An iMac with a Dock for an Ultra Slim Macbook?
January 3, 2008 // Design + Technology

The Apple rumors are starting to get crazy with the Macworld Expo coming up on the 14th, and Steve Jobs’ keynote speech. So far there have been whispers of online movie rentals, OLED keyboards, firmware updates for the iPhone (including cut and paste features!) and now what you see above.

It’s an iMac with space for an ultra slim Macbook to fit inside it.

First off, the rumors about the ultra slim Macbook are sounding really cool, including the possibility of taking out the CD drive from the computer, but making an external drive for any CD or DVD needs. Jeff and I were talking about this over dinner last night, and it reminded me of how Apple phased out floppy disk drives on the old G3’s or G4’s. Could they be trying to phase out CD’s and DVD’s as well? Now that digital downloading is becoming so common, CD’s and DVD’s might be going the way of the floppy disk, and the folks over at Apple may realize this.

Now think of the idea of sliding this ultra slim Macbook into the side of an iMac, and you’ve got an entirely new beast. I’m in desperate need of upgrading my computer, so I’ve been thinking about getting a desktop and a laptop. But something like an iMac that synced with a mini-laptop might be just the thing I’ve been looking for. This certainly wouldn’t be optimal for everyone, but I know a lot of people who use both a laptop and a desktop, and this duo would be quite helpful.

Hopefully we’ll see this beauty released on the 14th, seeing as how the patent office just released the drawings today, but who knows. Steve Jobs likes to keep things interesting, so I’m sure we won’t be disappointed.

Bobby

  1. [...] This is amazing, if it’s true. [...]

    Pingback by IMAC DOCK | JoyEngine — January 3, 2008 #

  2. i have that thin keyboard and I can tell everyone out there..it’s awesome. Awesome and wireless…with wireless mouse it’s even more awesome. If I had the think if everything else I had were slim and sleek my life would be awesome. Isn’t that Apple’s goal to make us hate ourselves till we buy all the new stuff? Apparently it’s working!

    Comment by samantha hahn — January 3, 2008 #

  3. Does anyone else think that’s just a little bit dirty?

    Comment by Brad — January 3, 2008 #

  4. If true, SIGN ME UP! Although I wonder what kind of smooth sliding mechanism Apple will have to patent to prevent scratch and skid marks appearing on my beautiful snow white macbook mini.

    Comment by electro^plankton — January 3, 2008 #

  5. Although I would love a ultra thin MacBook Pro, but this idea just seems silly. They should just sync up via bluetooth.

    Comment by Jon — January 4, 2008 #

  6. Samantha: I have the wired version of the keyboard that you have at work and I absolutely love it. It’s so much easier to use!

    Brad: Haha… yeah, the through crossed my mind.

    E^P: I’m sure they’ll figure out someway to make it not scratch, they always think of everything.

    Jon: Bluetooth is way too slow to sync all of your data, and who knows what kind of stuff you might be able to do with this kind of combo. I’m sure it could even charge your computer this way.

    Comment by Bobby S. — January 4, 2008 #

  7. I’d love to see it in another form.. maybe the pro version, or touch-screen like a huge iphone..

    Comment by sAne — January 5, 2008 #

  8. the messages on that message board are kinda nuts… are we sure this isn’t just something that operates as a display with a dock? and not a desktop with a dock? lot of people use external displays with their laptops, it would be clean/nice/awesome if you could hide your “slim” macbook in the display and have it operate like an imac, using the slim notebooks cpu, etc.

    Comment by michael — January 13, 2008 #