It's all about color. Actually, let us amend that: it's all about color and spin. The iMac Knockoff Wars aren't over yet, although Apple would certainly like you to think so; last week's press release comprised some of the best propaganda to emerge from Cupertino since the G3 Bytemarks. "Apple secures worldwide injunctions," trumpets the announcement, and many of the Mac faithful stopped reading right about there. Of course, the end of that sentence is "against Daewoo and eMachines," who aren't the only foes Apple's fighting on this issue. Daewoo may have folded, eMachines may have surrendered (in a sense), and even K.K. Sotec may have settled out of court in Japan-- but in response to Apple's joyous proclamation of victory, fourth-front cloner Future Power shouted an indignant "Hey! What about us?!"

See, Future Power (the first knock-off artist to get slapped by Apple's tireless and formidable legal team over this issue) is a little upset that Apple's doing a touchdown dance when their case is anything but complete. The other three cloners may have buckled, but Future Power's still standing strong. According to MacNN, the company's even "demanding Apple Computer retract and clarify [its] press statement." The complaint is that Apple's statement that "the Court also granted an injunction against Future Power's distribution or sale of the E-Power computer" implies that Apple won the case, when in fact the court date's set for April 10th. Future Power claims that the company "anticipates" that its "legal position will be vindicated"; even though their E-Power is the same as Daewoo's, Daewoo's settlement has no bearing on Future Power's case.

Which is why, of course, we can see why Future Power might feel a bit slighted by Apple's behavior. Looks like Apple Legal thinks Future Power stands about as much of a chance as a Furby in a blender set to "Liquefy." Given all the preliminary injunctions slapped around and the way the other cloners eventually felt compelled to settle, we're inclined to agree-- especially since the E-Power was the most blatant iMac ripoff to fall off the truck. As for Future Power's demand that Apple retract its press release, we'd love to see the Vegas odds on that one. Don't hold your breath, guys. But we're eagerly awaiting this April 10th court hearing, because we're always up for a little courtroom brawl...

Now that the iBook Disk Corruption hullabaloo is winding down, we're just itching for a new scandal that involves our funky little Blueberry friend. Alas, the most promising candidate for "Next Big Brouhaha" may have to drop out of the race, amid startling new revelations that it may not be a scandal after all. We're talking about iBook Cracked Ice; many, many iBooks have what appear to be faint stress cracks in the Ice plastics surrounding the keyboard. Our iBook has them. In fact, we got a little worried when we first noticed them a few weeks back, trying to remember if we'd done anything nasty like smacked it against a brick wall or backed over it in the driveway or something. The thing was, they were very faint, and they appeared to be on the underside of the Ice plastics-- they definitely didn't reach the surface. In fact, we never even noticed them until we had the iBook open under some bright sunlight, which is definitely not representative of our normal working conditions, so for all we know, those cracks were there when we first bought the thing.

Since the problem didn't appear to interfere with the iBook's functionality in any way, we had pretty much just adopted the attitude that "stress cracks build character" and forgotten all about it. Imagine our surprise, then, when a reader report surfaced on MacInTouch, revealing that lots more people had reported the exact same problem we had seen. Apparently cracks and iBooks are two great tastes that taste great together, because it seems that darn near everybody's got 'em. These cracks generally show up in the same areas from iBook to iBook-- running upward from about where the Num Lock key is, sitting between the trackpad and the keyboard, extending to the right of the power key, etc. Could this be the scandal we were looking for? Would a design flaw force Apple to repair hundreds or thousands of cracked iBooks, thus forming a PR debacle?

And then the bubble burst; turns out these "cracks" probably aren't really cracks at all. A couple of readers privy to the plastic part manufacturing process state that they're actually "weld lines" or "flow lines," which are the normal outcome whenever molded plastic parts have holes in them-- it's the result of two flows of plastic meeting around an obstacle. Apparently this is where translucency may have turned around and bitten Apple on the butt; if the iBook's plastic was opaque white instead of "Ice," those flow lines would never have been visible. Still, while we expect extreme elegance and attention to detail in Apple's industrial designs, it's tough to make a scandal out of something as piddly as barely-noticeable flow lines. On the other hand, if these hairline imperfections turn out to be real cracks after all, the drama fiends among you will have a field day when iBooks start falling apart at the seams. Hey, it could still happen.

People have accused Microsoft of many things over the years: graft, threats, FUD, illegal anticompetitive behavior, and plenty more. But even with all those crimes allegedly staining its soul (or lack thereof), there's never been much reason to accuse the Redmond Giant of that most heinous of character flaws, poor sportsmanship-- until now. Faithful viewer Jerry O'Neil keeps us on top of Microsoft's latest peccadillo by pointing out a MacAddict.com article, which reports that the company has "dissolved its membership in the Software and Information Industry Association." (The SIIA used to be the Software Publishers' Association, the group best known for fighting software piracy.)

And the reason for this sudden departure? Well, those of you who've been tuning in for a while may recall that a couple of months ago, the SIIA reportedly sided against Microsoft as the "Redmond Justice" trial started to wind to its final close. In fact, the SIIA has been vocally supportive of the government's efforts as far back as the time that Judge Jackson issued his infamous Findings of Fact, which established Microsoft to be a monopoly. How about that? The largest software industry lobbying group, of which Microsoft is (was) itself a member, came out squarely on the side of the government, time and time again. The result? "Microsoft has, in effect, taken its ball and gone home," says SIIA president Ken Wasch.

In case you're wondering, that's a heck of a ball to lose; Microsoft paid $100,000 each year in membership fees to the SIIA. But in light of the fact that Wasch calls Microsoft a "schoolyard bully," we can't say we're surprised that Microsoft chose to bail. In fact, we're wondering why on earth it took them this long to leave. We can only assume that Microsoft kept hoping to earn the SIIA's support, but finally concluded that it was a lost cause. So no, we don't blame Microsoft for quitting the SIIA. Taking its ball and going home may make the company a bad sport, but continuing to pay a hundred grand a year to a group actively supporting the government's antitrust suit would have been just plain stupid.