But Kihei is just what's next on the horizon for Apple's continued consumer success. While sales of current iMacs appear to be flagging slightly, what's making waves here and now is the iMac-To-Go: the iBook. With over 160,000 pre-orders logged before the first chubby little portables even made it out the door, Apple stands to repeat its iMac success with the consumer-oriented laptop that you can toss in a backpack. That is, assuming customers can ever actually get their hands on them; Steve may have announced that iBooks were shipping way back on September 15th, but they must have been sent via that drunk stork in the Bugs Bunny cartoons ("When it absolutely, positively has to be there at some point in the nebulous future"), because as of yesterday, there still wasn't any sign of the first iBooks preordered.

That's all changed, now, though. It appears that the stork is back on the wagon and has made at least some of his scheduled deliveries, because reports are trickling in from the happy souls who placed the very first pre-orders. Faithful AtAT viewer Gavin Holden Jones loves his new Blueberry bundle of joy, for instance. And there are a couple of reports from iBook Planet readers, too, who confirm the arrival of their bouncing baby 'books. Want photographic evidence? Just look at these adorable snapshots of the new addition to Brian B.'s family-- arrived 9/27/99, home safe and sound. So if you've got an iBook on order and you were wondering if Apple would ever ship the things, hang in there-- real people are receiving real iBooks. Really. Now it's just a matter of time before Apple fills the other 159,996 pre-orders. Piece of cake.

However, we should mention that there have been some reports of minor glitches with the first iBooks received in the field. In particular, MacProvider notes several reader reports of a "slanted keyboard"; "the left side of the keyboard is slightly higher than the right." Huh. In addition to that little quirk, there have also been some reports of the mouse cursor "clicking in random places." No word on whether or not the problem is alleviated by turning off the clicking and dragging options in the Trackpad control panel. Lastly, unless you're left handed, don't bother trying to use an iMac mouse with the iBook, because the cord apparently just isn't long enough. But these are just the kinds of quirks that a mother learns to love...