Conference 7.286::macintosh

    
    Thought I'd ask a question here about a new Macintosh I heard about.
    
    I have seen mention of a 25th Aniversary Macintosh with a flat panel
    display and a slick design. Has anyone seen one of these, maybe at
    MacWorld SF. When will they be available. Do you think Computer Town
    will have them, or only directlly from Apple. Any comments welcome.
    
    Thanks;
    Dave Y.

MacWorld and MacUser have both had stories about this machine, due Summer 
1997. I seem to recall a price tag in the $10K ballpark. It's definitely not 
intended as a mainstream product. If you've nothing better to do with your 
money, perhaps you'd consider adopting me (I can up with lots of good ideas 
about what to do with your money).

    It's the 20th anniversary, not 25th.  (The Apple ][ was introduced in
    1977.)  I've seen an article on the machine in MacWorld.  The thing is
    gorgeous, one of the most beautifully elegant pieces of industrial
    design I've seen in a long time.
    
    They will be available sometime this summer, I believe.  There will be
    no more than 10,000 of them made, and the price will be $9,000 each.  I
    think the article said they'd be going only to flagship Apple dealers;
    that means Computer Town could conceivably get a couple.  I'd call
    Computer Town and see if I were seriously interested.

Purchase of a 20th Anniversary Mac (which may require a reservation, since they
expect demand to be high) entitles you to an in-home installation and ramp-up
by an Apple "consierge".  Nice.

adam

If I were single and rich...

I saw one at MacWorld.  Neat system.  The guard watching the system in a 
special case was the best clue to the cost.

By the time they ship they planned to put one of the fastest PPC ships they 
could find in it.  The sound system was developed by Bose especially for the 
system.  It has an Active matrix color screen but is powered by a wall outlet 
so the screen is supposedly one of the best LCDs you've ever seen. My 
understanding is that an Apple Rep will spend the day with you to setup the 
system and get you all comfy.  

Basically it would look very nice on an execs desk or if you've won the 
lottery, on your desk.  Unfortunately I haven't been adopted by anyone that 
rich...

John

    
    Apple says the 20th Anniversary Macintosh info can be found here -
    
    http://twentiethanniversary.apple.com/
    
    They also have an interesting quicktime movie about it on page 4. They
    say in June they might be available.
    
    Time to save those tax refunds. :-)
    Dave Y.

Apple Announces 6500 Line Including First 300 MHz Desktop Computer.
"Power Macintosh" Simplifies Desktop Line Under one brand.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla.--April 4, 1997 -- Apple Computer, Inc. is bringing
unprecedented speed to the home desktop with today's announcement of the Apple
Power Macintosh 6500/300 -- the first 300 megahertz system available today.
Following less than two months after Apple introduced the fastest laptop
computer currently available, the new Power Macintosh 6500 line gives customers
a choice of systems ranging in speeds from 225 to 300 megahertz, all with
accelerated multimedia features:

- ATI RAGE II graphics acceleration chip
- Accelerated QuickTime, QuickTimeVR and QuickTime with MPEG
- Full screen, full motion movie playback
 - Accelerated video capture
- 16-bit CD-quality stereo sound with SRS surround sound
- Integrated dual-mode subwoofer
- Iomega Zip drive
- Built-in 33.6 Internet access capabilities 
 - Digital voicemail and send/receive faxing
- 32MB to 64MB of RAM
- 3GB to 4GB hard drive

The announcement reflects Apple's drive toward a simplified desktop line under
the strength of the Power Macintosh brand.

"The introduction of the first 300 megahertz personal computers should be
viewed as a sign that Apple is one hundred percent committed to providing
individuals with the most powerful multimedia systems for home, small business,
and education," said Guerrino de Luca, Apple's executive vice president of
Marketing. "Our new Power Macintosh 6500 series matches world class power with
the competitive prices that consumers expect."

Aggressively priced in the United States from around U.S. $2,000 for the Power
Macintosh 6500/225 to around U.S. $3,000 for the top-of-the-line Power
Macintosh 6500/300, the new series is designed to run Mac OS 7.6, the upcoming
Mac OS 8, as well as Apple's next-generation Macintosh system software--code
named Rhapsody.

The unveiling of the Power Macintosh 6500 series is marked by the kick-off of a
three-day "Multimedia Discovery" technology fair at Walt Disney World in Lake
Buena Vista, Fla. Co-hosted by Apple and Disney, the fair showcases the power
and fun of multimedia with performance and capabilities that only the Macintosh
can deliver.

