So, the sleeker new iMacs are here and the 17″er has faded into the history, replaced by a 20″ model that is less, as the car commercials put it, “nicely loaded.” The “chin” has not disappeared, but the black border around the screen minimizes it somewhat. The new keyboards are striking and I had some fun holding the wireless one like a chopping knife; it’s that thin. However, while the iMac is itself now as much of a juxtaposition of black and aluminum as the iPhone, the keys and underside of the keyboard are an homage to the white flat-panel iMacs of yore, as is the Mighty Mouse, which has never saved my day.
I suppose the good news is that the scores of third-party mice from Logitech and Microsoft will now match the iMac’s color scheme a bit better, but it would be great to see something made of the same materials. It will also be interesting to see if third-party keyboard makers include support for the Expose and Dashboard keys that Apple has added.
Incidentally, I’ve been writing enough here about PCs per se to add that as a fixed category as at least a stopgap til we get some proper tags around here.