Who could have guessed that our idle musings on the fate of Tangerine would have brought elicited such a firestorm of response? For those of you who are a little behind, we're talking about the relative popularity of the five new fruity iMac colors; since Apple opted to sell all five colors at retail instead of making the special hues a build-to-order-only option at the Apple Store, there's more than a little danger that some colors will be drastically more popular than others, leading to inventory control problems unseen since the days of the Great Performa Debacle. And Apple's not stupid-- they obviously foresaw the potential danger, which is why they're selling each different-colored iMac with its own SKU number, and why they initially required resellers to buy iMacs in packs of forty, with eight of each flavor. When every reseller had an initially equal inventory of all five flavors, it's an easy matter for Apple to track color popularity through the different SKU's. The hope, of course, was that all five flavors would prove about equally popular, but if that turned out not to be the case, Apple could remedy the situation.

It's still too early for us to have seen any official sales numbers, but informal questioning of a few sizeable resellers indicates that all five flavors are selling well-- except for Tangerine, which is reportedly the least-popular hue (despite the fact that it's leading the pack in DailyMac's flavor poll). When he heard that, we voiced our concern about the possibility of Apple having to deal with warehouses full of homeless Tangerine iMacs, and apparently we tugged on a few heartstrings, because literally dozens of faithful viewers wrote in with suggestions on how to find loving homes for the poor little orange guys. By far the most popular plan was for Apple to push them at the University of Texas, Austin and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; both schools have orange and white as official school colors, and the Tangerine iMac might be enormously popular in those environments.

Sadly, though, Tangerine may have had its day: an anonymous Apple employee contacted us to state that Tangerine has been secretly but officially retired. Apple has ceased production of all Tangerine systems, and once those in the channel are gone, there will be no more. Of course, there's no guarantee that this "inside information" from Apple is actually true; it may just be someone trying to boost Tangerine's sales popularity by starting a rumor that it may soon be the hardest-to-find and most collectible color. Who can say? All we know is, anyone who's been meaning to pick up a Tangerine iMac at some point, including all you Longhorns and Volunteers, might be wise to do so sooner rather than later. He who hesitates settles for Grape.

Personally, we at AtAT have never really been very fond of the whole "iMac as New Volkswagen Beetle" comparison. Sure, they're both the curviest products in their respective markets, they both capture the attention and pocketbooks of style-conscious and simplicity-minded consumers everywhere, they're both portrayed at their websites in all their 3D glory via the magic of QuickTime VR, and they've both been shown as happy spinning UFO-like objects against stark white backgrounds in commercials. But to be honest, we aren't actually all that fond of the new Beetle; something about it just looks wrong. It's not quite lumpy enough, or perhaps the curves seem less inviting and alive than the curves on its predecessor. Or maybe it's because it looks to us more like a Volkwagen Golf wearing a Beetle costume for Halloween.

But there is one thing about the Beetle that we like a lot, and that's the dashboard bud vase. It's just a nice little touch that shows an attention to detail and an allowance for whimsy that we respect and admire. Admit it, iMac owners-- you wish Apple had taken a page from VW's book and included a bud vase on your favorite translucent computer, don't you? What could be more inviting than an iMac with a happy little daisy on the front bezel? Well, thankfully, you no longer have to wonder; Freeverse Software (those lovable sadists who gave the world Jared, the Butcher of Song and Burning Monkey Solitaire) have announced the iVase, a bud vase that attaches to the side of your iMac with a suction cup and holds the flower of your choice.

Yeah, we thought it was a joke at first-- especially since the iVase description claims that it uses "proprietary 'suction' technology developed in France"-- but given that Freeverse has a secure ordering page where you can buy the iVase for a mere $8.95 (plus $3 shipping and handling), we have to assume it's for real. We expect to pick one up ourselves for our own funky blue guy, because at that price, how can you go wrong? By the way, if Volkswagen ever ships candy-colored translucent polycarbonate body Beetles, we'll definitely have to reconsider our opinion...

When it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? Following their initial success with the idea, "Redmond Justice" writers are really pushing the envelope on this whole "videotaped evidence" plot device. First, we had the semi-controversial practice of the Department of Justice showing snippets of Bill Gates' fumbling and hostile video deposition, providing interesting insights into the potential anti-trust practices of Microsoft while also giving us some welcome comic relief. Then, a couple of weeks ago, there was that whole brouhaha when government lawyer David Boies noticed that Microsoft's videotaped test of Windows speed degradation following the removal of Internet Explorer had to be faked, involving footage from several computers spliced together; Microsoft later admitted that the tape was an "illustration" instead of an actual test, amid several courtroom gasps. Within the following week, Microsoft tripped over another videotaped test, this time comparing the relative speed of Internet access between Windows 3.1 and Windows 98; Boies discovered that the Windows 98 system had the unfair advantage of a faster modem.

So given the fantastic ratings return from all this videotape intrigue, what makes you think the writers would abandon the plot device just because it's getting stale? According to a Newsbytes article, in the last installment of "Redmond Justice," Microsoft introduced yet another videotaped test, this time meant to illustrate how easy it would be for a Windows user to download, install, configure, and use Netscape Navigator instead of the "integrated" Internet Explorer if he or she so desired. Microsoft's argument, of course, is that bundling IE with Windows isn't unfairly taking browser market share away from competitors, since any customer could simply download competing software at any time. Boies, of course, wasn't going to let Microsoft introduce any videotaped evidence without questioning its veracity, and claimed that the tape falsely portrayed the whole process as much easier than it really was for the average user. For instance, whereas most users would have to wait for an hour or two while Navigator creeps onto their hard disks via, say, a 33.6 kbps connection, the videotaped demo used a high-speed Internet connection and showed the whole process as taking "a matter of minutes."

And despite the fact that this video directly contradicts the deposition of one of Microsoft's own executives who stated that downloading software from the Internet "takes too long" and is "too hard" for the average user, we hear that Boies and the boys plan to fight back with their own videotaped evidence this week. If ComputerWorld is correct, we should expect to see a tape depicting the real experience of someone who decides to switch from IE to Netscape; we wonder if it'll be complete with dropped connections, aborted downloads, and all the other occasionaly pitfalls that plague the average dial-up web surfer? Hopefully the DoJ has a strategy to jazz up the video a little bit, as we can imagine few things more boring than watching a download progress bar inch from left to right at the speed of a slug on quaaludes. Perhaps they can use picture-in-picture to show The Price Is Right in the corner, or something.