The iMac 'Desk Lamp' Resurrected as a HomePod?
Mark Gurman
While much of Mark Gurman's newsletter this week is devoted to the new M4 Macs which are set to start launching any minute now with a series of press releases (hopefully containing short videos?), all the way down at the bottom, he hints at something that will make a lot of Apple die-hards, myself included, foam at the mouth:
Apple is making progress developing its next entirely new product — a smart home screen — and it may be a little smaller than expected. The device will have a square display, I’m told, and be about the size of two iPhones side by side. The screen is positioned at an angle on a small base, making it reminiscent of the circular bottom of the iMac G4 from a couple of decades ago. It’s possible that the base will include speakers, essentially turning the device into a HomePod with a screen.
Rumors of this product are not new, Gurman and others have been talking about it for several months now – notably with Filipe Espósito of 9to5 Mac first pointing out the square display element that Gurman confirms above. That would be... interesting. But far more interesting is the notion that it could look like an old school iMac G4 – aka "The Desk Lamp".
Personally, this was my favorite iMac design. And it wasn't just how it looked – cute, approachable – but also how it worked. I actually used one at an old job for a couple years. I loved it so much that I long scoured eBay trying to buy one after they were discontinued. I loved the way you could pull the screen in closer to you and push it away depending on what you were doing.
And while the current Apple Studio Displays allow you to somewhat do this if you opt for the tilt and height adjustable stand (which I currently use in my office), this type of push/pull functionality makes more sense now in our era of touchscreens. Which is clearly what this new device will be.
The small size fits with the idea that the product will be relatively cheap and easy to have in different rooms of the home. The device will run a new operating system that will include some iPad-like apps, including FaceTime, Notes and Calendar. It’s also meant to be well-suited to videos and photo slideshows. The device’s primary purpose, though, will be serving as a hub that can control various smart home accessories.
I'm still not 100% sure I understand the actual market for such a device. And I continue to wish it were more of a family iPad hub (complete with fast user account switching) that various people could use in the living room. But it does sound more like it will be positioned as a HomePod with a screen that expands the scope not only to video but to other household use cases such as family calendars and yes, home automation. This all clearly ties into the rumored "homeOS" software that will presumably be a variant of iOS/iPad OS – and seemingly will be tailored for that square screen.
For a household that runs on Apple devices, which mine mainly does, I guess this makes some sense in the living room or kitchen, but again I wonder why it's better than an iPad for such purposes? That will be up to Apple to come up with those reasons, of course. But perhaps it will be enough to simply push a fun-looking device out there. Apple hasn't done enough of this in recent years and a desk lamp-looking device would be fun. Especially if it came in colors and could be a relatively inexpensive family computing hub for music, videos (movies would presumably still mainly be meant for the larger TV, but YouTube, IG, TikTok, etc), some games, and FaceTime.1 A fun 'FacePod' as it were.2
I can't tell if I'm now just trying to excuse myself for inevitably buying it when it comes out (seemingly next year). Probably. As I wrote a few months back:
1 Hand gestures, perhaps? Other bits of AI? It sounds like the next, more expensive version could pontentially follow you around?
2 Something I've been waiting on for years.