Every month, My Mac presents the best from As the Apple Turns, one of the very best Mac web sites on the Internet today. Culling the best is no easy task, as Jack Miller writes such fantastic stuff. We want to reprint it all! But, alas, we choose a small sampling of his work and present it here as it originally appeared on the AtAT web site. Enjoy, and when your done, be sure to check out his web site for the up-to-the-minute latest and greatest! http://www.infoxczar.com/atat

Bersting With Enthusiasm (6/3/99)

For the most part, we at AtAT aren't huge fans of Jesse Berst's AnchorDesk over at ZDNet; it's usually very Wintel-crowd-centric, and the hot air factor can be high. But we do tune in every once in a while to see what's up, just for balance's sake, and so we were intrigued to see his prognostications about all the cool new features that'll be making their way into PCs next year-- amazing, jaw-dropping features that he claims will make all PC owners drool all over themselves and race to the store, credit cards in hand. The funny thing is, his list of features for "next year's computer" sounds pretty familiar for some reason.

Let's break it down, here... According to Jesse, one big feature most PCs will have in a year is instant-on, so users won't have to wait around to boot. Our iMac wakes from sleep in eight seconds-- and most of that is waiting for the screen to warm up. Since we never shut it down, to us, that's "instant-on." Jesse also predicts the PC of the future will have a "closed case: no more messing with cards. All peripherals will plug into a USB port." Hmmm, where have we seen that before? And the iMac, of course, also has his "no more beige blocks" feature in spades. In fact, the iMac only lacks one of his four "next year's PC" traits: a flat-screen LCD display instead of a CRT.

So how 'bout that? According to Jesse Berst, for the most part, the computer PC users will want next year is the computer Apple released last year. Apparently Apple wasn't kidding when they threw around all that marketing hoopla about "next year's computer right now," except that maybe it should have been "three-quarters of the computer from two years in the future right now." Isn't it nice to be ahead of the curve? Don't expect Apple to get any credit from Jesse, though; unsurprisingly, he makes only a passing reference to the iMac itself, as he describes Intel's forthcoming Aztec-pyramid-looking thing. Some things never change.

I'd Also Like A Pony (6/3/99)

Best Buy's attempts to get into the iMac game were laughable-- or they would have been, if they hadn't been so terribly sad. The Sears rollout is off to a bumpy start, with some units on display with no demo software, no marketing materials, and a price tag $100 higher than even the Apple Store price. (The official launch date was pushed forward, so we have high hopes of a vast improvement very soon.) Even CompUSA's Apple store-within-a-store started out as a total nightmare, though it's gotten way better over time-- but problems remain. Generally speaking, the retail market has been extremely tough for Apple, since it lacks control over the presentation, demonstration, and sales of its own computers. The iMac, the PowerBook, the new G3-- these are works of art that should be celebrated and exalted, not just left on a shelf in a state of disrepair next to one of those startlingly ugly Compaq units.

So what's the solution? Don't ask us. While there are plenty of regional and local resellers that know how to treat Macs with the respect they deserve, on a national level Apple's always going to have to rely on the likes of Sears and CompUSA. The only chance we can see for a uniform and positive Mac-buying retail experience on a national scale is for Apple to open their own stores, and really, what's the likelihood of that happening? We'd always just dismissed that whole notion as a beautiful pipe dream-- a nice thing to fantasize about while picking through the war zone of the local CompUSA.

But now The Register claims that "speculation is mounting" that Apple is planning to open a chain of retail locations across the country. Of course, the phrase "speculation is mounting" is generally synonymous with the phrase "there's no actual basis in fact for this rumor, but we're going to spread it anyway," but it is interesting to note that Gateway seems to pull in pretty good margins with its stores, which offer a showcase for their systems which customers can order. Could the same model work for Apple? All we know is, the idea of being able to visit an Apple retail store thrills us to no end.-- but we're keeping it filed in the "Pipe Dreams" folder right now.

Things Are Looking Up (6/13/99)

How about that? Sears wasn't kidding after all; it looks like they're really serious about this whole iMac thing. Yes, we finally saw the long-fabled Sears commercial with three dads who were, in our opinion, showing possibly just a little too much enthusiasm while balancing checkbooks and writing email to government officials via their iMacs-- but hey, we're talking about Commercialville, here, where housewives wax eloquent about the virtues of non-abrasive bathroom cleanser while grinning like synchronized swimmers or those high school cheerleaders who compete in the national finals. The important thing is, Sears is paying to advertise the iMac, and they seem to be doing a pretty good job of it.

On top of that, as promised, the iMac graces the entire cover of the June 13th Sears Sunday circular, at the "Sears low price" of $1199.99-- less than a buck higher than the standard Apple price, which is a huge improvement over the original $1299 sticker price, especially when you add in the 0% financing available when using one's Sears charge card. And get this: the iMac is the only computer advertised in the entire Sears "Electronic Super Sale" circular. That must be some kind of first.

