It's official: CompUSA has started its iMac marketing campaign, a full four weeks before the machine will even show up on its shelves. As previously rumored, anyone pre-ordering an iMac at CompUSA between July 26th and August 14th will receive a coupon booklet containing $800 in unspecified hardware and software deals. (The catch is that you have to put down a deposit of at least $250 in order to reserve your place in line, but it's not like you have to pay an actual preorder fee or anything.)

Normally, we at AtAT aren't swayed by promotions like free coupon booklets, because all too often all of the coupons are for equipment and software we don't want or need. However, this time things may be different, since we will almost certainly want some kind of USB-based removable storage drive for backup and file transfer purposes. Saving $25 on an Imation SuperDisk drive, for instance, would be a nice sweetener. Unfortunately, we have no idea what the actual offers in the coupon book will be; if any of you out there in TV-Land are privy to the exact nature of any of the deals, please drop us a line.

Incidentally, MacCentral reports that the number of iMacs preordered by CompUSA is now a whopping 300,000 units. That's a whole lotta iMacs, and it says quite a lot about just how popular a seller CompUSA expects them to be. Our advice? If you're really planning on buying one, get your pre-order in now just in case, because we all know how good Apple is at generating a supply to fulfill demand, right?

Hey, who says the lawsuit game is only for the big kids to play? 29-year-old actor Dag Hinrichs shows he has something to prove, as he struts his litigious stuff. That's right, he's joining the ranks of Sun Microsystems, the Justice Department, and the attorneys general of twenty states by throwing his hat in the ring and suing Microsoft. Wired News has the sordid details.

Dag is suing the Redmond Giant because-- get this-- Windows 98 "doesn't work." Apparently Dag upgraded from Windows 95 to Windows 98 and restarted his computer, only to receive the error "Msgsrv 32" and a system freeze. He contends that his experience was not the "seamless upgrade" that the company's marketing material claimed, and accuses Microsoft of having "intentionally engaged in a systematic plan to mislead and deceive purchasers." A Microsoft spokesman claims that the suit is groundless, because all Microsoft products are "of the highest quality." (Oooh, get him to say that under oath-- let's put those stringent perjury laws to the test!)

Far be it from us to oppose any action based on the precept that Microsoft's products are overhyped and underfunctional, but we admit we're just a little taken aback by the idea of someone suing Microsoft because Windows crashed. Isn't that pretty much Microsoft's distinguishing feature? It's kind of like suing Cracker Jacks because there's a prize in every box. (Suing them because the prizes have gotten really crappy in recent years is a whole different story-- what's with those stupid little cardboard foldy-things, anyway?) Really, we have a hard time believing that anyone who doesn't live in a cave could install Windows of any flavor without at least half-expecting a crash. Don't people just take that for granted?

The long-standing tradition of Apple equipment showing up in Wintel ads continues unabated. A Fresh Bytes article tells of an Intel magazine advertisement which recently appeared on the back cover of the July 27th issue of "Science News." The ad features three bright, young scientists of a suitably politically-correct mixture of genders and racial backgrounds, all eagerly collaborating on some groundbreaking discovery. The header reads, "Microprocessors aren't the only brains we develop," presumably referring to Intel's "investment in society's future" by donating machines to schools.

That's all well and good, but things get interesting when you take a close look at the computer sitting on the desk of these enthusiastic young seekers of truth. In Fresh Bytes' opinion, the mouse shown is clearly an Apple Desktop Bus Mouse II, and the keyboard appears to be an Apple Extended Keyboard. Whoops! Looks like another Mac found its way into a Wintel ad. And since this ad is printed on the backs of thousands of magazines, it's not like they can just pull the image from their web site.

We at AtAT aren't completely convinced that those input devices are Apple equipment; the scan that Fresh Bytes provides isn't the clearest picture we've ever seen, but it certainly seems likely. Feel free to make up your own mind. But assuming it is a Mac, may we suggest this image for the next Intel ad?