Newest Apple

Computers go to college

The computer industry has for months been anxiously searching for news concerning Apple Computer's newest product: a moderately priced version of the Lisa computer that the company unveiled in January. Last week the first word of the new machine, which has already been dubbed the MacIntosh, was revealed by an unexpected source: Drexel University in Philadelphia. The university said that it will be buying about 3,000 of the new Apple computers. Next fall Drexel will require each of its 1,650 incoming freshmen to buy one of the machines, which it will sell for $1,000 apiece.

The Drexel announcement lifted some of the secrecy surrounding the next Apple to come out of the barrel. The machine, which Drexel has nicknamed "Apple D.U.," will reportedly weigh only about 24 lbs. and be as portable as a small TV. Yet it will be able to store more than 64,000 bytes of memory and will have many of the advanced features of the much more expensive Lisa (price: $10,000). One of the attributes that led Drexel to choose the new Apple was its ease of use. The MacIntosh is not expected to be unveiled until late this year, and the nonstudent price is likely to be closer to $2,000. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.