Out on a Limb
January 6, 2007Here’s my prediction for this year’s Macworld show stopper.
There will be a totally new iMac. It will have 17, 20 and 24 inch screens as before. It will be all in one as before, only this time the height will be barely more than the height of the screen, and it will be much wider to accomodate the speakers on either side.
The iMac will be all metal with rounded edges. The sides, top and bottom will be a metal grill to help cooling. There will be no ports or buttons on the back. The base of the stand will house the ports and the iPod connector, and the power cord will enter the rear of the base and travel inside the upright and into the Mac. The wireless keyboard and mouse will also be metal; they will dock with each other and then to the front of the base for recharging.
There will be black bezels above and below the screen; they will hide the iSight camera, and the remote and ambient light sensors.
There will be an optional super-remote, also metal, that contains its own wide screen display so that media can be managed without on screen displays marring the experience of viewing movies etc on the Mac. When the remote is inserted in the side of the Mac for recharging: calendars, contacts, images and documents will be copied over to the remote. They can all be viewed on the remote, or plugged into other Macs and MacBooks for viewing and editing.
There are no switches or buttons on the remote apart from a discrete hold switch; the five inch screen is also a crude camera that senses the user’s thumbs hovering just above the surface, gestures are used for navigation and selection.
Two accessories will be available to encapsulate the remote when it is away from the Mac. One contains a speaker and microphone as well as other electronics, turning the remote into a cell phone. The other contains a lens and seven megapixel sensor, turning the remote into a digital camera.
The wireless keyboard from the Mac can also communicate with the remote for creating and editing documents away from the Mac.
