Alistair Dabbs

January's Macworld computer show in San Francisco saw the launch of a batch of new products, including the Flash memory-based Apple iPod Shuffle music player. I trust the irony was not lost on IT Week readers; in my previous column I wrote about the data security risks arising from the uncontrolled use of USB Flash memory drives, and then along comes Apple hoping to sell millions of them to consumers everywhere.

The iPod Shuffle can be used like any USB drive to transport all kinds of data, both PC and Mac - images, documents, viruses, the lot. Previously, you might have tackled one or two of the more tech-head workers at your site over their use of Flash memory gadgets, but now you face the prospect of almost everyone in your organisation buying one of their own and bringing it into the office every day. After all, as far as they are concerned, it's just a music player.

These multifunctional, portable gadgets are on the increase. Take LaCie's Silverscreen Hard Drive, for example. It's a pocket 40GB or 80GB drive that plays music, still-image slide-shows and Mpeg movies, just by plugging it into the back of a TV set. The potential for presentations is immense: you could carry dozens of full-length Mpeg-4 training programmes in your pocket, and play them back anywhere that has a TV, without having to fire up a PC or laptop.

If you consider these products as too specialised or leisure-oriented to pose a problem in the workplace, be aware that manufacturers are actively blurring the boundaries between leisure and work systems. And in the case of Apple, it is not clear whether the company ever realised there was a boundary to cross.

This impression was reinforced a few days after Macworld, when Apple demonstrated its new products to journalists at its capacious barn on London's Regent Street. We were all desperate to get our hands on the Mac Mini, an ultra-compact (6.5x6.5x2in) desktop computer that costs less than a top-end iPod, but to do so, we first had to sit through presentations about Apple's music products and home computing software.

After the dismal failure of Apple's Cube a few years ago, everyone is cautious of appearing too enthusiastic about this new strange, shrunken Mac for the moment. However, the Mini is everything that the Cube was not: it has a high-level spec, can be upgraded (sort of), and is quite cheap. Also, because it is not bundled with a monitor, keyboard and mouse, the Mini makes a very cost-efficient replacement computer.

On the other hand, the Cube's downfall was a series of serious design flaws that nobody spotted until later. My personal favourite was the touch-sensitive power button, which operated by sensing the heat from your finger. Since this button was located near the Cube's warm air venting grill, the machine would suddenly switch itself off while you were working.

My gut feeling is that lots of PC makers will soon be producing their own book-sized desktop machines too. Design faults excepted, the Mini could be the start of something, erm, big. But Apple itself doesn't seem to see it quite that way. After talking about iPods and home video software for over an hour at the aforementioned press briefing, Apple covered the Mac Mini in less than three minutes. Unfortunately, desktop computing does not currently appear to be music to Apple's ears.

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