Of course, things aren't perfect by any means. While the five-flavored iMac "flower" does grace the cover of the circular, that particular shot only shows the top of the iMac, and it's not immediately clear that what's being sold is even a computer. "Just plug it in, switch it on and the internet is at your fingertips." Well, it's a step in the right direction, anyway. We'd also like to see the iMac highlighted on the electronics page at Sears' web site, instead of those WebTV thingies. But between the commercial and this latest circular, we've got to say, we're very optimistic that the Apple-Sears partnership will lead to some very good things-- maybe even good enough that we'll stop waking up screaming from Best Buy-inspired nightmares.

Drive Different. & Teeny. (6/16/99)

We saw it first over at Mac OS Rumors, and then NoBeige picked up on the story, too... If you thought the Volkswagen Beetle was the iMac of the automotive world, it's time to take a look at the Toyota e-com. It's small, round, even cuter than the bug (albeit in a vaguely disturbing manner), and sports a very familiar two-tone silver-and-teal exterior that looks suspiciously reminiscent of a certain translucent personal computer that hit the market last August. Heck, even the names are similar. iMac. e-com. Two vowels, an "m," and a "c." (Give or take a hyphen.)

And it's not just looks and names that make the e-com so iMac-like; the e-com thinks different, too. Or rather, it runs different. It's an electric car that's powered by twenty-four "sealed nickel-metal hydride batteries." One charge gets you about 60 miles of travel, at a top speed of 62 miles per hour. And this is very cool-- when you apply the brakes, some of the kinetic energy being lost as the e-com slows down is actually redirected back to the batteries to charge them. Innovative? Undoubtably. As innovative as a completely round translucent mouse with a two-color ball that you can see spinning? You be the judge. And get this-- we hear the e-com ships without a floppy drive. Imagine!

But the thing about the e-com that really kills us is the size. This thing looks teeny. Presumably it has to be, since it's pretty much running on old PowerBook batteries, but still... You know that McDonald's commercial with the business traveler who, at the end of the day, just wants to be "Super-Sized"? It was Katie, AtAT's resident fact-checker and Goddess of Minutiae, who noticed the distinct similarity between the e-com and the "two-door Speck." How cool is that?

We Make Our Own Fun (6/30/99)

So who says Macintosh isn't the premiere entertainment platform? Sure, the Windows camp may get more games (for now), but what many people forget is the inherent entertainment value in following a computer company whose every move seems to ooze drama to a degree never before seen outside of daytime television. And even when Apple itself isn't making the headlines with confirmed attention-drawing antics, the company (and its notorious iCEO) still manages to entertain the living daylights out of us all by being fodder for our own fevered rumors and imaginings. Seriously, what other computer company has a following so dedicated that it can sustain a single unsubstantiated rumor about a keynote address change of venue by coming up with dozens of scenarios explaining the possible move? You think if someone says a friend of a friend has inside information that Michael Dell is changing the location of his next speech, thousands of Dell users will start concocting possible reasons why? Get real...

That's why we at AtAT are so darn proud of our faithful viewers, who rushed to fill in the gaps in yesterday's unsubstantiated rumor (an AppleLinks exclusive) about Steve Jobs' possible decision to move his Macworld Expo keynote address from the main convention site, the Javits Center, to 30 Rockefeller Plaza for some surprise announcement of "a major non-Mac move by Apple." Many of you came up with possible announcements that never occurred to us; Wayne Jimerson, for example, reminded us that Apple still doesn't have a permanent CEO, and wonders if Jobs might be either taking the reins himself or passing them to a successor at 30 Rock. Charles Martin prefers to resurrect and integrate another long-standing Apple rumor, and surmises that if the keynote does indeed get moved, the one word that should be on our minds is "Disney." And Pam Phillips also wonders about a possible Disney connection, while not ruling out the possibility that Apple may be taking this opportunity to announce something big regarding Internet access-- perhaps wireless, or a free year's worth of service bundled with consumer-level Macs.

Heck, as far as we're concerned, any or all of these may turn out to be true. The beauty of the situation is that Apple's customers care enough about the platform that the thinnest rumor can become the springboard for endless speculation. As for our personal guess as to what this big "non-Mac" announcement could turn out to be, we consider the most likely scenario to be something to do with Apple getting back into some kind of consumer Internet venture now that the spectre of eWorld has faded from recent public memory. The other possibility we're mulling over is that Steve is just trying to draw as large a crowd as possible so that he has plenty to eat immediately after he morphs into a 60-foot snake demon before thousands of shocked eyes; after all, what better time to reveal his ulterior motives than a week after the Buffy season finale finally airs? (If you're planning on attending the keynote, don't forget to bring some "goth weapons" for protection.)