!

American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu said the DVR features that may arrive in the next generation of the Apple TV can help moving from just a "hobby" to serious business:"We estimate AppleTV to be a very minor contributor today at ~0.3-0.4 percent of revenue or $100-125 million annually. We believe adding the ability to watch and record live TV could turn this into a billion dollar, if not multi-billion dollar business."

Since these are only rumors based on a patent filling, there's still a pretty long road to the DVR-enabled Apple TV, but I think this must happen by the end of the year. If you have a different opinion, please feel free to share it with the rest of us, don't be shy!

While the ATI Radeon 2600 XT is no longer a last generation video card, it seems Mac Pro computers using it had a lot of issues because of them. Please don't get me wrong - from a hardware point of view, those cards are OK, but Apple's video drivers didn't quite fit them well, so mass system instabilities were noticed(nothing special with that, I got into such a thing lately on my Windows PC too, after updating my video drivers). These being said, it's obvious everyone having a Mac Pro with a 2600 XT video card was expecting a software update...


...which finally arrived less than a day ago, when Apple announced the update for the Mac Pro computers using the Radeon HD 2600 XT video card. Basically, this update is about solving the previously reported system freezes, but Apple didn't specifically listed which problems are being solved by it.

The 792KB update can be downloaded from here, where some additional information is also available. Unfortunately, I don't think "It updates the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT graphics card firmware on all of the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT graphics cards in the Mac Pro to improve system stability." is enough when talking about "useful information", but I guess we'll have to live with it...