Twenty-first century, here we come. A few days ago, AtAT's collective "wow alert" got tripped by the upcoming advances in voice technology-- not so much the announcement that Dragon Systems was finally planning to release a decent continuous speech dictation system for the Mac, mind you; while that's nice, that's more of a catch-up for the Mac side than a cool futuristic advance. Instead, we're talking about the voice print login technology in Mac OS 8.7, code-named "Sonata." The whole idea of typing in a password just seems so '80's, doesn't it? Speaking a pass phrase and having the computer analyze your voice as an identification measure-- now that's cool. (Why do we envision thousands of office workers practicing their imitations of their bosses and learning when the payroll office is lightly inhabited?)

But why stop there? Personally, we hear enough talking all day without people speaking their way into their systems, dictating lengthy missives, or yammering at their computers trying to get them to repair their files or to print that monthly report. (Actually, we hear a lot of people yelling at their computers in that manner-- but mostly on the PC side of the fence, and without voice command software installed...) Our point is that voice may seem like a cool futuristic next-generation method of computer control, but it may actually just make the world a noisier place without introducing a huge benefit. After all, is it that much more efficient to dictate your email than to type it?

So IBVA Technologies is going a step further. According to MacCentral, the brain/computer interface they've been showing at recent Macworld Expos is now fully compatible with iMacs and blue-and-white G3s. That's right; to a limited extent, you can actually think things into your Mac. Right now, the IBVA system lets you "change movies as they are being watched, create interactive brain wave influenced music, control digital video and sound, study brain activity," and do other fun stuff. Oh, sure, you can't exactly "think" your new novel into your favorite word processor, but it's early yet. We're most intrigued by the claim that IBVA lets you "fight brain versus brain against another person." Ooooh... Anyone seen Scanners? And in a match-up between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, is there any question whose head would explode?

Remember when Mac OS 8.5 first came out, and Apple went into hype overdrive? Steve Jobs went so far as to say that installing 8.5 was "like getting a brand new Mac for $99." Now, don't get us wrong-- we love Mac OS 8.5, and after having used it all this time we find using an 8.1 system a little confining. It's just that we really don't feel like we got "brand new Macs" in the bargain. Still, we can hardly blame them for trying; after all, "Get a native version of AppleScript, an improved Find File, and a few nifty interface enhancements for $99" doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

So if you remember those times, you probably recall that one of Apple's biggest selling points for Mac OS 8.5 was Sherlock, which, until something like three minutes before the software went off to the manufacturing plant to be pressed onto millions of CD-ROMs, was called "Find File 2.0." (There's nothing like a new name to stir up consumer interest, right?) In fact, if you search for "Sherlock" in the Mac OS Help system you won't find anything; they never had enough time to splice the new name into all the help files. Regardless, Sherlock was more than just a new name: it could index your hard drives and search them for content, and it could also search the Internet. Pretty cool-- not exactly a brand new Mac, but somewhat useful and a nice gimmick for the marketing folks to play up.

Little did we know, however, that Apple had such big plans for Sherlock. First it came to light that Apple had hooked up with Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble so that a cut of any sales originating from a Sherlock search went straight into Apple's coffers. And now it looks like Apple's reaching for the sky with Mac OS 8.7's Sherlock II, which may turn out to be the way to comparison-shop on the Internet. A MacWEEK article examines the possibilities of Sherlock turning into the ultimate e-shopping "portal;" you'll be able to type in what you want to buy, and Sherlock will return a list of sites that can sell it to you, ranked by price. There'll be little reason to use anything but Sherlock II to buy your stuff online. But we all know how portals make money: ads. So will Sherlock turn into the next big "THIS SPACE FOR HIRE" desktop utility? Heck, if it really becomes as good as it has the potential to be, why not?

Despite that a third of all iMac purchases are going to new computer users and a healthy chunk are being bought to replace Wintel systems, the overall attitude on the PC side of the fence remains hostile to the whole iMac phenomenon. The biggest argument we keep hearing for why the iMac will fail is that it simply can't compete price-wise with the new wave of super-cheap PCs. Granted, to people who understand the importance of design, style, and simplicity, $1199 may seem like a ridiculously low price for a complete system with a blazingly fast 333 MHz G3 at its core, but the idea here is that the vast majority of the feebs out there in the real world would rather skimp and shell out, say, $299 for a WEBzter Jr.

That's right-- a company called Microworkz in Seattle is selling a bottom-of-the-barrel PC for $299. Well, okay, last month, when the systems first started shipping, a CNNfn article noted that it's not exactly bottom-of-the-barrel. Call it lower-middle-of-the-barrel, instead. It's got a Cyrix 300 MII processor, 32 MB of RAM, a 3.2 GB hard drive, a 56k modem, 2 MB of video RAM, and USB, serial, and parallel ports. Of course, you'll have to pay extra for a monitor. Oh, and for a CD-ROM drive. (And the WEBzter even lacks a floppy drive in its default configuration-- can you believe that a computer company would actually sell a machine without a floppy drive? Outrageous...) But still, it's a very inexpensive system and people who don't have a lot of cash (or people who don't do their homework) could consider the WEBzter a very attractive purchase.

But what's this? MacTimes notes that Microworkz may be having some problems getting their supposed 50,000 orders for el-cheapo systems out the door and into customers' hands. A reader wrote in to note that not only hasn't he received the Microworkz system he ordered last month, but he hasn't received the refund he requested on April 23rd, either. And while it may be just a coincidence, we're unable to connect to Microworkz' web site at the time of this broadcast. Trouble in bargain basement paradise, perhaps?