Apple has bowed to pressure and decided to sell its low-cost eMac to consumers (previously, it was only going to education users). The eMac - with a 17-inch CRT screen it's a kind of iMac 1.5 - starts at £949, including VAT, which is not bad value at all - although you'd probably want to add some memory to the basic configuration. This machine now looks a very good bet if you were considering the lower-end flat panel iMacs, which cost at least £300 more.