Apple boosts G5 line-up

Adding to its steady stream of recently announced products, Apple on Wednesday introduced new high-end photo processing software and upgraded its Power Mac desktop and PowerBook laptops.

The new Power Mac G5 Quad has two 2.5GHz dual-core PowerPC G5 processors. At a press event at Apple's Cupertino headquarters, the company said all Power Macs will now feature dual-core chips and improved graphics cards.

Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, said in a statement: "With quad-core processing, a new PCI Express architecture and the fastest workstation card from Nvidia, the new Power Mac G5 Quad is the most powerful system we've ever made."

Meanwhile, Apple pitched the photo software, called Aperture, as a way for professional photographers to regain tools lost in the move from film cameras to digital technology. The application allows photographers to work easily with thousands of uncompressed RAW files and compare and edit the photos using a digital equivalent of a light table for sorting and a loupe for magnification.

Another key feature is what Apple calls "non-destructive image processing", in which a master file is preserved and any edits stored merely as a list of changes. That saves file space and protects the original.

Apple downplayed the competitive threat that Aperture potentially poses to Adobe's popular Photoshop software, describing it as "complementary" to Photoshop.

Schiller said: "This is to do a whole different set of things. There's been no software that does what Aperture does."

However, analyst Kathleen Maher from Jon Peddie Research said she was impressed with Aperture and thought it represented an opportunity for Apple to attract some Photoshop users.

Maher said: "The advantage for Apple is they could completely rethink the interface." But that's also the challenge, she added: "They have to create something for that user base that is going to make them willing to take that leap."

Aperture will be available in November for $499. Photoshop retails for $599.

As for the new Power Macs, all will include a FireWire 800 port, two FireWire 400 ports, four USB 2.0 ports, two USB 1.1 ports, optical and digital audio input and output, and built-in support for 802.11g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0.

Apple's PowerBook notebooks are getting higher-resolution displays and improved batteries on the 15-inch and 17-inch models. All PowerBooks also will include a DVD-burning SuperDrive.

With the high-resolution displays, a new 17-inch PowerBook with 1680-by-1050 pixel resolution will be able to display 36 per cent more information than previous models. A 15-inch PowerBook with a 1440-by-960-pixel resolution will display 26 per cent more real estate. Also, the display on the 17-inch model is up to 46 per cent brighter.

Apple has also lowered the prices of its larger LCD displays. The 23-inch model drops from $1,499 to $1,299 and the 30-inch display falls from $2,999 to $2,499.

The boost to Apple's pro laptop and desktop lines also comes ahead of the company's planned move to Intel-based chips. Apple reiterated last week that it expects to have Intel-based Macs in the market by next June, although the company has not commented on whether some models could come earlier than that.

Scott Ard writes for CNET News.com