20 Years Ago Today, Apple Unveiled the eMac

[machpost]

Flat screen CRTs were very heavy due to the amount of glass needed for strength to create the vacuum. iMacs weren’t as heavy as the screen was more curved.

I remember flat crt TV I had once. Crazy heavy monster.

I had a 27" Sony Trinitron TV and it was incredibly heavy for its size! Very awkward to move since all the weight was at the front. A friend had the next size up (35" maybe?) and it took two people to move it.

 

[alexprice]

Was that the last education Mac? Didn't Apple abandon the K-12 market after that one?

In the UK I remember that there was a model of iMac in around 2009 that was an educational only version with slightly less spec but looked identical. Not sure after that. Everyone just seemed to go iPad crazy. As a reseller we always did edu discounts for all devices, something we could get a rebate from Apple for until they opened up their own online store and Apple stores. We then in order to survive, continued to offer edu discounts for our customers from our own already small profits. I remember it was quite a kick in the teeth at the time and vary challenging for the business. Felt like Apple just kept squeezing us and other resellers more and more, to the point that we and many others couldn't carry on as a profitable business. Very sad really looking back, especially given that before the Apple Stores and online store, all Apple products were sold via resellers like ourselves. It's like we helped get them to where there were, then they said thanks by forcing us all to close up.

 

[alexprice]

I remember when they had to redesign the speaker grilles to make them smaller as students were poking holes in the speakers ?

I never knew about that. Was a handy way of working out from a glance if it was a newer or older one by looking at the speaker grills. Much faster that looking behind the CD drive door!

 

[Heat_Fan89]

I bought one of those in 2004. They were big and HEAVY and you had to bear hug them because they didn't have a handle you weren't supposed to use like the OG iMac which the Snow iMac was my first Mac back in 2002.

 

[alexprice]

I recall driving many miles to the Apple Store to pick one up. Couldn’t afford much back then, so it was a good enough machine.

Also, as a service tech back then, I recall having to fix these. Discharge that CRT before you get too involved.
50 pounds was a lot to shift around, even worse with a rounded design.

I remember having to discharge them too, and the original iMac's. We had big black plastic handled tool with a long metal pin to poke into the connection, and a thick red cable from the other end of the handle with a crocodile clip for earthing.

My back is aching just thinking about carrying them around the workshop

 

[Haiku_Oezu]

Heck yeah, my first Mac! All the way back in 2003

Lots of memories of this bad boy… I remember being in awe of how it outperformed my Pentium 4 PC in Photoshop despite having a puny 700Mhz processor

Slowly discovering Mac OS and how do things over there was a unique experience that I’m glad I went through.

Finally figuring out how to get my USB ADSL modem working and being able to browse the internet on it was really like discovering the internet a second time, so much alien looking software, what the hell is a .sit file??, finding out there was a healthy indie software scene making stuff exclusively for the Mac, discovering new communities…

Really good times. Even if I wanted the fancier iMac I’m grateful that I ended up with the eMac instead - that 17 inch CRT probably held up better than the early LCD panel on the iMac lol

 

[editorjacobs]

My very first Mac that I purchased back in 2002. Taught myself Final Cut Pro on this amazing little machine and I'm now a film editor working for Marvel Studios.