Tikkabik

I really, really want my Mac to be a telephone.

I realize it’s a bit inelegant — an entire Mac to serve the same purpose as an itty bitty phone. But I see some real benefits, like integration with contact management, call tracking database and more.

It’s already been established that Apple’s new iSight Webcam for iChat AV works with apps other than iChat AV, so I’m desperately hoping that someone out there is working on something to make this happen.

Apple’s new iChat AV is already cool as hell, even in its public preview form. Shortly after downloading it and installing it, I was chatting with folks over audio using the built-in mic on my PowerBook.

I have a Canon Elura DV video camera that gets precious little exercise, so I hooked that up, and it works like a charm. Although it seems like some manual tweaking of the bit rate comes in handy for reliable connections, I’m amazed by how well it works and how clearly the pictures come in.

It is, as usual, the attention to detail that grabs me. For example, when I started up a video chat with my friend David this afternoon, I was listening to iTunes. iChat AV told iTunes to pause, then unpaused when the chat was finished.

This is cool.

Without actually being in San Francisco this week at WWDC, I’ve talked with numerous individuals who have; I’ve sought their opinions and I’ve scoured over every news release and tech spec and image and QuickTime movie and media nugget I can find.

I know there’s been a lot of comments thrown back and forth about the new appearance of the Power Mac G5. Some people think it’s ugly. Some people think it’s beautiful. Some have likened it to a cheese grater; others have called it an exercise in Bauhaus-style minimalism.

I just think it’s frickin’ beautiful, myself.

Apple has this design theme apparent throughout the product line where form follows function. What’s jarring to some about the Power Mac G5 is just hard Apple has drawn that line. Jonathan Ive at Apple has explained that they focused a lot of effort to minimize every aspect of the box’s design to what was absolutely necessary in terms of functionality, while similarly trying to make it easy to work on and use.

From what I’ve seen, I think they’ve succeeded admirably without losing what makes an Apple product uniquely an Apple product. There are little embellishments, like integrating power couplings into the fan design itself so there are no bare wires hanging out inside the case, or imprinting instructions for how to install RAM on the inside of the case, that show a user-centric philosophy.

Anyone who’s a fan of Bang & Olufsen’s industrial design needs absolutely no convincing of the truth of this tenet: Sometimes a minimal design is the most beautiful and effective.