We apologize; it's been a while since we've had any really sleazy soap-operatic stuff show up on AtAT. To be honest, Apple just hasn't really been playing very dirty lately-- they seem to be doing just fine by building compelling products and keeping them on the shelves the best they can. That doesn't mean, of course, that the faintest whisper of possible slimy activity on Apple's part doesn't send us scurrying like roaches for the pot roast. Take, for example, the rumors of dirty play that surfaced in Robert X. Cringely's most recent column, forwarded to us by ever-watchful faithful AtAT viewer Peachawat.

If the dirt that Cringely's dishing is correct, then Apple's playing less than fair with its longtime buddy Adobe. Adobe, as you may be aware, is busy putting the finishing touches on K2, its next-generation page layout software that is being positioned as a big-league competitor to the biggest name in the game-- Quark XPress. And where better to take the wraps off of K2 than at Seybold, the biggest trade show in the publishing business? In fact, K2 is such big news that its unveiling clinched the keynote slot for Adobe's chief exec John Warnock. Unfortunately, it seems that Steve Jobs isn't satisfied with keynoting every Macworld Expo under the sun, plus a handful of smaller and/or lesser-known gigs like today's CAUSE98 education conference-- he reportedly has his sights locked squarely on the Seybold slot, too.

So Apple's reportedly been trying to bump Warnock from the program by calling successively more powerful bigwigs in the Seybold pecking order. Unfortunately for Steve, no one's biting-- Warnock retained the keynote position no matter how many higher-ups Apple called. This is where things get seriously Dynasty: according to Cringely, at this point, Apple even told Seybold officials that John Warnock was "fine" with having his keynote bumped to Day 2, so that Steve could claim the top spot. Unfortunately, the Seyboldites weren't taken in quite that easily-- they checked with Warnock, who knew nothing about any such arrangement with Apple. D'oh! Nice try, though. Perhaps they could slip Warnock a mickey on the night before the big event, and Steve could swoop in and save the day while John is snoozing the Sleep of the Just back at the hotel? Just a thought.

In other keynote news, Jobs took his favorite position under the spotlight today as he addressed the crowd at CAUSE98, a conference dedicated to the use of information technology in higher education. And while it certainly wasn't an explicitly Mac-themed show, there was still quite a bit of juicy information to be extracted from Steve's little talk. Read more about it in MacWEEK.

Probably most importantly, Steve confirmed that QuickTime 4.0 will indeed be introduced next month at Macworld Expo, complete with its streaming media capabilities. That's the good news. Unfortunately, as we have long suspected, the fabled consumer portable system (code-named "P1") will not debut during the show, although it will ship sometime in the first half of 1999. Considering the near-100% likelihood that Apple will unveil its new Yosemite line of professional desktop systems, it's not surprising that the P1 will be downplayed. And you can draw your own wireless-net conclusions from Steve's discussion about how portables need to be connected all the time. As for the rumors that Hypercard has been axed, Jobs referred to the notion as the excrement of a male bovine mammal, or something to that effect.

So there was no earth-shattering news, but what concrete info that did come "straight from the horse's mouth" was quite positive-- and it was certainly more that we were expecting from an education keynote. Beyond that, we always like to hear Steve talk about education, since it's obviously a subject near and dear to his heart. Apple is still widely perceived as the educational computer company, and with Jobs at the helm, perhaps they can soon make up whatever ground they've lost in the last few years.

Words, words, words-- it's hard to believe that the outcome of a trial as entertaining as "Redmond Justice" could depend so heavily on semantic debates. One of the central arguments in the case is, of course, whether Internet Explorer is a web browser application, or actually just an additional function in the Windows operating system. (As far as we're concerned, the very fact that Microsoft has a product called "Internet Explorer for Macintosh" pretty much answers the question, but that's apparently just us.) Isn't it interesting, though, how in recent months, Microsoft has apparently stopped calling Internet Explorer a "web browser" and now refers to it as "browsing technology?" Really! At least, that's what a USA Today article states.

But it may be too little, too late on Microsoft's part: in the deposition of Microsoft employee Hadi Partovi, he reportedly calls IE an "application," and the government is making quite a bit over that remark. Microsoft, on the other hand, is downplaying the deposition, claiming that Partovi wasn't talking about IE and "used the term 'application process,' which doesn't mean application." Okay, whatever-- but if it all comes down to niggling about definitions, and it seems that's where all this is going, then maybe we should check a dictionary. Like, say, Microsoft's own dictionary-- the 1997 Computer Dictionary.

Well, whaddaya know? According to an Industry Standard article, in Microsoft's dictionary "Internet Explorer" is defined as a "web browser." And guess what a "web browser" is defined as? An application. Furthermore, the definition for "operating system" doesn't mention anything about typically including any kind of web browsing technology. Draw your own conclusions, folks, but no matter whose side you end up on, you've got to admit-- Microsoft having to defend itself against definitions provided in its own product is pretty funny.