ON WISH LIST FOR THE NEXT iMAC

FLOWER POWER

If you're a Mac geek like yours truly, tidbits like this from Appleinsider are like Halloween candy to a five year old.  They've got some enticing rumors on the next generation of Apple iMacs.  Here's a taste:

"AppleInsider has learned that Apple's popular line of iMac personal computers are about to undergo a substantial facelift that will showcase striking new industrial designs aimed at leaving both competitors and onlookers smitten.

People familiar with the matter say the Cupertino-based Mac maker has called upon its award-winning design chief Jonathan Ive and his team to cut the fat from the the current iMac line and outfit a pair of new Core 2 Duo-based models in a form factor that will be both slimmer and sleeker than today's offerings."

The bit that prompted this post though, was what followed:

"For Apple, the impending iMac makeover will represent the first major industrial design overhaul to hit its flagship all-in-one consumer desktop line in nearly three years.

The last eye candy to accompany an iMac update came back in August of 2004, when the company retired its "sunflower" iMac G4 design while introducing the portrait-style iMac G5."

For the record, I remain a big fan of the "sunflower" design. 

That iMac made the cover of Time in it's day.  There's a great bit in here where Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ives are walking through the Jobs' garden, and Steve is describing what he'd like the iMac to look like:

"Why have a flat display if you're going to glom all this stuff on its back? Why stand a computer on its side when it really wants to be horizontal and on the ground? Let each element be what it is, be true to itself."

Instead of looking like the old iMac, the thing should look more like the flowers in the garden. Jobs said, "It should look like a sunflower."

The rest, as they say, is computer design history.

Like most Mac geeks, I have almost an endless list of products and features I'd like to see from Apple.

But a revamped, skinnier, Sunflower design in an Intel Mac would be pretty high on the list.

I don't even care if it follows on the old design.  I just want the very cool, articulated arm.

The picture on the left doesn't do it justice. 

The thrilling moment came when one actually moved a screen around with just one finger.  It was as if the thing hovered. 

And for a brief moment, just a very brief moment, you felt that the computer worked for you rather than the other way round.

Magic.