Value-conscious, cash-strapped, and obsessively pennypinching Mac fans rejoice! According to Apple's latest press release, that long-predicted eMac revision finally touched down yesterday, incorporating a slew of updated technologies to keep the line up to speed. Apple's budget desktop now packs faster processors, faster optical drives, a faster graphics subsystem (the ATI Radeon 7500), bigger hard drives, and support for Airport Extreme.

Interestingly enough, MacNN also reports that the updated eMac also comes with a new keyboard and mouse. Don't get too excited about the mouse, though; it's not the wireless Bluetooth model with five buttons, two scroll wheels, and an integrated coffee grinder that some rumor junkies are expecting "real soon now.". As far as we can tell from the images Apple posted, the eMac comes with a new No-Longer-Pro Mouse which looks pretty much the same, minus the click sensitivity setting. In other words, this looks like cost-cutting at work, and we won't be terribly surprised if we eventually hear that the new keyboard lacks something, too. (Like, say, the letter "Q." C'mon, how often do you use that letter anyway?)

Personally, we always considered the eMac to be sort of the neglected stepchild of the Mac family; originally intended purely for the education market, it's the fifth wheel that doesn't fit nicely into Apple's four-square product grid. It was never originally designed for consumer use and has a bulky institutional feel about it that lacks a certain... warmth. To us it always looks a little like something you'd find in the Kitchen Appliances department at Sears. Plus, it's Apple's last remaining product that still uses a CRT display, so it's got a faint whiff of obsolescence clinging to it even fresh out of the box.

That said, there's no arguing with the bottom line: the fact that you can run right out and pick up a complete Mac system with an 800 MHz G4, a 17-inch display , and a respectable bundle of software for a mere eight hundred bucks makes us giddy. And the notion that $1299 can now score a 1 GHz system complete with SuperDrive, well, let's just say that we're so darn grateful to have lived long enough to see this. (snif)