The $30 a Month iMac

1998 – This is the weekend Best Buy joins the ranks of nationwide Macintosh resellers in the US. This means Macs will be available in dozens of communities that have Best Buy stores but don’t have CompUSA.

Windows Can’t Compete

1998.11: Steve Wozniak says that Apple won because all of today’s computers look like Macs. Bill Gates thinks Microsoft Windows won because he “borrowed” all of Apple’s good ideas. Sorry, but it just isn’t so.

The iMac 300

1998.10: Face it: The iMac was announced five months ago and is rapidly becoming dated. Look at the Wintel world. It’s getting hard to find a 233 MHz Windows computer these days, although they were hot when Steve Jobs first announced the iMac in May.

Why USB Is a Good Thing

1998.10: With USB, Apple is in the odd position of strongly promoting a technology invented on the Wintel side – but not yet embraced there. Despite the pain of early adopters (iMac buyers), there are now USB printers, keyboards, mice, trackballs, and more.

iMac #2 in August PC Sales

1998.09: Apple’s iMac probably had the most successful rollout of any computer in history. Sales are estimated at about 360,000 units from its launch on August 15. (Today ends Apple’s fiscal year – maybe we’ll see some hard numbers soon.)

iMacTV, Take 2

1998.09: Last week I suggested that Apple produce a set-top version of the iMac with a DVD player, infrared keyboard, and the ability to display as clearly as a TV screen allows. (See I Want iMacTV.)

A Compact iMac?

1998.09: A compact iMac? Isn’t the iMac already small enough? Yes, the iMac is remarkably tiny for a computer with a built-in 15″ monitor. But I’m thinking smaller: modular.

The iMac: Not for Me

Sept. 1998: It’s a bit embarrassing to admit it, especially since I run one of the more successful iMac sites, but I don’t own an iMac, haven’t ordered an iMac, and doubt I’ll buy an iMac.

Here’s the Beef

August 1998: In iMac-ulate Conception: How Apple Made a Miracle Out of a Mere PC on ZDNet, Robert Lemos disparages the iMac as featuring “very little new technology and . . . missing some standard features found in other computers, such as a floppy drive and built-in printer connectivity.”

iMac vs. the First Macintosh

August 1998: The iMac is Apple’s most important product roll-out since the original Macintosh. A column by Jim Davis on Cnet (The iMac’s Ancestors) reminded me how like and unlike the two computers are. Here’s a comparison of features.

What PC Users Are Forgetting: The Long Lost Mac OS

August 1998: “This sounds like Apple trying to make it back with a last ditch effort, and I feel that this iMac will only resolve to be a slightly faster, showy machine with fewer capabilities than a GameBoy with a modem. Macs have always proven to be the slower, clunkier machines in a world that […]

USB and the OfficeJet

August 1999: Last November I said that Macs needed parallel ports. I got a lot of letters on that, some saying I made a lot of sense. Others said parallel ports would soon be obsolete, replaced with the Universal Serial Bus (USB) and FireWire.

iMac vs. $999 Windows PCs

August 1998: I’ve been looking forward to the latest issue of PC Magazine, the one that looks at sub-$1,000 (sub-$1K) Windows systems. So many “experts” are chiding Apple for releasing a $1,300 computer when (they say) buyers really want sub-$1K PCs.