This morning Apple announced a redesigned iMac, with a thinner form factor and an even thinner keyboard. No big surprise, but it’s nice to the see Apple continuing to push the design envelope even when there are few obvious improvements they can make to their already sleek hardware.

The iMac itself looks pretty slick, thinner and with a glossy glass screen that will surely look cooler in the stores. The iMac is becoming so thin that perhaps in 2010 it will be detachable from the stand, transforming into a tablet computer all the uber nerds can carry around and play Star Trek.

I’m looking forward to getting the new keyboard, as it looks pretty much the same as the MacBook one which I’ve grown to love. I was skeptical at first but now believe it’s one of the better Apple keyboards I’ve used. The smaller vertical travel distance feels faster to type on, and there’s a solidity absent from the previous iBook keyboard. Plus, hardly any crumbs and disgusting detritus from who knows where gets stuck between the keys.

A good observation from JC: the new wireless keyboard isn’t “extended” like the wired one, meaning, there’s no number pad. What gives?

Meanwhile the MacMini also received an update with faster Intel Core 2 Duo chips and more RAM.

Yet another good observation from JC: The Mac Mini doesn’t have Wireless N. What gives?

I’m politely wondering what Apple has in store for the MacMini as with these new iMacs, there’s a fairly significant product gap, price wise, from the sub $1,000 machines and the cheapest iMac at 1,199. Eliminating that cheapest iMac might drive people to the cheapest MacBook at $1099. There are also persistent rumors that the MacMini will be discontinued. Maybe there’s some new, cheap Mac in development.

As far as a future purchase is concerned, I think I’m leaning towards a MacMini. The cost savings is significant, and I already have a flat panel monitor, external DVD burner, and mouse - and could use the extra money to get the new Apple keyboard. Yeah, I’m cheap.

In addition, iLife ‘08 and iWork ‘08 were announced, with upgrades to iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iWeb, Garage Band, Pages, Keynote, and a new program called Numbers (a spreadsheet application). Apple’s online .Mac service was beefed up to support all sorts of cool new stuff that I can’t hope to sum up, but notable is the use of the “Web 2.0″ term and a lot of work with Google to support YouTube, Google Maps, and even AdSense in iWeb-created websites.

Out of all the iLife programs I think we use iPhoto the most and I’m looking forward to seeing how it will improve our increasingly out of control, several years’ large photo collection. We definitely have too many cute cat pictures that could benefit from the new Events and Hide features. Gee, Steve, how about a LOLcat function?

Disclosure: I own a tiny amount of Apple stock.

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