| Chris Allbritton, salon.com |
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Yes, the iBook is cool, if a little goofy looking, resembling a breath mint on steroids even more than the iMac does. And yes, it's a hot machine with impressive stats. But it won't be the 300 MHz G3 processor, the 32 Mbytes of RAM, the 56k modem, the built-in Ethernet, not even the low price tag that moves these things out the door. No. What will sell the iBook is that Jobs understands that consumers want more than megahertz and memory -- they want to be entertained. Chris Allbritton, salon.com |
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| What the Cooper-Hewitt show reveals is the extent to which Dionysus now rules over mainstream design. No big-name designer comes attached to Apple's iMac and iBook, for example. But these electronic Lolitas could be the symbols of this show. With their lollipop colors, swelling lines and toylike ease of operation, they hark back to the sexy red plastic Valentine typewriter Sottsass designed for Olivetti in 1969. And the popularity of these machines demonstrates the degree to which design today is erotically driven.few nice features -- helps explain why the iBook is one the most popular laptops sold in retail, especially among students. Herbert Muschamp, The New York Times |
