POWERtools X-Factor

Today is the official release date of POWERtools X-Factor Mac clones. The X-Factors are the first Mac OS 8-based computers to ship with a PowerPC 750 (or G3 or "Arthur") CPU running at 250 Mhz with 512K "backside" L2 cache. For more information contact POWERtools.

[Ed. Note] What do you think of the new Apple ad, "Think Different" (not "differently"), that played during last night's "The Wonderful World of Disney"? Uh, my opinion? I was afraid that you'd ask. Let's just say that I think Apple needs to cleverly tout the Mac's salient features (ease of use, performance [speed] and reliability) more than its intellectualistic "change the world" appeal. Didn't Steve Jobs recently say that the Mac shouldn't just be different, it should be better? The original "1984" ad portrayed the Mac, "the computer for the rest of us" as better because many of us didn't want to learn and/or rely on the arcane world of DOS commands. We wanted elegant operational simplicity and the Mac promised exactly that. I don't claim to be an advertising genius but I failed to see the same brilliant connection in the new ad. It was too much like the ethereal Infinity Q45 car ads--grabbing but too disconnected from the product. I am not even sure that many people outside the Mac community would make the connection to Apple Computer with only a fleeting Apple logo at the commercial's end. On the other hand, I wonder if anyone ever writes an opinion on a Microsoft or Intel ad. E-mail me--I'm interested in your opinion.