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It wasn’t long after January 7th
that I decided that my next computer would be a flat
panel iMac with a SuperDrive. By the end of January,
the funds had been allocated for the purchase. I figured
I’d order from Apple’s website in hopes
of saving sales tax plus an educational discount I
can get since I’m a student. There was only one
thing standing in my way: I wanted to see one in person
before I committed.
Mainly I wanted to be sure that the
monitor would be big enough for my graphic design
work. I also just wanted to touch the thing and see
if adjusting the monitor really was that easy. So
I set out on my quest to see a new iMac in person.
Now, I live in a pretty big city (over
a million citizens), and the iMac had been shipping
for about a week. A big national retailer should at
least have one on display by now. At least this was
my logic. So that Saturday, my husband and I headed
to the local CompUSA to check it out.
We headed straight for the Mac corner
of the store. No iMac. We decided to wait around and
ask a salesperson when one would be put out on display.
I drooled over a Power Mac with 22 inch Cinema Display
playing a Shrek DVD. No salesperson in sight. I pulled
myself away from the Cinema Display to look at the
15 inch flat panel display. I tried to convince myself
that it was exactly like the screen on the new iMac.
It wasn’t working.
After about ten minutes of hanging out,
we managed to attract the attention of a salesperson.
We asked if they had any new iMacs.
“Oh yeah, we got in eight of them.
They’re selling like crazy. In fact, that one
(points to a box near the back of the corner) is the
last one .”
Maybe we had somehow missed the display
model. We asked if there was one.
“No, we don’t have one out
on display... just that one in the box.”
We asked if we could look at that one then.
“Sorry, man, but we can’t
take it out of the box. But you can take it home today.”
A new iMac was within a 10 foot radius
of me, and I couldn’t look at it. Posted not
far from where the box sat there was an article from
the local paper extolling CompUSA’s partnership
with Apple and how their local Apple marketing guy
was working hard to have Macs out on display. Oh,
the irony.
As tempting as it was to just take the
iMac home, I remained steadfast in my quest. We asked
when CompUSA would have one up on display.
“Oh, probably not for another month
and a half, man.”
That marketing guy should be fired.
Frustrated, we headed home. I looked
up local Mac resellers in the phone book and called
around. One said that they were expecting some iMacs
as soon as Tuesday. Given their operating hours and
my schedule, that translated into next weekend. I
didn’t want to wait that long, but since the
closest Apple Store is five hours away, I didn’t
have a choice.
Throughout that week, I kept checking
the campus computer store at school. No iMac. A friend
of mine said she had been to a store called Fry’s
in a nearby city and that they carried Apple. Hmmm.
Saturday, I called the local Mac reseller.
Still no iMac. I called CompUSA again just in case
they had changed their mind about putting one on display.
Still no display model, and they were sold out. I
decided to call Fry’s. I asked if they had the
new iMac on display.
“Yes, we just got ten of them in
this morning.”
Still skeptical, I asked very deliberately
if they had one out on display.
“Yes, we have one out on display.”
I thanked the salesperson, told my husband
the shocking news, and two minutes later we were in
the car driving the 70-odd miles to Fry’s. By
this point, I was obsessed.
I had never been to a Fry’s. The
place was HUGE. I wondered how long it would take
to find the Mac section, but as soon as we walked
in, I spotted this large wooden arch above some of
the aisles. The arch had the Apple logo on it. It
was like a beacon. We went straight for it.
Sure enough, there it was. The new iMac,
in all its RDF-emitting glory.
Someone was standing in front of it,
checking it out.
I had waited all this time, driven all
this way, and now I had to wait my turn? The agony.
The applelust. I started twitching, much to the amusement
of my husband. Somehow, I was able to refrain from
body-checking the guy in front of the iMac. He finally
moved, and I got to play next.
I looked at the monitor. Looked big
enough. I moved it. It really did adjust that easily.
It did appear to float in midair. I opened up iTunes
and played “Love Shack.” Speakers sounded
impressive for their small size. I made the monitor
dance up and down to the music like the commercial.
I was grinning like the Cheshire Cat.
My husband is a real trooper.
After a few minutes, I returned to reality
enough to notice that there was a small crowd developing.
I painfully pulled away from the iMac to let someone
else have a turn. My husband and I stood a few feet
away, still looking at the iMac. The debate had begun.
Now what? Just go home? It didn’t
seem right to go away empty-handed after driving all
that way. But it would cost more to buy it there.
But if we ordered from Apple, it would take three
to five weeks to get it in. Here we could take one
home today. We whipped out the calculator. We looked
at the iMac again. We talked about it some more. Looked
back at the iMac. Talked about the drive home. Looked
back at the iMac.
We told the salesperson we’d take
it.
Of the ten iMacs Fry’s had gotten
in that morning, they had already sold seven by 6:15
PM. Ours was number eight. That left the display and
one more in a box. They were allowed to sell the display
if someone asked.
We put my new baby in the car and drove home. We decided
to stop by my parents’ house to show it off.
We unpacked it, fired it up, and proceeded to show
my parents how cool the iTunes visualizer was.
That’s when I noticed the dead
pixel.
