Apple Products for the Holidays

Just in time for the holidays, Apple has lowered the price of their iBook line of portable computers. You can now get an iBook starting in price at only $999.

All iBook models come with built-in antennas and an AirPort Card slot for 802.11-based wireless communications at up to 11 megabits per second. iBook now also offers a 56K internal fax/modem with support for the latest v.92 standard for new features such as faster upstream data rates. iBook also comes with built-in fast Ethernet (10/100BASE-T) as well as cable and DSL modems.

iBook includes iPhoto software for organizing and sharing digital photos, iMovie 2 for creating digital movies and iTunes 3 for creating a digital music library. Also on every iBook is Apple's new Mac OS X version 10.2 "Jaguar," with more than 150 new features including a new Mail application designed to eliminate junk mail and iChat AIM-compatible instant messenger.

The $999 iBook includes:

• a 700 MHz PowerPC G3 processor with 512K on-chip level 2 cache
• a 12.1-inch (diagonal) active-matrix TFT display
• ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 graphics controller with 16MB RAM
• 128MB SDRAM
• a 20GB Ultra ATA hard drive; and
• a CD-ROM optical drive

www.apple.com

Canon Elura 40MC
A perfect complement to the iBook is Canon’s new Elura 40MC Mini DV Camcorder. Certified for use with the iMovie 2 software, the 40MC is a best bet. This tiny camcorder fits into the palm of your hand and features 10x optical and 200x digital zoom, and can shoot both high quality video and digital still images. $1000. www.usa.canon.com

Apple iPod
Apple's innovative and excellent iPod portable MP3 player has enjoyed a huge following ever since it was introduced, but one of the device's biggest drawbacks has been its incompatibility with Windows PCs -- if you wanted to use an iPod, you had to have a Mac to load it with music. Now Apple has a Windows version of the iPod that's the exact same player except it syncs up with any Windows PC running Musicmatch MP3 software (a copy comes with the Windows iPod). The 5 gigabyte iPod for Windows is $299, 10GB version is $399, and the big daddy 20GB version is $499. www.apple.com

Office v. X for Mac
Microsoft Office v. X for Mac includes a suite of programs — Microsoft Word X, Microsoft Entourage X, Microsoft Excel X, and Microsoft PowerPoint X — all designed specifically for Mac OS X with new Aqua interfaces. Office v. X supports all your favorite Mac OS X features and technologies such as the Dock, sheets (a new way to display dialog boxes), and Quartz technology for stunning graphics. $499. For more information visit http://www.microsoft.com/mac/officex/default.asp

Epson Stylus C82
The Epson Stylus C82 is Epson's new general-purpose, "work horse" color ink jet printer. Great for text and photos, the big news is a more robust formula of Epson's exclusive DuraBrite inks - enables output to resist moisture and fading for up 80 years! It’s also Epson's fastest desktop ink jet printer to date - up to 22 pages per minute. Creates great looking text documents and photos - even on plain paper - plus individual ink cartridges for better ink yield = lower cost of ownership. A great gift for the holidays, it sells for only $149. www.epson.com