Now that the iMac's here and there's little more guesswork to be done about its breakthrough design (although speculation about its proprietary expansion slot continues to rage-- DVD? FireWire?), it's time to start focusing on the iMac's portable counterpart. The consumer portable, now known by its code name "P1," is expected to be unveiled early next year, most likely at January's MacWorld Expo in San Francisco, though it probably won't be available for a few months after that. Until Apple releases any real information about the device, sites like Mac OS Rumors will provide the early juicy (if apochryphal) details.

So far, the preliminary specifications for P1 are positively astounding. For starters, it's expected to pack a wallop with its 333 MHz or faster processor, though it's possible that the chip will carry no backside cache. However, as we've had the pleasure of using a cacheless 233 MHz PowerBook G3, we can testify to the fact that the P1 will have plenty of speed. Rumor has it that the P1 will also feature 3D accelerated graphics optimized for game playing, though we fail to see how Apple could really squeeze a decent 3D accelerator into a consumer laptop; if they can do it, we're all for it. Throw in a color screen, pen input like the ill-fated eMate had, handwriting recognition, the full-fledged Mac OS (and not a "lite" version as once expected-- and yes, even Mac OS X), and throw it all into a translucent case that weighs about four pounds and takes up a quarter of the space of the current PowerBook line, and you've got a P1, Rumors-style.

Remember, this is a consumer portable, and therefore its price is expected to fall somewhere under the $1500 range. We're saving our pennies here at AtAT, because at that price, we'll buy two of them. They'd be a great companion to our iMac, especially since we bet that the two systems will be able to link via infrared. Cables, schmables...