I've had some thoughts brewing for a while on the future of Mac
hardware, its strengths and core technologies, and how they can merge
to form some really cool products. The radically new design wave at
Apple which gave us the iMac, hasn't stopped yet - and I'm sure Apple
is full of crazy thoughts that will eventually land us the next Great
Product, maybe as soon as Macworld in July.
The wave at Apple has been synergy from the get-go. The iMac was a merge between
compact Macs, portable PowerBooks, and powerful and expandable
desktops. The first iMac was essentially a PowerBook motherboard with a
monitor on top, a few different ports, and a beautiful case thrown in
for good measure.
I expect this line of thinking is still dominant at Apple, and this
is intended to be a small peek into what kinds of ideas might be
circulating around Infinite Loop.
Make the PowerBook display removable
Imagine not having to crouch over a PowerBook every time you need to
write something. With the screen placed just above the keyboard, the
PowerBook makes a great companion on the road, but when it comes down
to sitting down and using it in the office, its not very ergonomic. In
fact, it can be downright terrible for those who don't have
industrial-strength backs. My back always ends up in a curl, and I have
to take frequent breaks from my work. This isn't Apple's fault; it's an
inherent design flaw of the laptop concept.
But no more.
There are very few cables that run from the 'Book to the screen, and
there's a lot plastic connecting it to the base unit. Why is it stuck
there? Imagine how neat it would be to remove the display at the click
of button or push of a lever, extend a bar at the back and,
voilà, have a state-of-the-art TFT desktop display! And when
you're ready to go on the road, the display simply clicks back on,
complete with an Apple-logo at the back.
Of course, with the current 'Books you can simply attach an external
screen, but I have yet to see a price/performance screen that can beat
the one on my 'Book. It's simply too beautiful for me to ever want to
close it and go with a CRT, which usually doesn't sport the same crisp
and fresh display. With a detachable screen, we could just remove it
and put it on the desktop with some kind of support mechanism, turning
a PowerBook into a desktop machine in seconds. Also, for presentations
you can control the screen with mouse and keyboard without taking up
all the space in front of it, forcing the people who should be watching
to instead watch you neck.
The AirPad or iPad
Apple doesn't want anyone thinking they have a PDA in the works.
They probably don't, but that's just because the PDA is yesterdays news
- and old technology. The new Apple isn't about taking old technology
into new wrapping; it's simply not enough of a challenge for the likes
of Jobs and Ive. They'll be looking to take the Palm-relationship to
the next logical level and still fill the box-beyond-the-box hole in
their product lineup.
Apple's Next Great Product could very well be the AirPad or iPad,
running a blazing fast low-powered G3 with a touch sensitive screen and
AirPort. All that in a package the size of a coffee-table book, about 1
inch thick with a vertical 600x800 display (or, if were lucky,
768x1024).
Add the handwriting-recognition from Newton, remove the mouse and
keyboard, and you a giant-sized colour Palm or a perfect web reader for
the home.
It's the perfect home companion. You could read the newspaper
anywhere and get recipes off the web while in the kitchen - all without
wires, without worrying about stains and dirt, and without any
significant weight to carry around.
The iPad would sport the same rugged design as the iBook, of course,
and could even be waterproof so you can read today's New York Times
while you shave or when you're in the bathtub.
The iBox
This has been a favourite among the Mac press for a while, and Apple
still hasn't denied it to my knowledge. Essentially a monitorless iMac
in the slimmest ever case brought to market, the iBox would bring Apple
back to its set-top dreams without compromising the desktop role, as it
would have both TV-out for set-top televisio
n use as well as a monitor capability that
allows the monitor to simply slide on top of the box - much like the
early pizza cases of the first
LCs.
We might even see a wireless solution, with the iBox containing both
CPU and keyboard, with both AirPort for internet and a small base for
receiving TV signals.
The size of the iBox would be its killer feature, since it might
also fit into a briefcase and be very portable. We're talking really
slim here, smaller than a Vaio. You could take it to meetings and hook
it up to a projector, monitor, or TV wherever you go.
Basically, all these things could fit into Steve Jobs' Beyond the
Box strategy, especially since in the not-so-far future there won't be
any boxes as we know them, and the raw processing power you can get
from IBMs new G3 chips lets you put a full G3 processor into a really
small package that communicates wirelessly with peripherals around
it.
None of these ideas are really radical, and none of the technology
is beyond Apple's reach. The most interesting part for Apple is
probably price/performance and parts concerns.
So what part of this is unfounded rumours and crazy dreams? All of
it. But Apple has been know to turn dreams into reality.
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