A recent AppleInsider report on the new iMac design did not provide a tantalizing glimpse of the company's long-awaited G5 "consumer machine", according to me.

The report, made in July of this year describes a "purported manufacturing sketch" but fails to contain those sketches of what looks like a "thick display module which hovers above the desk from a single support".

Apple, themselves, are better at posting pictures of upcoming products than a rumour site!

Does it not seem like 20% of AI articles these days just pump "previous reports" from AI?

Did AI get this out before The Register? Who is piggy-backing off of whom? Since it is a European filing, I assumed The Register got this so AI is not taking it from their own history, but from a perhaps more reliable source.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/08...le_tablet_mac/

The tablet-like iMac lite could be a great device and a further refinement of Apple toward innovative appliances that aren't computers in an of themselves.

So regardless, it is nice to have our speculations of 2+ years ago and even those of (close your eyes Matsu!!) Kormac, have some basis in design and trademark fact.

Now if the eMac stays as is....and the iMac gets a makeover...and the PowerMac continues to spin farther into the pro arena, does this leave room for another consumer experience with video media? I have thought so for years, but I've come to the reality of price/performance that many skeptics espouse. So this would be a big change! It would be as big as the iPod. What technology does Apple have that is so unique as to get the jump on the rest of the industry and do so in an exciting way?

Ink? Hard to imagine, but maybe.
Airport Express-like video or at least graphics, like pdf's? That would make an electronic magazine possible, but at what cost?
Paper-like display? doubtful that Apple could be that far ahead of everyone else.
An elegant interface as suggested for a mega-controller for music and such? Expensive if you accidently sit on it!

So I don't know, but as a former proponent of a tablet-like device, I'd love to see something come of it.

I still want an apple cell phone, not a pda/cell phone hybrid. Just an awesome cell phone that easily syncs with iSync and has built-in bluetooth or wifi if possible.

Let's start Diggin'

This could probably be a feature of the 'pizza box' iMac G5