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Missing In Action (8/16/98)
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iMac Day has come and gone, and only the memories (and the balloons, t-shirts, posters, iMacfied web sites, billboards, TV and radio ads, and magazine pullouts-- oh, and iMacs) remain. We hope you all had a pleasant day, and those of you who are fortunate enough to be the proud owner of a new iMac have reason to be beaming with joy. From all reports, the events went swimmingly well, and resellers report record interest in Apple's new consumer machine. Nobody is happier about that fact than we are (okay, maybe Apple's just as happy-- but it's a close race), especially since as of Friday night, things looked like a potential disaster. It wasn't just AtAT's dealer who hadn't yet received their allotted shipment of iMacs; several resellers found that their iMacs were simply missing in action. And with less than twelve hours to go before the scheduled events.
The problem, according to a MacInTouch report, affected primarily those systems sent by Ingram Micro (one of Apple's two distributors) to dealers via Eagle USA Shipping. Now, we don't deal much with the shipping business, but we've got to admit, we've never heard of Eagle. The only reason we're hearing about them now is because they were responsible for getting the iMacs through to the front lines, but something went very, very wrong. Apparently Sacramento airport was completely clogged with iMacs, and there simply weren't enough flights out of the city to carry that many iMacs to their destinations. (So in hindsight, we suppose Apple did make "enough" iMacs for the rollout-- any more wouldn't have shown up anyway.)
Many smaller dealers finally wound up getting their iMacs by late Saturday afternoon, though some won't even have them until Monday. AtAT's dealer, a model of stamina and grace, managed to get theirs delivered by 3AM on the day of the event, by making several heated phone calls and refusing to take no for an answer. We're glad they stuck to it, because otherwise we would have had to change our plans completely. It's nice having friends in small dealerships.
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SceneLink (942)
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 8/16/98 episode: August 16, 1998: iMac Day barely dodged a bullet, as several dealers received their iMacs just in the nick of time (though others weren't so lucky). Meanwhile, Microsoft acknowledges that Windows 98 has "issues" when rebooted just before midnight of the new year, and a new star of Apple's show vanishes just minutes before introduction, and no one's talking about what exactly happened...
Other scenes from that episode: 943: Year 1999 Bug? (8/16/98) Forget Year 2000 compliance; Windows 98 isn't even fully Year 1999-compliant. According to a ZDNet report, Microsoft has acknowleged an "issue" where Windows 98 computers rebooted during a specific split-second just before midnight of January 1st will either "leap forward two days or fall behind a day."... 944: The Chips Are Out There (8/16/98) Was it a case of alien abduction, or just a Hoffa-style joint hit by the Mafia and the government working together? Either way, the new Power Macintosh G3/366 was scheduled to make a formal appearance last Wednesday to take its position as the new speed leader in Apple's lineup, only to vanish without a trace...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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