New iMacs: Apple introduced a new line of iMacs with CD-RW drives and iTunes. With fast new PowerPC G3 processors running at up to 600 MHz, up to 40 GB hard drives, FireWire ports and iMovie software on all systems, the new iMac family comes in two new patterns, Blue Dalmatian and Flower Power, as well as the two most popular iMac colors, Indigo and Graphite. There are no more options, even BTO, to get a DVD-ROM drive; playing movies on an iMac is gone - barring getting an external drive.

New G4 Cube; Cinema display price drop: Apple introduced a new Power Mac G4 Cube with a slot-loading CD-RW drive and iTunes. The suggested retail price for the 450MHz model with a CD-RW drive is $1,599. If you select to get a DVD-ROM drive instead, the new low price is $1299. The 500MHz model goes for $2,199 and includes the NVIDIA GeForce2 MX graphics card, rather than the RAGE 128 Pro card found in the other models. Apple also dropped the price of its Apple Cinema Display to $2,999.

iTunes 1.1 is out. Its major new feature is that adds support for over 25 external CD-RW drives. The update also "fixes conflicts with some USB peripherals and improves overall stability. Additional options and keyboard controls for the built-in visual effects generator are now available. For a list of the keyboard commands, turn on visual effects, then press the ? key. You can also choose to always display track information with the visual effect. Turn on visuals, then click the Options button."

iMovie 2.0.3 update is out.

Apple released a slew of new products in January 2001. Here's a basic rundown.

PowerBook G4 Titanium, $2599: 1 inch thick, 5.3 pounds. 400 MHz G4 processor, 128 MB RAM, 20 GB hard drive, slot-loading DVD drive, Rage 128 mobility graphics, one FireWire port, two USB ports, VGA and S-Video out, dual AirPort antennae, five-hour battery life.

PowerBook G4 Titanium, $3499: 1 inch thick, 5.3 pounds. 500 MHz G4 processor, 256 MB RAM, 30 GB hard drive, slot-loading DVD drive, Rage 128 mobility graphics, one FireWire port, two USB ports, VGA and S-Video out, dual AirPort antennae, five-hour battery life.

Power Mac G4, $1699: 466 MHz G4 processor, 128 MB RAM, 30 GB hard drive, ATI Rage 128 video, 133 MHz bus, CD R/W drive, four PCI slots, 10 watt digital amplified sound.

Power Mac G4, $2199: 533 MHz G4 processor, 128 MB RAM, 40 GB hard drive, nVidia GeForce 2 MX video, 133 MHz bus, CD R/W drive, four PCI slots, 10 watt digital amplified sound.

Power Mac G4, $2799: 667 MHz G4 processor, 256 MB RAM, 60 GB hard drive, nVidia GeForce 2 MX video, 133 MHz bus, CD R/W drive, four PCI slots, 10 watt digital amplified sound.

Power Mac G4, $3499: 733 MHz G4 processor, 256 MB RAM, 60 GB hard drive, nVidia GeForce 2 MX video, 133 MHz bus, "Superdrive" (reads and writes CDs and DVDs), four PCI slots, 10 watt digital amplified sound.

Pro Speakers, $59: Spherical, clear plastic speakers like the ones included with the current Power Mac G4 Cube.

iTunes, free: Software to collect digital music files and transfer them between CDs, MP3 players and the Internet.

iDVD, free: Software to create DVDs that can be played on any home DVD player. Requires top-end G4 desktop; blank DVDs run $10 each.

DVD Studio Pro, $995: High-end professional DVD authoring software.

MacWorld 2001 Expo Summary:

Steve Jobs opened his Macworld Expo keynote this morning with a demonstration of Mac OS X, showcasing several enhancements and refinements to the forthcoming OS based on user feedback. Popular changes included the refinement of the dock with pop, a more Finder-like desktop environment, customizable Finder toolbars, and return of the Apple menu to the left side of the menubar (from the center). The revamped Apple menu consolidates common Finder commands such as sleep, shutdown, and logout as well as recent documents and Location Manager, providing access from any application.

Jobs touted the upcoming releases of dozens of "branded" OS-X optimized applications. Over 400 developers have committed to bringing more than 1200 applications over the course of the next several months. Mac OS X is due on retail shelves on March 24th (Saturday) for $129 and will be bundled on Mac systems as default OS starting in July.

Four new models of Power Mac G4s were introduced, including 466-, 533, 667, and 733-MHz single processor G4 processors with up to 5.5 gigaflops of sustained performance. All configurations ship with 4 PCI slots, a new audio system, a AGP 4x graphics slot, and a CD-RW. The high-end 733-MHz model will ship with Pioneer's "SuperDrive" DVD-R/CD-RW combo drive, which has the ability to create media that plays on consumer DVD players. The top three configurations ship with Nvidia's GeForce2MX graphics card, while the lower-end model ships with an ATI Rage 128 card. The two lower configurations, at $1699 and $2399, are available immediately with the high-end configurations, $2799 and $3499, shipping in volume in February (although Jobs said Apple will not meet demand for the 733-MHz this quarter, "so get your order in early").

Schiller came on stage to demo a G4 toasting a Pentium IV and Jobs demonstrated drag & drop CD-R creation under Mac OS X without the need for additional software, noting that the same ease-of-use will be coming to the Mac OS 9.

Steve Jobs, talking about the maturation of the Internet and the rumored decline of the PC, saying that Macs can become the digital hub of the new lifestyle and that Apple can take advantage of its unique strength. Apple will focus on the current digital music revolution: "we were late to this party, and we're gonna do a leap frog." Jobs introduced his new free application iTunes for managing music, creating CD-RWs, tuning into Internet radio stations, and visualizing sound. Current version will be available online for download for Mac OS 9 users without any encoding limitations, but will only initially support Apple-branded CD-RWs (shipping in current Power Macs). Future third-party models will be supported by plug-ins available from Apple in the next 60-90 days.

Jobs then moves to DVD creation, focusing on MPEG-2 recording, codecs, and the length of time required to compress DVDs. Apple's new iDVD software, which encodes at breakthrough 2x speed compared with other software codes, offers drag & drop creation of DVDs from QuickTime movies as well as organization of DVDS--up to four per window, with the ability to create additional folders to store other movies. DVD Studio Pro is a "complete DVD authoring tool" for $995 due at the end of January.

Jobs also introduced the new PowerBook G4 Titanium with speeds up to 500-MHz G4 processors with 15.2" screen, built-in DVD slot-load drive. It weights 5.3lbs, is only 1" thin, is AirPort ready, has 5-hr battery life, and is made with professional-grade Titanium.

Although Jobs said nothing about Mac OS 9.1 in his keynote today, the company has posted a Mac OS 9.1 Update page, with instructions for downloading the 15 segments, which approach 100MB in total size.

[Apple's Web servers have been overloaded lately; you can also try this direct link to Apple's ftp servers.]