Apple releases the Thunderbolt Display

In the midst of this morning’s news, Apple has replaced its Cinema Display with the “Thunderbolt Display.” The name is pretty obvious, and helps keep things clear between this model and the 12 years worth of models in the past.

On the outside, little has changed with this new 27-inch LED, glass-covered display. Inside, however, it is a brand new game.

On the back, the new display sports a Thunderbolt port, three USB ports, a FireWire 800 port and Gigabit Ethernet.

As before, the included cable has a built-in MagSafe adaptor, but gone is the seperate USB and video connections — everything is driven over the Thunderbolt port — the connections on the back of the display and the connectivity for the display’s built-in speakers and iSight HD camera. This makes the display a great fit for MacBook Air users.

The new Cinema Thunderbolt Display is $999.

Stephen Hackett, formerly a Lead Mac Genius at Apple, now spends his days running the IT department of a large non-profit in Memphis, TN. He writes about Apple, design and journalism at forkbombr.net. Like all twenty-somethings, you can find him… Full Bio