A french consultant released a controversial new study claiming that a 30 inch Apple Cinema display increases productivity. Of course this study was sponsored by Apple. However despite the possible lack of objectivity, Apple generously provides those of us who need to convince a suprevisor, boss, or even spouse with ammo for us to use in justifying why we need one of these beautiful big displays. Very clever Apple. According to the study it was concluded that:

large screens can offer gains of up to 50 percent to 65 percent in productivity on a variety of specific office tasks and can earn back their extra costs in time savings over several years. The 30-in. display costs $1,999.

Well there you go. That sounds perfectly logical to me - but other experts disagree (spoil sports)

other experts say those conclusions are wrong, arguing that the productivity improvement estimates are too high and that using two monitors side by side would likely be a better productivity booster than one larger monitor.

via - Lifehacker

Technorati Tags: Apple, 30 inch Cinema Display, Mac, Ergonomics, Productivity, Studies

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Iomega is a company that we haven’t heard from in awhile since the glory days of the zip drive etc.. But they’re back in a big way. In fact they never went anywhere. They are now introducing the UltraMax external hard rive. The UltraMax is a 640GB external hard drive. It’s really 2 drives in one enclosure but by default it’s configured for RAID 0 so your computer sees and uses it as one big fast drive. If you don’t like RAID, you always have the option via an external switch to use it as 2 separate drives. The UltraMax rocks the G5 / Mac Pro motif, so it really fits right in to the Mac community. It is designed to work with Mac OS X 10.1 and higher and offers USB 2.0, FireWire 400 and 800 connectivity. It will list for about $449.95. Check for it in stores Sept 11 2006
Iomega Home Page [Iomega]

via - Gizmodo

Technorati Tags: computers, DAW, desktop computers, hard drive, FireWire, USB

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Apple has just upped the ante in their desktop iMac line. These are some seriously fast machines sporting the latest Core 2 Duo chips from intel with speeds from 1.83 GHz to 2.33 GHz. The new iMac is up to 50% faster than the previous 20″ model which was the top of the line just yesterday. The 24″ model display is about 40% brighter than the 20″ screen.

The new iMac is now available in the following configurations.

17-inch
1.83 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
17-inch widescreen LCD
1440×900 resolution
1.83GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor1
2MB shared L2 cache
512MB memory (2×256MB SO-DIMM)
160GB Serial ATA hard drive2
24x Combo Drive (DVD-ROM, CD-RW)

Intel GMA 950 graphics with 64MB of shared memory
Built-in AirPort Extreme

17-inch
2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
17-inch widescreen LCD
1440×900 resolution
2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor1
4MB shared L2 cache
1GB memory (2×512MB SO-DIMM)
160GB Serial ATA hard drive2
8x double-layer SuperDrive (DVD+R DL, DVD±RW, CD-RW)
ATI Radeon X1600 graphics with 128MB GDDR3 memory
Built-in AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0
Apple Remote

20-inch
2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
20-inch widescreen LCD
1680×1050 resolution
2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor1
4MB shared L2 cache
1GB memory (2×512MB SO-DIMM)
250GB Serial ATA hard drive2
8x double-layer SuperDrive (DVD+R DL, DVD±RW, CD-RW)
ATI Radeon X1600 graphics with 128MB GDDR3 memory
Built-in AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0
Apple Remote

24-inch
2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
24-inch widescreen LCD
1920×1200 resolution
2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor1
4MB shared L2 cache
1GB memory (2×512MB SO-DIMM)
250GB Serial ATA hard drive2
8x double-layer SuperDrive (DVD+R DL, DVD±RW, CD-RW)
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT with 128MB GDDR3 memory
Built-in AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0
Apple Remote

The Apple web site also tells us:

All iMac models also feature: built-in iSight camera, three USB 2.0 ports, two FireWire 400 ports (24-inch model includes one FireWire 400 port and one FireWire 800 port), Gigabit Ethernet, mini-DVI video out, built-in stereo speakers, a built-in microphone, and optical digital audio in/out jacks.

Looks like it’s a great day to buy a Mac

Technorati Tags: 24 inch iMac, computers, core 2 duo, desktop computers, iMac, intel, core 2 architecture