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Vieilles Nouvelles (9/14/99)
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So much for the scattered predictions of Big News™ in Paris. Not that we at AtAT were expecting anything earth-shattering, but we admit we were rooting for the underdog rumors of a "Kihei" (that's "iMac 2" to those of you not hip to the lingo) introduction during Steve Jobs' keynote address at the Apple Expo. While we considered it extremely unlikely that Apple would introduce such an important and stock-boosting product at an expo overseas-- especially one that wasn't even webcast or available via satellite-- we always keep a glimmer of hope alive, since Uncle Steve is so fond of surprising the fans. There was always the possibility, however small, that as Steve walked off the stage, he'd stop, turn back to the audience, and say there was "une plus de chose." (Of course, he'd probably be speaking English, unless his French is considerably less garbled than ours.)
The early reports are in, though, and the verdict from Paris is "business as usual." According to a MacWEEK article, Steve's keynote address was little more than a "localized rerun" of his hit keynotes from Macworld Expo in July and Seybold a couple of weeks ago. Not that there's anything wrong with that-- both of those stateside performances brought the house down. Steve culled some of the highlights from each show (G4 bake-offs, Sherlock II comparison shopping, temporarily-transplanted Chicagoan Jason Jones and his Traveling Halo Demo, and IBM's ViaVoice-- this time in French) and repackaged them into a new variety hour for the Paris crowd. Personally, we wouldn't mind seeing a tape of that performance. Preferably with all the voices dubbed into French. Especially if Steve's voice-over is done by a professional French Jerry Lewis impersonator. Now that's entertainment!
Now before you go away all disappointed and stuff, we should note that there was some new information made public at the Paris gig, and it's got to do with the iBook. Point number one: the pre-orders for Apple's upcoming consumer portable, hovering at 140,000 at Seybold just two weeks ago, have risen to a fairly astonishing 160,000. (Memo to John Dvorak: that's a whole lot of women and "girly-men" willing to shell out $1599 for a big makeup compact.) Point number two: the first iBooks are shipping to U.S. resellers this Wednesday. Which means, for those of you tuning in without benefit of a time-travel device, right now. Pretty cool, huh? Apparently Steve wasn't exaggerating at Seybold when he said the iBooks would ship in "a couple of weeks," so let's hope that his seemingly overconfident estimates for G4 ship dates are closer than most of us think. If iBooks start showing up on store shelves by this weekend, Apple may not totally miss the boat on back-to-school computer purchases after all...
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SceneLink (1779)
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 9/14/99 episode: September 14, 1999: There's no new iMac in Paris, but at least the iBooks are shipping. Meanwhile, the iBook's "Best PC" award at a huge Tokyo computer conference just might bode well for the Japanese acceptance of Apple's chubby consumer portable, and the new G4s apparently stink, in the most literal sense of the word...
Other scenes from that episode: 1780: Bigger, But Still Better (9/14/99) So that's the skinny in Paris; how about an update on Mac doings in Asia? Don't forget, the World PC Expo 99 just finished up in Japan last week. We know, it's tough to shift gears, but gone are the days when Apple's impact was only visible at Mac-specific shows and conferences... 1781: Smells Like G4 Spirit (9/14/99) AtAT has long been considering the technical hurdles we'd have to clear in order to jump feet-first into the wonderful world of Smellovision™, but there really hasn't been that much reason for us to pursue it in any serious manner...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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