Apple updates Imacs with Sandy Bridge and Thunderbolt

MAKER OF SHINY TOYS Apple has just released all-in-one Imacs with quad-core processors and 10Gbit/s Thunderbolt data transfer technology.

More of an update than a design overhaul, Apple's new 21.5in and 27in Imacs are yours for a minimum of £999. Being Apple, the Imacs can be configured to order, so you can max out your loan with the bank to the tune of £2,969 if you want the fully kitted-out to the max model.

Apple has at least included decent enough specifications upgrades. These Imacs have Chipzilla's Sandy Bridge CPUs and support up to the flagship Core i7 processors running at 3.4GHz. Many vendors were stumped recently after the embarrassingly dodgy Sandy Bridge chipset recall by Intel, so we hope Apple's CPUs and chipsets are working well.

These Imacs are also some of the first machines to support Apple and Intel's Thunderbolt I/O technology. Launched in February this year, Thunderbolt offers 10Gbit/s on a single cable that supports both data and display traffic using the PCI Express protocol for data transfer. The 21.5in Imac has a single Thunderbolt port and the 27in model has two.

Both models will get HD cameras for Apple's Facetime software, which the cappuccino company has already been testing on other Ithings. We found Facetime to be a very jerky experience on the Ipad 2. You also need to have WiFi and other users that have Facetime but the extra power of these Imacs should, in theory, make Apple's HD video chat software easier to run. µ