dacs.doc electric

I'M SORRY, but I do at least one Macintosh-only column per year, and this is it. To make it more palatable for Windows readers, later in the article I will be talking about a guy who ate real bugs as penance, so stick around.

Macworld is usually kicked off by Steve Jobs' keynote address. You never know what to expect, except maybe this year we had a few clues. It seems someone leaked the design for the new Macintosh, so I actually saw pictures of it the day before. This is strange for the "new" Apple, since Jobs returned he has locked down the company tight so that product introductions are really surprises.

His first announcement this time around was to introduce the new mouse. He jokingly told the audience that a "few" people didn't like the current mouse. He couldn't be farther from the truth--it stinks. I have yet to find anyone who really likes it. The new mouse looks like a normal mouse but has no buttons. It is clear and oval-shaped and is the first optical mouse to ship as a standard feature on a computer. The button is the front part of the mouse - you press on the front and the whole mouse presses down. At first I didn't like the idea, but I used it and it really grew on me. Definitely an improvement over the "hocky puck." The new keyboard is a full-sized keyboard with the inverted "T" cursor keys, and new volume and disk eject buttons. They come standard on all new Macs, but you can get them for $59 each. I'll take one of each.

The demo of the new G4s started with a comparison. Steve demonstrated how the G4 500 beat a 1GB Pentium during PhotoShop tests, something definitely relative to the Mac audience. He said that it wasn't good enough to beat it by 24 seconds. He then ran the same test with a new, dual-processor G4 500 Mac. It did the same test in 60 seconds, half the time of the Pentium.

The new G4 lineup includes one single-processor G4 450 megahertz computer at $1,599, a dual 450 at $2,499, and a screaming dual 500 at $3,499. These machines are killer fast, and now all of them include gigabit Ethernet. Iwant one. Now. These things are fast.

Microsoft introduced Office 2001 for Macintosh. It's strange to see Microsoft on an Apple stage, showing off something that will ship in October for the Mac and not until next year for Windows users. The Microsoft presenter kept touting "Mac-only" features that are not in Office 2000. Microsoft also spoke about the recent Bungie Software purchase, assuring faithful Mac users that they would not only continue to produce Macintosh games, but would publish many more in the next year.

Steve rolled out the new iMacs with a few surprises. They no longer have fruity names like Lime and Grape but come in Indigo, Ruby, Sage, and Snow. The new colors are deeper, richer, and far more mature than their predecessors. I was hoping for a 17" monitor, but it would be hard to fit one in that case.

The most exciting iMac announcement was the pricing. In September, you'll be able to buy a nicely equipped iMac for just $799, a price that's only slightly higher than what you'd pay for some of the Internet appliances on the market and yet it's a full-featured Macintosh. This system comes with 64MB of RAM, a 7GB hard drive, CD-ROM drive, 56k modem, 10/100 Ethernet, keyboard and mouse. Add a printer, and you've got a great setup. The other iMacs cost $999 to $1,499 and include a DVD drive, larger hard disks, firewire ports, video mirroring, and are ready for wireless Airport cards. With the higher price comes a better choice of colors. The $799 iMac comes only in Indigo. For more details on the new lineup check out www.Apple.com.

The big announcement was a new type of computer. Steve showed off an 8" square gray cube that contained a G4 Macintosh. It looks sort of like a cool toaster, and it's weird because you put the DVD or CD you're using in top like a piece of toast. It has a huge oval vent on the top because it doesn't have a fan. You can't appreciate this until you listen to the fan on your computer. Take a minute and listen to your office. You can get one of these cubes for $1,799 (450 megahertz, 64MB, 20GB drive, and more).

Walking the show floor looking for cool new stuff, I saw a lot of 3D software and scanning devices - you'll definitely need the new Macs for these. I ran into Sinbad (the comedian) in the Cobalt booth, where he was checking out the hardware. I asked him if he was really a computer user, and he said everyone was a geek now. Later, in a seminar, he said that he has owned more than 30 Macs. He keeps giving the old ones away and buying the latest and greatest. Douglas Adams and Gregory Hines also spoke about how they use Macs in their work.

Oh, I almost forgot. Ambrosia Software marketing guy Jason Whong threatened to eat bugs if any of his company's software had bugs earlier this year. He kept his promise and proceeded to devour a feast, which included a mealworm stir-fry and death head cockroaches, much to the enjoyment of the crowd. Having worked for software companies for the past 15 years, I can understand bugs, but I would never eat them. Yuck.