[psmith2.0]

While I'm not big on "redesign for the sake of redesign, just because", it is funny that the iMac has pretty much had the same design for 15 solid years now, starting with the iMac G5 (which always amuses me because it was exactly the design Jobs spoke against when he unveiled the iMac G4 two-and-a-half years earlier in January 2002...a screen with the guts glommed into the back, in vertical orientation, which, according to him hampers performance and makes the display not as thin as one may like). But it is a very compact and "distilled down about as much as you can get" design, so I can see why it's been around so long, through various material, color, size, body tweaking (17", 20", 21.5", 24", 27", white plastic, aluminum/black, space grey, thicker body, curved back with faux, implied thinness, user accessible RAM and hard drive no longer part of all models, port changes, etc. But the basic "LCD on a stand" thing has been the iMac since September 2004.

What I'd love to see, if they're looking to do something new with it, is to take cues from the new, just-released display and stand approach. No, it can't cost $5,000+ or whatever, but it doesn't have to because the display doesn't need to be anything dramatically better than what they are now, for the model it is. But you take the idea of the "adjustable display on top of a weighted base" idea (iMac G4). Basically, the bottom of the stand would house the guts. And in that width and depth required to do so, you get your weighted, large-enough base to support the display on the arm coming from the top of it. Basically you take the general idea of the iMac G4 (adjustable display mounted separately/independent of the guts) but do it more in the look of the new Pro Display and stand. Thing is, the Mac mini and the MacBook Pro show us that a ton of space/bulk isn't needed to hold all those components, right? The iMac guts compartment would certainly be a little bigger because it would have standalone graphics and so forth, so it doesn't need to be too small/cramped for its own good. But I would imagine it could take up the space of about two Mac minis placed side-by-side, and designed in such a way that the display arm coming out of the top in no way wants to wander or tilt over. Mind you, I'm not saying the arm itself has to tilt/swivel (like the iMac G4), but in the way this new display/stand offers that same sort of adjustability (up, down, left, right, tilt/swivel), you get that iMac G4 type of functionality, which I really enjoyed back in the day; depending on what you were doing, you'd want it high and straight, but sometimes I'd lower it way down and tilt it back and that made for a nice reading/surfing setup.

So yeah, look into separating the two main components once again, letting the guts lie flat on the desk in a housing not much taller than a Mac mini, but as wide as needed to accommodate whatever components would be needed, including higher-end ones via BTO configurations). Then a "light and thin as it can reasonably be" display floating above all that, and being very adjustable (every bit as much as what's allowed by this new display/stand).

Notebook-wise, nothing I've not already talked about in another thread...I think, in 2020, anything with "Pro" in its name, even the 13" MacBook Pro, should come, out of the box, with 16GB RAM. It's silly that a target buyer for that machine can't simply walk into their local Best Buy (or even Apple Store) and just get a stock pro notebook with that amount of RAM as a base. But you always have to do the online BTO thing to get past that 8GB. The lower-cost stuff - Mac mini, MacBook Air, entry-level iMac - can have the 8GB for a bit longer, but it's well past the time that the pro stuff needs to quit slumming it and being chintzy on such things. Other than that, no real complaints about the MacBook lineup, although I'm hoping they all get the new keyboard that comes on the 16" so we don't have to keep hearing all those stories and complaints. So, yeah...a 13" MacBook Pro appearing at some point in 2020 with this new keyboard and 16GB RAM out of the box would please a lot of people. If they want to keep 8GB in those two lower-priced models with less than 2GHz processors, okay fine. Whatever. But once you're laying down $1,800 and up, it's ridiculous to ask for another $200 to have the RAM be what it should already be on such a price, "pro"-targeted machine.

Apple has always been chintzy and annoying on their RAM, as far back as I can recall. They had 2GB when they should've had 4. They had 4GB when they should've had 8. They now have 8GB on certain machines/price-points where 16GB shouldn't even be a debate.

Fix those little quirks/shortcomings and I'll gladly give them a chunk of money this coming year (and feel good about it).

As for the iPhone, I have zero interest in all the ever-larger flagship models in recent years. What I want - all I want - is basically the 4.7" display found in the 6/7/8 placed into a body roughly the size of my beloved iPhone SE. At that point, you get the perfect world of "one-hand friendly with as large of a display as possible". So yes, an all-screen type of design, just in a smaller housing than the X, Xr, Xs, 11. A lot of people still love/appreciate compact, one-hand use. And I'm sure they can do such a design/model cheaper by eliminating whatever pricier components/features make up the $999 and up line (OLED, etc.). I would be the happiest iPhone owner on the planet if I could just get an SE-sized (give or take by a few millimeters, as needed) phone with that once-standard 4.7" display. On a few occasions I held my Mom's 6s next to my SE and it's very close! The 4.7" display on the 6s (and 7, 8) just about sits perfectly in that SE-sized casing, with just a bit of tweaking. So that would be my ideal, dream iPhone. I don't want - and I'll never buy/own - one of these current ones, at 6.1" and whatever else. Because they're not one-hand or pocket-friendly. And after 12+ of iPhone owning/usage, I'm simply not interested in changing in that way. I'll abandon the iPhone (and just go back to a cheap, flip dumb phone) before I throw in with these new large ones.

I put a new battery in my SE a year ago (New Year's Eve 2018), so I'm good, battery-wise, for another 18 or so months (I bought this in April 2016 and got just over 30 months of it before it really zapped out. So with this new battery, I should be okay until well into spring 2021. That gives Apple a good 18 months to put out an iPhone I want, otherwise I'll put in another $49 battery in this SE at that point, or I'll just toss it and just have a Mac (and maybe an iPad mini for around-the-house or travel use). At this point, I'm honestly fine either way. The idea of not having some big monthly phone bill is kinda nice. I've even considered, since everywhere I go is wifi-covered, just ditching the phone completely at some point and getting an iPod touch instead, and just communicating via wifi calls/facetime/texting/email. I rarely use my iPhone for traditional phone calls/talking and about the only time/place I'm not connected to wifi these days is when I'm in my car...and I've got the Do Not Disturb while driving thing turned on and I've never been a "use my iPhone while driving" type anyway...

1. So yeah, if they're going to redo the iMac, then really redo it and look to the new display/stand (and iMac G4) for inspiration.

2. Put the new keyboard into all the notebooks (Air and 13" Pro) and put 16GB in at least the two upper-end 13" Pros.

3. Make a proper iPhone SE 2 that combines the size/one-hand of the SE and the "entire surface is a display" design of the X/11 models.

Do any two of the above and you'll get a sizable chunk of my $$$ in 2020.

Do none of them and I have no real purchase plans/interest at all. I'll just keep using this near-three-year-old SE and this loaner 13" MacBook Pro. I'm not going to spend good money on shit I don't really want. Spent entirely too much of my Apple-using life (25+ years) doing that, I'm done.