As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, at the ‘special event’ yesterday, Apple did not introduce anything that would make me cancel my iMac order (thanks for that.. now, ship it so I can play with it this weekend would you?). Instead, Apple chose to update the iPod family.

Nano’s now look like the Minis they replaced.. including available in colors. Shuffle is now super small.. fortunately it remains priced at $79.00 so everyone who loses theirs can easily replace it (wait.. that would be personal responsibility, which apparently doesn’t exist..so I’m sure we’ll see someone who lost theirs sue Apple for making it too small).

The “regular” iPods got sharper screens, brighter screens.

of course the Movie store was announced.. 75 movies as of yesterday, with more being added weekly. The iTunes Music Store is now simply the iTunes Store. Videos from the iTunes store are now available in a higher resolution.

New version of iTunes with a very cool new way of browsing you music like a jukebox, it’ll flip through your cover art….which iTunes nicely offers to go get for you if you’re missing some (this part apparently, still needs some work.. since I’ve told it a few times to go get Cover Art, and its not finding some)

New Games for the iPod, and cashing in on the selling games thing like cell phone companies do, Apple has made the games available to purchase for $4.99 for both the “older” 5th generation iPods, as well as the new ones introduced yesterday. (Don’t tell Janice…she’ll want to buy Bejeweled)

So, despite the fact that I wanted to order my new 24″ iMac the day they were released..events conspired to prevent me from doing so… until today.

My new iMac has been ordered and is being built (at least, I hope its being built). Here’s what I ended up going with:

2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM – 2x1GB

NVIDIA GEFORCE 7600 GT w/256

250GB Serial ATA Drive

SuperDrive 8X (DVDR-DL/CD-RW)

Kybd, Mighty Mse & Mac OS X

I ended up upgrading the RAM via Apple because, oddly enough, it was actually cheaper to do that, then to buy the RAM from one of the normal 3rd parties I use…it actually saved me like 50 or 60 bucks ordering it from Apple.

And of course, I did all this the day before an Apple special event….

Wonder if I’ll be canceling the order in the morning, to order whatever new toy Apple introduces along with the iTunes Movie Store…

Told ya so!

Today (ok, so Apple’s definition of soon doesn’t match everyone else’s), Apple revamp the iMac product line. The iMac now comes with Core Duo 2 processors (the merom family apparently), in 17″, 20″ and a new 24″ screen sizes, with processor speeds of 1.83 to 2.33 Ghz.. the base config of RAM for all except the low end 17″ has also been bumped to a Gig of RAM….

Apple also revamped the mini today, with processor upgrades.

I’m placing my order today for a 24″ with the upgraded video card (Nvidia 7600 GT with 256MB of vram). I’m going with stock config for everything else, I know the memory will be easily upgradeable, and I’m assuming the hard drive will be as well.. if not…thats what they make Firewire cases for.

Estimated ship on the new family member 5-7 days!

This raises the question…since this is what Apple was rumored to be introducing at their special event on the 12th… what are they introducing then?

Yep, they’re coming.. soon…

I know this..because, since I can’t afford the MacPro system I want, I’m going to be purchasing a iMac, and over the weekend, the lead time for a stock machine has slipped from “less then 24 hours” to “1-2 business days”. And the custom machine I want, went from “3-5 days” to “7-10 days”. That kind of slip normally indicates a hardware revision coming soon.

My guess is Apple will be switching to the Core 2 Duo chips instead of the Core Duo…

Time to warm up the credit cards

WWDC ’06 started today, this morning Steve gave the keynote. He introduced the new MacPro a 64-bit, quad core, xeon based, Mac tower…. droooool!

Available today, the “standard” config (there is only one standard config for the Mac Pro, versus 3 standard configs for the PowerMac G5), is this:

2 2.66Ghz Dual Core Xeons

1 GB 667Mhz FB-DIMM

250GB 7200 RPB SATA HD

NVIDIA GeForce 7300GT, 256MB video card

16x Superdrive

Price of the “standard” config? $2499

So… like any good Mac geek.. I went and priced out the configuration I want..

2 2.66Ghz Dual-Core Xeons

2 GB 667Mhz FB-DIMM

500GB 7200RPM SATA HD

ATI Radeon x1900XT (512MB)

16x Superdrive

Bluetooth/Airport Extreme

20″ Cinema Display (Got to have a new monitor, to go with the new computer right?)

The price tag for my shopping spree? $4127.00+tax.

Sigh… anyone got $5000.00 they’re not using and want to donate to me?

Also highlighted at WWDC today, OS X.5 (Leopard) client and server, Xserves using Xeon chips.

More on Leopard’s feature preview later, I’m still watching the webcast… Time Machine looks sweet!

Our .Mac accounts expire either tomorrow or the day after.. and I think, I’m going to let them go.

There just isn’t a compelling reason to pay $110.00 per year for the two email addresses, and the limited web hosting. Yes, the integration with the iApps is nice, but.. even that doesn’t justify the cost.

The only “bad” thing about it, will be having to re-do all the photo albums that are hosted over there…since that’s time consuming…

This morning, Apple has announced the “MacBook”. The x86 based replacement for the iBook.. here’s the link to the Macbook on Apple’s site.

let’s se… 1.83 or 2.0 Core Duo, 13.3 inch widescreen display, available in either black or white, looks like it has 2 user fillable memory slots, and will support up to 2GB of ram, Built in iSight camera, gigabit ethernet, Airport Extreme…and starting at $1099.

Not a bad update, I’d have like to have seen a better video card in it, but, since I’m saving my pennies for the x86 based PowerMac that should be announced this fall, I’m not overly concerned about it..

The British judge hearing the case of Apple Corps vs Apple Computer, handed down his ruling, and unlike the Judge hearing the Da Vinci Code lawsuit, he didn’t embed any secret messages in his ruling…

He did, however, tell Apple Corps to go take a flying leap. Since Apple Computer (the Good Apple) is not /making/ music, or producing it, or doing anything but selling it, he ruled that Apple Corps (the bad apple) can’t stop the good apple from using the good apple’s logo in the store, and in advertising… then, he told the bad apple to pay the good apple’s lawyers..

Apparently, the lawyers for the bad apple still think a normal person would be confused by buying music from the good apple, that the good apple had a hand in making that music… so they are going to appeal…

link here to BBC article.

No…not us.. it’ll be quite a while before we move again..

Apple is moving.. they announced their plans to the Cupertino City Council the other day… they plan to build (and relocate to) a new 50 acre corporate campus..

Wonder if they can convince the city to move the 1 Infinite loop address the 1 mile to the new campus

Saturday was Apple’s 30th birthday (Yay Apple whoo-hoo! Happy birthday!)

Despite all the rumors, Apple apparently chose to celebrate its birthday quietly with a few friends or something… because there were no earth shattering announcements..

Revised iPods? Nope

New Macs? Nope

Mac-TiVo? Nope

New Software? Nope

Nothing…nada…zip…zilch… how depressing…

I wonder if anyone got Apple cool gifts for its birthday, since it didn’t give us anything.