The New Macs

I few weeks ago, Apple updated their low end machines... no keynote or special event, but expected because they were at the end of their average cycle. These models are a little more realistic than the Pro models as far as price and they're not that far off with power.

MacBook
The MacBook is basically a plastic version of the Pro. It's now built out of a unibody mold, but is white plastic instead of "titanium." Because it's plastic, it's significantly lighter than the 13" MacBook Pro. I've used the Pro version before and it's pretty heavy for a 13" laptop... felt like a 15.4" PC. They improved the battery as with the Pros a couple months ago. It also has the multitouch trackpad. The screen is glass, so graphics look crisper. It also has an NVidia graphics card. With all of this, there's no reason to get the Pro... unless you need the 15" or 17" models... which are no longer portable in my book.

Mini
The Mini, which is always rumored to be discontinued is actually the best bang for buck. It's been seriously upgraded too with a faster processor, up to 4 GB RAM, 802.11n... and a server version (w/ 2 hard drives instead of a DVD burner). It also has a real graphics card so it can go toe-to-toe with the larger models.

iMac
Of the lowend models, I thought the iMac got the least upgraded. Besides the processor upgrade, the screen actually got smaller because they went to 16:9 instead of 16:10. I thought that was a little odd because the extra space is useful for computing. By going to 16:9, they're selling this as an HTPC. I guess that could work. My personal taste is just 16:10 for computers.

Magic Mouse
This is probably the best product of the release. It's a multitouch mouse! Why didn't anyone thing of this before!? The mouse has a smooth surface with no buttons, but the top of the mouse has touch sensitive buttons and supports finger gestures.