As the Apple Turns: Scene 2525: WHO Can't Keep A Secret? (9/4/00)

WHO Can't Keep A Secret? (9/4/00)

For those of you who have been following the byzantine twists and turns of the ATI Radeon Saga lately, the story may soon be winding to a close. Whether you believe that Steve yanked all references to the Radeon from his Expo keynote as retaliation for ATI blabbing about the new Macs before he had a chance to unveil them, or you're of the less-paranoid camp who thinks a last-minute stow-stopper bug prompted the Radeon ban, one thing's for certain: there's still no Radeon build-to-order option at the Apple Store. Or is there?

The Mac Junkie reports that the UK Apple Store kinda jumped the gun a little; apparently customers who went to configure a Power Mac G4 or G4 Cube were presented with a marketing spiel about the Radeon. "For ultimate graphics performance," said spiel states, "choose the ATI Radeon graphics card... a quantum leap forward in 3D acceleration... the most powerful graphics card for the Macintosh... perfect for both high-end gamers and the most demanding creative professional." At production time, our own tour through the UK Apple Store (oooh, look-- things are spelled funny, and all the prices have these weird-looking "L"-type-things in front of them!) revealed that the Radeon blurb is still up there for the world to see; click the "Learn More" link next to the Graphics Support option to see for yourself. And Steve blamed ATI for not being able to keep a secret?

So, whatever the reason for the delay, it seems safe to say that the Radeon's coming to a build-to-order Mac near you-- and fairly soon. ATI, for its part, claims that the Mac AGP Radeon will finally be available towards the end of this month, so that'd be our guess for a release date. Actually, what do you want to bet that the Radeon demo mercilessly cut from Steve's Expo keynote will be salvaged from the cutting-room floor and pasted into his Apple Expo presentation on September 13th? And the build-to-order option may show up online right then and there. After all, the Apple Store hasn't exactly been averse to offering items well in advance of their actual availability dates in the past... Pro Keyboard, anyone?

SceneLink (2525)

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The above scene was taken from the 9/4/00 episode:

September 4, 2000: In a very special (read: short) Labor Day AtAT, Apple scrambles for damage control once word gets out that (gasp!) the four new keys on the Pro Keyboard don't work on older Macs. Meanwhile, just to prove that no one's perfect in the secrets-keeping game, the UK Apple Store accidentally posts info about a not-yet-available ATI Radeon build-to-order graphics option...

Other scenes from that episode:

2524: Keyless In Cupertino (9/4/00) So it's Labor Day here in the States-- a day on which we honor the American work ethic by sitting on our butts and watching TV until our brains start to run out our ears, at which point most of us adjourn to the back yard to apply heat to food in the open air...

Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast...


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