Apple and education have always gone hand in hand, from the first Apple IIs gracing libraries across the nation to the countless aging machines now in place at schools everywhere. Now, however, a new version of the iMac (not shown here) may allow schools to upgrade on the cheap.

9to5 is reporting that a sub-$1,000 iMac will be released on or around August 16 with a slower processor and less RAM. The machine will not compete with the “real” entry-level iMac, priced at $1,200, and instead will be available primarily to educational clients.

9to5 writes that the machine will have a:

3.1 GHz dual-core processor (3.06 GHz rounded up), 2 GB of DDR3 RAM, 250 GB of hard drive storage space, and the AMD Radeon HD 6750M graphics processor with 256 MB of dedicated memory.

Presumably you don’t have to be a volume client to get this machine, but it isn’t aimed at the general market.

It’s about time, too. The iMac got in on the Intel Sandy Bridge party just last month with the top of the line model now packing more computing might than a much more expensive Xeon-packing Mac Pro. Intel’s latest chips are just that good. But this refresh isn’t just about the processor. Oh no, it’s a whole lot more than that.

The Mac Pro is looking a tad sad now. The current generation debuted on August 9, 2010 and are still shipping with the same hardware. Computer years are lot like like dog years — 1 year = 7 years — so this upcoming refresh is more than welcomed. Expect Sandy Bridge chips, but word hasn’t leaked concerning which line. The Mac Pro has generally been a server-sort of systems, packing Intel Xeon chips at the core. Apple could use the Xeon-E3 chips here — or the upcoming Core i7 six core consumer line CPU that lacks integrated graphics, but packs more process threads and L3 cache. Dedicated Thunderbolt ports are also likely to debut along side the Sandy Bridge architecture.

The Mac Pro might also get a slightly different case thanks to the Xserve’s discontinuation. It’s long been rumored, and pitched by Apple, that the Mac Pro can fill the need for a dedicated Apple server and the next generation would come with a rack mountable case.

The Mac Mini is also set for some new digs. Sandy Bridge processors and Thunderbolt connectivity are also both likely here. Where the Mac Pro will likely get several Thunderbolt ports, the Mac mini will probably go the MacBook Pro route and force DisplayPort and Intel’s latest high-speed interface to share a room. Along with the new CPU platform, the Mac Mini will probably get bumps in standard hard drive size and the amount of RAM. The 320GB, 2GB that are currently standard do not fit the $699 price tag now that we’re halfway through 2011.

Apple is likely waiting for OS 10.7 to launch the updated systems. Lion is set to debut in late July, which coincides with CNET’s Brian Tong’s tweets that these systems are set for a late July or early August launch. That time frame fits with Apple’s launch history and the back to school calendar. I just hope you don’t need to buy a new Mac until then since these upcoming models should be a rather hefty step forward from the current systems.

Why would someone do this? I don’t know, but the makers explain:

OK, maybe you don’t really need one but isn’t it a really cool and unique way to customize your iMac or Cinema Display and show that you really care about the details?

Seriously. Fair enough. If you’re into a little bootie for your computer, do it up. It takes different strokes to move the world.

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For the past six years or so, my main desktop machine has been a string of iMacs. As an all-in-one machine, they’re both great to look at and simple to set up and use. But the power user side of me was always left a bit wanting. And it sounds like the iMac upgrades Apple has just unveiled this morning may fix that.

First of all, they’ve solved perhaps my single biggest complaint about the iMac: there’s finally a way to hook up two external monitors to the machine, giving you a total of three screens, Apple confirmed to me earlier today. Ever since I started using dual monitors a few years ago, I quickly realized only one thing would be better: three monitors. But the iMac could not do it — only the Mac Pro could. Again, not anymore.

To be clear, this is only a possibility with the new 27-inch models, and it will not work with the smaller 21.5-inch models. The reason is because the 27-inch models come with two Thunderbolt ports. This is the new technology created by Intel alongside Apple that is extremely fast and versatile. These ports not only handle data transfers, but can carry display signals as well. So two Thunderbolt ports means two additional monitors.

