COPYING SOFTWARE MAY be off-limits, but no one ever banned ripping off design innovations. And what a bummer that’s been for Apple. First Microsoft lifted the famous “look and feel” to create Windows — and now this. If only eager executives had thought to trademark translucence after coming out with the iMac, Apple would really be raking it in.

Amid the consumer frenzy over the fun, frivolous, colorful plastic computers, scores of companies have raced to promote their own products in translucent palettes ranging from melon to mauve. The see-through lines feed that healthy curiosity to see just what is getting sucked up those vacuums, what happens when a phone rings, and how your juicy steak turns to a crusty turd in the microwave.

Our favorite culinary bad boy, George Foreman, has added to his line of “Champ” grills with colorful Bun Warmers ($39.99), featuring translucent tops in indigo, orange, ruby, teal, and purple; they’re available online from Salton as well as in various hardware stores. Bed Bath & Beyond caters to the trend by offering scores of pellucid products, such as Sharp Half Pint microwaves ($99.99), which are colorful 14-inch cubes in see-through orange, blue, green, red, and purple. Hair fanatics can now satisfy their mechanical curiosity while scorching their scalps with the ConAir Translucent Hair Dryer ($19.99) in orange, pink, and blue. And, for the techno-fanatic trying to color-coordinate the office, Handspring has launched a line of the company’s hand-held Visors in ice, graphite, blue, orange, and green ($249).

Apple’s not to be left in the dust with all this. The company offers translucent options for even the most traditional among us. A Poolyflame Retro Phone, with an old-school cradle, mixes last year’s design and last century’s invention. Resolve that conundrum as you wait for it to ring.

??Bed Bath & Beyond, 401 Park Drive, Boston, (617) 536-1090; and other locations

??Economy Hardware, 219 Mass Ave, Boston, (617) 536-4280; 144 Harvard Avenue, Allston, (617) 789-5552; 438 Mass Ave, Cambridge, (617) 864-3300

??www.handspring.com

??www.salton-maxim.com

??www.theapplecollection.com