The price of the new iMac for education (PDF link) hasn’t changed, but the hardware definitely has, and for the better. For starters, it uses the aluminum body frame that’s been the standard for all iMac machines, save the old 17-inch polycarbonate machine it’s replacing. It also gets the same 1066MHz front-side bus as its consumer cousins, though only a 2.0GHz processor, compared to the 2.66GHz for people and institutions not trying to teach anyone anything.

The $899 price tag will also kit out the iMac with 1GB DDR3 RAM, a 160GB SATA HD, and the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor that is now the standard entry-level card across Apple’s Mac lineup. All the standard ports, and the usual optical drive and wireless card, are also included.

For those counting, that means educational institutions get half the RAM and half the hard drive space in exchange for a cost savings of $300 per unit. Not a bad deal, considering most educational customers will never have cause to upgrade beyond those specs, as they’d primarily be buying the machines to fill up computer labs and/or student common areas.

Note that this deal isn’t for individual students, staff or faculty of educational institutions, but for the institutions themselves. Now might be a great time to start that correspondence school for ballroom dancing you’ve always dreamed about.

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Apple doesn’t point any fingers regarding the source of the problem, which seemed to be the NVIDIA GeForce 9600M card that handles dedicated graphics processing. Let’s hope this fix does finally resolve the issue once and for all, because otherwise Apple might have to move on to hardware replacement and even a general recall. Let us know whether or not the fix works if you were experiencing problems.

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Maybe it’s because the iMac is so tricky to find that the story got picked up so quickly over the weekend, and by so many different outlets, but readers were quick to point out that the “news” of a possible $899 iMac was in fact not news at all, since the model has been available at that price point since 2006. In fact, rather than being the deal of the century, the iMac priced at $899 is actually probably one of the least appealing value propositions available from Apple, unless you want an old white plastic model to keep sealed in a box in the hopes that it will become a priceless collector’s item in 20 years time.

This story was picked up by everybody, including Gizmodo, MacRumors and Engadget (although Giz and Engadget have taken it off of their main site; Giz link leads to their Australian site), among many others, as such serving as yet another example of how susceptible Apple news reporting is to manipulation, even if the original “leak” was not intentional. At least MacRumors didn’t immediately try to backpedal to avoid embarrassment. Mistakes in print are not so easy to undo. Tech publications: Admit it when you screw up, instead of trying to go back in time and erase any evidence of a less-than-perfect track record.

This example also shows pretty clearly what we can do to reduce our susceptibility to manipulation. The answer? Take five seconds to fact-check before you hit the publish button. Ours is admittedly a fast-paced news cycle, but artificially and unnecessarily so. In fact, nothing we report has dire consequences, if you really think about it, so hanging on to a story in the interest of accuracy will better serve readers than publishing mistaken information at a break-neck pace.

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At this point, it seems like having some graphics issues is more of a “coming of age” thing for a new Mac product than something that surprises or worries us, though I’m sure if you have one of the affected MacBook Pros, you think otherwise.

Users are reporting in an Apple Support thread that the recently shipped 17-inch model is acting up, displaying green lines and ugly screen artifacts. The problem is apparently tied pretty clearly to the NVIDIA GeForce 9600M (the dedicated card), since the problem doesn’t arise while running the integrated 9400M, only appearing when you switch to the more powerful card.

No word from Apple yet about the issue, although they will likely try to resolve things with a firmware fix before trying anything more serious. One customer in the support thread said he received word from Apple that he would have to have his laptop replaced, although I doubt they realized at the time that the issues were so widespread.

It’s hard to believe that a machine so expensive, after such a long delay, could have such serious and quickly apparent problems. I suppose you could excuse Apple and just chalk this up as another NVIDIA screw up, but Apple must do some serious testing with these machines before they release them to the buying public. The alternative, of course, is that they were well aware of the problem but opted to stick to internal deadlines and deal with the problem down the road with a firmware update rather than delay the ship date of the 17-inch MacBook Pro any longer. Whatever the issue, Apple seriously needs to stop shipping significantly flawed products, or their reputation for quality isn’t going to last.

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As rumored, the 17-inch MacBook Pro will have a built-in, non-removable battery (or not removable without major surgery, at least) when it ships later this month. The reason for the battery being locked in, rather than switchable? According to Phil Schiller and Apple’s engineering department, the new design increases space efficiency immensely, allowing the 60% boost in battery life Apple is claiming for the new laptop. That’s 8 hours (or 7 running the dedicated graphics card), compared to only 5 claimed for the last gen Pro.

