Reply to comment

Well, as another TAM owner since 1998's firesale, I'd like to rebuke a few points...

The "buzz", as people call that speaker problem you referred to, has never been proved to have affected any larger % than would have been expected of any type of fault in any other Mac production line. Yes, it has put the fear of God into anyone wanting to buy one - I myself was already aware of the buzz when I bought my TAM in March 1998, the matter weighing heavily as I was importing it to Australia, a country not lucky enough to have the TAMs on sale natively, and certainly lacking any trained repairers should something go wrong.

Apple, further, to their credit, offered any buzz affected owners a great deal - a swap for a top end Mac.

I love my TAM. Indeed, just yesterday I jumped for joy upon hearing that lovely Bose pumped unique startup chime... Yes, they should have used at worst a PowerMac 9600 logic board, instead of a custom board that resembled the 5500. Yes, they could have upped the hard drive - it was very small for the time.

However, your claim that they should have included USB is flawed. Apple did not introduce any USB Macs until the iMac in August 1998. The TAM was released in May 1997. There was no overlap. Designing the iMac supposedly began when Steve returned to Apple, which was late 96/early 97. Even then, there would not have been time to include USB in the TAM, if they were only just considering it for the iMac.

Sure, the TAM has flaws. Ever ran your hand along the ridge at the back-top of the computer, where the back panel sits. It isn't smooth. And some of those other things you mentioned. But, some things cannot be leveled against it, in fairness.

Let's be fair - beautiful machine, at the right price - after the March98 firesale. :)