iMac

Apple updates iMacs

[Update: the stores are back up and sure enough, the iMac product line has been updated. Same prices, better specs. Apple press release here.]

Apple's online stores were closed early Monday around the world, a pretty dependable sign that new products were about to be announced.

The most likely candidate: an upgraded iMac. Last week Geeksugar, a rumor site with a good track record, passed along word that Apple would soon be MORE

Buyer's Guide: MacBook OK to buy; iPhone only if you need it

MacRumors has issued an update of its immensely useful Buyer's Guide -- a consumer-oriented cheat sheet that tracks the update cycle of Apple's product line and offers informed opinions about whether you should go ahead buy that MacBook Pro you've been lusting after or wait for the next model. As MacRumors put it:

Apple updates their products in a very consistent manner. A Mac comes out at a certain price with MORE

Apple iMac: 'New and inferior,' lawsuit says

Two complaints about Apple's popular aluminum iMac line -- the "washed out" look of the 20-inch iMac that surfaced on Apple's discussion boards last summer (see here) and the "millions of colors" issue that was recently settled by the company -- were rolled into one class-action lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in San Jose.

The plaintiff -- a Texan named Chandra Sanders -- claims to represent tens of thousands MORE

Briefs: Beatles '08, Leopard update, new get-a-Mac ads

A few bits of Apple (AAPL) news worth noting:

Paul McCartney: "It's all happening soon," he told Billboard.com. "Most of us are all sort of ready. The whole thing is primed, ready to go -- there's just maybe one little sticking point left, and I think it's being cleared up as we speak, so it shouldn't be too long. It's down to fine-tuning. I'm pretty sure it'll be happening next MORE

My Dad's Frozen iMac

This is a story about my father's iMac. But it could be anybody's dad, and any 20-inch Intel iMac equipped with ATI Radeon HD graphics cards.

At the end of August, my 85-year-old father ordered one of the new skinny iMacs. A few days after it arrived, I took a train to Boston and helped him transfer files from an ancient Mac running OS 9. It took most of a MORE

How Apple Beat the Street -- Again

In the days before Apple's (AAPL) quarterly earnings report, several analysts hastily raised their estimates for the company's Q4 profits -- as if fearing a repeat of the last four quarters, when the company beat Wall Street's targets by anywhere from 22% to 46%.

But it was too little too late. As CNNMoney reported at the close of market today, Apple posted sharply higher sales and earnings in the quarter that MORE

Apple's Earnings Preview: Firing On All Cylinders

In terms of relations with its users and business partners, the quarter that ended Sept. 30 wasn't a particularly easy one for Apple (AAPL). There were complaints and lawsuits about the cost of replacing the iPhone's battery, the surprise $200 price cut, and the software update that "bricked" untold numbers of unlocked phones. Negotiations with Hollywood and the European iPhone partners were awkward and protracted and in the case MORE