BIOS: Technology Means Business

Cupertino-based Apple has today officially unveiled its new 17-inch MacBook Pro laptop featuring the Intel Core Duo processor and an all-new system architecture that delivers up to five times the performance of the PowerBook G4.

The new 17-inch MacBook Pro features a stunning aluminium enclosure just 25.4mm thin, weighs only 3kg, includes a built-in iSight video camera for video conferencing on-the-go, and the Front Row media experience with Apple Remote. The new 17-inch MacBook Pro also features a MagSafe Power Adapter, invented by Apple especially for mobile users.

The new 17-inch MacBook Pro includes a 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo processor, which is up to five times faster than the 17-inch PowerBook G4, running industry standard benchmarks and offers an all new system architecture including a 667 MHz front-side bus that is four times as fast as the PowerBook G4. There’s also 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM memory expandable to 2GB, again twice as fast as the PowerBook G4. The screen has a native resolution of 1680x1050 pixels and 300cd/m2 brightness, up from 1440x900 pixels on the 15-inch model (from £1429).

Every new 17-inch MacBook Pro includes the same Apple innovations as the 15-inch MacBook Pro including a built-in iSight video camera for video conferencing on-the-go using Apple’s iChat AV, or recording a video Podcast or iMovie using iLife ‘06.

Every MacBook Pro also includes Photo Booth, Apple’s fun-to-use application that lets you take quick snapshots with the built-in iSight video camera, add entertaining visual effects and share their pictures with the touch of a button. Featuring Apple’s breakthrough Front Row media experience, MacBook Pro gives you a simple way to enjoy your digital lifestyle content including music, photos and videos from across the room using the Apple Remote.

With Front Row you can effortlessly access shared iTunes playlists, iPhoto libraries and video via Bonjour, Apple’s zero configuration wireless networking built into Mac OS X.

Every MacBook Pro comes with Apple’s MagSafe Power Adapter, designed especially for mobile users that makes charging the laptop’s battery easier than ever by magnetically coupling the power cord to the MacBook Pro. The MagSafe Power Adapter safely disconnects from the laptop when there is strain on the power cord, preventing the system from falling off its work surface. Every MacBook Pro also includes Apple’s Sudden Motion Sensor that is designed to protect the hard disk drive in case of a fall.

Designed for business and creative professionals, the new 17-inch MacBook Pro includes a 36 per cent brighter display to make reading text and viewing images even easier and an ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 PCI Express graphics with 256MB of dedicated GDDR3 graphics memory for demanding professional applications, and a Scrolling TrackPad to easily scroll through long Web pages or pan across large photographs.

Providing industry-leading connectivity and high-performance I/O, every new 17-inch MacBook Pro also includes a FireWire 800 port, FireWire 400 port, three USB 2.0 ports, optical and digital audio input and output, built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate), and integrated AirPort Extreme 54Mbit/s 802.11g WiFi wireless networking.

Every MacBook Pro includes iLife ‘06, the next generation of Apple’s suite of digital lifestyle applications featuring iPhoto, iMovie HD, iDVD, GarageBand and iWeb, a new iLife application that makes it super-easy to create Web sites with photos, blogs and Podcasts and publish them on .Mac for viewing by anyone on the Internet with just a single click. All the iLife ‘06 applications run natively on the new Intel-based MacBook Pros for maximum performance.

Every MacBook Pro also comes with the latest release of Apple’s most advanced operating system, Mac OS X version 10.4.6 ‘Tiger’ including Safari, Mail, iCal, iChat AV, Front Row and Photo Booth, running natively on Apple’s Intel-based laptop line.

Mac OS X Tiger includes an innovative software translation technology called Rosetta that lets you run most Mac OS X PowerPC applications seamlessly. Intel-based Mac customers have more than 1500 Universal applications to choose from and the list is growing each day with hundreds of developers including Adobe, Quark and IBM’s Lotus division announcing support for Mac OS X Intel-based applications.

An updated list of Universal applications for Mac OS X is available at http://guide.apple.com/universal.

The new 17-inch MacBook Pro will begin shipping next week through the Apple Store. Prices start at £1999.

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