eMacs Get Speed Bump, Price Drop -- Last week, Apple Computer also revised the eMac, its most affordable Macintosh computer. The eMac still sports a white, all-in-one design with a 17-inch CRT-based display capable of resolutions up to 1280 by 960 pixels (leaving it the only picture tube in Apple's otherwise all flat-screen lineup). But Apple's revved up the internals: the eMac now sports a 1.25 GHz G4 processor, 333 MHz PC2700 RAM, an ATI Radeon 9200 graphics controller with 32 MB of video memory, three USB 2.0 ports, and either a 40 GB hard drive and a 32x Combo drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW) or an 80 GB hard drive and an 8x SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW). The revised eMacs are available immediately starting at $800 for the Combo drive model, and $999 for the SuperDrive-equipped model; eMacs are also available at reduced prices to education customers in the U.S. and Canada through Apple's Store for Education, along with a bare-bones model with no optical drive. Build-to-order options include AirPort Extreme wireless networking, an internal Bluetooth module, up to 1 GB of RAM, and larger hard drive capacities; eMacs ship with Apple's iLife '04 collection of digital media applications, AppleWorks, Quicken 2004, WorldBook Encyclopedia, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4. [GD]

<http://www.apple.com/emac/>
<http://www.apple.com/education/store>
<http://www.apple.com/ilife/>