Most people who have watched the iMac slide in the sales ratings over the course of the past year or so attribute its reduced popularity to a number of factors (seemingly low clock speed, no CD-R), but probably none more so than screen size. Simply put, some folks claim that a 15-inch screen just ain't cuttin' it anymore. Since even el cheapo PCs increasingly ship with 17-inch monitors these days (questionable though their quality may be), the fact that the iMac is still shipping with a teeny integrated 15-inch display is a definite black mark in many a shopper's "con" column. That's why there's been a sustained cry for a 17-inch iMac for probably longer than the iMac's been shipping in the first place.

Now, if you've been following this stuff, you know full well that rumors of a 17-inch iMac have been floating around for years. Before each and every Stevenote, the fabled system appears on at least one or two "long shot" new hardware prediction lists, and at a few of those events, its appearance was widely considered to be a dead certainty. But of course, the larger-screen iMac remains a mythical beast, with no hard evidence of its existence in sight. Until now.

First, the good news: the larger-screen iMac does exist, and you will be able to buy it in just over a week. Better still, its integrated display isn't a 17-incher. It's not even a 19-incher. Ready for this? The screen is a thirty-foot display (27.6-foot diagonal viewable image size). The bad news: there's only one of these iMacs currently available for sale, it's only available in Bondi Blue, and it's a two-story-tall inflatable display piece currently up for auction at eBay (thanks to faithful viewer Ben for the heads up). But the screen, people, the screen! Who cares if the thing doesn't actually work? Who cares if the display always says "Hello (Again)"? As long as you can have an iMac screen the size of Montana (if Montana were, say, roughly 375 square feet in size), life is good.

Be warned, though-- this puppy's 300 pounds, so if you bid, be prepared to shell out crazy ducats for shipping charges, unless you live within a four-hour drive of Winston-Salem, NC. At broadcast time, the bidding was up to $330 with over eight days to go, so we expect this thing to cost more than a real iMac when it's finally sold. Then again, with a screen that big, of course it'd cost a few bucks extra. Heck, we're considering bidding on it ourselves, seeing as a giant inflatable iMac would really dress up the back yard of the AtAT compound...