Apple unveils updated lineup and new products

Apple today has updated their online store with an updated range of Mac Pros, iMacs and have launched 2 new products, the Magic Touchpad and the Apple Battery Recharger. The updated Mac Pros now allow for up to 12 cores with 32gig of ram and up to 4 SSDs in an array for extreme storage speeds:

“The new Mac Pro is the most powerful and configurable Mac we’ve ever made,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “With up to 12 cores, the new Mac Pro outperforms our previous top-of-the-line system by up to 50 percent, and with over a billion possible configurations, our customers can create exactly the system they want.”

The updated iMacs introduce better graphics cards and slightly increased CPUs in intels i3 and i5 (i7 is an optional extra on the top line model) so nothing groundbreaking here just a solid upgrade:

Apple today updated its all-in-one iMac line, widely praised as the world’s best desktop computers, with the latest Intel Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 processors and powerful new graphics.

Perhaps the more interesting product releases that happened today is that of the Magic Trackpad which aims to bring the multitouch gestural based goodness from their portable Macbook and Macbook Pro line to the desktop where users can now buy a larger pad with which they can experience multitouch on the desktop.

Desktop users, your time has come. The new Magic Trackpad is the first Multi-Touch trackpad designed to work with your Mac desktop computer. It uses the same Multi-Touch technology you love on the MacBook Pro. And it supports a full set of gestures, giving you a whole new way to control and interact with what’s on your screen. Swiping through pages online feels just like flipping through pages in a book or magazine. And inertial scrolling makes moving up and down a page more natural than ever. Magic Trackpad connects to your Mac via Bluetooth wireless technology. Use it in place of a mouse or in conjunction with one on any Mac computer — even a notebook.

Perhaps the most surprising release was the Apple battery charger which is a product that sort of came out of nowhere really, not a product you would expect from Apple but like Apple they never just follow the crowd but have instead improved upon other battery chargers out there with decreased power drainage when the batteries are full, batteries which last up to 10 years, the batteries also keep their charge whilst not in use for much longer than normal re-chargable batteries.

Now there’s a better, more environmentally friendly way to power your wireless keyboard, Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad, or just about anything that requires AA batteries. The Apple Battery Charger kit comes with a sleek, compact charger and six high-performance AA NiMH batteries that are ready to use right out of the box. The reusable batteries are exceptional at holding a charge and last for up to 10 years. Which means you can finally break the cycle of buying and disposing of those toxic, single-use alkaline batteries.

Not a bad update from Apple who are also expected to release an update to their iLife suite of programs in the coming days or weeks though nothing terribly groundbreaking, if your looking for a reason to upgrade this may not be it, but if you were holding off upgrading due to a refresh…well the refresh has happened so go and buy your Apple goods!