Okay, we're all for a healthy dose of minimalism-- "Simplify, simplify" and all that-- but does anyone get the feeling that Apple may be taking the philosophy to some rather extreme ends? Take the Cube-- there are a lot of things it doesn't have compared to its less forward-looking brethren: there's no fan, no slots, no tools needed to open it up, no mechanical power button (it's an electrostatically sensitive proximity sensor instead), no visible ports until you turn the thing over, and darn near no space taken up on your desk. Most of that's good. But we had a one-button mouse; now we've got a no-button mouse. And perhaps most perplexing of all, the new keyboard's got more keys, sure, but no power key. Lots of people, right or wrong, seem to be complaining about the missing power key.

But that's a mere trifle, because if InkWell catches on, pretty soon those same people are going to be complaining about the missing keyboard. Faithful viewer Chris Turner pointed out a ZDNet News scoop on the migration of the Newton's best-of-breed handwriting recognition to Mac OS X; regular viewers will recall that we first broached the subject back when the Naked Mole Rat hinted at this intriguing possibility. InkWell, as this project will allegedly be called, is intended to work with stylus-input graphics tablets and maybe even upcoming PowerBook trackpads. It lets users write naturally and watch their scrawl magically transform into editable text. A Mac OS 9 version is reportedly also under consideration. Now, as a supplementary input method it sounds pretty keen, but Apple's goal with this project? "To eliminate the need for a keyboard," according to the ever-popular "source familiar with Apple's plans."

And we, for one, welcome the change. Sure, keyboard entry may be a zillion times faster for most people than handwriting, but it's hardly as elegant. Which is why, in the not-too-distant future, all Macs will ship sans keyboard-- after all, if the floppy is dead, then the keyboard is utterly fossilized. In fact, we have it on good authority that the missing power key on the new Pro Keyboard is Apple's first step in the initiative to wean the Mac community from keyboard use one key at a time. ("But then how come they just added the forward-delete key, the numerical keypad, and all that stuff?" you ask. Pipe down, junior-- we're on a roll, here.) What does this mean for the future of the platform? Well, once typing is abolished, we'll all be free of the lurking horror of carpal tunnel syndrome-- and plagued with writer's cramp instead. Oh, and by the way: we wouldn't get too attached to that mouse, either, if we were you.