Another April Fool's Day has passed us by, and we hope everyone had a good one. Personally, we at AtAT tend to leave the Fool's tree up for another week or so, or at least until all the leftovers are gone. And while we love all the cards and silly costumes, the best thing about this particular holiday has got to be all the online jokes and fake press releases that bring such joy to our day. (Of course, they can also be a royal pain in the butt when you're trying to find some real information, but hey, it's only once a year, and the green beer and little candy hearts more than make up for it.)

This year, our personal favorite press release came from those masters of yuks over at Bare Bones. What versatility! Not only do they make BBEdit, the bestest HTML/text editor available for any platform, but they also manage to find time to scrape together gems like "Bare Bones Software Determines Lime iMacs Run Software Faster." They claim to have determined that the dye used in Lime cases blocks "ultraviolet radiation and low-energy gamma rays," and "polarizes" the remaining radiation, making Lime iMacs run at a 15% higher clock speed. And longtime faithful viewer Avi Rappoport pointed out our favorite hoax in the non-Mac-specific world, the "Drucilla Monitor Virus" at Georgia Tech's home page, which infects your monitor (!) and makes certain web pages appear blurry. A clever hack, to be sure, though if they named the virus after the Buffy character, they get points off for misspelling.

By the way, if you're wondering why AtAT doesn't participate in the online hoax frenzy, well, we just thought it'd be sort of redundant, really. Heck, we're fools all year 'round-- why rub it in? No, we figured we'd stay quiet for now and then celebrate a less-commercial holiday that doesn't get nearly enough exposure: Arbor Day. It's all about trees, people.

The other shoe finally dropped: Apple is reportedly out of the printer business. Remember back when you could buy Apple printers (inkjet and laser), Apple scanners, and Apple digital cameras? Sure, they cost a bit more than third-party offerings, and often weren't quite as nice, but some people really liked knowing that drivers for their Apple-branded peripherals would definitely be compatible with their Macs-- or, at least, if they weren't, they'd be able to raise a stink with the mothership. (Plus they had cute little rainbow logos on them; don't forget that.) Most of that stuff got dropped, though, when the company was forced to refocus or die. Scanners went first, we think, followed by the QuickTake cameras, and then printers vanished one by one-- until all that remained beyond Apple's core product lines of computers, monitors, and software, was a single printer: the LaserWriter 8500. And now, the Mac Observer reports that the 8500 is on its way out, completing Apple's exodus from the peripherals business.

So is this news a big deal? Not really. It always seemed kind of strange to us that Apple would sell so many peripherals when better products for less money were available from dozens of third party companies. Back when they were offered, did you ever notice the price of an Apple-branded external hard drive, for instance? You'd think they were imported from Saturn. We even have a vague recollection that Apple sold speakers, which strikes us as just plain superfluous. Granted, laser printers don't really fall into the same category of "huh?" as speakers do, but with excellent Mac-compatible printers available from several other companies, we'd much rather see Apple focus its efforts and resources on making killer computers and killer software to run on them.

That said, we wouldn't mind if Apple started making completely unrelated products, like kitchen appliances. Specifically, we'd like a waffle iron that brands the apple logo into every waffle it makes. An iMac-themed microwave oven would be nice, too-- you could watch your food cook from any angle, and for when it's done you could set the "ding" to Quack, Wild Eep, or Sosumi. Perhaps a cross-licensing deal with Williams-Sonoma is in the cards?

Leave it to good ol' Judge Jackson to throw everyone a curve. "Redmond Justice" is on extended hiatus for at least another five weeks or so, but even during this downtime he's managed to shake things up a little. According to an Inter@ctive Week Online article, Jackson has broken from tradition in a move that basically tells Microsoft and the government, "settle or else." When he met with both sides earlier this week and set the timetable for the remainder of the case, he did something unorthodox. In non-jury cases, once the testimony is over, the judge who must rule asks the lawyers from both sides to hand over a written summary of what they see to be the facts in the case, and what laws should apply to those facts. Usually the judge then addresses those written submissions when he or she makes a decision. Jackson, on the other hand, has changed the rules; he plans to rule on the facts in the case first, and then ask both sides what they think the law should do about them.

Interesting! Dramatic! A sure ratings-booster! Once Jackson rules on the facts in the case, there will be little doubt in anyone's mind about which side's going to win. In essence, he's giving both sides time to settle their differences, because the final ruling won't be made until several weeks after he rules on the facts. So if, for example, Microsoft hears the facts as determined by Jackson and sees the Big Anti-trust Steamroller of Doom™ barreling down on them, they'll be much more likely to come to a settlement agreement with the government. After all, it sure beats losing the case. And if both sides choose to remain stubborn to the end, then we've all got ourselves a kickin' courtroom drama that may actually last well into next year, according to the New York Times. Kudos to Jackson for injecting a little more intrigue into what is already a fascinating case-- we're talking miniseries event material, here. Or at least movie-of-the-week.

Incidentally, the Inter@ctive Week Online article is also noteworthy for including a courtroom sketch of Judge Jackson, whose exploits we've been following for well over a year and a half but whose face we've never actually seen before. If the sketch is any indication, apparently Jackson doesn't just act like His Royal Grumpiness Judge Wapner (now appearing on Animal Planet's Animal Court, with longtime sidekick Rusty the bailiff!)-- he kind of looks like him, too. Separated at birth, perhaps?