From playing the hottest 3D accelerated games for the Macintosh, to exploring
video conferencing as a way for students to solve typical school homework
problems, the technology fair offers interactive and engaging multimedia
activities at the Epcot Theme Park along with special media creativity
workshops being held at Apple's existing exhibit at Innoventions. All
activities are planned to take place from April 4 through 6 and are designed to
provide Disney guests the opportunity to discover the dynamic world of
multimedia using leading-edge Apple technology.

Power Macintosh Systems Equipped With New Motorola PowerPC Chip 

The new Power Macintosh 6500 series significantly enhances performance in areas
such as media capture, creation, editing and publishing, 2D and 3D graphics and
processor speed for home, small business and education customers. Based on
in-house tests running real applications, the new Power Macintosh systems
complete tasks up to twice the speed of Pentium processors with MMX technology
running at 200 megahertz. A user's actual performance may vary depending on
what tasks they are performing.

"Our version of the PowerPC 603e chip is the first mainstream, volume
microprocessor in the industry to reach the speed of 300 MHz," said Tom Gunter,
corporate vice president and general manager of Motorola's RISC Microprocessor
Division. "Motorola applauds Apple's ability to bring both the fastest home
desktop and the fastest notebook to the market within two months of each
other--all based on the high-performance, low-power PowerPC 603e microprocessor
family."

Performance, User Experience, Connectivity, Compatibility, Industrial Design
All Part Of The Power Macintosh Experience

The Power Macintosh 6500 mini-tower systems are equipped with powerful
integrated hardware and software components. Each come with a minimum 256K
level 2 cache, with 512K standard on the 6500/275 and 6500/300 systems; 32MB to
64MB of RAM (expandable to 128MB); a 3GB or 4GB hard drive; 16-bit CD-quality
stereo sound with SRS surround sound and integrated dual-mode subwoofer; and,
Iomega Zip drives are standard in three models allowing customers to easily
transfer large files, backup critical applications and expand storage capacity. 

The ATI RAGE II graphics acceleration chip provides Mac customers with video
and graphics performance previously seen only in high-end systems. The 6500
series' advanced multimedia functionality includes accelerated QuickTime and
QuickTime MPEG for impressive full screen, full motion movie playback;
accelerated QuickDraw and QuickDraw 3D for fast, fluid handling of complex 2D
and 3D graphics; and, accelerated video capture for video editing, Internet
video conferencing, and, general purpose image input.

Other standard features include 2MB of video RAM to support millions of colors
on 17" monitors, built-in 12x-speed CD-ROM drive, a built-in 33.6kps modem for
fast "single-click" connectivity to the Internet and advanced telephony
capabilities such as digital voicemail and send/receive faxing. Each system
also comes with keyboard, mouse and high-quality software bundles. Monitors are
sold separately.

Configurations, Availability and Estimated U.S. Retail Pricing 

The Power Macintosh 6500 series comes in five configurations to meet the
diverse price-performance and feature needs of home, small business and
education customers. Additionally, each system comes with an array of powerful,
high-quality applications and CD-ROMs.

The Power Macintosh 6500/225 and 6500/250 models are scheduled to be available
immediately. Pricing, configurations, product availability, and software
bundles vary.  The Power Macintosh 6500/300 and Power Macintosh 6500/275
systems are planned to be available in limited quantities later this spring.

Power Macintosh 6500/300:     U.S. $3,000
300MHz/64MB RAM/4GB hard drive/12x-speed CD-ROM drive/Iomega Zip drive/33.6kps
modem/L2-512 cache

Software/CD-ROMs included: Home bundle featuring personal productivity,
learning/reference, games/entertainment and Internet titles such as Adobe Photo
Deluxe, ClarisWorks 4.0 and Quicken SE by Intuit.

Power Macintosh 6500/275:     U.S. $3,000

275MHz/32MB RAM/4GB hard drive/12x-speed CD-ROM drive/33.6kps modem/L2-512
cache/Avid Cinema/Apple Video System/Apple TV/FM Radio System

Software/hardware/CD-ROMs included: Creative Studio bundle featuring everything
creative individuals need to capture, create, edit and publish video,
music/audio, 3D graphics, art, photos and Internet content--from Adobe PageMill
2.0 to Microspot 3D World for 3D creation.

