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The Modem That Wasn't (6/22/98)
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Once a plausible rumor appears both on Reality and Mac OS Rumors, that's about as official as it gets without Apple confirming it themselves. So at this point, we're totally willing to accept that the iMac will indeed ship with a software-based modem. Depending on just how much speed Apple's engineers can squeeze out of their modem software, the wisdom of that decision ranges from "poor technical decision, but excellent cost-savings and marketing move" all the way up to "excellent decision for everyone."
The up sides to the software modem decision are obvious. First of all, it's free, once you account for the development costs, so it will add essentially zero to the iMac's prduction costs and you know Apple won't get itself stuck in one of its classic Three Stooges scenarios where thousands of people are lined up with money in hand, but Apple can't build any more iMacs because they're out of modems. Secondly, it means Apple can upgrade its users' modems simply by releasing a software update-- and according to Rumors, Apple plans to do just that, to bring early U.S. iMac buyers from 33.6 up to 56K at about the time of Mac OS 8.5's release. Apple can therefore start hawking the iMac as having a 33.6 modem "with a free upgrade to 56K," which should alleviate at least some consumer concerns.
The only serious potential down side is performance. The rumors are that Apple has completely rewritten its Geoport Telecom software modem code to use much less CPU power, and with full G3 optimization, so that it won't use more than about 5% of the CPU time when running. Even so, we at AtAT remain skeptical, since a 33.6 Geoport connection yields about half the throughput speed of a 28.8 hardware connection on our PowerTower Pro. It'll be interesting to see just how fast Apple can make the iMac's modem move.
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SceneLink (795)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 6/22/98 episode: June 22, 1998: The iMac modem issue would appear to be resolved, with a 56K upgrade due in the fall. Meanwhile, Bill Gates looks to make another billion or so by selling a free web browser and a slew of fixes to bugs that shouldn't have been there in the first place, and CompUSA increases its girth by chowing down on struggling Computer City...
Other scenes from that episode: 796: The Herd Mentality (6/22/98) Do you know anyone who'll buy any piece of junk they come across that has, say, the South Park kids emblazoned on it? (Not that we aren't fans of South Park; it's a random example.) Because that appears to be the mentality that analysts expect among early Windows 98 buyers; some people will buy any operating system with a Microsoft logo on it... 797: CHOMP! Mmmm, Retail-y (6/22/98) It seems like the only things that happen in the tech world anymore are litigation and buyouts; everyone's suing everyone else, and the monotony is only broken when one of the players swallows another one whole...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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