San Jose, Calif. — Desktop computers don't get much stroking. We poke them, haul them and bang on them when they upset us. But stroking? Hardly.
That's because most desktop computers do not respond to touch. They are squatting, dispassionate helpers. They do not move closer when we're feeling cozy, or turn away when we need space.
At least they didn't until last week.
Apple's new iMac does these things you can stroke it into position and that makes this design even friendlier than the original. Ever sat in front of a computer with someone, and had to scooch? You know, scooch your chair over a little to show them something, then scooch back. This new iMac, with its adjustable metal arm, promises to minimize scooching, and that's a good thing.
"Traditionally, people fit themselves to the machine. Now, the new iMac fits you," said Jonathan Ive, chief industrial designer at Apple. "I think we've got a form factor or product configuration that could be as pervasive as the notebook has become."
All this new iMac is missing is a little color. No flowers or Dalmatian spots please, but a muted beige or blue wouldn't hurt.
The iMac stood out at this year's Macworld Conference and Expo in San Francisco, but it was not the only big announcement. Apple introduced iPhoto, a piece of software that imports, organizes and prints digital photos.
Apple also gave an unofficial send-off to the G3 chip, by stating that it is not powerful enough to handle much of its "digital hub" strategy, which includes audio encoding, photo editing and video compression. The G3 is still around in iBooks and old-model iMacs, but it won't be for long.
Making a statement
The new-model iMac garnered most of the attention. Its design is arresting, and it could sell as well as the original iMac, though such things are tough to predict. Either way, as a computer this new iMac does not measure up to the original at least, not yet.
What made the original iMac cool was not its color or shape. It was Apple's demonstrated willingness to open the possibilities of Internet computing to an audience that had been ignored by the brainiacs who design PCs. Call it the Curse of Silicon Valley. Engineers here immerse themselves in the futuristic culture and create fantastic machines, but they often fail to make them convenient for people in the real world.
Apple's first iMac was different. It did for the Internet what the original Mac did for word processing. It sent the message that this technology, this power, ought to be available to more than hobbyists and gear heads. It ought to belong to everyone.
The new iMac makes no such bold statements so far, except maybe that everyone deserves a flat-panel screen. It could, though because these days, we PC users continue to have problems.
The two most vexing difficulties are that PCs don't communicate well with each other, and that they are too expensive because they waste resources. Of all the powers in the computing world, Apple is uniquely positioned to address this.
AirPort possibilities
First, communication. Wouldn't it be nice if any computer user in the house could share files, instant messages, multiplayer games, even spoken conversation with any other computer user in the house, without disks, hubs, routers or cables? If it took just seconds for computers to establish high-speed wireless connections with one another?
Nearly all the hardware required to do this is built into the new iMac, and every other desktop and laptop computer Apple sells. The company just needs to include AirPort add-in cards and create the software interface to further unlock the technology's potential.
The technology is called 802.11b Apple calls it AirPort. Business users are increasingly using 802.11b to share high-speed Internet connections and establish wireless networks.
Home users are adopting it too, creating home networks. Apple was the first to broadly use 802.11b this way, when it began selling little cone-shaped AirPort base stations and AirPort cards to work with its Mac computers.
If Apple were to do this make networking computers as easy as instant messaging it also could solve the PC's inefficiency problem.
Take processors and hard drives, for example. You don't need a lot of processing power to surf the Web, write papers or print documents. Yet we buy big, powerful computers to do this, because we have no choice.
You don't need a lot of hard drive to store music and photos, either. Sixty gigabytes is more than enough for most people, who aren't yet exploring digital video. Nonetheless, every desktop computer you buy these days has at least 20 GB of hard drive space most have a lot more.
Apple could do it. The company's new OS X operating system is built with the stability, multiuser support and networking ability required, and OS X is now the default operating system on every Mac.
It's just a question of whether Apple wants to.
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