Apple's New Shine

TIME's David Jackson was in Cupertino for Apple's latest makeover: cool colors, sleek designs and a product line consisting of just four machines. And he liked what he saw. The star of Wednesday's show was the iMac, a one-piece teal-and-blue desktop that aims to capture the college-student crowd with a $1,299 sticker price -- everything included.

"It's one size fits all," Jackson says -- which could be a problem for Apple in today's market, where customers can custom-order their Gateway or Dell with a few clicks on the companies' web sites. But Jackson thinks the iMac is good enough to sell as is. "The chip is faster than a Pentium, and the package is strong enough, with a 15-inch monitor, that people may not want to change it. It's a contender."

The only thing wrong with it, says Jackson, is that "it's an Apple." But Steve Jobs knows that if the iMac sells, the software developers will follow. And it's up to him to drum up some excitement. So he went straight for the new computer's target group at the unveiling. "This is the iMac. It's so cool." Is that a new slogan?