Looks like the rumors were right again, folks; as we're sure you must be aware by now (and as faithful viewer frozen tundra first informed us), Apple did indeed take the wraps off of revised Power Macs on Wednesday morning... and the specs are as relatively blah as expected. According to Apple's press release, the new models sync up perfectly to the dual 2.0, dual 2.3, and dual 2.7 GHz G5s that Amazon let slip a day early, with half a gig of RAM and 16x dual-layer SuperDrives across the board. Strangely enough, while Amazon had allowed preorders of all three configurations before Apple announced them, they'd removed the preorder buttons and labeled them as "not yet available" during the official launch-- and have now restored the "preorder" status despite the fact that the products have now been released. Plus, as of broadcast time, the new systems don't even show up when browsing Amazon's Mac section; you have to link directly into them to see them at all. Go figure.

But we're not here to discuss wacky Amazonian web hijinks, entertaining though they may be; we're here to wax less-than-overwhelmed about Apple's new pro desktop lineup. Remember, other than the addition of a cheaper, low-end model in October, the G5s haven't been updated since last June-- and people were pretty lukewarm about those updates, too, largely because the top-of-the-line model fell 17 percent short of the 3.0 GHz Steve had promised a year earlier-- a goal which Apple still hasn't met. So we're a little concerned that these "new" Power Macs lack any sort of killer feature that might finally get people to drop a wad of cash for one; unless you're in our boat and your Power Mac G4 is practically dismantling itself before your eyes in an attempt to end its miserable workhorse existence, marginally faster processors, bigger disks, and faster SuperDrives probably aren't going to have people falling all over themselves in a mad dash to buy-- especially since pricing for the new configs hasn't wavered at all, remaining rock-steady at $1,999, $2,499, and $2,999.

"But AtAT," you ask, "does this mean that I have to shell out a minimum of $1,999 to buy a current Power Mac?" Fret not, little cheapskates, for Apple has quietly retained that single-processor 1.8 GHz model it introduced to goose sales last fall, and while the good news is that it only costs $1,499, the bad news is that it still costs $1,499. Apple didn't drop the price on that system either, and neither did it even throw us a bone in the form of a modest processor boost, a bigger disk, a faster SuperDrive, or even some extra RAM; that puppy still ships with a measly 256 MB, which is absolutely licking the floor for Mac OS X and therefore barely tolerable in an iBook, let alone in Apple's "professional dream machine." Still, it all means that you can still pick up a G5-powered aluminum cheese grater for just under fifteen hundred clams. In that price range, though, an iMac G5 sure sounds like a better buy.

But there was at least one mild surprise, which came in the form of another press release informing us that while Power Mac prices haven't budged, Cinema Displays are now cheaper than ever. The 20-inch model, which cost $1,299 just yesterday, is now only $799; the 23-inch HD version has dropped from $1,999 to $1,499. (If you want the 30-inch "Godzilla Screen," though, sorry, Charlie-- that's still $2,999.) So while you won't save much on a Power Mac itself, you just might be able to save five hundred smackers on a screen for it. That's something, right? Right?

[CORRECTION: faithful viewer cillit bang points out that we forgot that Cinema Displays had already dropped in price earlier this year, so the new pricing only represents a $200-$300 reduction. Still, it's nothing to sneeze at.]

Meanwhile, how can we possibly disappear while crazy stuff like another biography tussle is unfolding? New Power Macs (at least these new Power Macs) might be a relative snoozefest for Apple drama-fiends, but no one's going to care as long as Steve Jobs is butting heads with yet another book publisher. Longtime viewers will recall that we've incorporated this general plot twist into the story before; about five years ago, Uncle Steve got his undies in a bunch over the imminent publication of The Second Coming of Steve Jobs by Alan Deutschman, and indeed Steve had actually called the book a "hatchet job" before it had even been written. Evidently omniscience is not without its benefits.

So, remember all those "mysterious obstacles" that suddenly sprang up just prior to that book's release? First it came to light that, while the publishers had paid Corbis to license the photo of Steve Jobs it had used on the book's cover, Corbis had never paid the original photographer, who was claiming that his work was being used without his permission. For a while it looked like the book might even be delayed while Random House printed up a million new dust jackets and a slew of redone marketing materials. And as if that weren't bad enough, Vanity Fair magazine, which had paid up front to print some of the book's juicier excerpts in one of its upcoming issues, suddenly bailed on the whole plan, citing a "lack of space." Right about at that time, author Alan Deutschman was quoted thusly: "It really looks to me as if Steve Jobs is trying to cause problems for this book."

