Apple rolls out latest range of iBooks

     AT the Apple Expo in Paris, Steve Jobs continued springing product line surprises on the Mac faithful, who are still in a delirium over the cute Mac Cube introduced last month. This time, it was the iBook's turn to turn on the audience with sleek new colours, faster speeds and larger hard disks.
     The Apple chief executive officer introduced the new range of iBooks with yet another new Apple colour that promises to attract attention. Like their predecessors, the new iBooks come in just two versions, the regular iBook and a high-powered jazzed up Special Edition (SE).
      The regular iBooks come in two new coats, following the unique iBook dual colour mode of white blended aesthetically with dark blue (Indigo) or the bright, bright green that Apple has chosen to call Key Lime.
     The iBook SE versions also come in two colours, Key Lime and cool graphite - the colour that Apple has made synonymous with power.
     Disregarding the fact that Apple could have chosen any number of names instead of settling on the somewhat lifeless Key Lime such as Glittering Green or Live Meadow, these little portable machines are stunners, blending beauty and power.
     For starters, the new iBooks are fast, going all the way to almost 500 megahertz and boast of new FireWire ports and additional hard disk space. The machines continue Apple's bold gamble on the desktop video market for the consumers which has paid off well so far.
     Priced at US$1,499 (RM5,700) the lower-end iBook boasts of a 12.1- inch thin film transistor (TFT) super video graphics array (SVGA) display, a 366MHz G3 processor, 64MB random access memory (RAM), a 10- gigabyte hard drive (configurable to 20GB), a CD-ROM drive, 8MB video memory and a FireWire port.
     The SE is available for an extra US$300 with a 466MHz G3 chip and a DVD- ROM drive.
     All the iBooks come with iMovie 2, Apple's intuitive, easy-to-use video- editing software for the consumer market. These iBooks are AirPort enabled and thus capable of wireless connections to the Internet.
     While the iBook's sleek colours, beautiful contours and a design that belies industrial strength power can match the best in the market in the same price range, the wireless capabilities are the icing on the cake.
     Although competing firms are rushing to market laptops capable of wireless connections to the Net, particularly in the education market, they have not yet been able to match the iBook's prices. This rare price advantage should see the sales of iBooks going through the roof, especially during the busy year-end shopping season as Apple continues to lead the industry in yet another big trend - wireless portables.
      While the iBooks were a surprise, the key announcements in Paris revolved around the highly anticipated release of the Mac OS X beta version, where the X represents 10, in Roman numerals.
     The current version of the Mac OS has limited scope for expansion and Apple has been developing the next generation successor to this system for quite some time.
     The new version will take advantage of the latest developments in the field and boasts of a slew of advanced features such as pre- emptive multi- tasking and true memory protection.
     It also enables users to take full advantage of the dual processors in the latest G4 series, elevating the already awesome power of these fast machines even further.
     Apple offers this public beta version for US$29.95 which includes a new Mail client and the latest versions of Apple's QuickTime player, and the company's Internet search tool, Sherlock.
     The licensing agreement for the Mac OS X public beta release stresses that this is a time-limited trial version, and is not meant for a commercial operating environment or to be used with vital data that might become accidentally lost as a result of the experimentation.
      Apple's Web pages mention that all of the new Apple hardware is compatible with the OS X which includes all Power Macintosh G3 desktops and G4s, iMacs, iBooks and PowerBooks introduced since Sept 1998.
      However, users should be wary of the possible memory upgrades, since as much as 128MB RAM is recommended for the public beta.
     In addition, the machines should be equipped with Mac OS 9.0.4.
     More information on getting started with the Mac OS X public beta is available at www.apple.com/macosx/beta/start.html.
     Apple also announced the availability of ATI's Radeon graphics cards that provide advanced three-dimensional graphics processing to improve performance in 3-D games as well as in professional graphics applications.
     The card comes as a built-to-order option for the G4s for an extra US$100. This announcement confirms the reconciliatory spirit between Apple and ATI.
      Apple's latest announcements should improve the company's bottom line even further at year-end.