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AppleTalk Thursday #19

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of AppleTalk Thursday. Got quite a bit of Apple news this week so let's get right into things.

New iMacs are Here!

On Tuesday Apple unveiled a new line of updated iMac computers. Among the new specs are 2 versions each of a 21.5" display and a 27" model. It brings new features like FaceTime HD and Thunderbolt (1 for the 21.5", 2 for the 27")

The 21.5-inch (viewable) LED-backlit glossy widescreen display with support for millions of colors, has 2.5Ghz quad-core Intel Core i5 with 6MB on-chip shared L3 cache or 2.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 with 6MB on-chip shared L3 cache (configurable to 2.8GHz quad-core Intel Core i7) processors, 4GB 1333MHz DDR3 RAM (configurable to 16GB) for RAM, 500GB hard drive on the $1199 model and 1TB 7200rpm hard drive (configurable to 2TB hard drive or 256GB solid-state second drive) for the $1499 model. On the graphics side, AMD Radeon HD 6750M (or 6770M) graphics processor with 512MB of GDDR5 memory.

On the 27-inch (viewable) LED-backlit glossy widescreen TFT display with support for millions of colors model, it offers the following. 2.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 with 6MB on-chip shared L3 cache for the $1699 model or 3.1Ghz quad-core Intel Core i5 with 6MB on-chip shared L3 cache (configurable to 3.4Ghz quad-core Intel Core i7) for the $1999 model. RAM is the same as the 21.5", 1TB 7200rpm hard drive (configurable to 2TB hard drive or 256 solid-state second drive) for both configurations, AMD Radeon HD 6770M graphics processor with 512MB of GDDR5 memory or AMD Radeon HD 6970M graphics processor with 1GB of GDDR5 memory (configurable to AMD Radeon HD 6970M with 2GB DDR5)

An analyst for UBS is already expecting the new line of iMacs to help Apple gain a higher share in the PC market. Also iFixit has posted a teardown of the new models.

Lion News

More details are starting to emerge about features found in the next version of OS X Lion. One such feature is called Reading List which is similar to Instapaper and ReadItLater. It basically gives you the ability to save a webpage for later viewing without having to bookmark the page.

Another bit of news is the possibility that the primary distribution of Lion will be via the Mac App Store. Also it should be noted that Apple would also make it available via optical media.

OS X and iOS 3.5 times the Profit of Windows Licensing

Profit from Mac and iOS hardware is now 3.5 times that of Microsoft licensing its Windows OS to third party hardware manufacturers. Checkmate!

Hearst and Apple reach Subscription Agreement

Hearst will bring 3 of its magazines to the iPad under a new subscr.... Esquire, Popular Mechanics, and O Magazine, will make their appearance in July. This comes on the heels of Time, Inc. now giving its print subscribers free access to the digital content on the iPad.

iOS 4.3.3. Available

In response to the much overhyped location issue on the iPhone, Apple has updated the iOS to address the way location data was stored. If you are looking for anything else beyond that in this update, you will be disappointed. My recommendation is to just bypass this update.

iOS App News

RunKeeper has apparently made its popular RunKeeper Pro app free permanently, because of this the former RunKeeper free edition is no longer listed in the app store. I have been using RunKeeper Pro for a long time now and it is a great app for keeping track of your cardio fitness activities.

Comic Life comes to the iPad finally. The fun application found preinstalled on Macintosh computers, allows you to be your own little comic book designer, it also allows you to create some nice graphics. I design my header banners for my websites using Comic Life. It can be found in the iTunes app store for $7.99.

Well, that is going to do it for this edition of AppleTalk Thursday. Come by next week for more exciting Apple related news.

Tags: 10.7, Apple, Comic, Hearst, Life, Lion, Microsoft, OS, RunKeeper, Windows, More…X, iMac, iOS, iPad