Brand: MacNews

Verizon today launched the first 3G wireless phone network in the U.S. The service, which offers high-speed wireless connections, is currently available only in a corridor that runs from Norfolk, VA to Portland, ME, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco. Two devices currently support the network, both of which must be connected to a computer (Mac support is unclear at this point). Verizon will offer the 3G network to current subscribers for an additional $30/month.

In the wake of Apple’s new Power Mac G4 systems introduced today, the company has reduced pricing on previous-generation models. Minimum advertised pricing (MAP) for the dual-800MHz configuration has dropped by US$1,000 to $2,499, while the 867MHz and 733MHz configurations carry $1,999 and $1,299 price tags, respectively (reductions of $500 and $400). While these older systems are not available directly from Apple, they are still available from countless resellers.

Apple today announced that it has begun shipping the high-end iMac configuration. Additionally, Apple has taken more than 150,000 pre-orders for the new iMac, more than all of the pre-orders it took for the original iMac in 1998. “It’s sure looking like the new iMac is going to be a huge hit with both Mac users and PC switchers,” Phil Schiller, Apple VP of Worldwide Product Marketing, said in a statement.

Apple today updated its Power Mac G4 line with 800MHz, 933MHz, and dual-1GHz configurations, as anticipated ten days ago. The new systems feature the as-of-yet unannounced nVIDIA GeForce4 MX video card in the 933MHz and dual-1GHz configurations, while the low-end 800MHz model features ATI’s RADEON 7500.

Fourth World has released WebMerge 1.9.2, the first carbonized version of its application for generating static Web pages from database files. WebMerge supports any application that exports in Merge or tab-deliminated format, including FileMaker Pro, and uses a user created HTML template page with place hold tags to generate the pages. Pricing begins at US$69 for a single-user license, with five- and ten-user licenses available for $195 and $295, respectively.