The reader made me do it
[UPDATE: Yep, new iMacs, see below for specs]

I promised nearly a year ago that I would never again write an article saying “Apple store is down“, and I plan to stick to that. But I can’t help what my readers write…
“I just nipped to the store to price up a laptop, and:
http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukstore/
They’ll be back soon!
It’s not even a Tuesday!
– Philip”
I suppose with all those iMac rumors/confirmations, and the fact that today is iTunes birthday means Apple was forced to bump up whatever super secret announcement it has a day from its more traditional Tuesday Post-It.

[UPDATE: Yes, Apple did indeed unveil updated iMacs. Here are the specs:]
The new 20-inch 2.4 GHz iMac, for a suggested retail price of $1,199 (US),
includes:* 20-inch widescreen LCD display;
* 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with a 1066 MHz front-side bus;
* 1GB of 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM expandable to 4GB;
* 250GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
* a slot-load 8x SuperDrive(R) with double-layer support
(DVD+/-R DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW);
* ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT with 128MB GDDR3 memory;
* built-in iSight video camera;
* built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking &
Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
* mini-DVI out (adapters for DVI, VGA and Composite/S-Video sold
separately);
* built-in stereo speakers and microphone; and
* the Apple Keyboard, Mighty Mouse and infrared Apple Remote.The new 20-inch 2.66 GHz iMac, for a suggested retail price of $1,499
(US), includes:* 20-inch widescreen LCD display;
* 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with a 1066 MHz front-side bus;
* 2GB of 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM expandable to 4GB;
* 320GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
* a slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support
(DVD+/-R DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW);
* ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB GDDR3 memory;
* built-in iSight video camera;
* built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking &
Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
* mini-DVI out (adapters for DVI, VGA and Composite/S-Video sold
separately);
* built-in stereo speakers and microphone; and
* the Apple Keyboard, Mighty Mouse and infrared Apple Remote.The new 24-inch 2.8 GHz iMac, for a suggested retail price of $1,799 (US),
includes:* 24-inch widescreen LCD display;
* 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with a 1066 MHz front-side bus;
* 2GB of 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM expandable to 4GB;
* 320GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
* a slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support
(DVD+/-R DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW);
* ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB GDDR3 memory;
* built-in iSight video camera;
* built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking &
Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
* mini-DVI out (adapters for DVI, VGA and Composite/S-Video sold
separately);
* built-in stereo speakers and microphone; and
* the Apple Keyboard, Mighty Mouse and infrared Apple Remote.Build-to-order options and accessories include: a 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, up to 4GB DDR2 SDRAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS with 512MB of video memory and up to a 1TB Serial ATA hard drive on the 24-inch iMac; up to 4GB DDR2 SDRAM and up to 750GB Serial ATA hard drive on the 2.66 GHz 20-inch iMac; and up to 4GB of DDR2 SDRAM and up to 500GB Serial ATA hard drive on the 2.4 GHz 20-inch iMac. Additional options include: Apple Wireless Keyboard and Wireless Mighty Mouse; AirPort Express(R) and AirPort Extreme Base Station; the AppleCare Protection Plan; and pre-installed copies of iWork(R) ’08, Logic(R) Express 8, Final Cut(R) Express 4 and Aperture(TM) 2.
I guess this the best answer to a midrange machine people are going to get. The 24″ 3.06 iMac tricked out runs about 2200USD, I think I’d almost have to bite the bullet and grab a single 2.8 (quad core) MP for another 100. Ah yes but then there’s also the need for a display which is another $899 for a 23″ACD. If I were buying a display today I’d probably have to go third party. Though the iMac is priced fairly still see anyone who’d buy that model specifically for the beefed up GPU / CPU as less the iMac type to begin with and more the MP or MBP type.
Six months to the day and my top of the line iMac is a thing of the past.