Concerning the iMac-- we had been intrigued to hear reports of a video-out port on the back of some of the prototype models that have been making the rounds on the users' group circuit. While being able to connect an external monitor to a machine that has a 15" screen built in may seem both excessive and bizarre, such a possibility could serve certain obscure purposes. However, we imagine that very few people in the iMac's target audience of first-time buyers and low-end users would ever want or need such a feature, so leaving the video-out port in place on production models would likely only drive up the price. That's why we're not terribly disappointed to hear Mac the Knife declare that the mysterious pre-production video-out port is pure "skunkworks," and will not make it into the stores.

On the other hand, that whole question got us thinking about the whole "built-in monitor" issue. While the initial iMac has no PCI slots, we fully expect future models to include at least one. Probably the single most popular type of add-on PCI card in the consumer market would be a 3D gaming card. Unfortunately, even if you could plug a Voodoo card into the iMac, there would be no way to plug the monitor back into the card. (This is also a problem with the PowerMac G3 All-in-one, which does have PCI slots, but has no way to direct a video card's output to its integrated monitor.)

So this is us just thinking a little about the future: What if Apple could engineer a couple of video ports into its integrated-display Macs? One is a video-out port that intercepts the video signal when something is plugged into it; that can be plugged into a 3D accelerator card, or even an external monitor. The other allows the attachment of a standard monitor cable to the internal display; this turns the built-in monitor into a standard 15" display, which you can plug into a 3D card, a standard graphics card, or even a whole other computer. We have no clue if this functionality could be added without sending costs into the stratosphere, but it's an idea for iMac 2: Son of iMac, or whatever. Not being able to turn the iMac into a serious gaming machine can only hurt its chances of success in the home market.

Speaking of sequels, remember when we told you that Apple's famous Icon Garden had been dismantled? According to sources at Mac OS Rumors, it's not dead forever; Apple has apparently spirited the tired, battered remnants of the Garden's 8-bit carcass back into the labs, where mad scientists are hard at work infusing the icons with new life and new colors. (They have the technology...)

See, as you may have heard by now, Apple's next big operating system release (now officially known as Mac OS 8.5, and previously referred to as Allegro) includes new 16-bit icons which we hear are just gorgeous to look at. The revamping of the Icon Garden will reportedly coincide with Mac OS 8.5's release late this summer, as part of Apple's ongoing attempt to modernize its image. While this may sound a little far-fetched, keep in mind that the city of Cupertino requires that Apple display some public art in the park outside its campus, so Apple's going to have to replace those old 8-bit icons with something, regardless.

And in addition to the revamped icons, we hear that the Quicktime penguin will also make a spirited guest appearance in Icon Garden 2: 16 Bits of Fury. It's sure to be the feel-good hit of the summer.

If you're anything like us, you've been hearing about FireWire for years now, and you still aren't exactly sure what it is. We always knew it was a peripheral interface like SCSI but only faster, but beyond that, we just didn't much care (probably in no small part because SCSI is everywhere, and FireWire is still breaking ground). That's why we're glad that Apple just published a little fluff piece on FireWire, which does a commendable job of explaining what the technology is and why it's important.

In a nutshell, FireWire is a hot-swappable serial bus peripheral architecture sort of like USB, but with much higher bandwidth. While you might attach a flatbed scanner or a digital still camera to your computer via USB, FireWire lets you plug in super-fast hard disks and digital video devices. Transferring video data is where FireWire excels; if you have a DV-compatible camcorder (of which there are several on the market today), you can plug it right into a FireWire port and send the data into your Mac with zero data loss. Since the data is digital throughout (instead of being converted from analog to digital), what you saw is what you get.

Now, if you're not a digital video producer, FireWire may not mean a whole lot to you right now, but you know how technology trickles down. In a few years, even consumer-level iMacs might come with FireWire built in, and professional-level digital editing of your home movies on the desktop might be as taken for granted as desktop publishing is today. After all, it wasn't that long ago that organizing and storing your photo albums on your personal computer was a pipe dream, and look where we are now.