Well, there's no question as to what the big news is today: Apple stunned Wall Street, the mainstream media, the naysayers, and even the Mac faithful by posting a $101 million profit for Q3 1998. That makes this the third consecutive quarter in which Apple not only posted a profit, but also exceeded the analysts' expectations. The most optimistic prediction we'd seen outside of our "Beat the Analysts" contest was for $80 million, and Apple blew even that prediction out of the water. On top of that, Apple's statement about the financial results also indicates that gross margins increased from 24.8% to 25.7%, inventory levels are the lowest among the major computer manufacturers, and Apple's even got $2 billion in cash to use as muscle as it dives head-first back into the consumer market next month with the iMac. That's all fantastic news.

Meanwhile, Intel posted quarterly results showing a 29% drop in earnings, which was even worse than the pessimistic analyst predictions, according to the New York Times. And an Associated Press story says that Compaq's results revealed a staggering $3.6 billion loss following its purchase of Digital Equipment Corporation, but even if you subtract out the one-time losses, their quarterly profit was only $32 million-- less than half of Apple's quarterly profit after subtracting one-time income. Strange days indeed, people.

By the way, we've tabulated the results of our "Beat the Analysts" contest, and we're thrilled to announce that Rob Cioffi was the big winner, with Daniel Fox winning the EvangeList slot. Details, analysis, and a few random thoughts are available on the contest page. Thanx to all who entered, and for those of you who didn't win, don't forget-- next quarter's results are only three months away. Start working on those guesses now!

Your friendly neighborhood AtAT staff saw some neat iMac-compatible storage devices at the Expo last week. First, there's the one that everyone's been hearing about-- Imation's SuperDisk drive, which reads and writes its own 120 MB disks, as well as standard 3.5" floppies. The really cool thing about the drive is that it's seriously made for the iMac-- it's bondi blue and ice white, translucent, rounded, and a perfect stylistic complement. Then there was Iomega's USB Zip drive, which is a deep translucent royal blue instead of the solid navy we're used to. And Syquest's 1 GB SparQ for iMac was a bright translucent red. Pretty! (And, presumably, functional.)

While those options are all well and good, MacWEEK's got an article describing even more. For instance, La Cie will be selling external hard drives and DVD-ROM drives that will connect to the iMac's USB port. But the storage option that intrigued us the most was a service called BackJack, which lets Mac users back up their critical files over the Internet, which is the only backup option available to iMac users who don't want to purchase additional hardware. We had also heard that Dantz is planning a special version of its excellent Retrospect backup software that will allow backup to special servers via the Internet.

There's something to be said for such a service; while it's always a good idea for computer users to back up their entire hard disks, many people are content with backing up only their document files, figuring that they can always reload the operating system and all their applications from the original CD-ROMs. Since people using iMacs most likely aren't working on 100 MB graphics files, an option to let them back up their Quicken and AppleWorks files over the Internet sounds like a neat idea. It even has the added benefit of being an offsite backup; even if your house burns down, those critical files are safe on a server three states away. But we don't know how safe we'd feel storing personal and confidential data on an Internet server. There's always the security/paranoia factor, and backups are supposed to make you feel safer. It'll be interesting to see if such services catch on.

It's no big secret that Apple's innovations are frequently adopted (or, say, "ripped off") by other companies over time until eventually the appropriated element becomes a standard. Apple introduces the QuickTake, the first consumer-level digital camera, and now there are dozens of the things on the market. The Newton paved the way for the Palm Pilot and Windows CE devices. The PowerBook 5xx series had this cool thing called a trackpad, and now it's hard to find a laptop of any kind without one. The Mac was the first mainstream computer to introduce a standard 3.5" floppy drive; the iMac may be the first to get rid of it. Etc., etc., etc.

So it's not terribly surprising to see O'Grady's PowerPage discuss a Windows CE clone of Apple's revolutionary (and now discontinued) eMate. The eMate, as you probably recall, was a lightweight laptop-handheld hybrid that had a distinctive clamshell design and was intended to be a low-cost portable computer for educational use. Well, when you see the photo of the Dreamwriter IT by NTS Computer Systems over at the PowerPage, we think you'll notice something awfully familiar about this "affordable portable educational computer."

We think the computer industry as a whole should honor Apple by referring to the company as "Apple Computer: Research and Development for the Rest of Us."