And not to worry, as Apple walked me through earlier, it’s easy enough to daisy-chain several Thunderbolt compatible devices together. In other words, taking up the two Thunderbolt ports won’t be an issue.

I’m immediately dreaming of three 27-inch Apple displays side-by-side-by-side. Now I just have to pay for them…

The other aspect of the new iMacs that the Apple spokespeople say can put it on par with a Mac Pro is in the graphics department. Again, we’re talking the high-end models here, but if you can afford it, you can upgrade to an AMD Radeon HD 6970M card with 2 GB of GDDR5 memory. This can output 1.3 teraflops of graphics performance, I’m told. Again, this is something only previously seen on Mac Pros before.

And the final Pro-like addition (though not Mac Pro, but rather MacBook Pro) is the addition of a FaceTime HD camera. This allows the iMacs to do 720p video (at the full 16×9 ratio) for the first time. It matches the cameras that were recently added to the new MacBook Pros. Obviously, those two devices can FaceTime chat in HD with each other now. Chatting with other devices (like iPhones and iPads) will downgrade the video to SD levels.

And what’s this? 9 to 5 Mac hears whispers that supplies of current iMacs are running low. You know what that means. Expect the news some time in the next month, perhaps as early as next week.

The iMac now boasts Intel Core processes over the entire line. Gone are the Core 2 Duo in the bottom-tier slot. The base $1,199 iMac comes with a 3.06Ghz Core i3, 4GB of RAM, 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4670 and a 500GB 7200RPM Hard drive. The big daddy $1,999 iMac however sports a 27-inch 2560 x 1440 LED display, Quad-core i5 with an optional Quad-Core i7, 1GB ATI Radeon HD 5750 GPU, 4GB of RAM, and a 1TB hard drive. Noice.

The Mac Pro, however, can now be ordered with 12 processing cores. 12, kiddies! The Quad-Core Intel Xeon available in multiple different configurations and models will likely handle anything thrown at it. The rest is pretty standard with a bevy of connectivity options and more RAM than you could handle.

Interestingly enough, all the rumored new connectivity options are missing. There’s no mention about USB 3.0, Firewire 1600/3200 and of course no Blu-ray. Oh well. Maybe next time.

Gruber nonchalantly mentions in a post that’s supposed to plugging his podcast that the subject matter will be about the “new Mac Pros (finally, right?), speed-bump iMacs, and the gorgeous new 16:9 27-inch Cinema Display.” Either Gruber is playing the blogsphere to hype up his reborn podcast or he knows a little something we don’t. It wouldn’t be the first time.

Seems people really like those all-in-one PCs à la the iMac. Sales this year are expected to grow some 63 percent from last year, to 11.5 million units worldwide. And while that’s good news for computer makers overall, there are winners and losers in the data. The big surprising loser? Yup, Apple.

Apple’s all-in-one market share is expected to drop from 50 percent (in 2009) to 38 percent (in 2010). HP, MSI, and Lenovo are expected to gain where Apple has lost.

This is the part where I say that my 20-inch iMac that I bought back in 2006 is still probably my favorite computer ever. Aside from having a nearly impossible to upgrade hard drive, it never gave me any problems whatsoever. It was, and still is, a workhorse. I still have it sitting on my desk, right next to my Franken-PC. It’s so refreshing to boot into Mac OS X from time to time. (And yet, somehow, people think I’m anti-Apple because I don’t approve of its every-single-thing.)

I guess the number make sense: you have to figure that the number of people who buy a full PC in 2010 is nowhere near where it used to be. Aside from gamers and content (video, photo, music, etc.) editors, who really needs a big, hulking tower sitting underneath their desk? Get a nice iMac-like computer, or a handy laptop, and you’re good to go. Seeing as though most people use their computer to check their Facebook, Gmail, Hulu, and maybe read ESPN.com or whatever, yeah, you don’t need GIGAHERTZ~! to do that.

