New iMac Special Edition to Sport DVD/CD-RW

Macworld Tokyo is due to kick off a little later this week, and everyone's favorite fruit company is expected to debut a couple of new or revised hardware offerings. One of the two, that has been confirmed by a number of sources, is a revamped line of the company's consumer iMac line.

According to sources, Apple will bump the current line of iMacs to sport much faster PowerPC G3 processors and possibly include a high-end G4 model. "Apple has had G4 iMacs laying around the labs for almost a year now, but due to the current G4 production issues that have plagued the company for the past two years, it is unconfirmed whether they will market a new model this week or continue to wait."

One little nugget of information which sources have continued to confirm, is that the new version of Apple's iMac Special Edition will sport a DVD/CD-RW hybrid drive. The mid ranged models are expected to ship with internal CD-RW drives, and the low end, a standard CD Reader.

The new units will apparently sport a revised iMac logic board, and not a complete revamp of the hardware. All models will sport a custom version of Mac OS 9.1 and ship standard with iTunes, sources said.

Additional last minute information on the new line of Apple iMacs is due in the next 24 hours, along with info on at least one more expected hardware announcement at the expo. Stay tuned to AppleInsider for these details, and many more.