How do you predict Apple computer designs? Look at OS X.

If you want to know what Apple products will look like two years from now, just check out the 3-D glass interface of the new OS X. Apple has a history of telegraphing changes in hardware design by first updating the look and feel of its operating system.

Consider history. Back in March 2001, Apple launched OS X v10.0 Cheetah with the new Aqua vibe and white borders around all the screen windows. Macs in following years were encased in white plastic -- so on-screen image and off-screen hardware matched perfectly. Then, in August 2003, Apple launched the OS X Jaguar with a brushed metal look. We still remember how the new OS X looked a bit bizarre, with an aluminum on-screen presence above the white plastic of our Mac laptop. The Apple web site at the time still pushed white plastic hardware ...


... but soon enough, first Apple laptops and then desktops moved to brushed aluminum.

So where is Apple going with its new hardware design? Looking at the new OS X Leopard we see lots of 3D reflections, and the new Dock looks like glass. And for the first time we see window interfaces in OS X with pure black. Since Steve Jobs plans his technology conquests years in advance, we predict glass is the new wave of Apple machines -- and glass works best for touchscreen devices. Perhaps in two years the iMac will shrink to a nice paper-sized glass pad, with a black border, thin metal back, no keypad and flash memory instead of a hard drive, that acts as keyboard, video screen, computer, projector and mobile device in one. Lower-end Mac computers will still be plastic, but will shift to cooler black with little highlights of glass. We see it coming, because OS X never lies.