Geez, if Steve Jobs is really as psychotically opposed to product info leaks as the rumors make him out to be, something tells us that someone in charge at the Apple Store may not be long for this world. Remember back in December, when Final Cut Pro 3 suddenly turned up in Apple's online store before the company had actually formally announced the product? Okay, fine, you slip up once, you take your fifty lashes with the cat o' nine tails, you spend the next two weeks cleaning Steve's private jet with your tongue, and all is forgiven; after all, it's not like Steve would kill off Apple's entire e-commerce initiative just because of one teensy little premature product announcement, no matter how much he despises accidental leaks.

But what about two leaks, or even three? Well, we're about to find out, because as faithful viewer Echidna X points out, as of early this morning, both Cinema Tools 1.0 and DVD Studio Pro 1.5 were available for purchase at the Apple Store, yet neither product had yet been officially announced. Apparently this latest version of DVD Studio Pro adds a handful of new features such as automatic integration of Final Cut Pro chapter markers, which is undeniably nifty-- but the real reason why video professionals might sprain something in their mad rush to order the upgrade is because DVD Studio Pro is finally completely Mac OS X-native. Aw yeah.

Meanwhile, Cinema Tools is a Final Cut Pro add-on that "tracks the relationship between the original camera negative and video established in the telecine logs... so that a negative cutter can accurately recreate the edited video project on film." We're not exactly in the biz, here, but it sounds to us like Cinema Tools lets filmmakers shooting on actual film (instead of digital video) make digital edits in Final Cut Pro which then translate back to the original film negative-- plus there's support for 24P HD video. Think "Final Cut Pro Goes Even More Hollywood." Faithful viewer Mitcho makes the astute observation that this is clearly Apple's repackaged version of Filmlogic, a product that Apple bought from DigitalFilm Tree last year.

Now, at least at the time we started writing this, neither of those two products were showing up anywhere on Apple's site except in the Apple Store-- which led us to believe that whoever spent a fortnight last December licking the side of a plane while nursing a flogged back just hadn't been cured of his or her itchy posting finger. But the point is largely moot now, anyway, since faithful viewer Lawrence Person informs us that Apple has just scraped together a couple of press releases to announce those products that popped out of the gate a bit early.

So the question now is, were those press releases always scheduled to hit the wires today, and the Apple Store just jumped the gun by a few hours? Or did Apple frantically toss together a couple of press releases at the last second because the Apple Store let those two cats out of the bag this morning? And perhaps most importantly of all, where does Steve bury the whip-scarred bodies of his minions who commit a second leaking offense?

Lord knows that Apple can't go a week these days without running some sort of flat-panel display promotion, so thank heaven that a new one has finally arrived; we were starting to get a little antsy, what with the "Screen Saver" promo having ended on March 31st and nothing showing up to replace it. You may recall that "Screen Saver," which offered customers a $100, $300, or $500 rebate if they purchased any Power Mac G4 together with a flat-panel display, itself replaced the "Crystal Clear Savings" promo-- which surfaced in late October and was extended in mid-December. Yup, Apple's had rebates on LCD displays running for over five straight months, so when "Screen Saver" ended and nothing rushed in to fill the void for nearly a whole week, well, we got a little nervous.

But we're right as rain, now, folks, because faithful viewer Oded Helman filled us in on "Big Deal," Apple's latest installment in what has become an enduring tradition of offering cash back six to eight weeks after customers shell out beaucoup buckage for an LCD display. Effective immediately, people who buy a Power Mac together with a "large flat-panel display" qualify for cash back-- either $200 for a 17-inch Studio Display, or $300 for the big mama 22-inch Cinema Display. Note that Apple said "large," and not "gi-normous," because if you opt for the 23-inch behemoth known as the Apple Cinema HD Display, you won't qualify for squat. Well, other than the undying envy of your peers, of course, but envy doesn't pay the rent, unless you've got a really interesting landlord.

It's probably also worth noting that "Big Deal" is actually a smaller deal than "Screen Saver," which offered $100 more on a 17-incher and $200 more on the Cinema Display; apparently Apple wasn't kidding when it said that flat-panel component prices are on the rise. Also, if you're wondering why this promo doesn't cover the 15-incher, well, think about that for a moment. What hitherto hard-to-find but immensely popular Apple product also happens to use a 15-inch LCD display with a 1024x768 resolution? Hint: it's not the iPod. And the last thing Apple needs to do right now is increase the demand for its limited supply of 15-inch screens.

So there you have it, kids: the latest example of Apple-flavored Rebatey Goodness. If you can take advantage of this offer, we strongly recommend that you do so-- not only because an extra couple hundred bucks means you can buy more AtAT merchandise, but also because it's a real kick to get a check in the mail with the Apple logo on it. You can pretend you're blackmailing them or something. Seriously, it's fun.

Let's kick off the weekend with a sentiment of gratefulness and the feel-good story of the year, shall we? Without further ado, we hereby present Reason Number 714 why you should be happy that you own a Mac: so far, there have been zero reported incidents of frustrated Mac owners grabbing heavy blunt instruments and smashing the living bejeezus out of their misbehaving systems right in the middle of an Apple retail store. (Hey, sometimes it's the little things that count.) The equivalent stats for Wintel ownership, perhaps not surprisingly, aren't quite as encouraging.

Faithful viewer Markintosh kindly tipped us off to an article in the Appleton Post-Crescent about a Midwestern Wintel user who got pushed to the brink and beyond. It seems that Gary Wilke bought his daughter a $2600 Gateway system which has never once worked properly in its entire existence; apparently Gary was never informed that, at Gateway, the quality goes out before the cow spots go on. In a futile attempt to get his daughter's gift to acknowledge its sound card, burn CDs, or even just boot up once in a while, he's taken it back to the store for service "five times" and even sat through a "four-hour home visit from a computer technician," all to no avail.

When the system still failed to boot after its fifth trip home from the store last Friday, Gary brought it back in one last time-- accompanied by "what witnesses described as a 'large sledgehammer.'" Reportedly Gary calmly deposited the computer in the foyer of the Gateway Country from whence it came, told the staff that he'd "take care of it," grabbed the hammer from his car, and sent that Wintel to the Big Splintery Scrap-Heap in the Sky. He then said "have a good day" and drove back home-- where he was later arrested for disorderly conduct and then hauled off to jail.

He's out on bail, now, and awaiting trial. Since disorderly conduct is a misdemeanor, no one got hurt, and the judge will most likely be somewhat sympathetic to his plight (particularly if he or she is member of the 95% of the computer-using population who understands exactly what drove him to such a desperate state), we're guessing that Gary faces at most a modest fine. But think about this the next time your Mac misbehaves a little; if it were a Wintel, it might prompt an act of public violence that would soon have you cooling your heels in the clink. And that brings us to Reason Number 715 why you should be happy that you own a Mac: less jail time.