Apple has today unveiled the new Apple Thunderbolt Display — a combination of the first display with Thunderbolt I/O built in, and the “ultimate docking station” for Mac notebooks. “With just a single cable, users can connect a Thunderbolt-enabled Mac to the 27-inch Apple Thunderbolt Display and access its FaceTime camera, high quality audio, and Gigabit Ethernet, FireWire 800, USB 2.0 and Thunderbolt ports. Designed specifically for Mac notebooks, the new display features an elegant, thin, aluminum and glass enclosure, and includes a MagSafe connector that charges your MacBook Pro or MacBook Air.”

With a 16:9 edge-to-edge glass design, the Thunderbolt Display uses IPS technology to provide an ultra wide 178 degree viewing angle. Any Thunderbolt-enabled Mac notebook can dock with the display to quickly create a full-fledged desktop solution. The Thunderbolt Display includes a built-in FaceTime HD video camera for video conferencing, a 2.1 speaker system for high quality audio, an integrated MagSafe charger to keep Mac notebooks charged, three USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port, one Gigabit Ethernet port and a Thunderbolt port for daisy chaining up to five additional Thunderbolt devices.

Featuring two bi-directional channels with transfer speeds up to an amazing 10Gbps each, each Thunderbolt port delivers PCI Express directly to external peripherals such as high performance storage and RAID arrays, supports DisplayPort for high resolution displays and works with existing adapters for HDMI, DVI and VGA displays.

The new Thunderbolt Display will be available within the next 60 days through the Apple Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $999 (US). The Apple Thunderbolt Display requires a Mac with a Thunderbolt I/O port.