Apple also surprised observers by announcing its refreshed Power Mac line of professional computers.
The technology was used in some versions of Apple's Power Mac G5 desktop computer, released in 2004.
The same adapter also makes it easy to use two flat-panel displays with a Power Mac G4.
The adapter connects to a new port available only on new Powerbooks and on certain Power Mac computers.
I'm even writing this letter on the Power Mac I use at work.
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The Power Mac G4 systems look similar to the aqua-blue G3 systems, but come in silver, gray and clear casings.
The 450MHz Cube we tested is actually faster than the old 450MHz minitower Power Mac G4, due to speedier graphics.
As the Cube shares its daughtercard design with the Power Mac G4, CPU upgrades should be possible in the future.
Apple is positioning its latest mobile as appropriate for handling some of the computing-heavy tasks usually reserved for Power Mac G4 tower models.
Graphics power is provided by an ATI Rage 128 Pro graphics card with 16MB of video RAM -- the same accelerator that's found in the latest Power Mac G4.
The Apple professional Power Mac line that Hollywood studios would use has gross margins of around 30%, compared with the iMacs aimed at consumers, which have margins of just 20%.
Even though the iPod now outsells Apple's computers by volume, most of the firm's revenues still come from the computers the iMac desktop, the iBook laptop and the high-end Power Mac and PowerBook.
Not only does the Power Mac G4 look the part, it also leaves the fastest Pentium III-powered PCs in its dust - performing tasks almost three times quicker on average according to Apple.
It also marks the end of the line for one of the last Apple brands still remaining from the interregnum between Jobs I and Jobs II: only the vestigial Power Mac G5 remains from that period.
In fact, the only thing they'd probably have to worry about would be the low-margin mini really cannibalizing thes sales of their non-Intel, non-DVR higher-margin iMac and Power Mac products (at least for the time being).
"The Power Mac G4 is so fast that it is classified as a supercomputer by the U.S. government, and we are prohibited from exporting it to over 50 nations worldwide, " said Steve Jobs, Apple's interim chief executive officer.
The Mac Pro, possibly Apple's worst kept secret in the last couple of years picks up where the Power Cheesegrater Power Mac G5 left off, with the same cheese grating action, but a whole lot more under the hood.
"It understood from the advice that the advertisers' tests showed the Power Mac G5 was faster than the other two processors on some applications under certain conditions, but not that it was the fastest processor in all circumstances for all applications, " said the ruling.
Not technologically -- as a relatively lightweight laptop with the power of a desktop Mac, it was a marked improvement over Apple's first attempt at portability, the hulking Mac Portable.
The Big Mac Index uses Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) in comparing the price of the ubiquitous Big Mac across countries relative to its price in the USA. PPP refers to the idea that exchange rates across two countries should be equal to the relative price of a basket of goods and services in both countries.
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PCs took bigger and bigger bites out of its market share, Apple backed down and, in 1994, issued its first Mac licence to Power Computing, a start-up.
By early 1997 Power Computing and less ambitious Mac cloners, such as Motorola and Umax Data Systems, were making more than a quarter of all the Mac-based computers sold in America.
Special circuitry enables very low power consumption but large amplified power output from a PC or Mac USB connection.
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It would mean no sleazy TARP bailout, no Sarbanes-Oxley red tape, no expansion of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and no added power and authority for the federal government.
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In another era, after Apple finally experimented with Mac clones from the likes of Power Computing, it quickly reversed course as it recognized that companies with lower costs could eat its lunch in the marketplace.
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It would also have approval power over the pay packages of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives.
So, the real question is can Apple leave the Mac behind, yet still port its brand power over to the new era?
And I think mac and cheese is a terrific example of the power of those kinds of investments.
Many Republicans would love to see institutions such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac done away with, or to curb the power of the Federal Reserve to shrink the U.S. government.
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The iOS 6 makes the phone into a Mac-in-your-hand with more processing power and memory than previous versions.
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