New iMacs Announced On May 3rd

On Tuesday, May 3rd, Apple unveiled an update to the line of iMacs. The online store was down for a brief period while Apple updated it. The new iMacs feature:

• Thunderbolt port
• HD webcam
• Intel Core i5/i7 Sandy Bridge architecture

New iMac

The new Thunderbolt port was first introduced in the recent release of the new Macbook Pro, and it is blazingly fast. When I say fast, I mean that it has a 10GB/second data transfer speed! WOW! That’s 12 times faster than with FireWire 800, and 20 times faster than with USB 2.0!

The HD webcam allows you to record or stream 720p video. Apple advertises using it for HD FaceTime video calls.

The Intel Core i5/i7 processor is “up to 70% faster” than its preceding generation. This makes for faster computing that is clearly noticeable when working with applications such as Mathematica or Final Cut Studio.

Overall, the new iMac doesn’t bring too many new features, but the few that it does are awesome! If you already have the previous generation iMac, than there isn’t much of a reason to update for the new features (unless, of course, you are working with some CPU intensive programs).