Original Sender : Ari <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------- http://members.home.net/dfgrant/index.htm Let 100 Flowers Bloom Apple Unveils the PowerApple II y Doug Grant CUPERTINO, April 1 -- In another of his patented Apple Event press conferences, Steve Jobs has revealed Apple's plans or a follow-up to the successful iMac. The new machine, which will be called the PowerApple II, will continue the new trend at Apple at creative industrial esign. It will feature a unique all-in-one format with the keyboard built right into the case. As a result, it's even easier to et up than the iMac. Unlike the iMac, however, the PowerApple II does not have a built-in monitor. This will allow buyers to choose whatever colour screen they want. "It's really cool," says Jobs, "people can pick between a green screen or a brown creen or they can even have colour if they want." And stealing a page from the old VW bug with its built-in flower vase, the new PowerApple II has a small flower garden n top of the case. According to Jobs, "People don't care anymore how fast a computer is or how many megabytes it as. They want flowers. The really neat thing is we've got five different 'varieties.' Our customers can pick between Petunias, Pansies, Daffodils, Gardenias and Daisies. And we plan on offering annual upgrades whenever they want to efresh their garden. The Wintel side has nothing like this. There isn't even a beige flower. And we've even got localized ersions. In North Korea, buyers can choose between Kimjongilia and Kimilsungilia models." But there's more to the case design than just looks (not to mention, a nice aroma). Gaining access to the inside is as imple as with the new blue G3s. Just unsnap the attachments at the back of the unit and the whole top lid comes off. From there, users can easily add cards or even replace chips if they wear out. "Steve [Steve Wozniak] has really done it his time. Most of the chips are standard electronics parts. If one of them dies, you can just pull it out and replace it with 69� chip from Radio Shack. If you want to know which chip is malfunctioning, just touch them with your fingers. The one that's really hot is probably the problem chip. Nothing is soldered in, so anyone can service their own machine," adds Jobs. Powering the PowerApple II is Motorola's new 6502 chip, which runs at a crackling 1Mhz. It comes with a stock 48K f RAM, but it may be possible to add more memory in one of the six expansion slots. The once exiled floppy drive has returned in the PowerApple II but, amazingly, the new machine has no hard drive. Most users today get all of their applications from the Internet," Jobs states, "There's really no reason to keep all of hose files on your own machine. Hardly anyone uses their hard drive anymore. Look, this machine is so powerful, so nnovative that makes traditional technologies like QuickTime, multimedia, networking, SCSI, USB, Firewire, hard drives, modems, and CD-ROMs obsolete." The new 5 1/4-inch floppy format answers critics who say that the 3 1/4-inch disk is too small. The new floppy is over 60% larger. Another revolutionary feature of the PowerApple II is that it can only type in capital letters and is limited to 40 characters to a line. Apple's research found that most people rarely use small letters or their entire screen width. With the release of the PowerApple II, Apple has also replaced the aging AppleScript with a new scripting service called Applesoft. Jobs demonstrated the new system technology by typing a few lines of code. The entire screen was mmediately filled with the phrase "reality distortion field" which kept on scrolling by for the rest of the press conference. Just try that with a current Mac or Windows machine," chortled Jobs, "And it's built directly into the system. You don't ven have to launch any programs." Currently, none of the traditional Mac applications like Photoshop, PageMaker, Word or Excel will run on the PowerApple II, but a reworked version of AppleWorks is expected to be released for the new machine soon. And don't think that the PowerApple II is just a business and graphics workhorse, it will also make a big splash in the games market. Game titles announced for the new machine include Zork, the Prisoner, Lemonade and Hammurabi. Apple has aggressively priced the new machine at $25 illustrating that they are serious about making an impact in the consumer market. Apple has also signed licence agreements with Value Village, the Salvation Army and Goodwill to sell the PowerApple II. Apple will kick-off its FlowerPower campaign with a serious of television ads debuting during the Indy 500 telecast. In one ad, blooming PowerApple IIs grow to the accompaniment of Spinal Tap's "(Listen to the) Flower People." Jobs concluded the press conference by stating "Here at Apple, we're really excited about the PowerApple II. We'll be reaching a completely new segment of the market who are put off by the hectic pace of the computing industry. This is the first computer that's designed to help people relax. We feel that the PowerApple II really gives people the power to grow." ---------------------------------------------------------------- Compu-Mania MailingList is provided by PT Centrin Utama Maintained by : [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Post a msg : Send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe : Mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] BODY : unsubscribe Compu-Mania For more information, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "HELP" in the BODY of your mail (without quote). ----------------------------------------------------------------