Power Macintosh 6500/250:     U.S. $2,600

250MHz/48MB RAM/4GB hard drive/12x-speed CD-ROM drive/Iomega Zip drive/33.6kps
modem/L2-256 cache

Software/CD-ROMS included: 
Small Business bundle featuring presentation, Internet access, and finance,
productivity and business management titles such as the newly enhanced
Microsoft Office for Macintosh and Symantec's Norton Utilities.

Power Macintosh 6500/250:     U.S. $2,300

250MHz/32MB RAM/4GB hard drive/12x-speed CD-ROM drive/Iomega Zip drive/33.6kps
modem/L2-256 cache

Software/CD-ROMs included: Home software bundle.

Power Macintosh 6500/225:     U.S. $2,000

225MHz/32MB RAM/3GB hard drive/12x-speed CD-ROM drive/33.6kps modem/L2-256
cache

Software/CD-ROMs included: Home software bundle.

All pricing listed represents estimated U.S. retail prices, and may vary.

Apple Computer, Inc., a recognized innovator in the information industry and
leader in multimedia technologies, creates powerful solutions based on
easy-to-user personal computers, servers, peripherals, software, information
appliances and Internet technologies. Headquartered in Cupertino, California,
Apple develops, manufactures, licenses and markets solutions, products,
technologies and services for business, education, home use, entertainment,
scientific and engineering and government customers in more than 140 countries.

Russell Brady
Apple Computer, Inc.
(408) 974-6877
email: [email protected]

Tami Begasse
Apple Computer, Inc.
(408) 974-3156
email: [email protected]

If you are considering the purchase of an Apple product and would like to have
product information faxed to you, please call 1-800-462-4396 in the U.S. or
1-800-263-3394 in Canada. If you do not have a fax machine or would like to
locate an Apple authorized reseller near you, please call 1-800-538-9696.
Customers outside the U.S. should contact their local Apple representatives for
information.

To access Apple press releases, background material, and contact information on
the web, visit The Source at: http://www.apple.com/source/. If you are
interested in receiving Apple press releases by fax, call 1-800-AAPL-FAX
(1-800-227-5329) and enter your PIN number. If you do not have a PIN number,
contact Apple's Media Helpline at (408) 974-2042 to request one. If you would
like to receive Apple press releases by email, please send an email message to
[email protected]. Include the text "subscribe pressrel [your full
name]" in the body of the message. To remove your address from the mailing list
send an email message to [email protected]. Include the text
"remove pressrel" in the body of the message.

Apple's home page on the World Wide Web: http://www.apple.com/

Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, and Power Macintosh are registered trademarks
of Apple Computer, Inc. PowerPC and the PowerPC logo are trademarks of
International Business Machines Corporation, used under license therefrom. All
other brand names mentioned are registered trademarks or trademarks of their
respective holders, and are hereby acknowledged.

Copyright 1997 Apple Computer, Inc.

Apple Unveils PC Compatible Power Macintosh Systems 

Customers Able To Run MS-DOS and Windows Applications On Macs  

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla.--April 4, 1997--Strengthening its cross-platform
compatibility solutions, Apple Computer, Inc. today introduced two PC
compatible computers--the Power Macintosh 7300/180, with a 180MHz PowerPC 604e
RISC processor and a 166MHz Intel Pentium processor; and the Power Macintosh
4400/200, with a 200MHz PowerPC 603e RISC processor and a Cyrix PR166 6x86
processor. These solutions are primarily targeted to business and education
customers who want the power and ease-of-use of a Macintosh computer but also
need Windows compatibility. The 166 MHz Intel Pentium processor PCI card is
also available as an upgrade card, allowing PCI-based Power Macintosh computers
to run MS-DOS and Windows applications.
 
"Many of our business and education customers need to be compatible with the
Windows operating system, but they will not sacrifice the ease of use and power
of the Macintosh," said Phil Schiller, Apple's vice president of Product
Marketing, Desktops, and Servers. "With these PC-compatible Macintosh systems,
our customers can buy a Macintosh to do all of their critical work, and easily
interact with the Windows environment as needed."
 
Because the PowerPC processors in the new PC Compatible 7300/180 and 4400/200
Power Macintosh systems work independently from the Pentium or Cyrix processors
on the 12" PC Compatibility Cards, customers can run Macintosh and DOS/Windows
applications concurrently and instantly switch between Mac OS and DOS/Windows
environments.

Data can also be cut and pasted between environments. In addition to standard
Macintosh networking capabilities, Power Macintosh systems installed with the
PC Compatibility Card support MS-DOS and Windows networking applications and
services using Novell NetWare IPX/SPX, TCP/IP, and NETBEUI protocols over the
built-in Ethernet network connection. The cards provide fast multimedia and
application performance through the high-resolution accelerated graphics ATI
Video as well as on-board Sound Blaster 16 support for high-fidelity audio
output.
 
