Welp, the other shoe has finally dropped in the Jobs vs. Greco chest-thumping contest over the location of Macworld Expo next summer, although said shoe technically has three more weeks of freefall before it actually hits terra firma. For those of you who might need a refresher on this whole sordid story, it all started last October when IDG top dog Charlie Greco concluded months of negotiations with city officials by formally announcing that, in 2004, the summer Macworld Expo would leave New York City to return to its roots in Boston. Despite having known about the prospective move for months and allegedly never voicing any objection whatsoever, Apple torpedoed IDG's press conference by quietly issuing a statement that same day to the effect that if the show did indeed move back to Boston, Apple wouldn't bother showing up-- which, even if it was a reasonable stance to take, was a pretty obnoxious way to take it.

And thus began the fascinating Alpha Male duel known to Marlin Perkins fans as the "Waving of the Genitals." In response to Apple's aggressive ultimatum, Greco slyly issued his own: come to the Boston show, or we won't let you attend the San Francisco one. The only problem, of course, is that if that threat were any more toothless, it'd be gumming Cream of Wheat and attending casting calls for Fixodent commercials. Eventually the threat was rescinded, IDG announced that Apple was "welcome" to attend the San Francisco show, and both sides "agreed to hold ongoing discussions" about whether or not Apple would show up in Boston. Meaning, of course, that Greco punked out-- which wasn't surprising, given the circumstances.

The next big development happened in February, while the AtAT staff was on sabbatical Scotchgarding the rainforests; quoting the Boston Herald, MacNN reported that Greco had left IDG (hmmm, yeah, "left") and that his departure might "complicate" the Expo's move to Boston-- although Greco himself reportedly said that he "expects to see [Apple] set up a booth alongside hundreds of companies that sell products for its machines." Well, good news, Charlie; they probably will! Just, um, not in Boston. As noted by faithful viewer David Poves, the Boston Herald now reports that the move back to Beantown "may not happen after all," since Greco's successor David Korse insists that there's no signed contract or "binding commitments" with Boston and now says that "it could make more sense to keep the show in New York."

So apparently Shawn King of Your Mac Life was correct when he predicted that a Grecoless IDG would stick with New York and leave Boston in the lurch. Personally, given the bizarre circumstances of Apple's original out-of-the-blue anti-Boston press statement, we'd been betting that this whole thing was all a face-saving excuse for Apple to extricate itself from the cost and logistics burden of summer Expos altogether, regardless of where they might be held-- but let's assume for a moment that Apple does want to attend, provided the show stays in NYC. Korse insists that he's "launched an in-depth study on the merits of New York vs. Boston" to decide the show's fate; geez, how in-depth does this study need to be? Our own comprehensive research and statistical modelling indicates that only six to eight people would attend a Boston Macworld Expo sans Apple, and only two vendors would actually bother to exhibit: the Boston Mac Users Group, and the guy who wrote Ventiloo.

IDG's official stance is that it will "make a final decision by Labor Day," but the Herald reports that the show's organizers have already "canceled reservations for a major block of rooms at the Seaport Hotel during the event next year"-- which pretty strongly implies that the decision's been made, and IDG will devote the three weeks until September 1st to spin, spin, spin. That's sort of a shame, because we were really looking forward to seeing the inside of Boston's new convention center next year, especially without any actual people or booths in it. ("It's just so clean!") Given that IDG is local to Boston and the Expo move is really important to the city, we can't wait to hear how it phrases its decision to bail. And given the dearth of any really solid drama in the news lately, we're anxious to see exactly how quickly IDG headquarters gets burned to the ground by locals crying treason...

The reports are flooding in from all over, people, and the consensus is clear: new PowerBooks are just around the corner! Of course, if you've been paying attention, they've been "just around the corner" since last January; no one ever bothered to mention just how far away that particular corner is. Apparently it's a corner in Zagreb-- unless, of course, you're in Zagreb, in which case it's actually in Cleveland. But wherever this corner is, there are new PowerBooks waiting just around it, and we'll be there any minute. Probably.

