Another was Gateway 's (nyse: GTW - news - people ) infamous Destination line of PCs aimed at the living room.

FORBES: PCs Go Hollywood

Market researcher IDC now places Apple third in the U.S. computer market, tied with Gateway (nyse: GTW - news - people ).

FORBES: Apple's Mighty Metal Mac

And Monday, Acer announced it will buy Gateway (nyse: GTW - news - people ) in an effort to blunt the threat from giant rivals Dell and HP.

FORBES: Dell Returns From Hell

Meanwhile, second-quarter sales of Apple computers rose 26.2% over the year-ago period to grab fourth place in the U.S. market, just behind Gateway (nyse: GTW - news - people ).

FORBES: Chief Executive Steve Jobs

Ted Waitt, the billionaire co-founder of Gateway (nyse: GTW - news - people ), is helping to collect genetic samples from 100, 000 people to learn more about the last 150, 000 years of human history.

FORBES: Billionaire Science Projects

The machine is designed to take on Apple's (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) latest iMac, and Gateway 's (nyse: GTW - news - people ) iMac knockoff, the Gateway One.

FORBES: The iMac From Texas

The real reason for these made-over machines, of course, is that Gateway (nyse: GTW - news - people ) is hoping to revive its sagging sales and generate some consumer excitement--the same reason for those TV advertisements featuring the talking cow.

FORBES: Magazine Article

It turned out to be a big mistake not matching Dell Computer 's (nasdaq: DELL - news - people ) price cuts, which slowed Gateway's (nyse: GTW - news - people ) sales and subsequently ate into revenue.

FORBES: Forbes Faces: Ted Waitt

Though others have tried to combine the TV and the PC-- Gateway 's (nyse: GTW - news - people ) Destination PCs come to mind--this machine doesn't seem to be aimed at replacing the TV you already have in the living room.

FORBES: Ten O'Clock Tech: Sony's Very-Video PC