Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ biggest news yesterday “concerned a redesign of the iMac, the company’s all-in-one desktop computer system — now the machine will be clad in aluminum rather than iPod-white plastic. Its screen is also made of scratch-resistant glass that Apple has coated for an extra glossy shine,” Farhad Manjoo reports for Salon.

“The effect is beautiful; when you get up close to it the system looks something like a grown-up iPhone, more sophisticated and elegant than the previous design,” Manjoo reports.

“While sharpening the design, the company has also lowered its iMac prices. Apple’s previous iMac lineup comprised a 17-inch screen version for $1,199, a 20-inch model for $1,499, and a 24-inch system for $1,999. Now Apple will offer only two screen sizes, 20 and 24 inches. Twelve hundred dollars now gets you a 20-inch model rather than the old 17-inch version. There’s another, more powerful 20-inch version for $1499. The old top-of-the-line 24-inch model is now $1,799, $200 cheaper than yesterday’s 24-inch. And Apple now has one more iMac flavor — a 2.8 GHz high-performance 24-inch system for $2,299… Honestly, the iMac looks, now, like the best home machine you can buy. There’s nothing else so pretty and so functional for the price,” Manjoo reports.

“Apple’s goal, said Jobs, is to make the best PCs in the world. The company could make cheaper machines that did less and didn’t look as good. ‘But there is some stuff in our industry that we wouldn’t be proud to ship,’ he said. ‘We can’t ship junk.’ For less money, you could buy junk; but for not very much more, you can, now, buy a stellar machine,” Manjoo reports.

Full article here.