See, people frequently tell us here at AtAT that we are too paranoid, that there aren't any conspiracies in Cupertino, and that we should really switch to decaf. To those people, we collectively state the following: the AtAT team has been caffeine-free for a long time now, ever since Microsoft covertly bribed their fellow Washingtonian monopolizer Starbucks to spike the U.S. supply of caffeinated blends with blandness-inducing drugs. (Just another factor in the story of Windows dominance.) And if there are no conspiracies hatched inside Apple's walls, how do you explain the "Light-Up Mouse" coverup?

That's right, we speak of the revisionist stance Apple has taken towards the iMac's translucent mouse, which, early on, appeared to light up when used. Apple has since denied that this feature ever existed, claiming that tales of the mouse's luminosity are an "urban legend" brought on by spotlights hitting the translucent mouse in a certain way during the unveiling last May. Well, AtAT wasn't there, so we can't say for sure, but the QuickTime movie over at iMac2Day sure makes things crystal clear. Taken from a CD-ROM distributed to dealers, the movie is a snippet of footage originally shown at WWDC, and clearly shows the iMac's mouse lighting up like a tremendously gaudy Christmas tree ornament. If you step through the footage frame by frame, you should be convinced that the light is coming from inside the mouse and not fron a spotlight or a light-up surface; as the mouse moves, its shadow doesn't change the way it would if the light were external. (We're filing this evidence away with our digitally-enhanced footage of the Zapruder film.)

So there you have it; proof positive of the conspiracy of the day. Apple ditched a cool feature for an unknown (but possibly very good) reason, and is now covering up the fact. All of this leaves the door wide open for a third-party manufacturer (Kensington?) to create a USB mouse that matches the iMac's unique style and coloring, and includes a small light inside that draws power from the USB bus. Personally, we'd like to see it stay unlit while remaining motionless, and then slowly light up as motion increases, and slowly fade back down when it stops again. You'd get a sort of pulsing, glowing, living effect, which would be incredibly cool. And heck, while we're at it, throw in an extra button (or two or three) that can be mapped to control-clicks, custom menus, etc. We'd certainly buy one-- but only if it didn't disrupt the icy-blue design integrity of the iMac itself. (Hey, if anyone steals this idea, at least have the decency to send some free ones to the AtAT office, okay?)

The upswing continues slowly but surely; Apple's sales appear to be increasing, and its market share is reportedly still creeping upward. So sayeth Computer Retail Week, who indicates that Apple's "radical realignment of its consumer strategy last November" is paying off. Funny, we thought that Apple's consumer strategy last November consisted of "wait until next fall." But what CRW is talking about is how Apple told all its national retailers to take a hike after inking a deal with CompUSA for exclusive rights to the Apple line in exchange for "stores within stores" all across the country.

Here's some numbers: Mitch Mandich, Apple's sales bigwig, still claims that CompUSA now sees 15% of its total computer sales from Apple models, as opposed to 3% before. PC Data claims that Mac retail sales were up 26% this past April, compared to in April 1997. That may be tempered by the fact that its May sales were only up 2.5% over the previous year, but at least it's still an increase; in fact, PC Data claims that most PC manufacturers experienced decreases in May, and therefore "Apple actually gained market share." Apple's slice of the retail sales pie reportedly rose to 9% in May, after sitting at 8% for the better part of a year.

Crazy stuff. Now let's see what happens when Apple's real consumer strategy kicks in next month, and the iMac hits store shelves. Can't you just smell the excitement?

Problems continue as expected with Microsoft's Windows 98 upgrade. Several big PC manufacturers are now advising customers to hold off on upgrading from Windows 95 until fixes can be created and released. PC Week Online has more details on the warnings that have been posted on the companies' web sites.

For instance, Toshiba has told owners of laptop computers that are "advanced configuration power interface enabled" not to upgrade to Windows 98, though PC Week doesn't state what consequences users would face by attempting the upgrade. (Laptop Flambé, á la PowerBook 5300?) Owners of those specific Toshiba models are supposed to wait until the company completes patches for the system BIOS and new drivers. Dell has posted similar warnings to users of its Latitude corporate laptop systems; as-yet-unavailable patches and new drivers are required before Windows 98 is usable, and they've already posted modem driver and video patches to alleviate problems on other systems. And Compaq has posted an "extensive list" of possible problems that users of its systems may encounter upon upgrading.

Oy vey... Wanna know when the real end will come for the Macintosh platform? It'll be when Apple tells its customers that owners of revision C iMac3's must download and apply update 1.75 of the Columbus2 BIOS and set jumpers 2 and 4 on the ATA controller board before upgrading to Mac OS X.61. If that's the future, we're happy sticking around here in 1998, thank you very much. Fight the future. ;-)