A good deal of the change in perception has come about since the introduction of the iMac, and it's generally regarded as a symbol of Apple's turnaround. Apple reported over 150,000 pre-orders for the machine, an unusually high number for a new computer. In California, stores were going to hold "Midnight Madness" parties, opening at 12:01 AM on August 15 so their customers would be among the first to be able to purchase the new computer. The release of the iMac was looking like a genuine event. When I heard Apple was looking for volunteers from local user groups to help out with the demos, I signed up. For most of August 15, I was at the CompUSA store on 39th Street and 5th Avenue in New York City, demoing the iMac.

This was perhaps the fourth time I'd used one of the sleek machines. I'd had other opportunities at Macworld, user group meetings, and presentations at Apple's New York office, so by now, I was somewhat familiar with iMac. I got to watch people interacting with it all day, and most of the time there were between a dozen and three dozen people crowded around the demo station. Television crews from TV Tokyo and a local news station came by to cover the release.

I could go into detail about all of the "features", but suffice to say it comes with all the amenities you expect from a computer except for a floppy drive. It has a nice monitor, small stereo speakers, an infrared port, a CD-ROM drive, large hard drive, 2D/3D acceleration, a fair amount of RAM, and built-in modem and networking capabilities. The hard drive and RAM can be easily upgraded, but there's no room to add any PCI cards, and Apple hasn't announced any additional equipment, so it's not possible at this point to dramatically expand the iMac's capabilities. Some websites have reported finding mysterious connectors inside the computer that might be used for expansion later, but it's all speculation for now.

The first thing you notice about the iMac is its looks. It's beautiful. It doesn't look like any other computer on the market. Its two-tone translucent case is "Ice" (like frosted glass) and "Bondi" (blue-green) colored, and you can make out the metal chassis of the computer through the housing. The colors and translucency are repeated in the iMac's other components: the round mouse is the same two colors, the mouse ball is two-toned, and even the power cord is translucent, with twisted red, blue & green wires clearly visible. The iMac is shaped sort of like a sideways gumdrop, and people can't seem to resist touching it. It's got a built-in handle towards the back of the case that makes it easy to carry, but at 38 pounds it's too heavy to lug for very long.

Actually, the first thing you *really* notice about the iMac is how easy it is to set up. You can literally be using it within five minutes of removing it from the box: just plug it in, plug in the mouse and keyboard, and turn it on. Simple. Apple has a video that shows a young boy setting up his iMac and getting onto the Internet in about 10 minutes, while a grownup struggles to set up a Windows computer on the other half of a split screen. Several minutes later, the Windows guy is still wrestling with his computer while the kid finishes up and goes off to play. It's not quite *that* easy, but that's not too far from the truth.

In use, the iMac feels fast. Moving from a fast Pentium machine nearby to the iMac, I didn't notice much of a speed difference. The monitor looks good, and can switch resolution on the fly. Unfortunately, the demo model was one of the earliest models built, and a recent trip across the country had damaged it slightly, giving the screen an odd blue cast. Because of the large number of pre-orders, the Apple rep was unable to open any of the iMacs stacked nearby, and it was too late to take the machine aside for repairs.

One cause of concern, at least to early buyers, is the lack of available peripherals. The iMac uses the relatively new USB (Universal Serial Bus) connectors, and few peripherals are available for it yet. Imation makes an external drive called the SuperDrive that reads both regular floppy disks and a new type of disk that stores 120 MB, or about as much as 80 floppy disks. Epson has a cable that connects the iMac to its Stylus Color 600 printers. Beyond that, several other companies have announced products that should be available in the near or immediate future, including cameras, printers, popular storage devices from SyQuest and Iomega, and adapters that will let you use non-USB peripherals. The trickle of USB products will soon become a flood, since USB has been adopted as an industry standard for both Macs and Windows machines, and the lack of peripherals is only a temporary problem.

The iMac also comes with a fair bit of bundled software. Quicken Deluxe '98 from Intuit, MetaCreation's Kai's Photo Soap, ClarisWorks, Williams-Sonoma Guide to Good Cooking from Broderbund, MDK from Interplay, Pangea Software's Nanosaur, and FaxSTF from STF Technologies are among the items included. The iMac also comes with both major browsers (Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer) and a one-month trial account with national Internet service provider Earthlink.

Would I get an iMac? Probably not. I work in graphics and publishing, and my needs are on the high end. I also own a few thousand dollars worth of peripherals that I don't want to make instantly obsolete. Despite that, I was sorely tempted to buy one. The computer I use at home is nowhere near as fast, and I imagined connecting it to the iMac to create a small network that would let me use both computers with all my old equipment. I also have a database client who could see a dramatic performance increase by using the iMac as a dedicated server. The fact that a professional geek like myself would consider an iMac for personal use is a testament to its seductive quality.

Apple has taken some heat in the media for not making the iMac inexpensive enough to compete with the low-end Windows computers and for the lack of a floppy drive. I don't care about those things, and I suspect a lot of other people won't either. The iMac is an ideal first computer, an excellent network computer, and a great machine for a small space--say, a dorm room or apartment. Its easy transport and setup and its stylish appearance are unmatched by anything else on the market. Apple is going to sell millions of them. It inspires an emotional response, and how often can you say *that* about a computer?

- Andrew Sasaki [8/17/98]