In this line of work, there's really nothing quite like the all-too-occasional experience of opening a box from Apple, and unveiling the shiny wonders squirreled away inside. In fact, it's the only event that never fails to draw all and sundry AJB staff from throughout the office into the Labs to catch a glimpse of what the tech company with only 3 percent market share worldwide has managed to innovate this time.

A stunning design backed up by great performance and good value for money.

Still one of the best examples of laptop design in the market, but there are compromises

Eye-catching and very well designed, the new iMac is an excellent all-in-one PC system.

It's a little ironic that every new version of Mac OS comes closer to Windows when you consider that Microsoft was originally accused of hijacking Apple's interface. Apple claims to have put 150 new features into Panther, but the two it highlights first are improvements to Finder and the new Exposé[alt+0233 in courier new]. The improvements to Finder bring it one step closer to the Windows menu system, which since 95 has been superior to Apple's. The new one click-reveals-all Finder was sorely needed and makes Panther much easier to navigate than its predecessors.

Beautifully engineered and constructed, the Mac Pro is also the fastest PC we’ve ever seen by some margin.

For those users after the shift away from a Microsoft world to an OS X platform, Apple have got a deal for you. Starting at a mere $1699, you can pick up an G4 iBook capable of more than just entertainment uses.

After all the media speculation, Apple has finally dipped its toe into the world of mobile video with the launch of the new iPod.

Eighteen months after the release of Panther, Apple's Mac OS X 10.4, codenamed Tiger, is finally here, and it has been well worth the wait.

Apple and style are synonymous and the rounded lines and gloss white plastic chassis add to its durability and looks. Its slot-mounting combo DVD-ROM/CD-RW means there are no moving parts to break off in accidents, and serve to provide additional storage space should the comparatively small 30GB hard disk not be enough room for your files.

While you might not immediately think of Apple when it comes to business workstations, the iMac is a solid self-contained package, and does appeal to this market.

We heard that Apple may be changing its slogan from “Think Different” to “CONFORM!”

In the sub-$2,000 category, we thought it would be negligent to leave Apple, and its popular eMac, out of the running. While we can't benchmark it head to head with the PCs, at least we can compare the features and see what alternatives there are to mainstream PCs in the world. Interestingly, the eMac (as its prefix implies) was originally intended for the education market, but it proved to be such a success it was cut loose into the broader retail market.

The iPod Nano has been refined, and its larger capacity and sleek styling makes it more appealing than ever.

We never thought we’d see it happen, but now you can run Windows XP natively on a Mac.

Few people were expecting an iPod like this to arrive so soon after the iPod Shuffle.

Apple’s 17-inch PowerBook G4 is a thing of beauty, shaming the other 17- inch notebooks with its size, weight and design – perhaps with the exception of the ASUS.

Like clowns piling out of the other kind of Mini, you’ll be similarly surprised at how much Apple has managed to squeeze into the Mac mini.

Coming in at the ridiculously low price of $1695, Apple offer a compelling unit for anyone wanting to shift away from the ubiquitousness of Microsoft and the Windows platform.

With the release of version 4.1, Windows users finally get a look at Apple's iTunes software on home ground. From the brushed aluminium and ice blue of the Mac OS branding, to the organisation of the interface, it feels almost alien in a Windows environment.