[www.cultofmac.com]

May 6, 1998: Steve Jobs unveils the iMac G3, the brightly colored, translucent computer that will help save Apple.

Ten months after Jobs’ new management team takes over, the iMac loudly announces that the days of Apple quietly fading into the background are over.


The iMac was a computer from a good planet
It’s difficult to overstate just how different the iMac looked when compared to other computers at the time. Next to the gray or beige boxes built by rivals, it really stood out.

“It looks like it’s from another planet,” Jobs said at the time. “A good planet. A planet with better designers.”


The designer responsible for the iMac G3 was Jony Ive, then just 31 years old. Ive had been at Apple for several years before Jobs’ return, but he was on the verge of quitting. Instead, he found so much in common with Jobs that his planned resignation turned into the pair developing a breakthrough new machine.

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Ways to improve web conference image and sound quality. [forums.macresource.com]

But there will never be any excuse for that stupid circular mouse. Hard to hold, awkward to use, contorted wrists in unpleasant ways over time. And the cord was subject to flex damage. I didn’t think much of the keyboard either.

I think the mouse was counter-experience. It was meant to be held differently from how everybody had held mice previously.

But, Yeah, I hated it too! I got Wallstreet Powerbook a month before the iMac came out. (For the same price I could have gotten a TAM on closeout!!!)



[lowendmac.com]

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San Antonio, TX (in the old city)


"All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke
“Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." - Eli Weisel

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." - Theodore Roosevelt (1918)

"I don’t want to see religious bigotry in any form. It would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it." - Billy Graham 1981

"Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise" - Barry Goldwater

decommissioned my beige G3 a few years ago..only after the Linocolor/Heidelberg SCSI scanner it was driving bit the big one..all in all, that Beige box was a friggin amazing machine.

Quote
Kraniac
decommissioned my beige G3 a few years ago..only after the Linocolor/Heidelberg SCSI scanner it was driving bit the big one..all in all, that Beige box was a friggin amazing machine.

Mine is sitting in the basement. I copied a bunch of old files off the Zip drive a couple of months ago.

A compromise machine, but still important. Brought USB to the masses, eliminated ADB and SCSI.

Keyboard was poor, mouse one of the worst Apple products - ever - , and the iMac had no easy way to backup the internal drive (no SCSI or Firewire, included USB was pretty slow).

We waited until firewire was added, purchased plastic covers to make the mouse useful, and lived with the keyboard when version C was released.

My FIL still uses that an older G3 iMac to play Triple Yahtzee...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/06/2018 02:30PM by sekker.

Dang! I wanted one of those so bad when they came out! I couldn't swing it financially at the time, so I waited and snagged an eMac instead. It took that long before I could justify the expense, and the eMac had more bang for the buck by the time I could pull the trigger.

The eMac still resides in my wood shop, and boots faithfully whenever I fire it up.

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Mr. Lahey: A lot of people, don’t know how to drink. They drink against the grain of the liquor. And when you drink against the grain of the liquor? You lose.

Randy: What the @#$%& are you talking about?

I remember sitting in a university media lab watching the WWDC via satellite feed, through a 9500's AV card. An AV card which I used to capture some of said video feed, and post to our MUG (remember those - Mac Users Groups?) webserver, which was subsequently brought down by heavy traffic as I was apparently the first to post a picture of the iMac to the internet.

I remember the heady days a few months later when they shipped for users to pick up their iMacs first thing at midnight.
g=

I think I had mine by September that year. If only I'd purchased Apple stock instead....ughh. I did eventually get a Sharebuilder account and start buying AAPL, but if I'd started in '98 I'd be retired now.

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MacResource User Map: [www.zeemaps.com]#

I was impressed by the machine, but torn between buying stock in Apple, or buying a computer made by Apple. I chose to drop $3000 on a computer, printer, scanner, and a nice set of speakers with a subwoofer for the computer. If I'd instead dropped $3000 on Apple stock and held on to those shares and reinvested the dividends...I'd have $518,599.87 today. No joke.

I'm not bitter. Over the years I've sold some of my shares for a home downpayment, I bought a car, I probably have about 1/4 of the shares I would otherwise have, but the value is less than you'd think because of when they were purchased.

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MacResource User Map: [www.zeemaps.com]#

I waited and got an iMac DV (with DVD drive) in 1999.

Here it is hooked up to the stereo to play tunes for our Y2K party!

Good old Bondi Blue!

I had a beige G3 desktop too, for YEARS. Tons of upgrades. Awesome machine.

Hi everyone,

Can I be the first to say I despised the iMac as well as the keyboard and mouse Apple shipped with them? The EMac was bearable and good enough that I actually bought one when I found it for a fair price. IMac Never wanted one then and still wouldn't buy one under normal circumstances now. The only reason we have one at my office is that, dollar for dollar, it was the best bang for the buck at the time we needed the new machine.

Robert