We'll be the first to admit it: we suffer from Apple Tunnel Vision. Many times we have trouble looking at something from any perspective other than that of a Mac user. For example, Motorola must be on top of the world right about now, right? After all, the company finally punched through that 500 MHz ceiling it had been staring up at for a year and a half; come next month, Moto G4 processors running at a pretty darn respectable 733 MHz will be crunching bits at the heart of Apple's top of the line Power Macs. Finally, upward progress on the clock speed front! We figured Motorola must be surging with self-confidence as it sets its sights squarely on Intel's megahertz lead.

That, of course, is where the tunnel vision comes in. One quick dose of perspective later, and we're realizing that, oh yeah, Motorola doesn't just make PowerPC chips-- it also makes cell phones. As a matter of fact, believe it or not, the PowerPC is actually a fairly teensy chunk of the company's business. How weird is that? Anyway, Motorola may not exactly be "beleaguered" yet (at least, not in the grand Cupertino sense), but according to MSNBC, the company is officially "struggling" even as its chip breaches the 500 MHz barrier. As faithful viewer Michael Doughty was quick to point out, Motorola's plant in Harvard, Illinois will cease cranking out cellular phones by the end of June as "part of a long-term, company-wide strategy to improve supply-chain efficiencies, consolidate manufacturing, improve financial performance, and build on company strengths." The subtext, of course, is "we can save an awful lot of money by laying off 2500 workers in a desperate bid to cut costs by any means necessary because Nokia is beating the pants off us in the mobile phone market." (We mention Nokia in particular, since the Finnish outfit overtook Motorola as the number one mobile phone manufacturer back in 1999, probably due in no small part to that kickin' stiletto-action Nokia 8110 showcased in The Matrix.)

Sad, isn't it? Motorola finally gets back into the chip game with a vengeance-- c'mon, 1 GHz can't be that far off now!-- yet the company as a whole is still taking it in the neck because people are buying other companies' cell phones. But even while Motorola is "struggling," we see some positive possibilities arising from this cell phone-induced trauma: at least the company hasn't trimmed its semiconductor business. (Yet.) Hey, maybe if Motorola continues to experience troubles in the mobile phone arena, it'll jettison the business completely and focus entirely on making faster PowerPCs instead. Then it can finally devote the resources it needs to overtaking Intel and AMD. (By the way, in addition to Apple Tunnel Vision, did we mention that we also suffer from Apple Pipe Dream Syndrome?)

You know, when a relatively small PC manufacturer like Future Power decides to rip off the iMac's distinctive design, Apple's course is clear: sue 'em 'til they bleed. But when a huge, multinational conglomerate known for its own prowess in the field of industrial design does something similar, we're not at all sure how Apple will react-- especially since the company in question just happens to be Steve's model for Apple's future success. At some point we're sure you've heard Steve say that he wants Apple to be "the Sony of computers," right? Well, Sony's doing its own small part to make that goal a reality; as faithful viewer Mick Tiller pointed out, the company's upcoming eVilla Network Entertainment Center looks hauntingly familiar, albeit a little squished.

So will Apple take umbrage at the design of Sony's cute little network appliance doohickey? In addition to looking every bit like an iMac after six months on the Slim-Fast diet and a paint job, even some of the machine's specs are "coincidentally" rather similar: a 15-inch monitor (turned sideways, apparently), two USB ports, a V.90 modem, an ethernet port, and-- perhaps most damningly-- no fan. Heck, the thing even supports multiple users (well, only four of them) just like Mac OS 9. Of course, it's not actually running Mac OS 9, nor does it run Windows; instead it appears to use a Be operating system, but we're not sure. In any event, we highly doubt that anyone who sees the eVilla won't immediately think of the iMac.

Then again, it's not like Apple's designers haven't been taking some cues from Sony lately. Surely you recall how many times Steve compared the new PowerBook G4 to Sony's VAIO notebooks in last week's keynote address, yeah? In fact, it's similar enough in looks that some Mac fans are complaining that the titanium PowerBook is too boxy and PC-like. It looks to us that just as Apple took the VAIO design and made it thinner, Sony took the iMac design and made it narrower-- so hopefully it's all a wash and the lawyers will stay caged for the time being. Not that a knock-down, drag-out, no-holds-barred Apple vs. Sony intellectual property cage match wouldn't be a whole lot of fun to watch, though.

We at AtAT don't really have the attention spans for honest-to-goodness puzzles that require any real level of concentration; we prefer our puzzles short, Zen-like, and dismissible as soon as we get distracted by a shiny object. If you're anything like us, you, too, appreciate the occasional kiddie meal of fast food for thought. So here's a quickie to chew on inside your head: why did Apple include Windows-specific key combos in the PowerBook G4?

Bear with us for a minute. See, Go2Mac was digging around through Apple's Developer Tech Notes on the titanium wonder and found this intriguing graphic showing the keyboard layout. Note that when the "fn" function key is held down, the Apple/Command key turns into a Windows key (complete with the Windows logo in the graphic, if not actually in the real world). The "enter" key turns into the Windows contextual menu key. Now, on a separate keyboard like Apple's Pro Keyboard, that would make sense, since it functions perfectly well on a Wintel system with USB. (Really! Viewers have tried, and it works like a charm, other than the Media Eject key.) But why would Apple put Windows keys in the PowerBook?

If your immediate answer is the abundantly logical "so it's easier to use emulators like Virtual PC," then your conspiracy muscles need a little flexing. C'mon, have a little fun with it! Clearly Apple originally intended the new PowerBook to be a mobile Pentium-based unit running Windows 2000 because Motorola couldn't get the G4 running cool enough to work reliably in a laptop without draining the battery in thirty seconds or melting the plastic case. (There's a reason for the titanium, you know, and it's not because it's light and looks pretty.) Then Motorola came through with a mobile-friendly G4 at the last second-- too late for Apple to change the keyboard. Obvious, right? So thank your lucky stars, because we came this close to a Wintel PowerBook...