It's only the second year in which the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has awarded an Emmy in the category of "Best Commercial," but Apple walked away with the prize. The minute-long "Think Different" ad, created by the same TBWA Chiat/Day who gave us the legendary "1984" Macintosh commercial, can add another notch to its belt-- and this one's a pretty big notch. Read more about it in a CNN article.

"Think Different" may not have directly sold many Macs, but it certainly put Apple back into the public eye, if for no other reason than to question the commercial use of history's great figures and to debate points of grammar. And over time, there's no doubt that it struck a chord with Mac users everywhere, who grew to associate the commercial with the real spirit of the Macintosh-- it embodied the concepts of creativity, lateral thinking, results over popularity, and elegance over uniformity-- and distilled it all down into sixty seconds of grainy black and white footage, a simple voiceover, and, ultimately, two words. And it worked. It gave Apple a foothold back into regaining mindshare, which they are now working hard at turning back into market share. We at AtAT are proud to hear that that the "Think Different" commercial continues to be recognized as one of the best of the bunch.

By the way, the CNN article does include a "complete list of winners in the creative arts categories," so if you're the type who likes to be surprised on Emmy night, you might want to keep away. However, none of the "big" award winners (best actor, best drama, that kind of stuff) are revealed, and we think that most of the categories covered aren't going to be televised on September 13th anyway. Use your best judgment.

Apple shocked a great many of us by somehow avoiding a PR debacle of biblical proportions during the iMac's launch a couple of weeks ago. Basically, just prior to the launch, rumors had been flying everywhere that, despite running its plants twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week, Apple still wasn't going to have nearly enough units ready for August 15th. And in fact most dealers received far fewer iMacs than they had expected-- which was, in turn, significantly less than they had ordered. It looked for all the world like Apple's classic supply problem was poising once again to bite them in the butt.

Somehow, though, the relatively constrained supply only seemed to fuel the fire; most larger stores were able to fill most or all of their preorders, and even had a few iMacs left to sell out by the end of the weekend. But instead of making consumers angry, the "sold out" signs just made buyers more determined to get their hands on the crystalline blue-and-white computer. "Always leave them wanting more," and all that rot. And Apple was able to ship enough iMacs to make that launch their most successful product introduction to date.

But what's this? Even though the hysteria seems to be dying down a bit, it appears that demand hasn't flagged. That's great news, except for the fact that Apple seems to be having some trouble providing the supply. According to Computer Retail Week, consumers are gaga over the iMac, but the systems are going fast and Apple seems unable to build enough to keep up. Thank goodness that Apple decided to hold off on selling the iMac via the Apple Store until October 1st-- perhaps by then they'll have found a way to catch up. We'll see what happens as we move past the back-to-school buying and head into the holiday shopping season.

Both sides in the "Redmond Justice" case are gearing up for the upcoming trial. Despite the fact that a grouchy ol' appellate court ruled that his deposition should be held privately, details are trickling in about how Microsoft Head Honcho Bill Gates answered the Justice Department's pre-trial questions. Or, rather, how he didn't answer them, if CNET's sources can be trusted. Apparently it's business as usual, as Gates was-- surprise, surprise!-- as "evasive and nonresponsive" as he was when testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee last March. We've got to say, the man sure doesn't crack under pressure.

CNET's source gave one particular example of Gates' behavior: when asked whether or not he had ever actually made a statement that had been quoted in a published article, rather than answer yes or no, he declared that he'd have to see a transcript of the interview before commenting. That's very cautious behavior, and very smart; he's doing exactly what we imagine his lawyers had instructed him to do. Of course, such a great level of caution might be interpreted by some as a giant Emblem of Guilt®, but we certainly wouldn't want to see this case tried in the media, right? Regardless, the deposition lasted all day Thursday, continued on Friday, and apparently might spill over into Monday-- depending, probably, on just how evasive and nonresponsible Mr. Gates was capable of being.

So apparently Bill didn't break down in tears and confess all his anticompetitive sins, or freak out and go for the bailiff's gun or anything. In that sense, at least, we're not as disappointed that the press was barred from the deposition. If something really cool had happened, we'd be pretty upset, but if the video tapes are ever made public it sounds like all we'll see is an Ollie North-style litany of "I don't recall," etc. Hey, no one ever accused Gates of having a personality-- or of taking unnecessary risks.