It's taken a while to kick into gear, to be sure, but the flow of peripherals for the iMac really seems to be picking up speed. The iMac, as we're sure you're all aware, has only a single peripheral interface: USB. USB is a cool technology; it's hot-pluggable, supports 127 simultaneous devices, and offers higher performance than the Mac's older ADB and DIN-8 serial connectors. Unfortunately, the iMac is the first Mac to support USB-- in fact, it positively relies on it-- and so the choice of peripherals has been slim, to put it mildly.

Let's look at a particular example: more than a couple of AtAT viewers have written in over the last several months to say that while they'd love to get an iMac to replace their older Mac, they rely on Iomega Zip disks and therefore the iMac wasn't a viable choice for them. At one time that was certainly true, but suddenly it seems like iMac owners have Zip choices coming out of their Bondi-blue ears. First there was the "bleeding edge" option, the iZippy from iDrives; this particular solution actually doesn't use USB, but rather requires the customer to open his or her iMac and install an interface cable onto the motherboard. It's not for folks who faint at the sight of techno-guts, though iDrives claims that installation is a snap (though it's apparently an iMac-warranty-voiding one).

Of course, many people would prefer an actual USB Zip drive for convenience's sake; after all, the point of the iMac is that it should be easy to use. Not a problem, since now there's the "official" solution we've all been waiting for: earlier this week, Iomega announced that its ice-blue translucent USB Zip drive is now shipping, and should be available from retailers shortly. We saw prototypes of this thing several months ago, and it looks cool. But soon, there will be still another option for iMac owners who want to get Zipped: if you've already got a standard SCSI Zip drive, there may be no need to replace it with a USB one just to use it on your iMac. According to TheiMac.Com, Microtech's Xpress USB is a $79 USB-to-SCSI interface that supports up to seven SCSI devices, so you can use your older SCSI peripherals on your new iMac-- if you can wait until January when the Xpress will ship. See? The list of possibilities is definitely getting longer, and the list of reasons not to get an iMac is getting shorter. Now let's see if the sales figures reflect that...