With all the last-minute bustle gathering steam before next week's iMac rollout, you'd think it were a wedding approaching instead of a computer introduction. In fact, some stores are even going beyond a "standard" level of hoopla entailing giveaways, products demos, and the usual promotional stuff. No, some stores, such as Elite Computers of Cupertino, California, won't be satisfied with anything less that a full-fledged Midnight Madness Sale. According to MacWEEK, Elite Computers plans to start selling iMacs the very minute they are allowed to by Apple-- at 12:00 AM on August 15th.

It's worth noting that several resellers may be cooling the jets on their planned iMac promotional events, given the fact that, in all likelihood, Apple won't be able to deliver as many iMacs as stores have ordered. In fact, could that be the reason behind today's mysterious CompUSA Sunday paper color insert? Mysterious as in, where the heck was it? We've all grown used to seeing nary a Mac presence in the weekly CompUSA ad, but after being promised a full-page iMac promotion, it's a bit surprising not to see any CompUSA insert at all. Is Apple temporarily putting the brakes on all iMac propaganda until such time as people could actually hope to go out and buy one?

As for just how bad the shortfall of iMacs may be, we at AtAT decided to do the tiniest little bit of recon on our own. When we paid a visit to the local Microcenter today, a sales associate confirmed that they'd have iMacs in the store next Saturday-- but to demo, not to sell. When we asked why that was, his response was that every iMac they would be getting in their first shipment from Apple-- every single one-- would go towards filling the pre-orders they'd taken for the little blue appliances. When we asked him just how many pre-orders they'd gotten, the gentleman rubbed his chin thoughtfully, gazed at the ceiling for a moment, and finally said, "about ninety." Ninety. Ninety people had deposited a chunk of cash to reserve a computer that is still a week away (and only a week, we hope!), all at a single store in Cambridge, Massachusetts. There is a demand for these things, make no mistake; now let's see if Apple can fill that demand.

For those of you who are sitting out the whole iMac frenzy in favor of waiting to see what the future holds for the inevitable "iMac II," Mac the Knife may have a little glimpse into the crystal ball. Granted, it's pretty speculative, but that's never stopped any of us before...

First of all, let's talk expansion. As far as the original iMac goes, there's pretty much none of it. The only announced expansion options are the ones available via the iMac's USB interface, which is fine for lots of cool stuff-- scanners, digital cameras, removable storage devices, and the like. But there are no PCI slots for additional graphics cards, 3D accelerators, audio cards, fast SCSI, or any of the other cool things that you can slap into a Power Mac G3. Well, apparently that's going to change with the next iMac, which will "pack a slot or two," making more kinds of expansion possible. (Don't write off the current iMac just yet, though, considering all of the anonymous confirmations we're getting that the mysterious "proprietary expansion slot" in the iMac will accept an Apple-developed FireWire card, allowing fast transfer to and from high-bandwidth devices like fast hard disks and digital camcorders.)

Of particular interest to gamers will be the rumor that "Son of iMac" will include "fast 3D," whatever Apple thinks that means. (Their idea of 3D acceleration in the original iMac-- a Rage II chipset that was considered old and slow two years ago-- leaves a lot to be desired, but there's always hope.) The news that the next-generation iMacs will contain "third-party 3D acceleration hardware" is sure to spark some buzz in the Mac games newsgroups. Will it be the Rage Pro, already included in every new Power Mac G3, including the All-in-one? Or will it be a 3Dfx Voodoo-based system, which is pretty much useless for working in modeling applications and the like, but hell on wheels for straight-out 3D gameplaying? Seems like we're all just going to have to wait and see.

In the world of "Redmond Justice," Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson continues to make things interesting. The most recent little spurt of drama occurred last Thursday, when he dealt a triple blow to Microsoft regarding various requests they made in the case. A New York Times article has all the steamy details.

First, Microsoft had objected to the Justice Department's demands that the Redmond Giant turn over a copy of the source code for Windows 95 and Windows 98-- at least, they pleaded, there needed to be restrictions placed on whom would be allowed to view it. Sorry, said the judge; no formal restrictions were lodged, though of course he would order "severe penalties" if the DoJ misused the source code in any way. Strike one for Microsoft. The judge also rejected Microsoft's request that the DoJ be limited to eight hours of time in which to depose Bill Gates, stating that he did "not intend to put a time restraint" on the deposition of Chairman Bill, which will commence this coming Wednesday, and presumably will continue until the Justice Department is satisfied. Strike two.

Lastly, Microsoft indicated that they intend to file a petition on Monday requesting a dismissal of parts of the case-- for instance, that little thing about bundling Internet Explorer with Windows. (!) While Judge Thomas told Microsoft that they are "certainly entitled to do that," he probably wouldn't approve it. Strike three. Not Microsoft's best day in court, by any means, but the real trial isn't for a month yet. That's when the real sparks should start to fly. Stay tuned...