" On most movie-editing programs, you've got to play the clip (in real time) to find the bit you want. In the new iMovie, the clip is represented by a thumbnail picture of the first bit of it. You can find the section you want in faster-than-real-time just by dragging your mouse horizontally across the thumbnail -- as you do so, the picture is updated to match where you are in the clip."

Okay, I never use iMovie because I think it's for kids, idiots, and cheapskates, so I have no idea how the latest versions of that program dealt with scanning around a clip. But every editing program I've used (professional, prosumer, or desperately awful but functional) has had this feature. Usually there's a little timeline with a position indicator or cursor below the clip. You can move that little cursor wherever you like, whenever you like, and the clip will follow you, no need to watch it in "real time."

I like the new computers. But this is absolutely nothing special in and of itself.

The Sony Vaio LS. DAMN those things are gorgeous, and they have TV tuners too! And you can get them at Costco for $1,500-ish.

The wireless keyboard costs $79 if purchased separately, but it's only a $30 upgrade when you buy one of the new iMacs from Apple.

Just did a scan of the press about today's announcement and no one has mentioned if they asked Uncle Steve and Co. about removing the friggin Apple (open-apple for the ol' skool boskool) key. This can not stand, as a longtime apple user, if I can't "open-apple-s" in photoshop anymore, I don't what I will do. First the dumb-assed "MacBook" naming convention, and now Steve-O is straight shittin' on the ol' skool mac user.

Weak, man....weak.

The problem with an iMac is that you're forced to buy a screen. Screen technology moves at a much slower pace than the rest of the computer. So bundling the iMac with a screen effectively results in a price increase, as it forces you to either throw away a perfectly good screen when you buy the iMac, or when you upgrade from your iMac, or both. I have a hard time accepting that.

A Mac mini might be a better deal, but then you're talking lower end CPUs and hard drives. And of course the Mac Pro, while being drool worthy, has the classic Apple ridiculous price tag.

"We can't ship junk."

What are they saying? Junk is all they sell.

The "apple" key is still there. Its proper name has always been the "command" key, and that's what it is called on the new keyboard. See:

http://www.apple.com/imac/design.html

The only difference is the Apple logo is gone from the key. Take it from someone who has some experience writing user guides for Mac OS software: it's about time!

I'm still using - and loving - my it's-shaped-kinda-like-a-lamp iMac. Unfortunately, with a massive mp3 library, several thousand family snapshots in iPhoto and a two hundred meg of documentaries liberated via .torrent, the machine gives me the spinning rainbow beach ball more often than not these days. It is time for me to move up. This new iMac sounds like just the right thing.

Now if only I had some way to PAY for it...

As someone else pointed out, there is nothing especially noteworthy about the new iMovie, and the idea that Apple has decided to patent the idea of "skimming" (something that sounds awfully familiar to 'seeking', as in every other program known to human-kind) shows how ridiculous Apple is when it comes to its own "innovations". (which are what exactly?).=

In other news, much more important, Sun announced UltraSPARC T2, its first chip in the newly open-sourced chip market. What does this mean? It means, soon enough, that some very powerful chips will be available for ridiculously low prices.

But I'll take my solid, sleek, aluminum MacBook Pro any day over those big, extra-thick, black plastic things my PC laptop friends carry around (and are often having issues with as well)

These PC vs. Mac arguments get so tiring. I'm only contributing to it because your comment was just so stupid. If its junk then why did Microsoft have to steal it?

Less than a month ago I bought a 20in IMAC and spent abot $500 more than the new one costs. All corporations are basically dishonest. Even Apple.

Saw one today at the Apple Store - F U G L Y. It's a jumbled mishmash of mismatched metallic surfaces and black and white plastic. The back of the unit is dull black, which just looks cheap. The metallic surface of the keyboard doesn't match the metal on the front of the iMac, or the stand. The keyboard has white chiclet gap toothed keys, but Apple's mouse still sports the glossy white finish of the old iMac. The white cables linking the components together clash with the black and metal of the system unit.

The face of the machine ends up looking like a raccoon, with the black glossy monitor frame sitting above the aluminum chin of the iMac. I think they were trying to make the chin look less prominent than it did on the old iMac. They succeeded, but man does it look pedestrian now. Feels like something HP would come up with if they tried to make a Taiwan knockoff of the white iMac, but were unable to resist their el cheapo brushed metal and glossy black plastic design fetish.

If I wanted something this ugly, I'd buy a Dell and save $500.

The high-gloss screen boasts high-reflections and poor color accuracy. Unless you do all of your computing in an unlit basement the glare is likely to be an issue, and forget about trying to get accurate color for video or photo editing out of this thing.

The keyboard sucks. You're already paying laptop prices ($2200 for the high end 24" model) for a desktop system - you'd think they could at least throw in a decent desktop keyboard, instead of a giant-sized version of the one that comes with the MacBooks.

The guts of this thing are pure laptop - last year's laptop. It has a slow system bus and even slower RAM. The CPU is fast, but it's kinda like a hamster running really fast on its wheel - it's not going anywhere caged behind a slow system bus and sluggish RAM. Sort of a waste. And the standard 1GB of RAM on these systems is a joke - PC laptops are shipping with that much RAM at the $2000 price point.

The ATI graphics card is also a dud, having received scathing reviews earlier this year. It's actually inferior to the nVidia card shipping in the old 24" iMac. Thanks for the downgrade, Apple (and you can't swap out the video card anymore, either).

I think Apple designed this thing for release in the first or second quarter of 2007, when it wouldn't have looked quite so obsolete, then had to delay it to make room for the iPhone launch.

Better luck next time, Steve. It's just as well - I didn't want to get a Mac until after the next version of OS X is released, anyhow.