It appears that the latest in Apple's long history of availability debacles may be coming to an end. Getting one's hands on a PowerBook G3 Series system with a 14.1" screen has proven to be more difficult than finding a CompUSA without a stocking ladder blocking access to the Mac section. According to MacWEEK, though, the bleeding edge customers who are lined up with their six grand in hand may finally receive their systems shortly-- one Apple dealer in California reports that their first shipment arrived on Wednesday.

Of course, it should be noted that the dealer in question, Elite Computers & Software, is in Cupertino, Apple's back yard. We wouldn't be surprised if Apple just sent a guy down the block to drop off a few when they first came in. Expect it to take an extra couple of days for what few 14.1" PowerBooks remain to travel out further from Apple headquarters. (Elite says they expect more units "by the end of the month," which we interpret to mean "whenever that nice Apple guy brings a few more across the street for us.")

We at AtAT (unsurprisingly) have not yet seen one of the new PowerBooks with the 14.1" screens, but we have spent several hours with some 13.3" models. To be honest, we're not sure how much difference an extra eight-tenths of an inch could possibly make; both systems run at 1024x768 resolution, so users wouldn't gain any screen real-estate from using the larger version, and the 13.3" screen already seemed almost obscenely large for a portable. We're betting that most of the people who wanted the top-of-the-line system were more concerned about getting the superfast 292 MHz G3 processor than they were about having a slightly larger screen. Apple recently came to the same conclusion and reportedly started offering a 13.3"/292 configuration, but not early enough to prevent a swelling of hostility in the ranks. Hopefully, with the trickle of high-end PowerBooks now reaching distributors, Apple can put this craziness behind them and get back to building iMacs; an availability crisis of the cute blue and white lumps come August would be catastrophic.

Gee, everyone's been fuming so much about the "PowerBook availability" problem and the "iMac Non-Expandability" problem that the recent "G3-Only Mac OS X" issue seems to have taken a back seat. Luckily, Reality hasn't let the subject drop, and offers evidence that, yes, Apple's current plans are to support Mac OS X only on "Power Macintosh G3" systems. Even systems as recent as the 9600-- even with a G3 upgrade card-- will not be officially supported. Consternation! Uproar!

Now, before you get your knickers in a twist, it's not quite as bad as it sounds. In order to save money, Apple is planning only to certify Mac OS X for use with Power Macintosh G3 hardware. Mac OS X will, in all likelihood, still run on any system that would have run Rhapsody, but Apple isn't planning to spend the time and money proving that officially. (Sounds sort of similar to how Apple is no longer marketing its newer systems as "processor-upgradeable," even if the chip is in a ZIF socket-- it's a legal thing, and a resources thing.) Personally, we bet that Apple will broaden the list of supported hardware before the operating system ships-- it is a year and a half away, after all. We'll see if the new PowerBooks and the iMac provide a decent influx of cash.

Don't forget, even if Apple doesn't change its mind about this, if your system can't run Mac OS X (or you don't want to run an "unsupported" operating system on your machine), there will still be Allegro and Sonata. All Mac OS X applications that are written with the Carbon API's will run just fine on those versions of the Mac OS; you won't, however, be able to take advantage of any of Mac OS X's modern features. As for us, we at AtAT are more than willing to take a chance by running Mac OS X on our PowerTower Pro, which by then will almost certainly have a G3 upgrade installed-- though we admit, this whole thing gives us yet another reason for buying a new Mac... Guess we'll wait and see how those G3 Pro machines turn out this November.

When it comes to coming up with flashy marketing moves, why not copy the masters? Other than the fact that the masters often come up with inane and annoying ideas, we mean. Ever since the "Toasted Bunny" commercial first aired and showed a fireman extinguishing a smouldering Intel dancing clean-room guy, Apple's had representatives at trade shows and other events dressed up as firemen. Thanks to MacNN, we found these photos from today's Adobe Digital Imaging and Publishing Seminars which show the phenomenon in all its glory.

Now, while the fireman suits are admittedly not even one-tenth as annoying as Intel's dancing bunnymen showing up at trade shows amid colored lights and thumping disco, we've still got to wonder slightly about this strategy. Yes, it reminds people of a good commercial (which is important, given how rarely it was broadcasted), and it's cute, but we're a little concerned that it will wear thin in a great hurry. We're probably just worrying over nothing, but we hope Apple doesn't run this whole fireman thing into the ground.

On the plus side, at least the fireman suits don't hide the faces or voices of the people wearing them. That's one of the things we find most annoying about the whole bunnymen thing; it reminds us of the giant-head mute anthropomorphic animals that come up to you at Six Flags or at Chuck E. Cheese's. Yeah, there's nothing more entertaining than some poor minimum-wage shmoe in a rented rat suit miming at you...