So hey, how about those Apple announcements yesterday?

Of course I feel a little let down. I mean sure, the iMac design is really cool and yes, if I didn't have a desktop I was really happy with I'd buy one, but frankly it didn't live up to the hype.

"To boldly go where no PC has gone before" - Where? The nightstand?

"Beyond the rumor sites. Way beyond." - The only thing the rumor sites agreed on over the last few months was that there would definitely be a flat-panel iMac, with a radical industrial design.

Okay, that said, the new iMac is very cool. I didn't expect them to move to the G4, and I certainly didn't expect them to include a Superdrive in the top model. Actually, no matter which feature was decided first, it likely drove the other one, since a G4 is required to do the MPEG-2 encoding in iDVD, and what good is a Superdrive without iDVD? Similarly, it seems silly to include a G4 processor and not offer as an option the only hardware option that requires one.

I wonder about the hinge arm. I'd have to see one, but I know that every desk lamp I've ever had with a spring-arm like that has broken or grown feeble. Of course, I have to tell myself it just looks like a desk lamp. One thing is clear though, this is a consumer and business computer, not a computer for the educational market. Apple is clearly using the iBook as their educational vehicle now. There's no way a school would buy this computer. I mean, you think *I'm* hard on my spring-arm lamps...

I'm also fine with the prices. Actually, the timing is perfect. My uncle got an iPod for Christmas and my dad and I spent several hours encoding a bunch of his CDs and uploading them because my uncle doesn't have a Mac. He's been anti-Apple for the last 18 years, ever since he bought 10 Apple Lisas for his office at $10,000 a pop, then Apple came out with the Mac for a quarter the price and abandoned the Lisa. He loves his iPod though. He loves his iPod so much that he's buying a Mac to use with it! I told him to hold off until after the keynote, and now he's going to get the model with the Superdrive. I might just win him back into the Apple camp yet.

Other thoughts on the Apple presentation:

• The 14.1" iBook - Barely a blip in Steve's presentation, this is clearly a concession to market needs, as opposed to Steve's vision. I get the impression Steve doesn't like this machine, even if it's what people want. Anyhow, they didn't mention that the extra 2 inches of screen space come at the cost of a significantly larger iBook (over an inch wider and nearly an inch deeper; only the thickness stays the same), and an extra pound of weight.
• The switch to OS X as default - It had to happen sooner or later. Just because most people I know are waiting for Photoshop to make the switch before they do is no reason to assume that new Mac buyers feel the same way. The OS is really stable, there's a lot of software for it, including the 'digital hub' suite, and considering the learning curve going from OS 9 to OS X, it makes a lot more sense than teaching new users OS 9, then telling them to toss that out the window and move ti OS X six months from now. When you think about it, those users who would want to use OS 9 are those who already know it. Presumably these are the same people with the savvy to know how to switch the default OS in the Startup Disk control panel anyhow. And then, of course, there's the fact that iPhoto is an OS X only application...
• iPhoto - Second to an iPad, this is the thing I've been waiting for from Apple more than anything else. It's great. I take pictures almost every day. I keep my Powershot s100 with me pretty much all the time. This is just the tool I need to keep these pictures organized. I'm writing a review of iPhoto at the moment, either for Fury or possibly one of the Mac publications. I should have it done on the train ride home tonight. Suffice to say that I've imported over 2800 of my archived photos (2.1 gigabytes worth) so I feel like I'm putting it through its paces. The software's not perfect, it can crash, but the power and flexability it offers are really great, with a few glaring exceptions.

Okay, so where's the iPad? Listening to Steve speak, I got the impression that Apple thinks it's fulfilled its Digital Hub vision; this coming the day before Microsoft announces forthcoming pads to integrate with TVs, PCs, and even X-boxen. So what's Apple's next big thing? We can probably expect a G4 tower speed bump around March, and G5 processors for 'the fastest Mac ever' at Macworld New York. Frankly I'm more excited about a July Photoshop X announcement. And of course iPhoto 2, which will include brightness/contrast and color adjustment functionality. Think the equalizer on iTunes. You'll be able to set default contrast and color adjustments for different types of photos, outdoor, night, sunny, flash, etc. with the ability to override and customize settings on any given photo.

Anyhow, I think the new iMac is cool. It's gone from 'Yum' to 'Mmm' and I can't wait until I start seeing them on receptionists desks everywhere. I bet the design will also make it on to a lot of professional desktops as well, especially for people who use a computer as as a secondary tool and want to reclaim both their desk space and their swankiness. How many days before someone starts selling clip-on additions to the screen, to cover the lucite border (they call it the 'halo') with velvet leopardprint?