Mac OS 8.5 is coming, and by all accounts, it's going to be cool. From improved performance to interface enhancements to the new Sherlock search utility, odds are, if you've got a Power Mac, you're going to want it. And when it comes out next month, iMac owners are going to find that they're entitled to a little price break, or maybe even a free copy-- so says Computer Retail Week.

According to CRW, sources report that Apple will offer Mac OS 8.5 at a discount to iMac buyers. With all the buzz from "beta testers" labeling this next Mac OS release as a "must-have," you can bet that Apple's going to charge as much as it thinks it can get. Our guess is it'll cost the same as the current price of the boxed Mac OS, $99, with a $30 rebate for early iMac owners; people who purchased iMacs within thirty days of Mac OS 8.5's release will probably have a "Mac OS Up-to-Date" kind of thing available, where they can fax in a copy of their dated sales receipts to receive free copies via mail-- or almost free, what with the $10 shipping and handling and all. If you ask us (of course, who ever does?), if Apple does follow this kind of pricing scheme, they'll be punishing the very people they should be rewarding most-- the people who ran right out and bought an iMac as soon as they were available. We'd love to see Mac OS 8.5 be free (or nearly free) to all iMac owners, not just the ones who waited to buy. But that would mean millions of dollars lost, so we're not holding our collective breath.

On a side note, we're still bummed to hear that, once again, the funky "Hi-Tech" and "Gizmo" themes have been delayed, and are no longer planned as part of the 8.5 release. Sure, giving the Mac OS a purely visual (and auditory) facelift isn't much of a technical improvement, but the ability to choose between a few really cool looks could definitely have given Mac OS 8.5 a lot more appeal to the iMac crowd.

Is it a prelude to still more antitrust litigation? Several Mac users have noticed that CNN's website has jettisoned all of its QuickTime content in favor of video clips in Microsoft's Media Player format. As of yet, there's no way for Mac users to access that content, whereas the previous QuickTime clips were cross-platform. (Cross-platform RealVideo files are apparently still available.) Reality alleges that Microsoft bribed CNN to switch over by paying them a quarter of a million dollars and donating "tens of thousands of dollars' worth" of hardware and software. ($250K? Everyone has a price, and apparently CNN's isn't very high...)

Outrageous! How dare CNN accept money from Microsoft in exchange for pushing Microsoft's products? What if everyone behaved that way? What if, say, our own beloved Apple accepted $150 million plus an unspecified amount of "behind the scenes" cash in exchange for making Internet Explorer and Outlook Express the default web browser and mail application on the Mac? Er... Never mind.

In a public letter at MacNN, CNN's webmasters claim that they're all Mac fans who bleed six colors, and that the decision to choose Microsoft's (currently Windows-only) Media Player format over the cross-platform QuickTime was based entirely on the fact that QuickTime is currently not capable of streaming. CNN claims that once QuickTime gains the streaming capabilities that have been publicly demonstrated but not released, they'll re-evaluate the situation-- though they caution that it'll take "years" for Apple to catch up to Microsoft and RealNetworks in this arena. So I guess we'll wait and see.

On the whole "Redmond Justice" front, we've got some good news and some bad news. The good news is, Judge Jackson didn't give in to Microsoft's cajoling and cancel the whole show. The bad news is, he did delay its season premiere by three weeks-- but legal experts seem to think that the short delay may only hurt Microsoft instead of helping them. A TechWeb article has all the details of this latest development.

The Department of Justice, one of the show's big stars, is "pleased" with the decision not to cancel the show, and "looks forward" to the big season premiere, which, after this latest delay, is now slotted for October 15th. Microsoft, on the other hand, has been trying to wriggle out of its "Redmond Justice" contract for months now, and in delaying the trial may only have hurt its chances for a decent outcome in the big showdown. From a courtroom perspective, Microsoft has now been granted extra time to prepare its defense, and therefore they are less likely to be able to argue successfully that newer evidence should be suppressed. The DoJ, on the other hand, now has three more weeks to go over its script-- and build its mounting evidence.

Are we disappointed in the late premiere of the show? Well, sort of; we're flashing back to last year's X-Files premiere, which didn't air until late October, if we recall correctly. Look on the bright side; now you don't have to spend hours agonizing over which to watch on September 23rd. The big trial was originally slotted for the same day as the season premiere of "the Drew Carey Show," but the recent rescheduling means you can tune in to Drew without regret, and revel in the glory of the iMac that now graces Mimi Bobeck's desk. Given all the new shows that are premiering in the next couple of weeks, it'll actually be kind of nice to spread things out a bit and keep "Redmond Justice" for dessert.