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Macintosh History
2004: iPod mini and photo, Faster 'Books and Power Macs, and the iMac G5
Dan Knight - updated 2008.02.09 - Tip Jar
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At Macworld Expo in January, Apple announced that 2 million iPods had been sold.
On February 20, the aluminum-encased iPod mini went on sale. The diminutive iPod used an even smaller hard drive than the regular iPod and stored 4 GB of data. It also introduced a new click wheel, which elimintated the need for four separate buttons in addition to the scroll wheel.
Apple was unable to keep up with demand for the mini for months.
The 4th generation iPod was introduced on July 19. It also incorporated a click wheel and added a new feature: shuffle.
On October 26,
Apple rolled out the iPod
photo, an iPod with a color display, a video cable so it could be
connected to a television, and the ability to work with iPhoto to
manage, resize, store, and display your digital photos.
The U2 special edition iPod was introduced at the same time, a black iPod with a red click wheel.
More Power for PowerBooks and iBooks
In April the PowerBook line got a refresh. The 12" PowerBook G4 jumped from 1 GHz to 1.33 GHz, moved to a 167 MHz system bus, and doubled video RAM. Battery life was rated at 5 hours.
The 15" PowerBook went from 1.0 and 1.25 GHz to 1.33 and 1.5 GHz and adopted Mobility Radeon 9700 graphics. The 1.5 GHz model acquired the backlit keyboard first seen in the 17" PowerBook in 2003.
The 17" PowerBook moved from 1.33 GHz to 1.5 GHz and had essentially the same motherboard specs as the 15" 1.5 GHz model.
At the same time, Apple updated the iBook line. The new entry-level 12" model was marketed at 1 GHz, although it actually ran at 1.07 GHz. The 14" iBook came in 1.07 GHz (nominally 1 GHz) and 1.2 GHz, and they were the first iBooks to ship with a SuperDrive.
Apple would refresh the iBook line again in October, moving the 12" iBook to 1.2 GHz and making AirPort Extreme a standard feature. The 14" iBook moved to a single speed, 1.33 GHz, and the two models were differentiated by a Combo drive vs. a SuperDrive.
The PowerBook line had to wait until January 2005 for its next update.
Power Mac Refresh
Apple updated the Power Mac line in June. All of the models now had dual processors, and speeds available were 1.8 GHz, 2.0 GHz, and a blistering 2.5 GHz. As before, the entry-level model used PCI expansion slots and had a 4 GB RAM ceiling, while the other two Power Mac had PCI-X slots and supported up to 8 GB of memory.
Apple introduced a single-processor 1.8 GHz Power Mac G5 in October. At $1,499, it was $500 more affordable than the dual-processor 1.8 GHz model.
A New iMac Design
Showing how the iPod now
dominated Apple culture, the iMac G5 was introduced in August as
being "from the creators of iPod". The new design mounted the logic
board behind the flat panel display, which came in 17" and 20" sizes.
Ports were on the rear, the optical drive was on the right, and the
computer was elevated above your desk with an aluminum foot.
CPU speeds were 1.6 GHz and 1.8 GHz on a system bus running at one-third of CPU speed, and the efficient cooling of the vertical design meant the iMac G5 was a lot quieter than the G4 iMacs had been - Apple claimed 25 dB quieter!
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office 2004 proved how important the Mac was to Microsoft. It not only had feature parity with the Windows version, it included features that weren't part of Office for Windows. Reviews were positive across the board.
There was no new version of Mac OS X in 2004.
Links for the Day
- Mac of the Day: 17" iMac G4/800 MHz, July 2002 - The iMac 'grows up' with a 17" 1440 x 900 display.
- Group of the Day: LisaList supports Lisa users.
- Support Low End Mac
Recent Content
- Quad-Core CPU Makes Sense in MacBook Pro, OS X 10.6 Causing Overheating, Overseas Power, and More, The 'Book Review, 11.06. Also Late 2009 MacBook reviewed, how to add RAM to new MacBook, 18.4in Acer notebook used Intel i7, and SanDisk SSD chosen for Sony VAIO X.
- Dumping Macs for Google Apps, SSD in iMac, Late 2009 iMac Performance Problems, and More, Mac News Review, 11.06. /newsrev/09mnr/1106.html
- WiFi Paranoia, iMac-O-Lantern, Magic Mouse Does Click, Free Clipboard Managers, and More, Charles W. Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 11.05. Also strange time stamps, problem with ColorIt on Intel Mac, and the story behind OS X 10.5.4 install discs.
- IDE Is Dead; Long Live SATA!, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 11.04. SATA has displaced parallel ATA. While IDE hard drives haven't disappeared, the best deals are in SATA hard drives.
- QuickTime X in Snow Leopard Imports, Trims, and Publishes Video Quickly and Easily, Alan Zisman, Zis Mac, 11.04. The long, slow process of importing video into iMovie to edit it, then render it to another format, is history as QuickTime X does that much more quickly.
- More links in our archive.
Recent Deals
- Best Mac Pro Deals, 11.03. Used 2.66 GHz 4-core, $1,300; 3.0 8-core. $2,299; refurb 2.66 4-core Nehalem, $2,149; 2.93, $2,549; 2.26 8-core, $2,799; 2.93, $4,999.
- Best iPhone Deals, 11.03. New 8 GB iPhone 3G, $$99; refurb 16 GB 3GS, $149; new, $199; 32 GB, $299.
- Best 12" PowerBook G4 Deals, 11.03. Used 867 MHz SperDrive, $348; 1 GHz, $499; 1.33 Combo, $298; SD, $559; 1.5 Combo, $448; SuperDrive, $589.
- Best Power Mac G3 and PCI Video Card Deals, 11.02. Used beige 300 MHz, $25; G4/366, $49; blue & white 350, $80; 400, $90; 450, $105; PCI video cards from $15; shipping additional.
- Best Power Mac G4 and AGP Video Card Deals, 11.02. Used 400 MHz, $50; 733 MHz, $69; 933 MHz, $209; 1.25 GHz dual, $299.
- Best 15" MacBook Pro Deals, 11.02. Used 2.0 GHz, $800; 2.2, $900; 2.4, $1,000; refurb 2.53, $1,449; 2.66, $1,699; 2.8, $1,949; 3.06, $2,169; new 2.53, $1,579; 2.66, $1,799; more.
- Best Mac mini Deals, 10.30. Used 1.33 GHz G4 mini, $379; 1.42, $389; 1.5, $419; 1.83 GHz Core Duo, $350; Core 2, $439; new 2.26 GHz nVidia, $580; 2.53 GHz, $770; Server, $990.
- Best G4 iBook Deals, 10.30. Used 12" 1.07 GHz Combo, $225; 1.33 GHz, $298; 14" 1 GHz, $349; 1.33 GHz, $398; 1.42 GHz SuperDrive, $498.
- Best Classic Mac OS Deals, 10.30. System 6.0.8 floppies, $10; 7.1, $12; 7.5, $20; 7.5 CD, $4; 7.6 $13; 8.1, $11; 8.5, $20; 8.6, $90; 9.0, $20; 9.2.2, $30.
- More deals in our archive.
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