Updated iMacs to ship in September

The next version of the iMac -- the so-called 'D2' revision -- is due to go on sale next month, according to two US retailers. In a report over at MacWeek.com, sales reps in a California branch of Sears and from New York-based J&R Electronics provided a cross-continent consensus that the new model will ship in September. Still, their stories don't quite match up. The Sears rep said the new machine would sport a faster PowerPC 750 (aka G3) CPU -- current iMacs ship with a 333MHz verison -- and more bundled software, all in the existing iMac 15in monitor casing. However, J&R's man claimed the new model will be different from current models, implying some sort of new casing. He was also unable to provide details of the machine's spec. The MacWeek.com points to the upcoming Seybold conference in San Francisco as a possible launch pad for the new iMac. That said, it is believed that Apple interim CEO Steve Jobs will use his keynote speech at the show to unveil changes to the company's Power Mac line, primarily a switch to the new PowerPC 7400 (aka G4) processor, and possibly its split into two parallel product lines, one for business users the other for the creative computing community. That said, there appears to be some doubt whether the long-awaited G4 boxes will make it out of the Apple this year, so Jobs may well choose to debut new iMacs and possible speed-bumped G3s based on Motorola's latest version of that CPU too at Seybold instead. Seybold opens on 30 August, so we won't have too long to wait. ®