Even if you're new to the Mac community, it's unlikely that you somehow missed all the hoopla a couple of years ago when everybody and their grandmothers were predicting that Apple was on its last legs. One sign of the times was that any news about Apple-- any news at all-- would always be reported in the worst possible light once the media got a hold of it. For instance, at the beginning of the turnaround when Apple posted its first real profitable quarter in a couple of years, we were seeing all this stuff along the lines of "Rotten Apple Shows Meager Profit; Still Unable to Postpone Inevitable Demise." Heck, it was during those times that AtAT was born, as a reaction to all the melodramatic hand-wringing and psychic angst. These days, though, we're feeling like more and more of an anachronism: not only is Apple doing better, but it seems that sometimes the formerly Mac-hostile press is now exaggerating how well Apple's performing.

Take, for example, the recent Computer Retail Week article about Apple's growth in the retail sales channel: the first line begins, "Retail sales of Apple Computer systems increased 176 percent ... in January, according to the latest channel survey by Inselect ASW Marketing Services." To us that implies that the 176% boost was an increase from the previous month, when in fact CRW is talking about sales growth since January of last year. Not that 176% growth in a year is anything to sneeze at-- it's fantastic news that Apple sold nearly three times as many computers in 1/99 than in 1/98. But the wording of the article seems to have confused some people, as we're seeing some sites refer to the article and claim that Apple had almost tripled its sales from December. Some folks seem to have forgotten that the iMac (which is obviously driving these increased sales numbers) actually dropped in relative sales ranking in January, according to PC Data, so a tripling since December wouldn't be possible unless the whole market practically exploded.

Don't get us wrong; we'd much rather have the press on our side than blasting Apple's every move. Heck, we're not even sure if what we see is "spin" or just coincidence. It's just that we're still a little skittish about this whole media attitude turnaround. We're also just a teensy bit worried that following Apple's latest accomplishment-- demonstrable year-over-year growth, just as they said they'd manage-- somehow some catastrophe will bring it all down around their ears. In the meantime, though, we're going to try to enjoy the fact that Apple "posted the largest sales increase on a year-over-year basis" among all computer manufacturers. Can the good news just keep on coming?

Quick, name the most popular pastime in the Mac community! If you said "Wintel Bashing," that's actually ranked number two-- plus, we tend to think of it more as a full-fledged sport than just a pastime. No, the number one hobby among Mac fanatics is actually rumormongering about upcoming hardware. As far as after-hours activities go, it's got it all-- the thrill of the hunt, the exhilaration of the high-speed chase, the heady "fat bits" examination of supposedly stolen marketing graphics to see if there's any telltale Photoshop evidence, etc. There's just nothing more fun than speculating about that next killer product that will put you even further in debt.

Case in point: everybody seems to have a theory on the next iMac. We've heard all kinds of stuff from various sources (covering a wide spectrum of believability). For instance, we've heard from what we consider to be pretty reliable sources that iMacs will gain the super-screaming Rage 128 graphics chip very soon. Other likely enhancements are a faster processor (say, 300+ MHz) and maybe an 8GB hard drive. We also have to consider it likely that Apple will throw in at least a single FireWire port in addition to USB, given their plans for Global FireWire Domination; that would allow consumers to hook up their digital camcorders and edit their video right on their iMacs, presumably with Apple's own Final Cut Pro software due out next month or so. And at some point we figure DVD will make an appearance in the iMac, seeing as that's another "cool" consumer technology.

To us, those all sound like reasonable improvements to expect, and Apple wouldn't necessarily have to raise the iMac's price very much to incorporate all these nifty new features over time. Interestingly, NoBeige received info from an anonymous reader who concurs with most of the feature set mentioned above-- and yet the rumor itself just sounds fake. Perhaps it's because it claims that the new iMac is code-named "Eight Ball" and is all black with a blue LED power button. Is it as nutty as the recent rumors about color-changing iMacs? Or sparkly iMacs? Probably not, but personally, we just don't see the translucent-white-and-single-color design going away anytime soon.

Woe is the watchword of the day for armchair fans of antitrust litigation. It's bad enough that we're all going through the agony of withdrawal while representatives of Microsoft and the Department of Justice cool their jets on some beach somewhere during the "Redmond Justice" hiatus. To make things worse, our appetites are whetted by the imminent premiere of a promising spin-off, "Monopoly Inside," which was to detail the courtroom battle between Intel and the Federal Trade Commission, when suddenly the plug got pulled the day before the first episode was to air.

Yes, according to an Associated Press article, the show was pulled at the last minute because-- get this-- Intel actually settled with the FTC. Good lord, what were they thinking? Don't they realize that the maximum entertainment potential can only be realized by fighting the charges tooth and nail, having your CEO evade even the most direct of questions by claiming ignorance of the meanings of basic English words, hiring a pack of lawyers whose courtroom demeanor irritates the judge to a degree roughly equivalent of that caused by dragging ragged fingernails across a dusty blackboard, faking lots of video evidence but not doing it well enough to escape detection, and calling witnesses that contradict your own legal stance while they're on the stand? It's like they just haven't been paying any attention at all.

There's still a glimmer of hope, however; details of the settlement haven't yet been made public, but it's being widely reported that, while the tentative agreement is a "win-win" situation, the FTC will continue to investigate further antitrust activity on Intel's part that was not covered by the narrow scope of the current case. A "much broader inquiry" into Intel's activities may well spawn a big ol' trial in the future. Meanwhile, what are the odds that Bill Gates is reading about this whole Intel settlement, smacking himself in the forehead, and saying "I wish I'd thought of that"? Suppose he's sacking his legal team right now and trying to hire away Intel's lawyers?