Apple turbo-charges PowerBook range

Apple has unveiled its fastest ever PowerBooks, featuring PowerPC G4 processors running at up to 1.67GHz.

The latest aluminium-clad notebooks ship with a standard 512MB memory, faster graphics, integrated AirPort 802.11g, and Bluetooth 2.0 wireless networking.

Targeting Apple's core market of creative and business professionals, the PowerBooks include two new patent-pending technologies: the Scrolling TrackPad and the Sudden Motion Sensor.

By touching the trackpad with two fingers instead of one users can quickly scroll through long web pages or across large photographs or pan within a window.

Apple's Sudden Motion Sensor technology integrates a tri-axis accelerometer to help protect a spinning hard drive if the notebook is accidentally dropped.

The 15in and 17in PowerBooks also ship with ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 graphics processors with 64MB or 128MB of graphics memory. All models include 512MB of 333MHz DDR SDRam and 5,400 rpm hard drives.

The new models will be available later this week through authorised resellers.