For the past week, AtAT has been serenaded by Sources Who Claim To Know™ who insist that aluminum feature-parity 15-inch PowerBooks (as well as speed-bumped 12- and 17-inch PowerBooks) are slated for a long-overdue launch on or around August 15th, which is a week from this Friday. Now, our memories certainly aren't what they used to be (at least, as far as we can remember), but we don't recall Apple being particularly fond of introducing new hardware on a Friday, so we're leaning a little more towards MacBidouille's claim of a launch the following Monday or Tuesday instead. And after months and months of having your hopes dashed against the rocks, why should you believe the rumors this time, you ask? Simple: if Apple waits much longer to update its PowerBook line, it'll have to endure costly litigation with various preservation groups trying to get the current models declared historical monuments. The cost of the carbon-dating alone is said to be a real wallet-lightener.

Interestingly enough, MacBidouille expects another long-awaited product line to make its debut alongside the new PowerBooks; if its sources are correct, revamped displays are in the cards as well, sporting new casings to bring then in line with Apple's new design mandate that all professional products are to be made of aluminum and punched full of holes. There's no word on whether these alleged new displays will feature bigger screens, higher resolutions, lower prices, or built-in Ionic Breeze air purifiers, but all of that is relatively inconsequential when compared to the fact that these retooled aluminum displays will once again allow Power Macs and displays to match. Metal and plastic? Stripes and polka dots? Next thing you know, iBooks and iMacs will still be wearing white after Labor Day.

Speaking of iMacs, wouldja believe that MacBidouille also lists the possibility of a "little update" to those, as well? Don't bet the farm on it, especially since all of this is rumor and the bit about the iMacs in particular is branded "maybe but who knows." And as long as we're playing "maybe but who knows," can we toss our own unfounded prediction into the pile? Personally, we like playing the long odds for the big payoff, so we're going to predict an updated perforated-aluminum Apple Joystick. Sure, it's kind of a long shot, but if we're right, you will all bow before us and worship us as the gods we are. Maybe. But who knows?

Wuh-oh, we accidentally left our psychic accessways unlocked and now we're about to channel an on-topic alternate universe instance of eighties pop band Bow Wow Wow! Wait for it... Wait for it... Hrrrnnngh... HRRRNNNNNNGH!!! "IIIIIIII want Pan-ther (bum ba-bum ba-bum ba bum-bum), IIIIIIII want Pan-ther (bum ba-bum ba-bum ba bum-bum)." Yeah, okay, we're finished now. Listen, don't talk to us about the kind of day you've had unless you've had a manifestation of a parallel-reality Annabella Lwin jumping around inside your cranium, okay?

And apparently, she wants Panther, and who can blame her? After early rumors had pegged its release sometime in the September timeframe, Steve Jobs had to bum everyone out at WWDC by getting us all hot and bothered about the upgrade's cool new features and then committing to no firmer a ship date than "before the end of this year." And sure, September is, indeed, "before the end of this year," but in the software development business, "before the end of this year" traditionally means December 31st at three seconds to midnight. Or, more often, February. So we weren't exactly holding our breath.

But a month ago, new rumors surfaced claiming that Panther might ship "much more quickly" than the end-of-the-year deadline implied; we remained skeptical, of course, because our hearts have been broken too many times in the past (snif), but in the four short weeks since that report showed up, developer seeds of Panther have indeed shown almost insane degrees of progress. AppleInsider has details on the latest, known by the catchy moniker "7B28," which reportedly boasts lots of performance improvements but "little to no visual or feature alterations" since 7B21, leading AI to surmise that "the development process is starting to wind down."

And here's the kicker quote: "Panther was originally slated for a September release, and from the looks of the latest builds, should hit that target." Yowza! Sure, it's still not quite as far along as we'd expect it to be if Panther were going to ship in a month (the included version of QuickTime isn't even at beta status, yet), but we have to admit, it's waaaaay closer to done than a December-shipping product has any right to be. Then there are the second-hand reports floating through the AtAT compound of Apple system software engineers being chained to their desks for days at a time while hooked up to elaborate intravenous nutrient and caffeine delivery apparatus-- why the crunch-time effort if they've got until December to deliver the goods?

We admit it, we're really starting to come around to the idea that Apple fully intends to ship this puppy come Apple Expo Paris on September 16th, which would rock on so many levels we can't even begin to tell you. Forget about "man bites dog"; "operating system ships three months before deadline" is real news, and the press will just eat it up. And it's a can't-lose gambit, too, because even if Panther isn't quite ready in time for the Expo, thanks to Steve's "end of this year" announcement it'll be no harm, no foul. Of course, that won't stop us from sticking our heads in the oven with bitter, albeit unwarranted, disappointment. (Don't worry, it's an electric.)