Today wasn’t a day for paradigm-shifting product announcements from Apple, but you’ve got to be impressed nonetheless.  Every product that was updated or launched today showcased the company’s attention to detail, the consistency of its design philosophy, and the complementary nature of its product line.

With the release of the Magic Trackpad, you can feel Apple’s swagger as it pushes the industry down the path of touch as a primary user interface.  It started with the iPhone, then the iPad Touch, the multi-touch MacBook Pro, the iPad, and now the Magic Trackpad.  This is steady, incremental innovation and Apple’s discipline to execute against a consistent design philosophy over a multi-year period is impressive.

Then take the seemingly mundane Apple Battery Charger.  On first glance, it is barely interesting enough to get your attention, but upon further review, you realize that Apple pulled “an Apple”.  It took a 1980s technology and improved performance, all the while making it a perfect complement to the existing wireless Apple products.  Apple has instantly created what is now a best-in-class family of wireless input devices when the Apple Battery Charger is placed alongside the Magic Trackpad and the pre-existing Magic Mouse and Wireless Keyboard.

And the updated iMacs, Mac Pros, and 27″ Cinema Display?  All great upgrades to existing products.  In this group though, the nod has to go to the Cinema Display.  Yes, it is a “monitor”.  Yes, it is an expensive piece of hardware,  but who wouldn’t want one if you own an Apple computer of any sort?  Whether you own a MacBook Pro, Mac Pro, iMac, or Mac Mini, the Cinema Display feels like it was designed specifically for your computer.

The Apple product line is now a matrix of  products that are so complementary of each other, that it is hard to imagine customers leaving the Apple ecosystem once they have dipped their toe into the water.

What I’d really like is improved handling of event reminders. Including a way to keep my laptop, iPad, and iPhone from all buzzing an event reminder at the same time if they’re in proximity to one another, as well as syncing the dismissal of on-display reminders.

Great idea.  This definitely passes the “never knew I needed it until I saw it” test.

∞ Permalink

The system would allow users to essentially feel the screen as they manipulate objects on it. One example included in the application has a user pinching to zoom in on a map of California. The haptic feedback would follow their fingers as they pulled apart on the device. In this example, the haptic feedback would be less when the fingers are closer together, and greater as the fingers move apart. The haptic feedback could also be used to let users know when a certain boundary is being approached. For example, the feedback could become greater if a user is zoomed in as far as they can go, letting the user know that they can not zoom in any farther. The application notes that the zoom gesture method could be particularly beneficial in publishing, photo and drawing programs.

via AppleInsider | Apple investigating multi-haptic feedback for multi-touch devices.

Apple files a lot of patents, so who knows if this is going to make it into a product, but ever since the iPhone came out I hoped this would be the next big advance.

If this technology can be executed on the iPad, it would be a revolutionary and completely amazing user interface.

If you’re thinking The Tablet is just a big iPhone, or just Apple’s take on the e-reader, or just a media player, or just anything, I say you’re thinking too small — the equivalent of thinking that the iPhone was going to be just a click wheel iPod that made phone calls. I think The Tablet is nothing short of Apple’s reconception of personal computing.

John Gruber, as always, totally delivers with what is easily the most thoughtful article I’ve read on the rumored Apple tablet.  A really great read.

∞ Permalink

The new mouse has helped Cupertino double its share and gain 10 percent of sales, market researchers say. “Sales in November went through the roof,” NPD Group analyst Stephen Baker told AppleInsider. Although Apple remains in third place behind Logitech and Microsoft, Baker said the Magic Mouse showed “tremendous performance” after its October introduction.

Santa left a Magic Mouse under the tree, and today was the first day I got to give it a solid workout.  I have to say I am really enjoying the multi-touch surface so far.

∞ Permalink

Andy Ihnatko in the recent MacBreak Weekly on the “rumored Apple tablet”, its impact on digital publishing, and why 2010 is going to be a landmark year in tech:

Every single manufacturer of anything that is even remotely tablet-like that I’ve ever talked to is just preparing for what happens after Apple releases the tablet.  I compared it to like the year before there is a world war where, no it hasn’t been announced, no it hasn’t been scheduled, but everybody is anticipating that the world is going to be fundamentally different this time next year, and they are making arrangements to make sure they are in the best position to survive and thrive in that new landscape; especially when you talk to publishers. Everybody has a concrete plan for how they’re going to deal with the fact that there’s going to be these really cool inexpensive color touchscreen tablets to publish things onto. 2010 is going to be one of the most exciting years in technology, period.  I think we’ll look look back on it and just that’ll be one of those little things we put a little red push pin in it and say that’s one of those years where everything changed after that… I think that the tablet is going to be a really phenomenally cool device but it’s also going to create the environment in which every single magazine, newspaper, and book publisher is going to be that much more compelled to say, “We are going to have a comprehensive digital publishing plan.” It’s not going to be something that some guy who was a failed vice president who would never make it further in the company — “Well we’re going to give him the digital publishing division because that’s not really very big and it’s not going anywhere.” Eveybody has a horse in that race and everybody believes that’s an opportunity to make lots and lots of money.  It will create the environment in which everybody starts thinking about everything publishing digitally from now on.

As usual, Andy nails it. I am a very satisfied Kindle owner, but what Amazon is doing (as well as the Kindle’s current competitors) is really just the tip of the iceberg. If you’re interested in hearing the whole discussion, it starts at 38:29 and goes for about ten minutes.

∞ Permalink

I’ve written previously about Minimal Mac, but I just had to mention the site again because of some great posts of late on wire management.

I know… that’s a geeky topic, but you have to check these out.  These folks have definitely progressed beyond Wire Management 101 to the doctorate level.

First, check out this Mac setup (submitted to Minimal Mac via mnmal):

On that picture alone, I was pretty impressed.  Now check out what’s beneath it…

I count two Mac Minis, a Mac Pro, and a lot of wires very smartly suspended and tucked neatly beneath that table.

The next one is of the before-and-after variety and includes a full shopping list (submitted to Minimal Mac by tehdik).

Before:

and after:

Before I even saw these, I was thinking about cleaning up my wire management setup, but these two posts definitely got me motivated to do something about it!

1. I know that no matter how big the 27″ iMac looks in the pictures, I am going to be blown away by the size of the screen when I see it in person.
2. I want to start a new business tomorrow, so I have an excuse to buy the Mac Mini Server.
3. If the implementation of the Magic Mouse lives up to the vision, it will be awesome.
4. The big question: how many days before I make it to the Apple store?

Great updates across all product lines.