Gee. Maybe the Hand Cranked P1/WebMate might be for real after all. Attached below is the letter that we received from Mr. Fred Johnson of Apple.
Date: Fri, 26 Feb 1999 07:40:30 -0600
I found your article quite amusing. Yes, from a certain standpoint (as a
consumer portable), the idea of a crank-up computer does sound
rediculous. However, from another standpoint (as a full-fledged MacOS
portable designed for educational uses), it makes a lot of sense. Kids
take their MacMates (education version of the P1) home at night and let
it recharge once they finish their homework. They bring it to school. It
sits in an energy conservational super-sleep mode until the child is
ready to use it. If the battery power gets low, then it displays a
message. It just says, "Battery low, please recharge." However, in the
user's manual and the little hand operational instruction card, it tells
them they can also use the crank to generate power for this computer.
This means that it can go for hours without charging.
Another special feature is the ability to save a software "snapshot" of
the RAM and processes, so that if the battery becomes low and they can't
charge it (during a test), it saves the information to a file on the
hard drive. The next time you charge it, it reloads the file and resumes
its work.
While Steve is still debating on whether to put this feature into the
consumer version of P1 (WebMate), Steve was intrigued by your idea to
use that feature to promote Y2K readiness.
I hope that you aren't too disappointed.
Sincerely,
Fred Johnson
Well hush our mouths! A direct confirmation from Mr. Fred Johnson of Apple's Marketing Group. Gee. Maybe Mac OS Rumors was right on target! In fact, go here to see our explanation for all of our reporting on this! Seems that Mr. Johnson wanted to set us straight before we made even bigger fools of ourselves.
From: Fred Johnson
Organization: Apple Computer, Inc.
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: rfi@pelagius.com
Subject: WebMate For The Millenium
----------------------------
Apple Marketing Group
Apple Computer, Inc.
http://www.apple.com/