So just how badly do you want an iMac? Bad enough to give your soul over to unbridled capitalistic consumer spending for the next three years? See, we fully understand that not everybody can rush out and just plunk down $1200 or so for, say, a friendly Grape-flavored computer appliance for their living room. And at the same time, there are those that blanch at the thought of paying $28 a month for five and a half years, since such a payment plan makes that friendly little computer more like $1900 instead of $1200-- and by the time it's paid off, it's been obsolete as a computer for a few years already (though it's still a fantastic addition to any house's decor). So what to do? Well, if you're a good little consumer who regularly buys over $100 worth of stuff at the mall every month, you might be interested in signing up for a free iMac.

Now that everyone's ears have pricked up at the phrase "free iMac," we should point out the obvious fact that nothing in life is free-- at least, nothing cool. (Yeah, yeah, there's love, and life, and health, and all that stuff, but we're talking about shiny things that you can pawn if you have to.) So this "free iMac" deal has a catch: according to a Reuters story, you have to agree to spend at least $100 a month at the Shopss.com online mall. For three years. Any month in which you fail to spend at least $100, they will charge you $100 for the iMac. And it gets a little worse: it's not just $100 you have to spend, it's actually $25 in each of four different "stores." That means buying a single $125 microwave oven doesn't fulfill your monthly requirement-- you still need to spend at least $25 at each of three other stores.

On top of that, you also have to agree to use One Stop Communication as your ISP, which is another $19.95 a month (though if you spend over $200 at Shopss.com in any given month, that fee is waived). All in all, it sounds like a great deal for people who already shop a lot, but it still sounds to us like a major and scary commitment for a computer as inexpensive as the iMac. Apparently a lot of people don't agree with us, though; in the first two hours after the "free iMac" deal was announced, 2500 people signed up. Since One Stop Communication is only "giving away" 25,000 iMacs, if you're interested, you might want to hurry.