There’s also the shape of the batteries. Using lithium-polymer instead of a straighforward lithium-ion, as do most current notebooks, Apple engineers were able to change the shape of the battery cells. Lithium-ion batteries necessitate a cylindrical shape for their cells, but the new lithium polymer allows for thinner, more sensible shapes that better fit the space allotted in the new ultraslim aluminum MacBook Pro case.

Finally, the chemical makeup of the batteries themselves is new, and along with a new chip that improves communication between battery cells and the computer, this allows for a greatly expanded battery life. Apple is claiming a lifespan of up to 1,000 charging cycles (complete charge and discharge of the notebook battery), compared to between 200 to 300 for existing Apple batteries. If true, the lifespan of the new battery would far exceed that of existing notebooks, both Apple and non-Apple. According to Apple’s own calculations, this puts the outside range of the new batteries at 5 years, which, they also point out, means less waste, and a more environmentally friendly product.

There is an obvious downside to all of this, namely that you can’t do a quick switch-out of the battery on your own. Instead, Apple will offer a takeback and replacement program in case you should require a new battery. That also means you can’t stock more than one of the device’s batteries for quick replacement on the fly when you’re away from a power source for an extended period of time. Arguably, the much longer battery life decreases the need for this sort of thing, but we all know that manufacturer estimates of battery life are usually incredibly optimisitic, so there’s still the possibility that this thing won’t provide true all-day computing yet.

I’m most interested to see how long it takes the new tech to make it’s way down the line into the more reasonably priced Apple laptops, and how people react to the new, locked-in form factor. Personally, I prefer to depend on Apple’s help as little as possible once the computer’s on my hands, so I’m not thrilled about the design. What about you?

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APC today is suggesting that the recently released (just yesterday, in fact) low-cost quad-core processor from Intel, the Core 2 Extreme Q9000, might have something to do with Apple’s hold out. That’s right, the theory is that Apple could be prepping its first quad core notebook using the chip, which, as APC points out, does work out well on paper, if you consider the chip’s price point and Apple’s apparent acceptable margins. For the sake of comparison, consider that Acer has already announced a gaming laptop with a $1,799 price point using the chip.

At this point, the theory is just that, a theory, based on the timing of Intel’s release and the continued presence of an old machine at the top end of the MacBook Pro line. It is, however, a sound theory that holds up to scrutiny. The timing couldn’t be more perfect for a Macworld announcement, and it’s impossible to conceive that Intel didn’t tip its hand to Apple earlier about this development, and the timeframe for its release. The new price point of the quad core processor would allow Apple to stay under the dangerous $3,000 mark.

Apple could also be planning to offer multiple models, splitting the 17-incher into two basic configurations, one with a dual, and the other with this new quad core chip. That would account for the rumors that circulated before Macworld that internal Apple pricing sheets were showing more models than were released at the October event. Taken together, all the clues lead me to believe that we’ll almost certainly be seeing this in the flesh (in the aluminum?) come Macworld.

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Which is why it’s good news that AppleInsider is reporting this morning that the 17-inch version of the aluminum-glass MacBook Pro is not, as some speculated, going the way of the dodo. Rumors of optical drive and display issues on the bigger MBP delaying shipment appear to be correct, and will delay its arrival until after the holiday season. Meanwhile, Apple is offering improved specs on the existing 17-inch MBP. A high-resolution 1920×1200 display, 4GB of memory, and a 320GB hard drive now come standard, with the option available to switch in a 128GB SSD.

It should be noted that the original 17-inch MacBook Pro was also delayed when the high-end laptop was initially introduced in January of 2006.  Still, Apple is staying mum on the subject of new larger Pros, in what could be interpreted as an attempt to clear existing inventory. Many retailers delay bringing new stock to floor upon initial release, hoping to catch consumers unaware of recent model changes. Best Buy is notorious for this kind of sales tactic, and often won’t display new models of some stock until many months after its introduction, depending on store location and stock levels. It would be a shrewd move on Apple’s part to leak vague claims of technical issues preventing the release, and sell off remaining inventory in the mean time, especially to corporate buyers who need the machines now and aren’t willing to wait a couple of months to make purchases.

Still, the high resolution display and bigger hard drive amount to an $150 discount in the price of the 17-inch MBP, so it’s not a bad deal if you’re in urgent need.

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