Feeling relatively alone in my fears that the Mac is becoming a PC, today I again felt like part of the Apple community when I heard of the new iPod Nano. Bennett may never forgive me for my PC ownership, but the rest of you can believe me when I say, “I love Apple!” But Don’t let me ruin the moment with too many words. Lets just sit back and enjoy a beautifully designed product…

Wired news ran an interesting story today on OSX running on a PC.

As has been known, the new Macintosh computers due out next year will be based on an Intel chip. Obviously the hardware between the Windows and Mac machines will be more alike than thought if a simple hack can convert one computer to run the others’ OS.

Will this make writing programs for both platforms easier as well? But more importantly, as the hardware comes closer together, I wonder if it will make it easier or harder to convince corporations to buy Macs for their designers. Will they say, “Use a Dell, it’s basically the same, right?” or, “Well, I guess if the Mac’s Intel, our tech guys can hook it up to the network.” I myself hope for the second one.

I really enjoyed the following quote by Steve Jobs:

“Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But, of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works. To design something really well, you have to ‘get it.’ You have to really grok what it’s all about. It takes a passionate commitment to really thoroughly understand something…. Most people don’t take the time to do that.”

The quote is taken from the upcoming book iCon: Steve Jobs, the Greatest Second Act in the History of Business by Jeffrey S. Young and William L. Simon. I got the quote from Wired’s preview of the biography which will be released May 16. The Wired article is called Steve Jobs Buys a Washing Machine, and it is worth a read if you are a Steve Jobs fan.

In a move that nobody saw coming, Apple made a bid for MCI today. The bidding war between Verizon and Qwest just got much more interesting now that Apple has joined in the bidding. Apple’s offer of $9.5 billion is considerably better than Qwest’s, and better than Verizon’s offer of $7.65 billion in cash and stock. Steve Jobs was unavailable for comment, but it is thought that this is a continuation of Apple’s effort to brand itself as more than just a computer company. Rumors are already starting about a secret development of an iPhone. The amazing part of this story is that it comes just days after our site’s speculation
about whether or not Apple would ever think about entering the telephone industry. Coming on the first day of April, this is really good news for designers.

I would assume that most designers are much like me, and drooling over the two newest pieces of hardware from Apple. I would love to get the new iPod Shuffle and the tupperware size Mac mini. I have a regular iPod and G4 that work just fine, so I guess I will have to live vicariously through someone else.

Another encouraging sign from apple is their new packaging for iLife and iWork. Is Apple starting to abandon their hyper-realistic 3-D icons for a more illustrative approach? Personally, I think it is time that Apple went back to a more symbolic approach to it’s packaging and icons. I commend Apple for not letting their look become predictable.