Mac rumour sites on the Internet have been filled for months with speculation about a new addition to the Apple line. In other announcements, Jobs addressed rampant criticism over the flimsiness of the current Apple mouse and cramped design of available keyboards. The new, elliptical Apple Pro Mouse handed out to those in the main Macworld hall, operates using optics rather than a rolling rubber ball on a mouse pad. Microsoft rolled out a similar product earlier this year. Unlike the Microsoft optical mouse, the Apple version has no buttons.
Pressure downward initiates button functions instead.
Apple is the first company to provide an optical mouse standard with all of its desktop systems. The similarly sleek Apple Pro Keyboard is also a departure, offering navigation, volume control, disc eject keys and two USB ports. Jobs and Apple plan to have fun marketing the new iMac colours - indigo, ruby, sage and snow. Convention goers were given previews of television commercials that will feature, for example, Elvis singing Blue Suede Shoes as the camera hops around the new indigo model, and Cream crashing through White Room as the bright, white translucence of the snow model iMac DV Special Edition spins into view. Apple's Power Mac G4 line features two models that are the first mainstream personal computers to come standard with dual processors.