Apple eMac

The eMac, short for \"education Mac\", was a Macintosh desktop computer made by Apple Computer. It was originally aimed at the education market, then available as a cheaper, mass market option over Apple's second generation iMac. more...

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The eMac is a white all-in-one ergonomic design closely resembling that of first-generation iMacs. It sports a PowerPC G4 processor significantly faster than the older iMac's G3, and a larger, 17\" display. Due to the resemblance of the eMac to the original iMac, some people think that eMac is a retronym for iMac, since the next major revisions of the iMac have switched to models featuring a Flat panel display.

The eMac was discontinued by Apple as of July 5, 2006 and replaced with a cheaper, low-end iMac originally sold exclusively to educational institutions, but later released to the general public in September 2006. Though no longer manufactured, the remainder of Apple's inventory is still available to educational institutions.

Overview

Apple Computer introduced the eMac in April 2002 as a low-cost alternative to the new LCD iMac. It was originally intended exclusively for education buyers, but the demand for it was great enough that it was made available to the general public one month later.

The eMac featured a 17-inch flat CRT monitor, a Freescale PowerPC G4 processor running at 700 or 800 MHz, NVIDIA GeForce2 MX graphics, and built-in 18-watt stereo speakers. The public models were priced at $1,099 and $1,499, filling the price gap between the $799 old iMac G3 and the $1499 new LCD iMac G4. Apple discontinued the old iMac line in March 2003 but did not fill the \"cheap\" price point until May 2003, when the eMac line was updated and its price brought down to old-iMac levels. That revision brought the processor speed to 800 MHz and 1 GHz and replaced the GeForce2 with an ATI Technologies Radeon 7500 graphics system.

The eMac was further improved in October 2003, when the 800 MHz model was eliminated and the 1 GHz model brought down to its price. A more expensive 1 GHz model that included the Apple SuperDrive was also made cheaper. This model was notable for being one of the least expensive brand-name computers at the time that could burn DVDs.The next revision to the eMac line came in April 2004, with DDR SDRAM, a faster CPU running at 1.25 GHz, and a better ATI Radeon 9200 video card. The most recent revision came in May 2005, with an even faster CPU running at 1.42 GHz, improved graphics and larger standard hard disks. To Apple's detriment, a number of eMac machines have suffered from what was known as \"Raster Shift\", a strange phenomenon where the bottom third or half of the screen goes black, with the rest of image shifting upward and out of the top boundary of the display. Serious static also accompanies the problem, rendering the viewable part of the screen virtually useless. In response to the problem, Apple offered a solution which involved the replacement of a video cable inside the eMac's case. In early 2006, users discovered the motherboards of eMac manufactured in early to mid 2004 were alleged to be plagued with bad capacitors. After 6 months of eMacs developing this problem, Apple introduced a Repair Program for the model(s) affected.

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