Here's one more Expo quickie for the road: you've heard, of course, the rumors that Apple will finally ship a redesigned mouse and keyboard with this alleged new iMac next month, yes? Now, we had no trouble imagining that someone at Apple may finally have glanced at a market research report and noticed that the vast majority of the computer-buying public isn't crazy about small keyboards and tiny round mice, thus prompting the development of what will hopefully be more ergonomically-friendly replacements for what MacAddict once referred to as "Crampy and the Puck." The only thing that would surprise us about such a move is that it would almost be an admission of defeat, since Apple has steadfastly forced those almost-universally-reviled input devices down Mac users' throats for nearly two solid years now.

But what really set off the Skepticism Alarm for us was the description of the new mouse's features; AppleInsider makes it sound like The Mouse From Space. Allegedly it's based on the same Hewlett-Packard use-on-any-surface optical technology as Microsoft's hit Intellimouse Explorer. Okay, we can buy that. It's also claimed to have no conventional buttons; "clicks" are invoked through arcane squeezing motions or pressing down on different edges. We can sort of accept that, too, because it's just the sort of weirdness that we've come to associate with our differently-thinking pals in Cupertino. But then there's the whole rumor that this ÜberMouse is wireless. That's the part that had us doubting the whole story. A wireless mouse-- standard with new Macs? Surely that'd be too expensive to pull off.

But now we're reconsidering that opinion, ever since Logitech announced Mac support for several of their spiffy-looking input devices. In particular, we noticed that the Cordless MouseMan Wheel, which communicates via radio waves to a receiver that plugs into a USB port, lists for only $59.95. That's a lot cheaper than we would have expected for a wireless mouse-- especially since it's a mere $20 more expensive than the standard MouseMan Wheel, its cord-bearing sibling. So why couldn't Apple ship wireless input devices with every Mac? It would definitely put a lot of the "gee whiz" factor back into the iMac line. Although, if this rumor turns out to be true, we can only imagine the ingenious ways in which schools and retail stores are going to "discourage" the removal of the devices from the public systems. Here's hoping Apple includes optional security cables...