Good news iMac fans. Apple is refreshing the iMac lineup today, with prices starting at $1,199 for the 21.5-inch (1,920 x 1,080 pixel IPS panel) model with new 2.5GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor and 512MB of AMD Radeon HD 6750M graphics.

After that prices go up to $1,999 for a 27-inch (2,560 x 1,440 IPS) model with 3.1GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 CPU and 1GB of AMD Radeon HD 6970M graphics, or optional 3.4GHz quad-core Core i7 processor and 2GB of HD 6970M graphics.

Looks like Intel will be re-entering the tablet market this year with Google’s operating system, Android. Some reports indicate that Intel will announce the release of Intel Android tablets later this year. Their plan is called PRC Plus, and will have Intel introducing Android 3.0 on tablets powered by their processors.

According to sources, Acer, Asus and Lenovo have agreed to start the plans for new products according to the Intel PRC Plus plan in the second half of this year and Cisco also plans to introduce products with Intel Oak Trail chips and Android 3.0.

According to tips from part suppliers, ASUS and Intel are planning a low-cost netbook that would help minimize the impact of tablets like the iPad. The netbook would cost $250 or as little as $200. Cost savings would come from the choice of OS: the netbook would run Chrome OS or Android 3.0, and in doing so drop the Windows 7 license.

We aren’t sure which of the two platfoms would be used, but it would probably be Chrome. The netbook would be for the second half of the year. It will be interesting to see how this plays out? Can they really hurt iPad sales? Maybe just a little, but iPad won’t even notice.

Intel has announced the Classmate+ PC developed with Lenovo. Much like it’s earlier versions, this model targets the educational segment and students in grades K through 8. The PC sits inside a rugged, drop-resistant exterior and it sports a spill-resistant keyboard.

In other words, it will survive a child’s use. The Classmate+ features an Atom N455 CPU accompanied by the Intel NM10 Express Chipset and comes with either 1 or 2 GB RAM. Lenovo adds a choice of storage with a 16GB SSD unit or 250GB HDD as available options.

The previous generation of SSDs, at around 280MBps read speeds, are pretty sweet, but now Intel is announcing its new 510 Series SSDs, which up the ante. The Marvell-controlled flash storage drives will zip data around at a rate of 500MB per second and boast write speeds of 315MBps.

The 510 SSDs feature a 6Gbps SATA interface, which ups the performance greatly. Bulk prices for the 250GB SSD 510 will cost you $584, while the slower (450MBps read, 210MBps write) 120GB model will cost you $284.

Could Apple be ready to add MacBook Pro notebooks in a black color? We don’t have any official word on this happening, but Intel’s latest advertisement promoting the 2nd generation of Intel Core processors shows a black notebook that looks like Apple’s MacBook in black.

Apple has offered earlier versions of its MacBook in black, so it’s certainly possible. But who knows. This is just an ad and Intel can take some liberties if they like. It sure makes you wonder though.

This one will make you angry if you want every bit of power from your CPU. Intel is asking customers to pay extra if they want to unleash the full power of their store-bought cpus. An Engadget reader was at Best Buy when he spotted this $50 card. Intel websites confirm it. The card lets you download software to unlock extra threads and cache on the new Pentium G6951 processor.

Hardware.info got themselves an early sample of the chip and it’s a full 1MB of L3 cache that’s enabled plus HyperThreading support. Chip companies already sell hardware-locked chips, so this isn’t new. The process is called binning, but binned chips are usually sold with cores or cache locked because that part of their chips turned are defective after printing.

If you have been waiting for the Boxee Box, your wait is almost over. Pre-orders start today. In other news, it no longer has an NVIDIA Tegra 2 under the hood. Boxee has switched to the Intel Atom CE4100. The company had said that it expected the Box to hit the streets at under $200, but now it is $229.

Intel’s CE4100 processor is the same one found inside Logitech’s Google TV box. So now your Boxee will be able to handle full 1080p playback at 60fps. The Boxee Box should ship in November in Canada, Australia, European Union and the U.S.

Intel has been busy spending serious money over the last few months to expand its reach. The chipmaker bought security firm McAfee not long ago. Intel has now made an offer for Infineon’s Wireless Solutions Business.

The deal is reportedly worth about $1.4 billion and has been approved by the boards of both Intel and Infineon. The business Intel covets is called WLS and the deal is expected to close in Q1 2011. Before the purchase can be final, it has to be approved by regulators.

Intel and McAfee are both very well known names in the technology world. Intel makes the processors that power just about everything you can think of from computers to set top boxes. McAfee is famous for its line of software that protects computers from viruses and other attacks.

Intel has announced today that it has made an offer to purchase McAfee and that McAfee’s board unanimously voted to accept the offer. The deal has Intel paying $48 per share in cash for McAfee stock with the total for the deal amounting to $7.68 billion.

Intel’s Labs is planing a new user-identifying system for remote controls. Once it familiarizes itself with a user, this motion sensing remote can recognize the user by the way he uses it. It takes accelerometer readings every 100 nanoseconds, building a data set about each person, which is then applied the next time you use the remote.

It still needs some work as accuracy rates are still well below 100 percent, but they hope to improve on that and probably deliver some targeted advertising to boot if history is any indication.

Alienware has now added Intel’s Core i7 processor to their M11x gaming notebook, which also features NVIDIA Optimus graphics that can easily switch between discrete and integrated graphics.

Some other specs include an 11.6 inch LCD display, capable of playing all games and media in HD at 720p, up to 8GB of RAM, and your choice of hard drives or solid state drives. If you want to game on a notebook, Alienware is the name to look at.

A product roadmap leaked late last week from Intel that shows the chipmaker is set to launched a new Core i5 part this fall. The new part is called the Core i5-580M and will reportedly replace the 540M CPU.

The new 580M CPU will run at 2.66GHz. It will consumer 35W of power and will feature Turbo Boost technology. With Turbo Boost, that CPU is said to be able to hit 3.33GHz.

Intel has always been worried that the robust sales and popularity of the Atom line of CPUs would draw buyers away from its more profitable and powerful CPUs. This fear lead to the Atom processors getting a screen size limit of 10.2-inches.

DigiTimes reports that Intel is lifting that screen size limitation on the new Atom N550. The N550 is a dual-core CPU set for release in the second half of the year.

Mac Fans have been crying for an update to the beloved lie of MacBook notebooks for a long time now. Some sources claim that Apple fans can blame Acer for at least some of the delay after the company snapped up most all of the new Intel Core 2010 processors.

That processor backorder is over now and new rumors coming from Australia are surfacing pointing to next Tuesday for the long waited update. At the same time, the 15-inch MacBook Pro models have been pulled from Best Buy websites here in the US.