Apparently the "Golden Ticket" iMac promotion is more than just a mere rumor. Several AtAT viewers wrote in to confirm that Steve Jobs' plan to put five personally-signed golden tickets into five random iMac boxes did in fact appear in Newsweek magazine, a few sources who claimed to have "inside information" about the idea vouched (however anonymously and shadily) for its veracity, and a CNET article has also appeared discussing the "high-profile marketing scheme." For those of you who missed yesterday's episode and are wondering just what the heck we're talking about, the buzz is that the lucky recipients of those golden tickets will each win free computers and a special tour of the Apple factory, à la Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.

The CNET article has a few more details about the Wonkaesque plan. First of all, Apple is departing slightly from the "free chocolate for life" prize in the book; instead of receiving free computers each year for life, each golden ticket holder will win a free Mac of his or her choice for the next five years. Not quite as cool, but hey, we sure wouldn't turn it down. Also, the odds of winning are pretty darn slim, as those five golden tickets will be distributed one per continent. But if Apple does go ahead with this plan, it seems likely that they'll have a solid attention-getter on their hands that could generate millions of dollars' worth of publicity for the cost of twenty-five Macs over the next five years. Smart.

As a public service message to our more impulsive viewers, we'd like to state that the Golden Ticket promotion is not a reason to buy more iMacs than you originally planned. We don't particularly feel like doing the math, but the prospect of winning five free Macs isn't enough to justify such drastic measures: five top-of-the-line Macs is worth, say, $30,000, and the cost of entry is $1299, which is just a tad more expensive than most lottery tickets. Since your chance of winning is something like 1 in 300,000, buying an extra iMac in hopes of winning the prize isn't exactly a worthwhile investment. Of course, buying an extra iMac because they kick ass is always a perfectly valid action, and hey, how can you put a price tag on a tour of the Apple Factory presumably to be given by Steve Jobs himself? Especially if he dresses up like Willy Wonka.

As expected, Apple just released new "speed-bumped" Power Mac G3's, and several major resellers have updated their price lists and expect to have at least some inventory to sell by the end of the week. The announced configurations include systems using Motorola's new lower-power 300, 333, and 366 MHz G3 processors. MacCentral has more details, including configurations and prices.

Apparently, reports that Apple had dedicated 100% of its manufacturing resources to building iMacs weren't entirely accurate, though we certainly don't doubt that some individual plants are completely iMac shops right now. Luckily, Apple wasn't blind to the fact that its higher-end customers still count for something too, and the supply of existing Power Mac G3's had just about completely dried up. That explains the sudden appearance of these new Power Macs, announced with little fanfare so as not to detract from the iMac frenzy gripping the nation. If the supply of Power Macs hadn't run dry, odds are these new systems would have appeared at next month's Seybold instead, amid a significant amount of hoopla.

Not that we're complaining, of course; we consider it a wonderful thing that you can now buy a 300 MHz G3 desktop system with 64 MB of RAM, a 6 GB hard drive, a 24x CD-ROM, and an internal Zip drive all for under $1900. Those of you who need a pretty hefty system but are constrained by your purse strings, that might just be the system to pounce on.

My oh my, the "Redmond Justice" case is gearing up to be a real circus; if you thought things have been entertaining so far, you may be in for a real treat over the next month or so. On Tuesday, Judge Jackson ruled that the deposition of Bill Gates and other high-ranking Microsoft executives was to be open to the public, citing a provision of the Sherman Antitrust Act known as the Publicity in Taking Evidence Act. A day later, he rejected Microsoft's request for a stay of that ruling, and Microsoft has now filed an appeal with a higher court. InfoWorld Electric has more details.

The big question about this whole "open to the public" thing is, will the ensuing fireworks postpone the trial, which is currently set for September 8th? And the other thing we're wondering is, why is Microsoft so bent on both limiting the length of Gates' deposition and shielding it from the public eye? We'd have thought that they'd love the free publicity. After all, look how much they've milked this whole thing so far. Then again, every time they contest a decision, it puts them back in the headlines, so we guess it's not that hard to figure out after all.

If "Redmond Justice" were a real TV show, this would be a great setup for sweeps week, wouldn't it? Now all we need is for Bill Gates to break down in tears on the witness stand and confess that he can't sleep at night because the memories of past sins torment him so. That, of course, would be followed closely by the stunning revelation that he and Scott McNealy are actually long-separated half-brothers...