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IOS on the next iMac? That’s the rumor going around this morning. The deal is that Apple wants to bring touch controls to its desktop offerings, and will use the next iMac revision to test the waters a bit. So, you’ll have your standard Mac OS X installation, but then when you activate “touch screen mode,” you’ll switch over to iOS.

The new iMac is said to debut within the next 60 days, possibly at one of Apple’s super-fancy events where the gathered press hoots and hollers nonstop!

That’s really all there is to this rumor. I guess you can make something out of the fact that, well, it’s no longer called “iPhone OS,” so it’s much easier for Jobs & Co. to say, “the iOS… now on your desktop!”

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Most of the decals are $13.99, but there’s one that adds the word Apple next to the glowing logo that’s only $6.99. That’s actually my favorite anyway. The description states that the vinyl should last seven years, but I wouldn’t worry about it too much seeing as they’re downright cheap. [Etsy via Geeky-Gadgets]

While the December 21 update was titled “27-inch iMac Graphics Firmware Update 1.0,” this new update is called “27-inch iMac Display Firmware Update 1.0.” A slight variation, but a big one, as this apparently is altering the display firmware itself rather than that of the graphics card. This update is also about half the size of the previous one. As with the other update, this takes a few minutes to install.

Earlier today, it was reported that Apple was halting production of the 27-inch iMacs until it could solve the issues afflicting the line. Aside from the screen flickering issue, other iMacs apparently have a yellow-tinting problem. As reports of troubles kept piling in, indications were that Apple was seeing long wait times for the devices, which some attributed to popularity, while others attributed to these problems.

The Apple Discussions forum on the topic now has some 271 pages (up from 191 a couple weeks ago) of comments/complaints and over 500,000 views (up from 400,000 a few weeks ago). It has more views than all the other threads combined — by far. Apple still has yet to say officially what the problem is with the product, and why the original update didn’t fix the issue. Hopefully this update will once and for all.

Amazingly, Apple still has yet to reply to these messages piling up. Yes, they issued what they said was a fix for the problem, but that was actually before our post. Obviously, for many people, it did not work. I happen to have one of these affected Macs, and randomly, I think I’ve stumbled up an easy, but janky fix. It doesn’t solve the issue, but it does seem to eliminate for a while.

If you go to Settings, click on Expose & Spaces, and locate the Active Screen Corners portion of Expose, you’ll have an option to set one of the corners of your screen to “Put Display to Sleep.” Set one corner to do this. The next time your screen starts flickering, activate this hot corner and put your display to sleep for a few seconds. When it comes back on, it should be okay (for at least several hours in my experience).

Alternatively, I’ve found that if I restart my computer it helps too. But that’s a pain since you have to close everything you are working on, obviously. The resolution appears to work because the problem would seem to be related to overheating. Several commenters in the forums noted this, and I’ve noticed it as well. If you put your hand behind the iMac when the flickering problem is going on, you’ll notice it’s hot. Really hot. Almost scalding hot.

Again, it’s a somewhat janky temporary fix, but sadly it’s all we have now. Or you could try sending your iMac back. But I’ve done that once too — the iMac I got back still has the issue.

In case you haven’t heard yet, the screens on these massive things are failing left and right. Granted, not all of them seem to be affected, but 110 pages worth of support questions/rants on Apple’s Support page for the issue tells me the problem is pretty widespread. That’s 1,640 replies, so far. And that thread has been viewed an incredible 264,630 times. The next closest recent page with that many views has 26,852 — and guess what? It’s also about a problem with the 27-inch iMac screen.

Two days ago, Apple issued a fix for the issue. The only problem? The fix doesn’t appear to work.

It did look like the fix was working for a little while, but today I’m back with the same constant flickering and random screen shutoffs that have plagued many of us. It basically makes the machine unusable. The support board is already filling up with users who applied the fix and still have the same problem. And, in fact, the only other TechCrunch writer with the new 27-inch iMac also has had the same issue and the fix hasn’t worked for him either.

