It's amazing how much dust you can kick up by announcing a home computer without a floppy drive, isn't it? On the one side you've got the folks who say "good riddance" to a slow, low-capacity, often unreliable peripheral that is thoroughly unsuited to computing tasks today; on the other are the ones who make the solid point that emailing attachments and relying on a network connection for transfer simply isn't a viable replacement yet, especially within the consumer market at which the iMac is aimed. So what's the answer?

To a certain extent, the right answer is now, "Who cares?" According to MacCentral, Imation has officially announced their iMac-compatible SuperDisk drive, which will attach via the iMac's USB port. The SuperDisk is a nifty device that reads and writes not only the proprietary 120 MB SuperDisk media, but also the venerable 1.44 MB and 720 KB floppy diskettes. We don't see any mention of pricing, but hopefully this SuperDisk drive will be a relatively low-cost backup device that will also allow the use of floppies for transfer to and from computers at work and at school.

Then, of course, there's Apple itself, who has publicly stated that no iMac will ship with a floppy drive, nor will an Apple-branded external USB floppy be made available. Yet Mac OS Rumors claims otherwise-- according to them, they've "confirmed" that Apple is going to sell a USB floppy drive, and that, most likely, it'll be made available as a build-to-order option. Build-to-order iMacs, eh? If it becomes a reality, that's another point in Apple's favor when competing in the low-cost consumer space. It's going to be a very interesting autumn.

Meanwhile, the introduction of the new Powerbook G3's, affectionately known by their code names of Wall Street and Main Street, appears to have been upstaged by the surprise unveiling of the iMac. We can only imagine how the Powerbook team at Apple must feel, to see the sleek black product of years of toil finally come to completion, only to have it overshadowed by a consumer Mac that Mac the Knife refers to as looking like "an oversized Fisher-Price bath toy--" especially since the Powerbooks are available now, and the iMac is still 90 days away.

That's why we're pleased to see Apple announce that the online Apple Store just had its biggest day ever, racking up just under $2 million in sales in a single 24-hour period. (Apple's press release has more details.) The reason, obviously, is the availability of the new Powerbooks; legions of road warriors who previously either had to cough up $5700 for a first-generation Powerbook G3 or settle for a 603e chip now have the option of buying a seriously cool G3-powered laptop for less than half the price. These initial strong sales bode well for Wall Street's contribution to what will very likely be the third consecutive profitable quarter for Apple.

In fact, we think that Powerbook G3 sales are only just ramping up. The large, fold-out print ad with the "they eat Pentium laptops for lunch" theme is just the beginning; as Uncle Steve mentioned during last Wednesday's big event, a new "Think Different" TV spot (entitled "Steamroller") is slotted to show up on the tube sometime in the next three to four weeks. (Last we checked, scans of the fold-out ad were available at MacNN, and Quicktime 3 footage of the Steamroller ad had just surfaced at Mac OS Rumors.) It's gonna be a Powerbook kinda quarter.

If the Department of Justice is planning on moving against Windows 98, they've only got a few more days before the software is released to manufacturers. Of course, there's still the matter of that preliminary injunction handed down last December, which requires that Microsoft make available a version of Windows 95 without Internet Explorer. And Microsoft just filed a motion requesting that the injunction, which includes a sentence that affects "successor versions" of Windows 95, be "stayed" so as not to affect Windows 98. Read about it in Computer Reseller News.

The DoJ, of course, is having none of it. The injunction was filed five whole months ago, they say, so why is Microsoft filing a motion less than a week before they plan to release the software to manufacturers? To quote their response, "Microsoft's attempt to use exigent circumstances entirely of its own making as an excuse for bypassing the disctrict court should not be condoned." Of course, this whole "we didn't understand exactly what you meant" strategy is nothing new from Microsoft. You'll recall, of course, when they "removed" Internet Explorer by rendering the whole Windows 95 operating system unbootable.

Will the petty squabbling never cease? Good lord, we hope not. ;-)