Apple made good on a handful of rumors today, upgrading several of its computers and launching a mouse with a multi-touch sensor.
Let's talk about the computers first. Apple's basic 13-inch MacBook is now cased in a unibody plastic enclosure, coming in lighter than the old model at 4.7 pounds. Its trackpad is now glass for added smoothness, and a built-in battery supposedly lasts seven hours on a charge. The new MacBook even has a larger hard drive than the comparable MacBook Pro, at 250 GB, and its the same $999 as before.
Then, there's the iMac, Apple's all-in-one desktop. There's no Blu-ray, as at least one analyst called for, but it does get a new LED backlit display, measuring either 21.5 inches or 27 inches. The iMac also gets a speed boost, with an optional quad-core Intel Core i5 processor. The basic model starts at $1,199.
But my favorite news of the day is the launch of Apple's multi-touch mouse, dubbed the "Magic Mouse." Like its predecessors, the Magic Mouse has one clickable button, but it adds an acrylic multi-touch surface capable of recognizing finger gestures. You can drag a finger around the surface to navigate within browser windows, or drag two fingers horizontally to slide through photo albums or Web pages. A secondary mouse button can be enabled on either side of the mouse, accommodating lefties and righties.
Essentially, Apple is replicating the multi-touch technology of its MacBooks and iPhone on the mouse itself. It's a great idea in theory, but we'll have to see how people use it once these mice get into the field. They're free with an iMac and otherwise sold for $69, but you need a Mac to use them due to the multi-touch software.
