(Apart from the price:) Nothing. It's a complete reversal from the trashcan. It's cheesy (!), loud, fun, it has personality, you can take it apart, mess with its insides, which are actually worth talking about. And people LOVE it - just as they'd probably love a decent Macbook which is maybe 0.2in thicker, but comes with an Esc key, a keyboard which won't die within a year, and enough ports to be usable.

Yep! I think it’s a fantastic machine that looks great. Same with the screen.

I think he/she meant that the trash can model was very poorly received whereas the new one has generated a lot of excitement. If the new one was designed without Ive or against his wishes, it could have seriously called his value into question.

My comment was supposed to mean that the new mac is what trash can generation mac should have been. The opposite of what you probably understood.

And my understated implication was the trash can would have been an Ive design.