There's only just over a week to go before Steve Jobs' big keynote and the expected unveiling of the iMac for those on the go-- the P1 consumer portable. And as the finish line draws ever closer, the sheer volume of "leaked" information about Apple's Next Big Thing™ is enough to choke most larger land mammals. It seems like just about everybody's got their own set of "definitive" P1 specifications that came straight from those in the know behind Apple's Silicon Curtain; unfortunately, as you've probably noticed, most of these descriptions contradict each other in small (and not-so-small) ways. To make things even more fun, there's the rumor that Apple's engaging in deliberate misinformation leaks to muddy the waters by casting doubt on any "real" info that might spill out. And it's worked-- given all the variations of P1 info out there, is there any one set that you feel you can believe completely?

That doesn't mean we don't think it's worthwhile to read up on all these different descriptions. It's the differences that make them exciting; nobody's really concerning themselves about what kind of processor the P1 will use, because everybody seems to list the same 300-333 MHz G3 in their specs. What's fun is looking at the fringe features-- the doubtful stuff-- and trying to determine whether it's real or some of the infamous disinformation being concocted in Apple's War on Leaks. Take MacObserver's P1 description: would Apple really make the P1, a computer designed to be toted by young schoolchildren, heavier than the current PowerBook G3? Especially given that the P1 is expected to have a smaller screen and fewer features; what's making it heavier, a special lead-filled handle? We've got to wonder. And there's that whole wireless networking thing popping up again, only this time it's wireless LANs for classroom use, not wireless Internet access. Real, or fake info that Apple thinks will propagate to distract attention from the real juice? You'll have to decide for yourself (at least until next week).

At this point, we'd like to announce that AtAT has its own official P1 spec list, which arrived via snail mail, with a Cupertino postmark. It's labeled as the "official final P1 feature list from a high-level Apple executive (who definitely isn't Steve Jobs trying to yank your chain)," and we'd have to be overly cynical and paranoid not to trust that, right? So we can confidently state that the P1 will officially be marketed under the name "iFake" (we're not crazy about that fact, nor do we understand it, but whatever), it's four inches thick at its widest point, it'll ship in one configuration using all five fruit flavors at once, and-- in a move that will surely shock the industry-- it (and all future Macs) will have dual floppy drives, in an attempt to outdo Future Power's improvement on the iMac. When the iFake first becomes available, the first ten thousand buyers will get their choice of promotional giveaways: either a bridge in the New York area, or some prime real estate in Florida. You heard it here first, folks. Now get ready to buy!

While these days few people are nuts enough to claim that the iMac isn't a smash success, back when it was first announced (and continuing all the way through its first couple of months on the shelves) there was no shortage of naysayers predicting a spectacular flop. There were many reasons bandied about for the iMac's inevitable failure: the lack of a floppy drive, the inability to add functionality with PCI cards, the incompatibility with literally every Mac peripheral then on the market, etc. But probably the biggest disadvantage in many people's eyes was the iMac's price; would consumers really pass up sub-$1000 cheapo PCs for the privilege of shelling out $1299 for a prettier computer?

History says "yes," of course, but it was a valid concern. And as PC prices tumble ever lower, the iMac has had to evolve to remain competitive. The processor speed and graphics systems keep getting faster, and the price has dropped a hundred bucks since the first systems shipped. Given that sales are still brisk, apparently Apple isn't being hurt too much by those sub-$1000 Windows boxes. But now that Wintel prices are dropping even lower, you've got to wonder just how Apple's going to fight back. How cheap can they price an iMac without sacrificing quality? In the not-too-distant future, we expect Apple's going to have to offer the iMac at $999 at the very most. Finding ways to lower the production cost of the unit is, therefore, pretty crucial. Outsourcing production turned out to be a great step, but it's not going to be enough.

So, according to a CNET article, Apple's trying to cram as much functionality onto a single chip as possible. This is a page taken from the Wintel playbook; manufacturers playing in that super-competitive market where price is (quite literally) everything have been trying to move the whole computer-- networking, graphics, memory controllers, etc.-- onto a single chunk of silicon to reduce manufacturing costs and keep things simple. iMac on a chip? You betcha, according to "sources close to Apple." Come some time next year, iMacs will be powered by a single central chip, allowing Apple to keep costs down and margins high. Can Apple sidestep the various incompatibilities and bugs that have plagued other manufacturers taking this approach? We'll tell you next year-- assuming Apple ever really ships a single-chip iMac.

You can throw more evidence on the pile that Steve Jobs isn't down on handhelds in general; sure, he nixed the Newton, but that was a Sculley project and therefore had to be destroyed. Since then Steve's admitted publicly that he tried to buy Palm from 3Com, which might have been very cool-- but 3Com wasn't selling. Instead, we've all heard again and again that Apple is now working with Palm on some kind of cobranded handheld. It might be something as dull as a standard Palm device with a fruit-flavored case and an Apple logo on it (and even that would be welcomed!), but it also might be something much, much nicer, integrating the best features of the now-defunct (but still Apple-owned) Newton technology while maintaining complete compatibility with the vast stores of Palm software.

Whatever it is, we're looking forward to it, and the irrepressible skeptic inside us is somewhat appeased by the new rumor at O'Grady's PowerPage that Steve "very recently" tried to buy Handspring, the new company created by the folks who started Palm and left after the 3Com buyout. We don't know exactly what Handspring does, since at broadcast time, their web site consisted of nothing more than the phrase "the event log file is full," but we assume the rumored buyout attempt was one more move on Steve's part to get Apple back into the handheld computer market that it pretty much created with the Newton MessagePad in 1993 or so.

We're still hearing lots of buzz that, in addition to the P1 unveiling that everyone's expecting at Jobs' keynote address, there may also be a surprise Palm-related announcement. As far as we're concerned, when it comes to Jobsian keynotes, anything is possible and nothing should be ruled out. We're trying not to get our hopes up too high, though it's tough to stop dreaming of leaving the Expo with a brand-new Apple PDA...