iMac Update: February 7, 2002

The new iMac is not just a computer. It’s a supercomputer.

Thanks to the PowerPC G4 processor with Velocity Engine, performance on the new iMac needs to be measured in gigaflops (or billions of floating-point operations a second), and you’ll see this improved performance right away.

Case in point: we took an iMac DV with a 400-MHz G3 processor, popped in a CD, and ripped a 6-minute 46-second song into MP3 format. It took 118 seconds.

When we did the same with a new 800-MHz iMac, we found it ripped MP3 files 160% faster, taking just 46 seconds to convert the same song.

You’ll see the same sort of performance boost while tooling around in Mac OS X, adding transitions and editing video segments in iMovie, playing games, and using other processor-intensive applications.

Why is the new iMac so much faster?

In her new book for Peachpit Press, “The Little Mac OS X Book,”¹ well-known Mac author Robin Williams does her usual delightful job of making us feel comfortable learning all about a new and exciting topic—in this case, Mac OS X.

Take her tip about teaming aliases up with the Dock:

“Put aliases of all your applications in a folder, then put that folder in the Dock. When you want to open an application, no matter where you are (meaning you don’t have to go back to the Finder), just press on that folder icon in the Dock to get the pop-up menu and choose your application from there.”

Like more helpful Mac OS X hints? Visit Peachpit’s site and get a free copy of the “Mac OS X Tipsheet.”

¹ The Little Mac OS X Book is copyright 2002 (c) by Robin Williams, published by Peachpit Press.

Then translocate “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” onto your Mac for some broom-flying and spellbinding fun.

Featuring a story that closely follows the one in the book and movie, the game casts you in the title role of Harry Potter, wizard-in-training and heir to a magical legacy. There’s a mystery afoot concerning the fabled Sorcerer’s Stone, and it’s up to young Potter and his pals (Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger) to solve it.

During the game you explore Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Attend spellcasting classes. Battle a nasty troll. Cross wands with resident nemesis, Draco Malfoy. Even seek the Snitch in a Quidditch match or two.

Built for Mac OS X, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” is available at the Apple Store and authorized Apple resellers.¹

¹Virtual broom included.

Do you know how to edit or add information about songs you’ve imported into iTunes? Say, for example, you weren’t connected to the Internet when you ripped a CD, and now you want to add all the pertinent information.

We found an article at MacHome.com that not only provides step-by-step instructions for adding or editing song titles, artists names, album titles and other tune-related information but gives you the skinny on compression settings, explains how to set up a playlist, and more.

Part of their series on the Digital Hub, the article’s called “Exploring iTunes.”

Thank you for reading this issue of iMac Update.
Look for your next issue on Thursday, February 21.

If you think there’s no better way to share your photos than to pull out a stack of Kodak prints and hear one “Wow” after another, we have good news for you.

It couldn’t be easier to order Kodak prints of the digital photos you’re organizing in iPhoto. Just select a group of images. Click Share. Then click Order Prints. iPhoto will connect to the Kodak Print Service, and the prints you order will be sent to any address in the U.S. or
Canada.¹

Here’s the best part: sign up for 1-Click Ordering, and your first ten 4x6 prints are on us. But be prepared: when you show them off, no one’s going to believe your photos weren’t shot on film.

¹Requires an Internet account; fees apply. English only

iPod can surprise you.

Sometimes, when you’re listening to music, it’s fun not knowing what song will play next. After all, listen to an album or playlist enough times, and you can probably rattle off the name of every song in the list.

But with just a few quick turns of its scroll wheel, iPod will shuffle the order of an album, a playlist, or your entire iPod music library. That’ll keep you guessing.

How can you set iPod to shuffle song play? Where you’ll find the answer’s no surprise. In iTunes, pull down the Help menu and choose iPod Help. Then type “Setting iPod to repeat or shuffle songs” and click Ask.

You may already know how enjoyable it is to burn your own “Greatest Hits” audio CDs with iTunes.

But did you know that iTunes 2 (and later) lets you burn MP3 CDs? You can burn as many as 150 songs on an MP3 CD. That’s about 10 hours of music, not as much as iPod lets you carry around but much more than you can burn on a conventional audio CD.

If you own an auto, home, or portable CD player that will play MP3 CDs, give it a try. But first read “iTunes 2: How to Burn an MP3 CD” and a companion article, “How to Set the Play Order of Songs on an MP3 CD.” You’ll find both in our Knowledge Base.

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Event dates are subject to change. Some products, programs, or promotions are not available outside the U.S. Visit your local Apple site or call your local authorized Apple reseller for more information. Prices are estimated retail prices and are listed in U.S. dollars. Product specifications are subject to change.