Apple spruces up eMac

BANGALORE: Apple has announced an entirely new eMac line offering up to a 1 GHz PowerPC G4 processor, a faster 4x SuperDrive, high-performance ATI Radeon 7500 graphics, up to 80GB hard drives and internal support for AirPort Extreme wireless networking. Featuring a 17-inch flat CRT and a remarkably compact all-in-one design that is even less deep than the original iMac, the PowerPC G4 system now starts at $799.

“The eMac has been a hit with both education customers and consumers, and we’ve made it more powerful and affordable than ever,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of Hardware Product Marketing.

eMac, with a 17-inch flat CRT display, supports screen resolutions of up to 1280-by-960 pixels in 24-bit color and offers 40 percent more viewing area than a typical 15-inch CRT display. Available in three standard configurations, eMac comes with either a CD-ROM drive; a Combo (DVD-ROM/CD-RW) optical drive for watching DVD movies and burning CDs that can record CD-R discs twice as fast as with previous models; or Apple’s revolutionary SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW), which records DVD, CD-R and CD-RW discs twice as fast as previous models.

eMac includes a built-in antenna and card slot to support AirPort Extreme 802.11g wireless networking. AirPort Extreme can transmit data at up to 54 Mbps, almost five times the data rate of previous wireless technologies, yet is fully compatible with the millions of 802.11b Wi-Fi devices currently used around the world*. eMac also includes built-in 10/100BASE-T Ethernet and 56K V.92 modem allowing customers to stay connected any way they like.

Perfect for today’s digital lifestyle, every eMac comes standard with Apple’s iLife integrated suite of award-winning software including iTunes for managing digital music, iPhoto for organizing and sharing digital photos, iMovie for digital movie-making and iDVD on SuperDrive-equipped systems for creating and burning Hollywood-style DVD movies. With five USB ports and two FireWire ports located on the side of the system, eMac desktops offer plug-and-play connections to peripherals such as digital video camcorders, digital still cameras, printers and scanners. In addition to Mac OS X version 10.2 “Jaguar,” each eMac also includes AppleWorks, Internet Explorer, Quicken 2003 Deluxe and WorldBook Encyclopedia 2003 Edition.