The news that Apple has a new Mac Mini in the works has set off another round of the Apple guessing game online. If it’s updating the Mac Mini after Christmas, it stands to reason its older brother will get a spruce up too.
Apple wouldn’t want it looking all runty and weak by comparison. It’s a simple fact. If the Mac Mini gets a refresh, Jobs and co will have to update the iMac too! Here’s the features we’d like to see in a new version of the all-in-one desktop wonder. Have we missed anything? Scribble your thoughts down in the comments below.
Touchscreen
iMac monitors are lovely all-in-one boxes, of that there’s no doubt. But you can certainly pack a lot more in there. The EEE Top PC we got to grips with last week shows Asus can provide a touchscreen panel PCs on a budget, and they’re close to offering Apple a run for its money in the bargain stakes at least. Jobs’ team of Mac-makers needs to stay ahead of the game and give us full multitouch in the next model. Think how much more interesting presentations would be at work – you might not fall sleep for once.
New Mighty Mouse
Enough is enough. This time, that awful plastic shell really has to go. Granted, the newest model actually offers a right click option (How long did that take, 25 years?), but it still feels like something built for a small cat to use, not a human. The design needs a sturdy overhaul, and Apple can start by fixing the easily-gunked-up trackball, and making it feel like it won’t break in your hands. Is that too much to ask if you have to use it all day?
Blu-ray
We said it yesterday, and we’ll say it again: let’s have some next-gen tech to go with an exorbitant Apple price tag. The iMac screen is perfect for playing movies on – let’s just have them at a higher resolution. Jobs needs to get a move on, sort out the rights and wheel out Blu-ray already: we want some future-proofing if it’s going to cost us so much.
NVIDIA graphics cards
Apple managed to squeeze powerful NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics cards into their entire new MacBook range, so they’ve got to go in their workhorse desktop models too. The new MacBook Pro even packs two of NVIDIA’s chips, so we figure dual GPUs of the highest power must be on the cards for the iMac. How about three though? That way, you can edit 10 videos at a time, or show off Leopard’s whizzy graphical effects without breaking a sweat.
Intel Core 7
Psshh, Core 2 Duo. That’s so 2006. Intel’s blindingly fast dual core processors are a crucial part of the current Mac range’s success, but they’ve been knocking around for some time now. Intel’s coming out with a new chip, the Core i7, in just a few weeks, and it smashes previous benchmarks by some distance. Three models are coming out, and while the most powerful would surely have to be reserved for the Mac Pro, given the two companies’ cordial relations, fingers crossed we’ll be seeing one version in iMacs very soon.
I’d like to see new mighty mouse, definitely. Personally, I loved mine, especially the “squeeze” function, the way the scroll ball only clicked when it had power, and the fact it’d work happily on just one AA battery (albeit not for long. The love affair ended when the trackball died the death two weeks out of warranty. I still have a Microsoft Intellimouse with a functioning scroll wheel, and that’s been used on my PCs for nearly 8 years!
I’ve had a 24-inch iMac for about eight months and though it’s always been pretty quick, it has been getting a bit sluggish recently. I fancy that new processor.
Touchscreen – nah, Apple won’t half-arse this like HP have. It’ll be Cocoa Touch all the way not on the screen (RSI anyone?) but on a…
Mighty Mouse replacement touchpad – the mouse is dead, long live Gestures and speaking of dead…
Bluray RIP – down with silver-discs as soon as your collection gets scratches you’ll know what I mean besides who really watches full-length movies on a computer? Train delayed?
NVIDIA? Crystal ball of the obvious, lets hope the new chipset is more reliable than the current Intel effort, speaking of Intel chips…
Core i7 – Apple moved to Intel as a marketing stunt or we’d be kicking butt on POWER6 by now, I’d rather have a a basic Intel core with some 16xPA PPC vector units leaving Intel in the 70’s where they did their best work.
Later, McD