Apple Revs Up Its MacBook

Apple has improved the specs on its MacBook consumer notebooks, offering faster processors, more RAM, and bigger hard drives.

Apple has updated its MacBook line of notebook computers aimed at consumers, students, and other everyday computer users, including bigger hard drives, more RAM, and speedier Intel Core 2 Duo processors.

“The MacBook is a huge hit with customers, and is one of the reasons that Mac sales are growing three times faster than PC sales,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior VP of Worldwide Product Marketing. “The new MacBook is faster, has even more memory and storage, and is an ideal notebook for customers’ growing library of digital music, photos, and movies.”

All MacBook models sport a 13.3-inch LCD display, Intel GMA 950 graphics, an integrated iSight video camera for video chat and conferencing, Apple’s MagSafe power adapter which connects via magnetism rather than a plug (so getting the cord yanked doesn’t trash your power jack), gigabit Ethernet, two USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 400 port, digital/analog audio in/out, mini-DVI video output, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, and 802.11n Wi-Fi wireless networking. And, of course, the systems sport Apple’s own operating system and software suites, including Mac OS X 10.4.9 Tiger, Safari, Mail, iChat, Front Row, Photo Booth, and Apple’s iLife ‘06 application suite.

Three basic MacBook configurations are available. A white $1,099 model sports a 2 GHz Intel Core 2 CPU, 1 GB of RAM, an 80 GB hard drive, a combo DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive, while one step higher on the ladder finds a white, $1,299 MacBook with a 2.16 GHz VPU, a 120 GB hard drive, and an 8×double-layer DVD burner. But if you want the sleek black MacBook, you’ve got to look to $1,499 model, which also sports a 160 GB hard drive.

All models are available now, with build-to-order options including hard drive upgrades (up to 200 GB, additional RAM, USB modems, video and power adapters, and Apple applications like Final Cut Express, Aperture, iWork, and Logic Express.