In tandem with yesterday's announcement of the Power Mac G3 All-in-one, Apple today announced a new line of affordable desktop computers, designed to demonstrate Apple's commitment to everyday users of everyday Macintoshes. An Apple executive commented, "We realized that in our rush to reassure important niche markets like desktop publishing and education we'd neglected our base of home users and small business, people who keep Macs on their desks and keep buying more of them." A recent Apple marketing group survey learned of an "incredible ground swell" of people who have used desktop computers from Apple throughout Apple's history, typically purchasing a new model every few years while passing older models to relatives and non-profit organizations. The study revealed that the typical person who purchase

VST Technologies today announced a long-rumored PowerBook add-on, the VST Easy-Bake Expansion Bay Drive. The company expects to start shipping in early May, but notes that supplies will be initially "constrained." Officially designated as the EB-451 Easy-Bake Expansion Bay, the device fits existing PowerBook models 190, 5300, 3400, and G3

ActiMates Barney Acting Out -- In 1997, Microsoft's hardware group introduced the ActiMates Interactive Barney, a plush, interactive version of everyone's favorite purple dinosaur

Investing in Office -- Microsoft today announced a new promotion designed to win over more Mac users to Microsoft Office 98 for the Macintosh. Starting 01-Apr-98, Microsoft will place a single share of Microsoft stock, currently valued at about $90, in 100,000 boxes of Office 98 destined for individual purchase in the retail and academic channels

Much speculation has emerged about Apple's forthcoming foray into the nascent network computer (NC) market. Although NCs from Sun, Network Computer, Inc., and even IBM haven't exactly sold like hotcakes, Apple's entry promises to be the result of different thinking

New PowerBooks -- Just after the release of the PowerBook 3400, dubbed "the world's fastest portable" by Apple, comes the PowerBook 1000, codenamed Falcon

Double the Trouble -- Connectix recently announced the latest in its Doubler suite, a new browser plug-in called JAVADoubler (formerly known by its code name, DoubleShot)

Cyberdog Abused? Rumors are circulating on the net that the real reason for the demise of Apple's OpenDoc technology was due to allegations made by an organization calling itself the Animal Internet Rights Foundation (AIRF) about Apple's mishandling of Cyberdog

Mac Attack -- In a swift and decisive move, Symantec Corporation announced that it would purchase game developer Id Software for an undisclosed sum. Id, creator of popular "blast-and-run" games such as Doom and Quake, immediately issued a press release disclosing that negotiations had been "relatively bloodless (ha ha)." Symantec's first offering from its new Chainsaw/Cutting Edge department will be a revised version of Norton Utilities for Macintosh entitled NUM-Cruncher, in which users will be able to run through virtual 3D "corridors" of their hard disks in real-time, blasting bad sectors and setting fire to corrupted B-tree branches

TidBITS Announces Reorganization -- Following in the footsteps of such industry leaders as Apple Computer, TidBITS today announced plans to lay off thousands of employees

Smoking Newtons, Batman! After a flurry of industry speculation about the fate of its underappreciated handheld technology, Apple has sold its Newton line to the highest bidder, the RJR Nabisco Holdings Corp

Kinko's, The New Way to Verb -- If you don't possession at home the software or hardware you requirement to completion a job, automobile down to your nearest Kinko's, where you'll discovery a row of Macs cargoed with a good selection of fonts and software, plus some great printers

In a move that surprised all but the cagiest industry analysts, it was announced this week that Apple Computer, Inc., had been acquired by Pixar Animation Studios

In an effort to reassure the Macintosh developer community in the wake of recent layoffs and restructuring, Apple Computer has been privately demonstrating a host of cutting-edge new technologies slated to appear in its forthcoming NeXT-based operating system, codenamed Rhapsody

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