New iMacs, Mac Pros, monitors - plus two new devices

Apple's new 'Magic Trackpad' uses iPhone-like multi-touch gestures. Photo / Supplied

The big news is new iMacs with new Intel i3 and i5 processors plus the announcement of a 12-core MAc Pro towers, but along with the announcements was a brand new 'Magic Trackpad'.

The Magic Trackpad brings the intuitive Multi-Touch gestures of Apple's MacBook and MacBook Pro glass notebook trackpads to the desktop environment.

The wireless Magic Trackpad enables users to scroll smoothly up and down a page with inertial scrolling, pinch to zoom in and out, rotate an image with their fingertips and swipe three fingers to flip through a collection of web pages or photos - this would all be familiar to those with Apple MacBooks from the last 12 months or so.

The Trackpad can be configured to support single-button or two-button commands and supports tap-to-click as well as a physical click.

It has a smooth glass and aluminium design, gives iMac users the same intuitive Multi-Touch gestures that MacBook owners are used to.

It is available separately or as an optional add-on when ordering new Macs - separately it's NZ$119.

Another new device is the Apple Battery Charger. All these wireless devices are fine, but many users do what I do - choose wired alternatives. That's because if you have a battery die on you just once in the middle of a flight with no replacement, or in the middle of a critical project at 2am with no replacement batteries handy, or even in the middle of a full-on game, it's enough to put you off wireless devices for life.

The all-new device is designed to provide a convenient and environmentally-friendly way to always have a fresh set of batteries for your Magic Trackpad, Magic Mouse and Wireless Keyboard. The Apple Battery Charger costs just NZ$50 and comes with six long-shelf-life rechargeable batteries.

It's actually quite a good deal for an attractive device that matches your other equipment for a change.

The all-in-one iMac line now have the latest Intel Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 processors along with powerful new graphics. The processors feature an integrated memory controller to access the system memory directly, allowing the new iMac to take full advantage of its faster 1333 MHz memory.

Starting at NZ$1999 inc GST, the smallest/cheapest iMac is the new 21.5-inch with a 3.06GHz Intel Core i3 CPU, for NZ$1999. It has an ATI Radeon HD 4670 with 256MB VRAM - this is a change, Apple had stuck to NVDIA cards in iMacs for the last few years.

Configure-to-order options include up to 8GB of RAM for another $390, but RAM is actually easy to install yourself if you can find cheaper third-party Apple certified RAM.

The new 'discrete' ATI Radeon HD processors deliver graphics to the new iMac displays using 'IPS technology'. This is supposed to deliver a brilliant image across a wide 178° viewing angle.

The other 21.5-inch has a 3.2GHz Intel Core i3 iMac for NZ$2499.

Configure-to-order options include a faster 3.6 GHz Core i5 processor, 2TB hard drive and up to 8GB of RAM.

Now the bigger 27-inch has a 3.2GHz Intel Core i3 iMac option for NZ$2999.

Configure-to-order options include a 3.6GHz Core i5 processor, 2TB hard drive, 256GB solid state drive (SSD) and up to 16GB of RAM.

The other standard 27-inch option has a 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5 iMac for NZ$3499.

Configure-to-order options include a 2.93 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 processor, a 2TB hard drive, 256GB solid state drive (SSD) and up to 16GB of RAM. Start ticking these options and you're pushing prices well into the $4000+ range, but you end up with a stonkin' all-in-one that breezes through Logic and Final Cut projects or other full-on professional applications.

The SD card slot on the new iMacs now supports the SDXC format to handle the latest high-capacity storage cards. This new slot actually had a quiet debut on the new Mac minis that came out last months - these new minis also have HDMI connectors.

Every iMac comes with Apple's trackpad-like Magic Mouse, but customers can also order the new Magic Trackpad (above) as an option.

The new iMac meets stringent Energy Star 5.0 requirements and achieves EPEAT Gold status.

If you're wondering what the next iMAc refresh might bring, I'd suggest faster USB3 ports which many were probably expecting to be on these new models.

The new iMac line is shipping now and available through the Apple Store and Apple Authorised Resellers.

Not so the new Mac Pro. Apple's top-end tower now comes with up to 12 cores for up to 50 per cent greater performance than the previous generation.

They feature the latest quad-core and six-core Intel Xeon processors running at speeds up to 3.33 GHz, all-new ATI graphics and the option for up to four 512GB solid state drives (SSD).

The multi-core processors in the new Pros use a single die design so each core can share up to 12MB of level 3 cache to improve efficiency while increasing processing speed. These systems feature an integrated memory controller for faster memory bandwidth and reduced memory latency; Turbo Boost to dynamically boost processor speeds up to 3.6GHz; and Hyper-Threading to create up to 24 virtual cores.

The ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics processor with 1GB of memory and customers can configure-to-order the faster ATI Radeon HD 5870 with 1GB of memory.

There are new 512GB SSD options (up to four), it has two Mini DisplayPorts and a dual-link DVI port, and the new quad-core Mac Pro has a recommended retail price of NZ$4499 ($100 more than its 2.66GHz quad-core predecessor). The new Pros haven't appeared in the NZ Apple Store yet, but should be available by mid-August.

The new 8-core Mac Pro has a recommended retail price of NZ$6299, $500 more than its 2.26GHz predecessor.

Of course, you have to add a monitor into the mix, at an additional cost.

A new 27-inch Apple Cinema LED display has also been announced, but this won't be available till September and pricing is not yet available.

It has 2560 x 1440 resolution for 60 per cent more screen real estate than the 24-inch LED Cinema Display still available. It has a built-in iSight video camera, microphone and speakers, a powered USB 2.0 hub and universal MagSafe connector.

- Mark Webster mac-nz.com