A minor speed bumpette for Apple's iMac range took the machines to 1Ghz today. The 17-inch model reaches 1Ghz and in line with the Pro range and Xserve rack, supports DDR memory. More interestingly the 15" model - upped only slightly to 800Mhz and still based on SDRAM memory - gets a price cut. Industry-wide lack of demand has created fierce competition - Walmart sells a PC of similar clock frequency for $199 - and in the UK the modest specification for the low-end iMac keeps the model under the £1,000 mark.

There are no discernable modifications to the case design. Rumors suggested that something would be done to alleviate the hernia-inducing position of the ports (on the back) turned out to be wishful thinking. Even Michael "whooo!" Dell puts ports on the front of his consumer PCs, and for a "digital hub", this represents an almost Victorian puritanical streak.

We could be mean and liken the iMac breaking the Gigahertz barrier - two and a half years after Intel - to one of the charity pantomime horses that trots over the finishing line eight hours after the marathon was won. But we won't. As AMD will tell you: Megahertz are not the whole story.

Speeds and feeds here®