Everything Lasts Forever (4/17/01)
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Say it ain't so, Steve! That cute translucent space-egg has been your baby for almost three years, now, and while we understand that nothing lasts forever, a demise this early would be a tragedy for the ages. Angels would weep, the sun would refuse to rise, and all the color in the world would fade into beige at the passing of the Little Mac That Could. Make no mistake; Apple's paradigm-shattering consumer desktop saved the company, and we can't bear the thought of losing it. Could it really be true? Could the iMac be dead?

Well, uh, no-- and it's a darn good thing, too, because we're at a loss as to where to buy translucent black armbands. Turns out it's all just a spiffing good case of gallows humor over at The Register, who has posted a photo of a half-covered iMac billboard that now just features a Flower Power unit next to the single word "Rip"-- you know, like "Rest In Peace," or "Rest In Pieces." (If Apple did choose to deep-six the iMac, we bet it'd at least come up with a more tasteful and less expensive way of letting us all know... although we admit that there's something rather appropriate about a three-letter iMac obituary.)

Britain's Labour Party (whose ad obscures half of the iMac banner) obviously isn't courting the Mac fanatic vote, if it's willing to deface an Apple ad in such an unfortunate manner. Still, we can't deny that there's a certain surreal charm to the resulting half-and-half billboard, which now essentially features a Flower Power iMac, a woman, and a child, together with the enigmatic slogan, "Rip. The work goes on." And we suppose it could have been worse; if only the "Burn" portion of Apple's ad had remained visible, we might have thought that the iMac was destined for an eternal afterlife in Silicon Hell. Perish the thought!

 
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The above scene was taken from the 4/17/01 episode:

April 17, 2001: There's just one day left before Fred Anderson's big conference call; you can't participate in the Q&A, but at least you can listen in. Meanwhile, word gets out about some puzzling Apple package called "iPhoto Studio," and a confusing billboard in England may give some people the wrong idea about the iMac's premature demise...

Other scenes from that episode:

  • 2994: Countdown To High Drama (4/17/01)   Ooooh, can't you just feel the tension mounting? There's just one day to go until Apple Money Dude Fred Anderson steps up to the mic and delivers his eagerly-awaited dramatic reading from Apple's Q2 balance sheet...

  • 2995: Professionally Consumerist (4/17/01)   Regardless of what you might think the "i" actually stands for, it's pretty obvious what the prefix signifies in Apple's product line: "i" = "consumer." First we got iMovie, a dead-simple but surprisingly powerful consumer-targeted video editing application...

Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast...

Vote Early, Vote Often!
Why did you tune in to this '90s relic of a soap opera?
Nostalgia is the next best thing to feeling alive
My name is Rip Van Winkle and I just woke up; what did I miss?
I'm trying to pretend the last 20 years never happened
I mean, if it worked for Friends, why not?
I came here looking for a receptacle in which to place the cremated remains of my deceased Java applets (think about it)

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