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Illuminating Photos (5/25/99)
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Call us crazy, call us incurably optimistic, call us certifiably insane-- we refuse to let the dream die. We're talking about light-up Macs. Over a year ago, when the iMac was first introduced, early reports indicated that the whole translucent case lit up when the system was in use. That turned out to be false; what eyewitnesses were seeing was the light from the illuminated table on which the iMac sat filtering through the translucent plastics. Fair enough. Then it appeared that the iMac's mouse, at least, did light up; although Apple initially denied it, when faced with actual QuickTime footage that clearly shows a lit-up iMac mouse, they admitted that it was a feature implemented in some early prototypes and removed from the specification. So, no light-up iMacs-- unless you rig it yourself, or pay someone else to do it for you.
During the same time period, though, there were also reports that the big white Apple logo on the cover of the new "Wall Street" PowerBook G3 Series glowed when the system was on. We got to test that theory first-hand, and we were sorely disappointed to discover that it just wasn't so (although if the room's really dark, you can just barely make out the logo as light from the screen filters through the back). And then there were rumors that El Capitan prototypes (which are now the blue-and-white Power Mac G3s) lit up internally when turned on, to reveal the "G3" silk-screened on the inside of the case through the translucent sides. That went nowhere, too.
So we return to the PowerBooks for the latest light-up Mac rumor. MacNN notes a series of photos of the new "bronze" PowerBook G3 posted by Apple Japan, and one of the pictures shows what appears to be the white Apple logo on the cover glowing like an excited alien life form. Is this it? When the new PowerBooks finally start to reach end-users, will they find that Apple has finally fulfilled our long-held dream of a light-up Mac? Well, probably not, but we like to keep hope alive.
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SceneLink (1561)
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 5/25/99 episode: May 25, 1999: Reports from an Asian business publication indicate that production of Apple's consumer portable will start next month in Taiwan. Meanwhile, Apple gears up for the customer support onslaught that will commence when iBooks start flying off the shelves, and photos from Japan show what appears to be a glowing Apple logo on the new "bronze" PowerBooks...
Other scenes from that episode: 1559: Made In Taiwan (5/25/99) So you want to know the real details about Apple's upcoming consumer portable? Hey, who doesn't? The simple fact is, Apple has the project encased in a Cone of Secrecy so dense, not even light can escape; if they hadn't announced that such a product was even in the works, we doubt any info about its progress would have been picked up by the press... 1560: (800) SOS-iBOOK? (5/25/99) Is Apple expecting to sell a lot of consumer portables? Well, unless their legendary poor forecasting makes a stunning surprise reappearance, we would definitely think so. We don't know just how many iMacs have been sold since they first hit the shelves last August, but we're guessing the number is somewhere close to a million and a half-- maybe two million...
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