What's all this, then? Following yesterday's reports that Steve Jobs had turned down the Apple CEO spot in a conference call to analysts, Apple's Katie Cotton hastened to tell MacWEEK that, in fact, Jobs said no such thing-- instead, he was simply reaffirming his current position as "interim CEO," she says, and that he is therefore still a candidate for the job. She contends that the rumors of Jobs' refusal are simply grapevine fodder.

Well, we'll leave it to you to decide. The San Francisco Chronicle obtained an actual audiotape of the telephone conversation. Jobs' exact words were, "At this time, I am not one of the candidates and I expect to be back at Pixar by the end of this year."

It sounds like a pretty clear refusal to us, but there's certainly a little room for interpretation. After all, Steve definitely isn't one of the publicized candidates that Apple's been considering, but that doesn't mean he won't take the job. The qualifier "at this time" means that Apple could announce that he's a candidate tomorrow. And saying that he "expects" to be back at Pixar by 1998 is not the same as saying that he will return to them, regardless of what's up at Apple. Depending on how many straws at which you're willing to grasp, you may agree with Katie Cotton.

Us? We think that even if he had flat-out said that he would never take the job and that he was packing his bags for Pixar on New Year's Eve come hell or high water, that decision still wouldn't be final. Things change too quickly in the world of Apple-- two months is a long time.

Meanwhile, tantalizing hints are cropping up everywhere about the magic date of November 10th. It would appear that the press conference scheduled for that date will not be just another product unveiling.

Take, for example, MacOS Rumors' oblique statement about whether or not Steve Jobs will become Apple's permanent CEO: "Our own Apple sources continue to suggest that there are extenuating circumstances which will make this whole situation rather beside the point-- all part of the Nov. 10th press conference, which should make even bigger waves than once expected..." This is supposedly tied to the upcoming Apple Executive Board meeting, which many have speculated will include the proposal of a Steve Jobs/Larry Ellison plan to merge Apple and Oracle.

As if that weren't enough, Apple Recon has a self-described Cryptic Notice: "...either you know or you don't: What is a 'Date To Remember or Mark Up?' If you know the date and can shed light on what it all portends..." Cryptic, indeed. Mac the Knife also had some references to an upcoming shakeup on November 10th, but there's no trace of any hints there now.

So is it an Apple/Oracle merger? Or something even more mysterious and sinister?

Hold onto your hats: IBM is expected to announce a 1.1 GHz PowerPC processor at next February's International Solid-State Circuits Conference, according to a Techweb article.

Yes, 1.1 GHz. As in, 1100 MHz. In case the tech specs mean anything to you, this new chip is said to use a million transistors and a wiring design rule of 0.15 microns-- 60% smaller than the current Intel Pentium II chips. (That's good.) And this new chip is supposed to be 64-bit, like Intel/HP's Merced, which continues to loom threateningly on the horizon.

Now all we need a is a 64-bit version of Rhapsody to run on it. Rock on!