One unchanging red dot just right of
the center of the monitor. We tried playing a DVD
-- maybe it had just been a fluke in iTunes. Nope,
still there. My heart sank.
Apple says that a small number of dead
pixels is acceptable in order to keep the cost of
flat panels down. But I am a designer and I knew it
would bug me to no end, this little red dot in the
right center of my screen. If only it had been in
a corner....
The next morning, we were driving back
up to Fry’s, hoping they would be more generous
than Apple and still had at least one iMac in stock.
We lucked out. They only had the display model left,
but they were willing to exchange it for our slightly
flawed one.
The salesman said they’d keep the
flawed one on display until they could send it off
for repair, although he wouldn’t be surprised
if someone was willing to buy it even with the dead
pixel. If I were only checking e-mail, surfing the
Internet, and the like I probably wouldn’t mind
it either. But I’m going to be doing design work.
The salesman agreed with me, and thanked us for bringing
it back so quickly.
So I ended up taking home the very first
flat panel iMac I saw in person. I playfully accused
it of sabotaging the other iMac so I’d have to
come back and take it home instead. While we were
waiting for the Software Reinstall to finish running
(to get all of Fry’s information off of it),
a song snippet starting running through my head: “whatever
Lola wants, Lola gets.” I thought it odd, but
I just shrugged it off.
It happened again the next day as I
was walking past the iMac. “Whatever Lola wants,
Lola gets.” This is not a song that normally
gets stuck in my head. Coincidence? I think not.
I am the proud owner of a new flat panel
iMac. Her name is Lola. Because whatever Lola wants,
Lola gets.
Stuffit
7 (10-18-02) Dr. Neale Monks. What purpose does file compression have
in this day of 100 GB hard drives? Is version 7 worthy of the upgrade fees?
Fireworks
MX (10-8-02) Dean Browell. Fireworks is more than just a pretty face;
The last app I needed to convert entirely to OS X delivers in upgrades and
features as well...
Dreamweaver
MX (10-8-02) Joel Davies. Not being satisfied with just carbonizing it's
product, Macromedia made sure that Dreamweaver MX was the killer app for web
design.
SliMP3
(9-6-02) Pat St-Arnaud. The SliMP3 is a small, simple and elegant network
devices that connects to any audio component with RCA inputs and lets you
browse, search and play music directly from your computer's MP3 collection.
Voyager
III v.3 (8-16-02) Dr. Neale Monks. Carina's Voyager is the grandfather
of Mac planetarium programs, but does it still have what it takes to keep
up the current generation?
CodeWarrior
8 (8-16-02) Douglas A. Welton. Doug dives into the latest version of this
robust multi-platform programming tool.
STM
Sports Backpack (8-9-02) Pierre Igot. How will this backpack designed
for the "global digerati" stack up when Pierre puts it to the test
with his mobile digital lifestyle?
Scope
Driver (8-2-02) Dr. Neale Monks. An alternative to the 'point and click'
telescope control paradigm: a powerful list-based utility for Autostar and
LX200 telescopes.
Apple
Final Cut Pro 3.0 (7-19-02) Michael Tate Jones. Tate reviews the video-editing
powerhouse Final Cut Pro 3 and sizes up its competition. Does Final Cut Pro
3 hold its ground?
Strata
DVpro RME (7-16-02) Matt Frederick. Matt Frederick. Matt takes a comprehensive
look at Strata DVpro, Strata's pro-level non-linear editor for digital video.
Stargazer's
Delight (6-28-02) Dr. Neale Monks. Looking for a viable shareware alternative
to the big commercial astronomy software packages? Neale may have found one.
TheSky
(6-21-02) Dr. Neale Monks. Neale takes a look at the easiest to use planetarium
program for the Mac.
NI
FM7 (6-21-02) Matt Frederick. Matt takes this software replica of Yamaha's
DX7 synthesizer for a test drive.
The
Digital Universe (6-14-02) Neale Monks. Planetarium program, astronomy
encyclopaedia and space flight simulator all rolled into one - could The Digital
Universe be the ClarisWorks of astronomy software? Neale Monks takes a look.
After
Effects 5.5 (5-31-02) Michael Tate Jones. Tate reviews the OS X native
version of After Effects and likes what he sees.
InDesign
2.0 for Non-Professional Designers (5-24-02) Pierre Igot. In the second
part of our review of Adobe InDesign 2.0 for Mac OS X, Pierre Igot looks at
InDesign from the point-of-view of the non-professional designer - and finds
plenty to like.
Corel
Graphics Suite, Part 2 (5-24-02) Dean Browell. CorelDraw returns in full
force and Corel R.A.V.E makes its debut.
Corel
Graphics Suite, Part 1 (5-17-02) Dean Browell. CorelDraw is back, and
it's brought some powerful friends that makes this Suite worth the look...
OmniGraffle
2.0 (5-10-02) András Puiz. Analog napkins are so 20th century --
this gem from OmniGroup knows (almost) all about diagramming. András
Puiz wishes all Mac developers developed a similar understanding of Aqua,
and of Mac OS X in general.
Watson
(5-03-02) Michael Tate Jones. Tate discovers a 'Swiss Army Knife' for OS X...
it's called Watson.
