Apple and the New Year
As we enter into 1998, we can only hope that the picture for Apple improves over the upcoming year. The "death" of the clones, acquisition costs and write-offs, stagnant inventory and continuing bad press reporting in the past year have not served Apple or its legions of fans very well.

Here's to the hope of better quarterly financial reports, manageable inventory, good sales and earnings, greatly improved media reporting, quality Macs for less than $1,000 and a renewed interest in the Mac and what it can do.
Russ

My Mac Online - a new look
Effective with the January 1998 issue, My Mac Online at http://www.mymac.com has a new look and a new feel. We invite you all to visit the Website and take a tour. Let us know what you think of the changes and the new look... it's all for you!
Russ

Powertools sues Apple/UMAX
By now, most people know of the recent events surrounding Mac clone maker Powertools, UMAX, and Apple Computer. If not, here is a quick recap:

Powertools claims in a lawsuit that under pressure from Apple, UMAX broke an agreement to supply logic boards to Powertools. (Powertools computers, mostly UMAX logic board-based models, are then upgraded with more memory, video cards, larger and faster hard drives, etc...) Powertools also filed a lawsuit against Apple, demanding approximately $50 million dollars in damages.

Quoted from the Austin 360, Powertools CEO (and sometimes My Mac columnist) Victor Wong stated that "Our customers don't want the soap opera, they don't care about it. They just want to work."

Now, as many of you know, Powertools was one of the last manufacturers of Mac OS compatible computers. How they did so was to ship store-bought copies of Mac OS 8 with their systems, thus letting the customer license the Macintosh Operating system directly from Apple. (Something I have always wondered why no one else tried to do!)

To put this in a more personal note, let me say a few things. First, some people will, I'm sure, get upset with Powertools for trying to upset Apple during this rebuilding time. From my recent contact via e-mail with Victor Wong, I can tell you that he is aware of how Mac loyalists may view him and his company. "After Monday (December 29th) , I will either be viewed as Satan or the savior. I am not sure I want to be either, but this is something that I have to do for all of us." He also said "I do not wish to leave the Mac market if I do not have to. I have always tried to stick up for the users... the important thing is providing a tool for the users to use and believe in. It has always been the spirit of the users that has made the Mac OS great, regardless of all the problems."