Gee, and here we thought the biggest potential concern about travelling with a PowerBook G4 might be some snags involving transporting supercomputer technology into certain foreign countries; instead, the real issue that might give road warriors pause is the possibility of inciting a bomb scare and shutting down an entire airport while security subjects you to a thorough body cavity search. Oh, and when they return your PowerBook, it might still be dripping from when the bomb squad dunked it in a bucket of water "just to be sure." (What do you mean, you didn't sign on for this kind of drama? You knew the risks when you took the Mac User's Oath, buddy.)

Okay, so we added in the bit about the strip search and the sodden PowerBook-- but believe it or not, folks, the rest is more or less true. Faithful viewer Glenn Pillsbury was the first of many, many people who forwarded us an article from Saturday's LA Times which documents the tale of a hapless traveler who managed to shut down a terminal at Burbank Airport for over five hours because security thought his laptop computer was a bomb. That's "a bomb," not "the bomb," although it certainly qualified as the latter; while the article never mentions a brand name, references to the unit's "titanium" enclosure make it clear that it was a PowerBook G4 causing all the ruckus.

The sad story unfolded when security officials first couldn't get a decent x-ray of the PowerBook's innards, and then resorted to a "swab test." No biggie; we've had the same thing done to our Pismo on a number of occasions. Security personnel just scrubs a little chunk of fabric over the surface of the questionable item and then analyzes the fabric for suspicious residues. It's quick, painless, and kind of a kick to watch-- assuming the test comes up negative, that is. Unfortunately, it seems that in this case the swab "came up positive for a chemical residue of concern," in all likelihood due to the titanium in the computer's enclosure. The result? The terminal getting closed, fire doors sealing the area, restaurants being evacuated, the involvement of the bomb squad and the FBI, thirty delayed flights, and at least one ruined wedding. Now that's drama!

We're going to assume that this was an isolated incident involving some poorly-calibrated security equipment, because if this sort of hubbub were standard operating procedure whenever anyone tries to take a PowerBook G4 on a plane, we're guessing we probably would have heard about it by now. Not that anyone lucky enough to own a TiBook should mind such minor inconveniences in exchange for the privilege of owning and operating such an exquisite machine, of course. In fact, we're starting to wonder if the PowerBook was ever really under suspicion at all; reportedly it took the authorities about six hours to verify that the thing was a computer and not a bomb. Six hours? That's one thorough examination. We strongly suspect that the security team really just wanted an excuse to play with the sexy laptop for a while. Who wants to bet that five of those hours were spent playing Quake 3 on the airport LAN?

Let loose the hounds of fevered speculation! As faithful viewer Paul first noted, CNET is reporting that Apple has scheduled a "press event" on May 1st, and yes, His Steveness will be presiding. You all know what that means: he's gearing up to announce something of vital importance to the future of the Mac community and the welfare of the universe as we know it. Or maybe it's just about new iBooks. It's sort of a tough call.

Certainly in the horse race of Mayday conjecture, the prospect of new iBooks is way out in front. Apple's line of consumer portables is well due for an overhaul, inventory in the channel is bone-dry, and for what little it's worth, AtAT's own shadowy unnamed sources were whispering of May 1st iBooks several days before Apple actually scheduled the event. CNET is projecting a "slimmer version" of the iBook to make it truly portable instead of merely luggable, while little birds circling the AtAT headquarters are warbling questionable spring tunes about a single model, a single hue, and an optional CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drive. (Why birds in Boston should know anything about secret product strategies in Cupertino, we'll never know; if they turn out to be right, it'll be a mystery for the ages.)

Elsewhere on the product possibilities spectrum, several power-hungry Mac fans are holding out hope for more multiprocessor Power Macs (the logical progression of Apple's 733 MHz G4 surplus and the recent discontinuation of the single-processor 667 MHz model), and Go2Mac is even going so far as to say that new iMacs are on deck for a May 1st unveiling. To us, the former seems pretty likely-- and the latter seems like a long shot, to say the least; it's scarcely been two months since the last batch of new iMacs. Geez, give the poor folks in the lab a chance to catch their breaths.

Other likely announcements for next Tuesday include Apple's retail store plans (hopefully with a list of cities and opening dates so we can start arranging our travel plans), the immediate availability of QuickTime 5 (even though it's already available now), and the revelation that Apple has stationed ground troops twelve miles from Dell headquarters who are ready to invade immediately after the air strikes commence. Of course, we won't know for sure until Steve does his thang, but what's eight days between friends?

Well, it may not be the move that recaptures the Education crown, but it's a healthy step in the right direction: a sweet deal on a "special college bundle" designed to help you "take the dorms by storm." Therefore, if you're heading off to college in the fall, this may be the perfect time to score a new Mac so you can spend the summer "breaking it in" before you have to rely on it for crucial homework-related tasks. (Industry experts agree that new computer equipment operates at its peak after having logged a minimum of 300 hours of "burn-in," best performed by running resource-hungry applications for long periods of time. We recommend Deus Ex.)

Here's how it works: buy any Mac through Apple's education channel before July 8th, shell out an extra $199, and you'll get a bonus 128 MB of RAM, an Epson 777i color inkjet printer, a USB cable, and-- here's the sweet spot-- a "free" Rio 600 portable MP3 player. Seeing as the Rio is fully compatible with iTunes, you'll have a convenient and discreet method to take some music with you to class so you'll have something to listen to other than the professor's lecture. Once more, Apple proves that it does know its audience.

Granted, this isn't the most earth-shattering of deals; the individual components of the bundle probably wouldn't cost more than a hundred bucks more than the bundle itself if you bought them separately. However, since we still retain vivid college memories of trying to find enough loose change behind the bookshelf to score an 89-cent frozen burrito from the local grocery store, it's probably wise to keep that extra hundred simoleons in perspective. Better yet, despite the reference to dorms, it's not just the college-bound who can get in on this deal; it seems to apply to any individual education Mac purchase at all. That means you teachers out there can finally replace that ancient LCIII and score a Rio in the process; if you have to grade papers, you may as well groove while you're at it.