It could be the end of an era-- or the end of an error, more likely. Ever since their introduction last May, high-end PowerBook G3's have been harder to find than a Mac at OfficeMax. As of last week, several customers who had placed orders for the zippy new laptops were still waiting for the goods, and the Great PowerBook Drought of 1998 may go down in history as one of Apple's biggest availability botches ever.

Last week, however, during his Seybold keynote, Steve Jobs introduced new speed-bumped PowerBook configurations which standardize on 14.1" screens with multiple resolution capability, add faster video and 3D support, and include speedier G3 processors complete with backside cache. And lo and behold, according to O'Grady's PowerPage, these replacement G3's are apparently available. Now. Seriously! At least, their source at MacConnection claims that their availability of the 233 and 266 MHz units is "excellent," with the 300 MHz machines due to arrive any day now. (Yes, we've heard that routine before, but for some reason we actually believe it this time.) MacConnection, at least, expects to receive enough 300 MHz PowerBooks to fill all of their backorders for the original 292 MHz configuration, and still have enough left over to sell to new customers.

That, of course, assumes that the people who have been waiting for four months to receive their merchandise will be willing to switch their orders to the new 300 MHz model. (Not that it seems particularly unlikely; anyone who hasn't cancelled their order by now is a paragon of patience, anyway.) To try to sweeten the deal, Apple has reportedly decided to include a free floppy drive module in every order that gets switched up. We're not sure how much of an inducement that really is, though, considering that the 292 MHz PowerBook included a floppy drive in the first place. Still, the real difference between the latest PowerBooks and the last ones is pretty straightforward: if you order one of the new ones, you might actually get to use it within a week or so.

By all accounts, less than a month out of the gate, the iMac is a big success. Apple's selling a ton of them (several tons, if you want to Think Literal), primarily to existing Mac owners who wanted to upgrade their older units, but a significant number seem to be going to first-time computer buyers and PC users fed up with all that DLL and Registry nonsense. One place the iMac was not expected to shine, however, was in the corporate arena.

That's why it's kind of cool to hear that some businesses are indeed very interested in the iMac as a low-cost general-use office computer. Mac the Knife, for instance, mentions that a "sizeable Pacific Rim company" has ordered some 3000 iMacs for corporate use. That's a whole lotta iMacs, and they're obviously destined for the desktops of more than just the graphic design department. (Not that the iMac is particularly well-suited for graphic design, but you get the point.) According to the Knife, this is exactly the kind of reason that is pushing Apple to release a "pumped-up" iMac targeted directly at business users next year.

A "pumped-up" iMac for business? It seems to us that the iMac is already considerably more powerful than it needs to be for the vast majority of basic office computing tasks. It's got a fast processor, a crystal-clear screen with plenty of VRAM for office use, and a cubicle-friendly design that takes up very little space. Then again, given that most corporate computing makes use of the software behemoth known as Microsoft Office, upon further reflection, we can see the point. Who ever thought that a 233 MHz G3-based system with 32 MB of RAM might someday be considered sub-optimal for writing memos and tallying up expense reports? (Ah, for the days long past, when I wrote my essays and tracked my expenses on a 128 KB Apple //e using AppleWorks...) So here's our suggestion for the bMac: lose the modem, pop in a 266 or 300 MHz G3, bump the RAM to 64 MB minimum, and include at least one configuration that ships with a USB floppy drive. Heck, the only time we ever use floppies anymore is when we're handed one by someone who couldn't figure out how to get his PC onto the local network... Strip out the consumer software and pop in VirtualPC. At least one configuration should ship with Office. And by the way, Apple-- release it sooner, rather than later. Mid-1999? Puh-lease.

Who says the armed forces can't think differently? According to NoBeige, the U.S. Navy has decided to use iMacs for its new Navy Connection Service, which sounds basically like a Kinkos type of rent-a-computer-for-an-hour sort of deal. In particular, people will be renting time on the iMacs specifically for Internet access.

So has the Navy decided to go cybercafé? Well, sort of, but the apparent goal of this enterprise is to allow people without home computers or Internet access the ability to send email to family members in the Navy who are out at sea; most naval vessels are "wired" with email capability. The iMac really is a no-brainer for that sort of application: small footprint, easy to use, unthreatening enough not to scare off non-computer-users, low maintenance, all that good stuff. So now we have the iMac as the Internet communications bridge between members of the Navy and their families. What could be more wholesome?

Unless, of course, the real reason behind the Navy's use of iMacs is something a tad more unsavory... You are all, of course, aware of Microsoft's ongoing initiative to secretly catalog the browsing habits and Internet commerce transactions of the entire Internet-using population? Why else, after all, would they be trying to crowd Netscape entirely out of the market by giving away Internet Explorer for free? The iMac comes preconfigured with IE as the default web browser-- and Outlook Express as the default email client. We can see it now; deep in a secret underground bunker in the Seattle area, scores of Microsoft agents are poring over all correspondence sent via the Navy Connection Service, looking for chinks in the government's armor, should push come to shove over this whole "Redmond Justice" thing. Mark our words, someday it's going to be war... and Microsoft plans to be prepared. (Insert dramatic music here.)