If you're anything at all like us, you realize that there are two reasons to follow Mac-related rumors. The first is to try to gather early and accurate information about upcoming hardware and software, in a serious attempt to plan your personal and/or professional Mac-using roadmap and to gauge Apple's position in the industry and the industry's reaction to Apple's progress. The second is to indulge in rampant speculation about cool new stuff without worrying too much about whether or not what's being discussed will ever come to pass. It's almost a left brain/right brain kind of thing. Personally, most of the time we like our rumors spun heavily to the right-brain side of the bell curve. Could you tell?

And that's why we're so happy that there's a new Mac rumors site that is obviously taking great right-brain joy in dishing the latest Apple-flavored dirt. Again, we have nothing against "serious" rumormongering, as it definitely holds a very important place in the whole Mac experience, but Think Secret is a nice example of how much fun rumors can be. Take, for example, their latest "food for thought" piece on a possible new addition to the Mac lineup this summer: in addition to a newly-revamped iMac and the long-awaited consumer portable (now apparently called the iBook), Apple may be planning an even lower-cost, lower-end new Mac to woo the LC/IIci holdouts that haven't been enticed to replace their systems with an iMac. This "cMac" will be targeted squarely at the more than half of all Mac users that are using Macs that are at least four years old-- all those 68k boxes and Power Macs made before Apple adopted the PCI slot.

Extending the low-cost, low-end spirit of the iMac to new heights (or, rather, new depths), the cMac is rumored to use an iMac motherboard sans Ethernet housed in a "pod-like" translucent case. With a modem, CD-ROM drive, a couple of USB ports, a modest hard drive, and a monitor port to let existing Mac (or, for that matter, PC) users connect their own monitors to the built-in ATI Rage Pro graphics subsystem, the cMac is expected to sell at a $699 price point. It's an intriguing concept, even if it turns out to be completely false; we bet there are even plenty of small businesses out there that would leap at the chance to replace their aging 68k Macs with a cMac for such a low cost (although the lack of Ethernet would be a big problem, we'd imagine). Without a built-in display, there wouldn't be any complaints about being forced to use a 15-inch display; a 4 MB ATI chip will be great for the 17-inch screens on which many businesses have standardized. Plus, the idea of a little translucent blue towerish lump of a Mac appeals to us in a big way. Something new to think about...

Geez, you people... We love you with every inch of our Apple-watching hearts (awwwww...), but never let it be said that you let us slack off for even a minute. Not that we don't appreciate the occasional prod, mind you, because our natural propensity towards letting things slide doesn't exactly mesh with the rigors of producing a daily soap opera. Let's put it this way: we keep meaning to put a picture of us in the dictionary next to the word "procrastination," but we just never seem to get around to it. So cranking out AtAT day after day is an uphill battle all the way and we appreciate all the help we can get. In that spirit, many thanks to faithful viewer Dan who nudged us about Sonata, the next big upgrade to the Mac OS. Quoth he: "Isn't it time to start the rumors about 8.7? I mean, OS 8.6 has been out almost a week, and you haven't put up any "news" on 8.7!"

Truth be told, Dan, we're just a little bit burned out on the whole "operating system rumors" thing. Basically, we'd been hearing about Mac OS 8.6 for months and months, and then when it finally came out, we downloaded the 36 MB disk image, installed it, and noticed virtually no difference in our day-to-day operations, except 1) the startup screen now says "Mac OS 8.6" (oooh), 2) the new Monaco font looks much more computer-y (but at least now we can tell the difference between O's and 0's), and 3) trying to use our ATI XClaim TV tuner now crashes the machine hard. Sure, it was a free update, so we weren't expecting lots of cool new features or a magical transformation of our Mac-using experience, but after so much build-up the eventual act of using Mac OS 8.6 is terrifically anticlimactic. So really, is it our place to contribute to the early overhyping of Mac OS 8.7 that is destined to leave millions of Mac users somewhat underwhelmed and slightly let down after its release?

Aw, heck, why not? After all, many of Mac OS 8.7's features do in fact look pretty darn cool, and it's definitely a solid incremental step towards Mac OS X. Accelerate Your Mac! already has screenshots from an early developmental build, where you can check out visuals of lots of the nifty new features described in Mac OS Rumors' in-depth report. From our standpoint, multiple user login support, built-in encryption for files, full support of the new Carbon APIs, a next-generation version of Sherlock that does automatic price comparison e-shopping, etc. are all just gravy-- the really cool feature was demonstrated at WWDC. Three words: Voice print identification. With Mac OS 8.7, apparently you'll be able to log in to your account by speaking a pass phrase. As far as we're concerned, anything that makes you feel like James Bond is a big plus. Bring it on!

Way back in the mists of time, there was a great courtroom drama called "Redmond Justice." Some of you old-timers may remember it; it involved a software giant named Microsoft who may or may not have abused monopoly it may or may not have held, and its struggle against the government who alleged these anti-trust violations. It really was a fascinating show, with the government's lead attorney David Boies leading an all-star lineup as he tore Microsoft's defense into bite-sized shreds all while keeping his black Nikes clean. The show had many rabid fans, among whose ranks we numbered ourselves, but then it went on hiatus which kept dragging on and on, and the show seemingly vanished into the past. Bummer.

For those of you who still hold out hope that the show will eventually return to the airwaves, we hope you aren't still holding your collective breath waiting for May 24th, which was the most recent reported return date. According to a Sm@rt Reseller article, continued scheduling conflicts have ruled that date out altogether. Judge Jackson is still tied up with his drug case, and Boies is working on other projects as well-- and scheduling the remaining guest star witnesses for the rebuttals is apparently tricky, too. So now the trial probably won't resume until late June at the very earliest.

On the plus side, if the trial really resumes in June, you've got to allow for maybe a month for all the witnesses to testify-- that'll be a solid month of entertainment right there. And then Jackson wants another month off before closing arguments are made, which is dead air, but the season finale with the judge's ruling (provided a settlement hasn't been made by then) ought to come sometime this fall-- and by then it'll almost be time for the new TV season, so there'll be lots to hold our attention once "Redmond Justice" is all over. This might just work out well after all...