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Any regular readers here know that I’m a huge fan of Apple, and a lot has been going on lately. Yesterday there was a Mac conference, which, as usual, I watched in its entirety as soon as it was made available on Apple’s site. So what’s new? Well, like I said, a whole lot.

The biggest thing for most is the new iMacs. They got a pretty sweet processor upgrade, and lots of new expansion options. More RAM, better graphics, and -FINALLY- a Firewire 800 port. I gotta say, they look pretty sweet too. I’m a fan of the new Apple style - Aluminum + Glass + Black. At first I was a little upset — traditionally I have disliked the black Mac products such as the black MacBooks and iPods. Still, the way they are implementing it on the new products (so far iPhone and these iMacs) is far better than what we’ve seen in the past.

But I digress. Apple also released both iLive and iWork ‘08. I’m pleasantly surprised to see a spreadsheet app added to iWork - Numbers. However, from what I have seen it is still more about presentation than actually keeping data…for that, fellow Mac-users might need to resort to OpenOffice, or…heaven forbid…Microsoft Excel. I already told you how happy I was about the new iMovie - completely revamped - and now that I’ve seen the presentation I like it even more. I’ve never been a big fan of iPhoto, but the updates are welcome. Garageband doesn’t seem to have gotten too much added to it, except for Magic GarageBand, a feature which, quite frankly, seems rather childish to me. Still, surely some will find it useful.

On the less hyped side of things, the Mac Mini got a refresh, just in time for my friend Archie to make the leap! Is it time for you, too? Also, Mac Pro now has a raid card upgrade option, which is nice albeit very expensive.

Last but not least is the new keyboard. Although I love the look, I am severely frustrated at a few things. One, why did they move so many of the function keys around (eject, volume, dashboard, exposé)? They were already in decent places, and I really, really don’t see how this is an improvement in any way. I’m not alone. A lot of people are very confused as to this change. Aside from the top row of keys, which I’m sure I’ll get used to, I do like the new button style (though I haven’t actually tried it yet, it is supposed to be very similar to the MacBook, which I have tried and absolutely love).

Here’s the most frustrating thing though. The bluetooth version of the keyboard is condensed, like a laptop keyboard. all the keys are squished in, there’s no numpad, things like that. Jobs’ reasoning behind this was that people with wireless keyboards tend to move the keyboard around more, from their lap to their desk, and therefore would enjoy the lighter weight. I really don’t mind the option, it seems decent, but here’s what I do mind! I am not the only one in the world who likes a FULL keyboard! I like my arrow keys to have plenty of room around them for games, and for keys to be reasonably spaced out so my hands don’t get cramped using them! And I don’t like wires any more than the next person. There really, really needs to be an option for a wireless version of the full, stretched-out keyboard. I don’t see any excuse not to have one.

Enough with my griping. All-in-all, I don’t think anything revolutionary has happened here, but some decent upgrades/updates from Cupertino. Thanks, Apple!