Get ready for some potential sparks to fly, because Webintosh is reporting that clonemaker POWERtools is ready to ship their new PPC 750-based X-Factor systems. (There's a POWERtools early press release here.)

"But AtAT," you ask, "I thought Apple announced it wouldn't certify any 750-based systems until the licensing issue was resolved?" Well, uh, yeah, they did. So did Apple certify these systems or not? According to POWERtools CEO Victor Wong, "[their] current Mac OS license does not prevent [them] from shipping these systems."

Way to dodge the question, Victor! He goes on to say that if POWERtools doesn't ship the X-Factor systems to fill the gap left by Apple's strained supply of 8600's and 9600's, then would-be customers would have no choice but to buy Wintel systems. So it's basically a humanitarian effort. Yup.

We can't wait to hear what Apple will have to say about this. You may recall that both Motorola and Power Computing expressed their intention to ship non-Apple-certified 750 machines, but neither actually went ahead and did it. In the meantime, rumors abound that Apple-branded 750-based Macs will be available within 90 days, just in time for Christmas (but not in time for the Christmas buying season). With luck, Apple can crank up the schedule a little and get some kick-ass PowerMacs out the door in time for Santa to load up his sleigh. And yes, Santa, the AtAT staff's been good this year. We'll take the 400MHz model.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple has narrowed its CEO search to four candidates, including guys from Sun and IBM.

Do we sound underwhelmed? Sorry. It's just that we don't know who any of these guys are. After a star like Steve Jobs in the role of CEO, how the network could consider casting relative unknowns is beyond us. It could make for a very dull season, and if one of them joins the cast soon, Apple may have a sleeper right during Winter Sweeps.

AtAT welcomes any juicy info on front-runners Samuel Palmisano, Ed Zander, David Dorfman, and Joe Costello submitted via our Feedback page. We'd love to be able to get a sense of personality from these guys before one of them becomes the new star. And a MacOS Rumors source claims that there's still hope for an outsider, so we haven't given up on the possibility of a cool dark-horse candidate. Hey, is Quentin Tarantino between projects right now? Now THAT would be interesting. If Samuel L. Jackson tells you to buy a Mac, you don't ask questions.

While it's currently not in an obvious place on their web site, Apple has issued a press release confirming recent joyous rumors that they would be showing new TV commercials during this Sunday's broadcast of Disney's Toy Story on ABC. Prior to this press release, AtAT was cautiously optimistic about a Sunday rollout, but rumors circulating earlier this week hinted that the commercials might not be finished in time for Sunday's broadcast.

This new campaign is the first fruit of Apple's realliance with TBWA Chiat-Day, who created the Clio-award-winning 1984 commercial that introduced the original Macintosh. The campaign's hook is the intriguing (if ungrammatical) phrase, "Think Different," which AtAT staff recalls from Jobs' keynote speech at last month's MacWorld Expo. There are supposed to be two 60-second spots during this Sunday's broadcast, which will focus on the Apple brand name and its core values.

We at AtAT are thrilled! All faithful AtAT viewers are strongly encouraged to change channels over to your local ABC affiliate this Sunday night to witness what we hope is the beginning of a new era in Apple marketing. (One in which they actually market something.) Tape The Simpsons and King of the Hill (or Men Behaving Badly and Jenny if your tastes lie in that direction).

By the way, does anyone out there think that the airing of the new Apple commercials during a Pixar movie is anything other than a pure coincidence? We didn't think so.