The New iMac Will Be...

The iMac has long been based off of laptop internals, so I recently asked myself what the iMacs future will be based off of Apple's stated direction of the laptop. They already use uni-body construction, they already offer the magic trackpad. When they introduced the more recent air, they said that all laptops were headed that way. So how will this impact the iMac?

Flash storage

This should seem obvious since you can already get an SSD as an option on the iMac. Benefit: faster access, instant on.

No optical drive

Yes, it may not cost much for them to keep it in, but they already sell an external optical drive and most people rarely if ever use it, so it doesn't need to be there all the time. They weren't shy about getting rid of the floppy drive on the original iMac, why would they start being timid now? Benefit: Thinner iMac, cost reduction.

Retina display

Yes, this is not a current laptop feature, but we've all heard the rumors, so it would only make sense that it would come to their entire line of computers.

Conclusion

So, thinner, lighter & impact resistant might not be the main selling points of a desktop machine, but there are notable positives if and when these changes come to the iMac line. The question is how soon we will see this happen.

Future of the iMac

The iMac will, at some point, take internal design cues from the MacBook Air. The guts have always been based on laptop components. It's not far fetched to expect an iMac with no optical drive and you can already purchase one with a solid state hard drive. With the frequency most people use optical drives, the external one they sell would suffice.

Imagine how thin and fast that iMac will be. The only question is, "How soon will they introduce it?"

Three great uses for Color E-ink

I enjoy connecting the dots of current technology to imagine what lies ahead in our near future. I have a prediction for color e-ink that I don't think is that far off in our future. Color e-ink continues to develop into a more vibrant set of colors even though, in it's current state, is too dull. The other obstacle being worked on is a manufacturing process that will make it inexpensive to the end user.

The first application that I thought of was the Electronic Photo Frame. This would be the perfect marriage. Currently, the photo frames look like little computer monitors and not like normal printed pictures. Secondly, they have to be plugged into a wall, which can create some ugly wires showing or limit the placement of the frame. If they used color e-ink, the pictures would look like actual printed photos and the energy efficiency would be such that they could be run by battery (because it only uses battery when the image changes). The E-photo frames will likely become plenty thin, have wifi to fetch new photos from flickr & the like, and run on battery so that they can be hung on any wall. Of course, wifi would drain the battery more, but it would be optional and could be set up to only fetch new photos once a week or less.

The next application dawned on me when I looked at an electronic billboard. The third application hit me when I was in a fast food restaurant and saw a menu that was actually an LCD monitor. Besides fast food menus, there are screens for arrival & departure at the airport, advertisements in the mall & retail stores, etc. To spare the reader repetition, I'll just say that they same advantages I mentioned for the photo frame would apply just as well to these uses. These applications would likely all be plugged into a wall, but still be much more energy efficient.

In all of these situations, the product will look more pleasing to the eye and be much more efficient.

Bonus: Aside from the current slow refresh rate for e-ink, most everything you might do on an iPad-type device could be done with color e-ink. You would be missing Video and Games, but you could have a device that does e-mail, read blogs & news, check stocks, calendar, notes/documents, e-books, etc.

Maple & Raw Sugar

We should learn to do things differently. We get so used to the way it always has been. Like complete blog posts...why should we

The way of the dodo

It just dawned on me that I never hear the phrase "...gone the way of the dodo" anymore.

Apparently, the phrase "It's gone the way of the dodo," has gone the way of the dodo.

I am free

As I sat there in the jail cell, I reviewed the sequence of events in my mind. How did I get here?

When the tour guide stopped at the Crown Jewels display, I specifically remember her saying "Priceless". She said, "This collection is PRICELESS." Any normal, innocent person would come to the same logical conclusion: priceless = no price = free.

So, naturally, I was surprised to be taken to the floor so quickly just for trying to grab some of this 'free' merchandise. I mean, they may say it has no price, but it sure looked to me as though I could fetch a decent price on e-bay or craig's list.

It was an honest mistake - no need for that billy club to the gut. A simple, "Hey, put that back" would have sufficed.

Snore

I haven't written this yet (as I type this sentence), but here's a poem inspired by the church men's retreats and family retreats that we have each a year:

Without fail, every year
the snorers strategically place themselves
at lest one per room.
Some years I remember my ear plugs
and even a fan to drowned it all out.
some years, I forget
some years, I regret
this year, I was on the bunk directly above my obligatory snorer
The year of the Drew had to be the worst
-worse than a freight train as if I were laying between the tracks as it passed overhead
I would try to trick myself into imagining that I was off in a cabin and
some old man was sawing logs in the distance, but invariably,
that old man would saw louder & louder until he started to choke to death
and then it turned out he wasn't actually sawing or choking,
but rather trying to start up his Harley.
Unfortunately, he was successful throughout the night at starting
and restarting that motorbike.
It wasn't off in the distance either.
The Harley was in my ear canal.
It's ironic that going to a church men's retreat would inspire me to want to kill another human.
Why would I fantasize about smothering a guy in his sleep?
After all, I'd just be putting a choking old man out of his misery.