It's an iMac

Time Canada seems to have jumped the gun on Apple's big announcement tomorrow. It's an LCD iMac that "looks like a sunflower." Author, Josh Quittner, says...

The new iMac, which Time took for an exclusive test run recently and which will be unveiled at the annual Macworld convention in San Francisco this week, could be just the thing. Like many PCs today, the new iMac is built around a flat-panel display. But instead of taking up precious desk space like a typical flat monitor, the iMac's screen floats in the air, attached to a jointed, chrome-pipe neck. It's also rimmed by a "halo," a translucent plastic frame that makes you want to pull it toward you-or push it out of the way. Jonathan Ive, chief of Apple's ID lab, says he designed it so that you would want to touch it, want to "violate the sacred plane of the monitor." The chrome neck is articulated and bends while maintaining the angle of the screen; it connects to the computer, an improbably small hemisphere at 26.4 cm in diameter-somewhat bigger than a halved cantaloupe. The machine bears an uncanny resemblance to Luxo Jr.-the fun-loving, computer-animated swing-arm lamp that starred in a short film by Pixar, the fabled computer-animation studio that Jobs runs. (Pixar creative chief John Lasseter has also made the first new iMac ad.) "It looks a little cheeky," says Ive. It looks alive.

According to Time, the new iMac starts at $1200. The top of the line model is priced at $1800 with a G4 and DVD-R. (Are these Canadian bucks? Unclear.) I'm reserving judgement until I see one, but it sounds like Apple might have found a worthy successor to the original iMac. Clearly Time Magazine thinks so - they're making it their cover story this week.