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A L S O__T O D A Y 21st Log R.I.P., Hayes modems - - - - - - - - - - T A B L E__T A L K Video games, all shapes, all sizes, all formats: Discuss your passion in the Digital Culture area of Table Talk ___________________ Find out more about computers at barnesandnoble.com ___________________ R E C E N T L Y The ecology of Java By Peter Wayner It's not just Sun vs. Microsoft anymore -- as the success of little Transvirtual shows (01/05/98) Ten predictions for 1999 By Janelle Brown, Andrew Leonard and Scott Rosenberg Jenni in space! Palmagotchi! and other headlines for the new year (01/04/98) Microsoft über alles By Janelle Brown, Andrew Leonard and Scott Rosenberg Have Gates & Co. peaked? 21st reviews tech highs and lows of '98 (12/24/98) The 21st Challenge No. 17: The e-mail lifeline By Charlie Varon and Jim Rosenau Save a friend with a message -- and win a prize! (12/24/98) Are we having high-tech fun yet? By Janelle Brown Entros joins the pack of game palaces for grown-ups (12/23/98) - - - - - - - - - - BROWSE THE 21ST FEATURES ARCHIVES - - - - - - - - - -

FIVE FRUITY FLAVORS | PAGE 1, 2 - - - - - - - - - - The desktop G3s were the expected revelation of the day, and have been updated to be "the most powerful and most expandable PC in the industry with the best graphics and the best design." Though Jobs is, of course, biased, the demonstrations (in which the new G3 was compared with, and outperformed, a number of top-shelf Pentium II computers) were impressive. The G3, available Tuesday, will have a speedy 400 Mhz chip built from superior copper wiring, with sped-up caching and memory, and up to one gigabyte of RAM and a 36-gigabyte hard drive. Also included are SGI's OpenGL system to allow 3-D graphics work and the ATI Rage 128 accelerator built in for games optimization. Following in the footsteps of the iMac, the new G3 will offer only USB ports for connecting peripheral devices such as printers and scanners (though a SCSI card can be added for $49) along with the plug-and-play Firewire peripheral system -- a risky decision, since many popular peripherals still aren't available in USB or Firewire versions yet. And then, of course, there's the design -- and as "The Look of Love" played over the loudspeakers, Jobs rolled a video in which various Apple talking heads blushingly described how "sexy" the new G3 is. Certainly, there's no denying that the new G3 is at least more sexy than any other computer tower on the market. Mimicking the color, materials and smooth curves of the iMac, the workstation has handles on all four corners and a locking door that easily pops open for access to computer innards. As Apple intended, it will certainly draw attention in computer stores -- as will the low (for Apple) starting price of $1,599. What this all adds up to is an impressive computer that Apple clearly is hoping will compete with high-end desktop PCs. Rather than simply keep its current customers happy, Apple wants to gather new computer users. The iMac has been successful in claiming newbies, and though it went unsaid, the new G3 is clearly intended to entice more advanced computer users away from the PC. The key to doing this, of course, isn't simply a speedy and roomy computer, but a computer that has support from product developers. This has been a critical factor in Apple's struggle for the new-user market -- if you wanted to play great games or take advantage of the majority of new PC software, you simply had to buy a PC. So Jobs trotted out Quake creator John Carmack to preview the upcoming Mac-compatible Quake Arena and praise the new graphics system, and a velvet-shirted Microsoft business manager ebulliently previewed some nifty Mac-only features for the new Internet Explorer 4.5 (while the audience seethed silently). Also revealed: an emulator from Connectix that will enable the Macintosh to play Sony Playstation games, a lineup of popular games coming out in Mac versions and 1,355 new and renewed Mac applications announced over the last six months. Jobs also showcased the release of a new server software suite called Mac OS X Server, which incorporates Apache, Unix, Java and WebObjects around a Mach kernel, raising the curtain on a bank of 49 iMacs to show how a Powerbook could now simultaneously run a local network and a Web server. The once-ballyhooed Rhapsody operating system seemed to have been sidelined (perhaps quietly incorporated into the server), and the new Mac OS X was only referred to in passing (it will be released "sometime in the next year," Jobs said). The focus, clearly, was on pushing to compete with what's already in the PC market. But the innovation that brought the most cheers was probably the simplest: A line of five diaphanous fruity colors for the iMac -- lime, strawberry, blueberry, tangerine and grape. "Collect all five!" the video display shouted as the curtain pulled aside and five glistening iMacs on pedestals revolved for the loving audience's eyes. Apple, of course, wouldn't mind it one bit if people did just that. SALON | Jan. 6, 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - E-mail Janelle Brown