As the Apple Turns: Scene 3478: The G5 Came-- And Went (12/28/01)

The G5 Came-- And Went (12/28/01)

[NOTE: the "Power Mac G5" lot referenced below has since been "corrected." We figured that might happen once we broadcast this episode, but the scene will remain unchanged as a monument to entertaining typos. Thanks to faithful viewers Chris McCue and Franklin Maurer for pointing this out.]

Sorry, folks; the bad news is that we now have incontrovertible proof that the Power Mac G5 will not debut a week from Monday at the Macworld Expo super-special day-early Stevenote. Sorry to disappoint you-- we know it must be a crushing blow. But get happy, because the good news is that the very same evidence indicates that if you act fast and you've got money to burn, you can buy not one, but two G5s-- and not ten days from now, but today. Yes, sports fans, the "bleeding edge" just got bloodier.

Here's the scoop: faithful viewer MarkTheNarnian just informed us that Apple is auctioning off a slew of older products today, and if you're in the market for, say, thirty-seven 15-inch Studio Displays, this is your time to shine. Most of this appears to be new-in-box or refurbished equipment, so if you don't suffer from that unfortunate malady known as "Latest And Greatest Syndrome" and therefore don't mind buying some slightly older equipment, you can make out like a bandit with this stuff. Bid like a foaming eBay addict on crystal meth, and good luck!

So what does this have to do with the G5, you ask? Well, take a gander at auction lot #3. That's right, kids-- Apple evidently threw a couple of "POWER MAC G5 466" systems in the pile, and bidding starts at just $750.00 per unit. Don't expect to be wowed by the specs, though; we assume that "466" designates the G5s' clock speed, and they only come with 128 MB of RAM and a plain CD-ROM drive. Considering how much hype has been floating around the rumor mill, we don't mind telling you that we're a little underwhelmed by what Apple apparently stuck into the long-awaited G5. This is progress?

Still, a "POWER MAC G5" is a "POWER MAC G5," and barring a particularly meaningful and embarrassing typographical error (nahhhh...), this is your chance to own the Mac of the future. Or do we mean a piece of history? Because these two units (which, strangely enough, appear to share the same Apple part number with an older Power Mac G4 model) are listed as being "DISCONTINUED NEW UNITS." Holy cats, we've been waiting for the G5 all this time and now it turns out we totally missed it! It's already been discontinued? Yeesh-- sounds like this product was on the market for less time than Out Cold was in the theaters. Oh, well-- that's what we get for blinking.

SceneLink (3478)

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The above scene was taken from the 12/28/01 episode:

December 28, 2001: According to a company rep, that Palm public beta wasn't supposed to be quite so public. Meanwhile, proof of the G5's no-show status at the upcoming Stevenote also means you can buy one today, and after a week of dual-800 MHz bliss, the AtAT staff is pleased to report that our new production rig is one sweet hunk of Macness...

Other scenes from that episode:

3477: Private Sort Of Public Beta (12/28/01) Whoops! Remember yesterday when we pointed out that Palm Desktop for Mac OS X was "sort of" out-- in the form of a public beta version that would be quicker to obtain by typing in sequences of 1's and 0's read to you over the phone than to download?...
3479: First Week In Heaven (12/28/01) Since it's one painfully slow news week-- both MacMinute and MacCentral are on vacation, neither Mac OS Rumors nor AppleInsider has stirred since last week, and our Christmas wish for reports of a nude Steve Jobs wearing nothing but a pair of plush reindeer antlers running through the streets of downtown Cupertino while belting out the dirty version of "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" remains sadly ungranted-- we figured we'd just drop you folks a line about the new addition to our Mac family...

Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast...


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