MacworldYou know how you see a concept car from an auto manufacturer and you think Wow! Thats so cool! I cant wait to drive that! and then their next car comes out and it looks like a Dodge Stratus?Okay, look, the Dodge Stratus was a fine car. (Is it a fine car? The Macalope really has no idea and hes not going to look it up for the purposes of this column.) But it was a modest-looking sedan. It wasnt exactly breaking new ground. Unless you run it off the road, Jeff.Concepts are sometimes impractical. A space-aged car might look great, and then you realize those swoops make for huge blind spots and a glass roof is a tremendous safety hazard. Some changes are understandable. Changes requested by middle managers who think the company should just keep making the kind of cars its been making all along, however, can suck all the wonder out of a product.Apple recently showed off a concept that the Macalope very much hopes will become a real product someday and, if the rumors are true, it seems like it might. Dubbed ELEGNT, the prototype is an adorable lamp that moves in response to user commands and cues. The device can perform assistive functionssuch as shining its light somewhere or projecting a videoin either a solely functional manner or in an expressive one, where it pauses to look at the user, dances to music, or otherwise performs human-like behaviors.Apple has published a paper and video showing off some of the research it has done with robotics.ApplePresumably, these do not include non-desirable ones like incessant humming, reheating fish in the break room microwave, or, well, homicide. The video never shows the lamp wielding a knife so fingers crossed.Joking aside (dont worry, just for a second) the video is fairly delightful. Apple has a real chance now to take this concept and bring it to market without sucking all the joy out of it. Bloombergs Mark Gurman has been saying for months now that Apple is working on a desktop device that moves in reaction to the user but has a screen attached to an arm rather than a lamp. And while the ELEGNT lamp does look amazingly like Pixars mascot, the Macalope thinks a screen is probably going to be more useful than a light bulb.The Macalopes pal Dan Moren recently opined on this very site that Apple should embrace its weird side. The Macalope agrees and it will be interesting to see how much of this demonstration makes it into a final product.Anyone whos worked in IT has probably heard the term computer magic before. Just do it with computer magic. Oh, just like that? If its that easy, why dont you do it with managerial magic, Chad? Thats what I thought.IDGComputer magic is not a thing. But Apple has always succeeded by making things that seem like magic. Swipe to unlock. The thinness of the MacBook Air. Rebuilding the desktop.Wait, not that last one. How did that get in there?Apples magical items dont have to work right all the time, but they need to work right almost all the time and in ways that surprise and delight you. For the Macalopes money, AirPods are a prime example of this. Tiny headphones that (usually) automatically know which device youre using and switch contexts for you. Not magic but pretty magical.In an age when we are constantly promised artificial assistants who will give us the help we need and they routinely fail to do so, Apple might do well to tone down the expectation on intelligence and turn up the expectation on whimsey. Get it to do what it needs to do almost all the time, but in a way that makes you not care about those few times when it doesnt. Thats Apples sweet spot.Okay, fine, the Macalope checked: Dodge no longer makes the Stratus.If youd like to receive regular news and updates to your inbox sign up forour newsletters, including The Macalope and Apple Breakfast, David Prices weekly, bite-sized roundup of all the latest Apple news and rumors.