So was it Steve behind the problems that plagued Second Coming? Had he RDFed the photographer into claiming that he'd never licensed that photo for sale? Did he blackmail a higher-up at Vanity Fair and persuade him to use Second Coming's space for a couple of ads for Captain Morgan Spiced Rum? Oh, sure, you may have thought it far-fetched at the time-- but it starts looking a whole lot more likely when you consider how far Steve has already gone to derail the success of another bio: Young & Simon's iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business, available for preorder. (At least, available for preorder right now; with Steve on the warpath, who knows how long that'll last?)

For example, faithful viewer Jason Romney tipped us off to a Reuters article which reports that, because Steve "did not like" the book and didn't want it published at all, Apple has pulled every other book by the same publisher from the shelves at every Apple retail store. That's right, folks: Steve's dislike for iCon has reportedly resulted in a complete and total lack of John Wiley & Sons books at Apple's retail outlets, so if you drop by to purchase a copy of Tiger Friday night, you'll have to look elsewhere for The Mac OS X Tiger Book by Andy Ihnatko or Bob LeVitus's Mac OS X Tiger for Dummies.

Since whether or not iCon is a hatchet job (and Young claims that, if anything, it's a Jobs-positive sequel to his previous negative Steve bio, Steve Jobs: The Journey Is the Reward) has no bearing whatsoever on the merit of other Wiley-published Mac books, banning the publisher's entire catalog from Apple's stores starts looking pretty megalomaniacal indeed. But hey, look on the bright side: at least Young's already got some juicy material for the next installment in his ongoing "Life o' Steve" series... and a whole lot of free publicity making the public wonder just what it is that Steve doesn't want them to find out. Must be that preposterous chapter about how he sometimes lets his personal ego dictate his business decisions...

Well, the results are in, and according to MacMinute, Apple just improved its ranking by a couple of notches on this year's WIRED 40 list, the magazine's "annual list of the 40 companies leading in technology and innovation." Moreover, Apple clawed its way from third place all the way up and into the Numero Uno spot-- which means that now we've got to make all those obligatory congratulations, comment on how this was a well-deserved ranking and a long time coming, onerously observe that each and every employee at Apple contributed to this prestigious honor, etc. etc. etc. And frankly, we're kinda bummed about all that.

See, there's a lot more drama when Apple gets shafted by these things. Of course Apple was one of the most influential and innovative tech companies last year, so when the company is actually recognized as such, about all we can do is pad the plot with congratulatory filler. It's far more interesting when Apple gets snubbed, because then we can rant until foamy about international media conspiracies dedicated to the continual undermining of Steve and his minions. We couldn't even really complain last year when Apple only ranked third, since that was the first time that WIRED had included Apple on the list at all, so third place was way too much of an improvement to be interpreted as much of an injustice. This year, why couldn't Apple have slipped into fifth? Or even eleventh? Maybe even just behind, say, RealNetworks and Dell so we could have a really good fume about the whole thing?

At least the conspiracy theorists have something to freak out about, which is that, for the second year in a row, WIRED apparently only included Apple because of its music business, with nary a mention of Macs: "the computermaker turned consumer electronics powerhouse has made a virtue of proprietary control, consistently delivering quality and flair. The company sold 8.2 million iPods in 2004, and iTunes accounted for 70 percent of legal music downloads, leading to exceptional revenue and profit in Q4." Moreover, WIRED wonders, "with such a foothold in music, can an assault on TV be far behind?" Well, maybe, folks, but we have our own sneaking suspicion that the company might instead make some-- and call us crazy, here-- really great personal computers first. Eh, whatever. Maybe Tiger will get a mention next year.

Truth be told, though, it's sort of hard to get really worked up about the omission of the Mac from WIRED's little blurb, since that sort of thing's been par for the course for the past couple of years. So instead we think we'll complain boisterously about Apple's ranking: only first place?! Why, clearly Apple should have taken at least the 0th spot-- and probably more like -5th or -6th! Curse you, WIRED, for sullying Apple's reputation for innovation by putting the company on the positive side of the number line!