Yes indeedy, the iMac comes with an infrared port all right. Pretty cool, huh? Or, at least it would be, if there were any truly practical applications for that IR port. So far the only thing we've tried to do is wirelessly network the iMac and a PowerBook 1400, to no avail-- we think we got them to see each other for a brief instant, by holding the PowerBook right up against the iMac's port, which is a position we consider untenable at best. (We can't imagine what it would be like to hold, say, a printer in the same position...)

But while the IR port on the iMac may seem a bit superfluous (if not just plain useless), slapping the same kind of port on its portable cousin could be a delicious addition. In fact, at this point, next year's low-cost "eMac" will almost certainly include such a port, but the real news is what kinds of capabilities Apple plans to give to the unit on top of the standard file sharing and printing stuff. According to Mac the Knife, Apple is seriously considering adding remote control features to the eMac. Not just the capability to control TV's, VCR's, stereos, etc., but the super-cool ability to control, say, an iMac via infrared. Think of it-- just by using the eMac near your desktop iMac, you could print to the iMac's USB printer, synchronize sets of files between the desktop and the laptop, share the iMac's Internet connection, or just about anything else. In this scenario, the eMac becomes an extension of the iMac, almost like a detachable limb. (Well, okay, maybe not a detachable limb; that's kind of gross. But you get the point.)

Yeah, that all sounds cool, but personally, we're more excited about the possibility of typing away on the couch in front of the TV and being able to change channels without having to reach for the remote. Call us old-fashioned, but we know where our priorities are.