Secret’s Out: The Absolute Worst Mac You Can Buy.

Say it ain’t so, Joe. Apple gets kudos, glory, awards, growing sales, and a tripling of the stock price for the iMac, PowerMac, PowerBook, iPods, iTMS, iLife, and more. Now Apple gets one of the Top 10 Worst Products of the Year.

Sometimes we have to take the bad with the good. The past couple of years have been good for Apple and stockholders and Mac users.

Now comes word that Apple is also a winner in the Worst Product of the Year category. Worst product? Software? Hardware? What could be bad at Apple these days? Not expensing stock options, maybe.

PC Magazine, the same folks who loved the iPod, loved Mac OS X, and loved the new iMac G5 now say there’s something to hate about Apple.

It’s the lowly eMac. The worst desktop computer you can buy in 2004 (according to the 10 To Avoid: The Worst Products of the Year).

Is that possible? An Apple product that’s so bad it rates tops on a bad list? Apparently so. While PC Magazine is anything but an impartial observer of all things desktop, laptop, and software releated for the consumer and business, they’ve rated Apple’s humble $799 eMac as the worst Desktop PC.

"For Apple, the entry-level eMac really does represent Think Different. That’s because for a company that prides itself on quality, this computer is different. As in bad. On the plus side, it’s stylish. On the downside, it’s slow, underpowered, and pathetic.

The 40GB hard drive will fill up quickly, the lack of a DVD burner makes offloading files impossible, and the Radeon 9200 graphics card won’t even run this fall’s hot Mac games. And at around $800, this eMac ain’t cheap. If you’re considering a home Apple, think different. Buy a Dell. Or be prepared to spend a lot more for an acceptable Apple computer.”

There you have it. That’s all they can say about how bad the eMac is. The world has gone mad.

First, PC Magazine calls the eMac stylish. What does that say about the rest of Apple’s product line. The eMac is drab at best when it comes to stylish comparisons to the rest of Appledom.

“Bad?” They called it bad. Not mediocre (I could live with that...). But “bad.” How so? Well, PC Magazine can’t really say. You see, they’re of the journalistic breed of Fox-like reporters who love titillating and toasty opinions but don’t have much to back it up. Or anything to back it up.

A comparably priced Dell (recommended by PC Magazine) won’t get you a DVD burner (well, one that works, anyway...), won’t run the latest hot Windows games, is slow (can you say C-E-L-E-R-O-N?).

Oh, forget the fact that the dependable eMac comes with Mac OS X, the same OS featured on the wildly popular iMac G5 or the terrifically quick PowerMac G5. See, PC Magazine did forget.

Here’s why I’m pissed. At $799, the eMac is a bargain. While not as stylish or quick as an iMac G5, it’ll do the job for whoever’s using it and for whatever they expected to get for $799.

I have a softspot for that white bundle of plastic. You see, our web site started off with Mac OS X Server running on a very lowly, original, 800 mhz flat panel iMac.

Then we graduated to a, yup, you guessed it-- eMac. The $799 variety. 1.25 ghz. Added a bit of RAM and a UPS. That little eMac, with Mac OS X, would saturate a full T-1 Internet connection and not break a sweat (mostly).

Yes, we moved on. Now we’re living the good life with a dual 2.0 ghz PowerMac G5.

PC Magazine got it wrong. Waaaaaay wrong. The only reason I can think of for such a blatant misrepresentation of fact is the lack of Holiday cheer (or too much “cheer” at the office Christmas party), or they’ve fallen victim to 21st Century Journalism-- say whatever it takes to get a reaction wherever and whenever possible.

I trust is merely a bad case of the latter.

OK, in summary, hold your nose tightly with thumb and forefinger, then Click Here to review the whole list. Ugh.

Check out the daily list of our 9 Word mini-Reviews at NoodleMac, and Kate's daily in-depth Mac software reviews at PixoBebo.