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Let's Call It "Guido" (6/9/99)
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Hey, we're all very well-versed in the fine art of predicting the forthcoming P1's feature set, right? It's been the party game enjoyed by Mac fans from eight to eighty ever since Steve Jobs first cryptically announced Apple's intention to release a "consumer portable" so long ago; since then, the only official data from Cupertino has been that big question mark in the product line grid and the assurance that they're "working on it." So it's not surprising that Apple watchers, flush with the success of the iMac, have spent so much time guessing what the P1 will be like as we wait so impatiently for the official introduction. What colors? What curves? How much?
But there's another P1 guessing game that's perhaps not quite as popular, for whatever reason, but that we at AtAT feel is equally entertaining-- and equally important. This game is known as "What The Heck Will They Call It?" and the rules are pretty self-explanatory. Lots of names have been bandied about for the past year or so... There are the variations on "eMate," since the P1 is expected to share several features with that pioneering translucent, handle-sporting, long-lasting-battery-using, low-cost, school-friendly totable: eMac, eBook, iMate, etc. Then there are the mysterious monikers that Apple has registered as trademarks: MacMate and WebMate. And logicians in the field who feel that Apple's recent actions point to consistency guess that the P1 is destined to be called the iBook, in order to complete the "Power Mac, PowerBook, iMac, ..." progression. A PowerBook Zone article examines the whole issue in commendable detail.
If iBook is the most likely contender, then Apple may have a little bit of stickiness to deal with; while they've applied for trademark status for iBook, so has Family Systems, Ltd., who also currently owns the ibook.com domain name. Will we soon have yet another fun legal saga to follow? While everyone else anxiously awaits Macworld Expo to see what the P1 will look like, we're equally impatient to see what Steve calls it. In the meantime, we really wish Apple had picked a more interesting code name than "P1." Yawn.
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SceneLink (1593)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 6/9/99 episode: June 9, 1999: Sears, indeed, begins broadcasting its own iMac commercials during prime time. Meanwhile, speculation mounts over what Apple will call the consumer portable when it debuts, and Judge Jackson seems a little hacked off with Microsoft's legal maneuvers...
Other scenes from that episode: 1592: Tough To Imagine (6/9/99) "It's like some sort of beautiful dream..." We admit it: a couple of weeks ago, when we'd heard that Sears was planning on advertising the iMac in its own Sears-funded television commercials, we were skeptical... 1594: We Feel For You, Judge (6/9/99) We're not big Court TV viewers, so maybe someone can fill us in: is it at all common for the judge presiding over a big important case to laugh at the defendants and regularly display open contempt for their legal tactics?...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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