The First Mac That Will Fit In Your Hand Is Due Soon.

There’s a not so fine line between what we want from Apple and what they deliver. Technology evolves. Apple’s Newton was neat, but clunky and ahead of its time before it died.

Yes, the Newton is dead. What of the iPhone? Right on time and getting better. So where’s the next Mac? Look no further than your iPhone. Now add all the things you really want.

Mike Elgan, writing in Computerworld, asks,”They can send a man to the moon. Why can’t they make a tiny computer people want to buy?”

Patience, grasshopper. High priest El Jobso knows your every want and desire before you even ask.

Elgan goes on to relate all the basic issues with technology gadgets and then zeroes in on what’s really going to happen. It’s a small, small world. Elgan thinks it will be an Apple that dominates the small computer market. Mac360 agrees.

The problem is both simple and difficult and perfect for Apple. Techno companies have been producing PDAs and smart cell phones seemingly forever, and the most response from the buying public has been, “Big whoop!” Smart phones have a small market share while stupid phones reign supreme.

In the computer world, notebooks have become the big sellers, even for Apple. Ultra small computers just haven’t caught anyone’s fancy enough for sales to take off. Sony’s little Vaio is cute. It runs Windows.

Do you know more than two people who own the ultra small Vaio? Exactly.

Elgan’s article in Computerworld slogs through five pages of advertising to get to the point. I’ll save some wear and tear on your eyeballs (but please click four advertisements as a courtesy thank you).

Your next ultra small Mac won’t be a Mac. It may not be a phone either, but the similarity between the iPhone and a tiny Mac will be remarkable. AppleInsider says it’s the return of the Newton. Nope. Won’t happen. The only similarities between the Mac in your pocket and the Newton will be that both are small and sport an Apple logo. But one of them is from the last century.

The Newton was former Apple CEO John Sculley’s baby. When Steve Jobs returned to Apple it didn’t take him long to knife Sculley’s baby. It’s gone. It won’t be back.

What Apple is readying is what you’re already expecting. An ultra small Mac. An iPhone-like device with a much larger screen, built-in WiFi, flash memory, built-in camera, and… here it comes… Mac OS X inside. We’ve been predicting something like this for years at Mac360. Holding on to a dream is what makes it come true. That, and waiting freakin’ forever.

We’re no better at naming future products than Apple is about telling us what they’ll be before they get here. We got the MacBook and MacPro right, but the sequence was logical. We also got iWork ‘08’s Numbers correct.

So, we’re sticking by the iPad name, Apple’s next ultra small Mac.

How about MacPad? Nope. Won’t work. The term Mac is just now becoming palatable to a small number of Windows users who buy Macs, and the next Mac has to sell in big numbers like the iPod and iPhone. So, no Mac in the name. iPad it is.

1.5 times the size of an iPhone sounds about right. Ultra high resolution screen. Wireless. Flash memory. Camera. Multi-touch. And-- Mac OS X with a boatload of Mac applications that will synchronize nicely with your notebook or desktop Macs.

The next new Mac will be a bigger iPhone with OS X and everything else inside. It will be a Mac in everything except name.

Check out the daily list of our 9 Word mini-Reviews at NoodleMac, and Kate's daily in-depth Mac software reviews at PixoBebo.