In addition to today's announcements, Apple will also offer a new PCI card for
about U.S. $100 called the Apple PC Serial and Parallel Card, that features
both a RS-232 and a bidirectional ECP parallel port. This card allows customers
to hook up legacy IBM compatible or PC system peripherals to a PC Compatibility
Card. The new PCI card is scheduled to be available in June 1997. U.S. pricing
and availability may vary.
 
Configurations, Availability and Estimated U.S. Pricing The PC Compatibility
Upgrade card is scheduled to be available in early April,1997 and the Power
Macintosh 7300/180 and 4400/200 systems bundled with PC Compatibility Cards are
scheduled to be available in volume by the end of May, 1997. PC Compatibility
Cards for regions outside the U.S. are scheduled to be available beginning in
May, 1997. Pricing--based on estimated U.S. retail prices--and availability of
cards and systems may vary.
 
Power Macintosh 7300/180 PC Compatible: U.S. $3,200 
180MHz PowerPC 604e/12" PCI card - 166MHz Intel Pentium 
32MB RAM on Power Macintosh; 16MB RAM on PC Compatible Card 
2GB/256K Level 2 cache/2MB VRAM/1280x1024 (75 Hz)/PC Game Port 
12x-speed CD-ROM/Ethernet 
Software: Windows 95, Mac OS 7.6.1 
 
Power Macintosh 4400/200 PC Compatible: U.S. $2,400 
200MHz PowerPC 603e/12" PCI card - Cyrix P166 6x86 processor 
32MB RAM on Power Macintosh; 16MB RAM on PC Compatibility Card 
2GB/256K Level 2 cache/1MB VRAM/1024x768 (75 Hz)/PC Game Port 
12x-speed CD-ROM/Ethernet 
Software: Windows 95, Mac OS 7.6.1 

PC Compatibility Card - Upgrade Card: U.S. $1,000 
12" PCI card - 166MHz Intel Pentium 
16MB EDO/FP RAM 
256K Level 2 cache/2MB VRAM/1280x1024 (75 Hz)/PC Game Port 
Software: DOS 6.22 

*Estimated U.S. retail prices may vary, check with local dealers.

Apple Computer, Inc., a recognized innovator in the information industry and
leader in multimedia technologies, creates powerful solutions based on
easy-to-use personal computers, servers, peripherals, software, personal
digital assistants and Internet content. Headquartered in Cupertino,
California, Apple develops, manufactures, licenses and markets solutions,
products, technologies and services for business, education, consumer,
entertainment, scientific and engineering and government customers in more than
140 countries.
 
[Note to Editors: for further information about additional Power Macintosh
systems introduced today including the 300 megahertz Power Macintosh 6500,
please refer to "First Mainstream 300 Megahertz Desktop" news release dated
4/04/97.]

Russell Brady 
Apple Computer, Inc. 
(408) 974-6877 
email: [email protected] 

Diane Hayward 
Apple Computer, Inc. 
(408) 974-0180 
email: [email protected] 

If you are considering the purchase of an Apple product and would like to have
product information faxed to you, please call 1-800-462-4396 in the U.S. or
1-800-263-3394 in Canada. If you do not have a fax machine or would like to
locate an Apple authorized reseller near you, please call 1-800-538-9696.
Customers outside the U.S. should contact their local Apple representatives for
information.
 
NOTE TO EDITORS: To access Apple press releases, background material, and
contact information on the web, visit The Source at:
http://www.apple.com/source/.
If you are interested in receiving Apple press releases by fax, call
1-800-AAPL-FAX (1-800-227-5329) and enter your PIN number. If you do not have a
PIN number, contact Apple's Media Helpline at (408) 974-2042 to request one. If
you would like to receive Apple press releases by email, please send an email
message to [email protected]. Include the text "subscribe pressrel
[your full name]" in the body of the message. To remove your address from the
mailing list send an email message to [email protected]. Include
the text "remove pressrel" in the body of the message.
 
Apple's home page on the World Wide Web:
http://www.apple.com/ 

Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, Mac OS, Power Macintosh are registered
trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. PowerPC and the PowerPC logo are trademarks
of International Business Machines Corporation, used under license therefrom.
Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. All other brand
names mentioned are registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective
holders, and are hereby acknowledged.