Earlier this month, it was reported that Apple was delaying further shipments of the 27-inch iMacs until it could get to the bottom of the screen issue. Many believed the fix two days ago was the solution, but it’s not. And so Apple appears to have a very big problem on its hands, literally. If I have to send this bad boy back, it will be the second time I’ve done so. The first time, it shipped to me with a crack in the screen. A problem which is also not an isolated one.

Perhaps you read about how the FDA delayed the replacement one because it thought it was a piece of fruit. I was mad, but I shouldn’t have been. The truth is, these new iMacs are a piece of fruit. They’re lemons.

A New York California federal judge dismissed a potential class action lawsuit which alleged that Apple propagated their popular iMac screens without disclosing certain manufacturing defects to its customers, saying that the allegations were too general to be considered.

The lawsuit stated that unwanted vertical lines would appear on the devices after the warranty period had expired and that Apple “internally recognizes and concedes” the defect, but did nothing to warn consumers.

While the class action suit was dismissed, the judge did state that the common-law claim regarding Apple’s deliberate conciliation could be amended to add more detail, and thus decrease the scope of the suit.

(Source: Law360, requires registration)

Coincidentally (or maybe not so), Apple released a firmware update to address problems which have arisen on the 27″ iMac screens. The firmware is stated to “address issues that may cause image corruption or display flickering”.

The results of this update, however, have been mixed. Our own Daniel Brusilovsky tweeted that even after the iMac software update, he was still having issues with the screen. Others are having better luck, stating that the problems have subsided.

It doesn’t seem too far fetched to believe that these two events are correlated. Apple knew that their product had widespread malfunctions, and as such, are finally trying to rectify the situation. Luckily for them, the class action suit was too broad.

Next time, they might not be so fortuitous.

The 27-inch iMac, darling of all and sundry, are having some shipping issues. Orders are currently backed up two weeks and the litany of problems, including broken displays and busted hard drives, shows us that this model wasn’t quite fully baked.

CNET has Apple saying that they apologize for the inconvenience but there have been enough problems to warrant a clever problem tracking website along with a Flash web app for display testing.

Anyone else having problems?

Well, to be more specific, either the FDA or the Department of AG/PPQ has to approve it, according to UPS. Seeing as the FDA having anything to say about my computer makes no sense, I decided to check what the latter department was. Apparently, it’s the Department of Agriculture. Again, WTF?

I don’t want to believe that either UPS or the U.S. Government are so stupid as to think that my Apple computer is actually an apple, but I can’t come up with any other explanation (and neither can people on Twitter). On my UPS tracking shipment screen right now all I see is “Exception” followed by a note that my iMac was held up in in Louisville, Kentucky because, “UPS HAS OBTAINED DOCUMENTATION AND SUBMITTED TO FOOD & DRUG ADMINISTRATION AND/OR DEPARTMENT OF AG/PPQ;AWAITING RESPONSE”

Sigh.

Those who follow me on Twitter may know that this is just the latest headache in obtaining this damn machine. I actually received the new iMac a few weeks ago (with no FDA problems — apparently FedEx is more on top of things), but it had one tiny problem: A crack in the massive 27″ screen. I’m not alone in this. So I sent it back.

And apparently all I’m getting in return is a lousy fruit basket. Or so the FDA thinks.

I won’t editorialize here other than to say what’d you expect? Apple was going to ignore the chance to sell another accessory?

iFixit has torn up the new iMac to reveal the delicate inner workings of both the machine and its attendant Magic Mouse. Obviously the biggest issue here is removing the massive piece of glass on the front, a process that requires a spunger, suction cups, and a sense that life is futile and electronics should be destroyed on camera for the edification of an audience.

The Magic Mouse teardown shows us that the mouse is covered in one big touchscreen – not huge news – but it also seems that the case is translucent.

The iMac teardown is equally exciting with pictures of the iMac spread out against a lightbox like a patient etherized on a table. Fun stuff.