Well, there's the end of that little fracas... No sooner does the Mac community work itself into a seething, frothing, foaming-at-the-mouth state of righteous indignation at Apple's misdeeds when suddenly Apple has to go and spoil everything by doing the right thing. We must say, we're mighty disappointed-- a one-day scandal? That's hardly enough drama worth getting up for in the morning.

We speak, of course, of iToolsgate, the promising new scandal that lurched its way upon the scene a scant two days ago when an eagle-eyed iTools subscriber showed a remarkably high tolerance for legalese and actually read the iTools Member Agreement. (Somebody call Ripley.) What he found was a clause that granted Apple "a worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sublicensable (though multiple tiers) right" to appropriate anything an iTools member might post in a "public site." Shades of Yahoo! It was all open to interpretation, of course, but it appeared that anything publicly available on one's iDisk is, in fact, fair game for Apple to use, sell, and exploit forever and ever. (It's the "perpetual, irrevocable" and "sublicensable through multiple tiers" bits that really give us the heebie-jeebies.)

But doggone it, only one day after the outcry, Apple's gone and quietly reworded the agreement to make it less... well, less "reaming" is the best word we can think of. According to MacCentral, Apple's corrected several problems. For one thing, that vague "public site" wording has been dropped, and the affected content is now described as "content on areas of iTools accessible by the public." By using iTools, you're still giving Apple a "worldwide, royalty-free" license to use the material, but at least the company can only use it "solely for the purpose of displaying, distributing and promoting the area on which such content is posted." So they can't turn around and sell your pet photos to Cat Fancy Magazine, for instance. Plus, now they can only use your content until "removal of such content from the public area or when you are no longer an iTools member." Bye-bye "irrevocable."

We admit it; we're a little steamed at Apple for putting things right (or, at least, more right) so quickly. C'mon, at least after the Great G4 Speed Dump of 1999 it took the company a good solid week of missteps and waffling before reinstating just about all of those unceremoniously cancelled orders. Ah, what a week that was... scandal, finger-pointing, threats to leave the Mac platform-- the stuff that dreams are made of. But we suppose we'll just be strong, bid iToolsgate a bittersweet adieu, and look forward to future scandals instead. So long, iToolsgate; we barely knew ye. Rest in peace in that great scandal sheet in the sky.

So let's say you're a formerly-beleaguered computer company trying to increase your installed base and market share past a critical mass in order to attract more developers to your platform. Now let's say that a third-party venture wants to purchase a million of your computers and give them away to rabid consumers looking for a free ride-- a figure which represents perhaps half of the total sales numbers for that particular wildly-successful model. You say you'd welcome that prospect with open arms, and do whatever it took to ensure that the plan succeeded? Bzzzzt, thanks for playing, but it's clear you're not Apple material. The correct answer is this: you'd tell said third-party venture to go play in traffic. But we have some lovely parting gifts for you...

It's true, FreeMac.com is no more. The company that wanted to give away a million iMacs starting last September has renamed itself "NadaPC.com," according to CNET, and will give away a million "Internet access terminals" instead. Why the switch? Well, Jonathan Strum, the man behind FreeMac, went to Apple and tried to get his company authorized as an official Apple "reseller," but that didn't wash. (Maybe it had something to do with the fact that selling an iMac for $0 is substantially under MAP.) As a result, FreeMac couldn't qualify to buy iMacs at wholesale prices from Apple's distributors.

Next, Strum offered to ensure (somehow) that the iMacs he gave away would only be distributed to new computer users and PC owners, thus expanding Apple's market share. No go. And when a desperate Strum offered to buy the million iMacs at full retail price, Apple still refused, further noting that Apple resellers are only allowed to sell to end-users-- meaning FreeMac isn't even allowed to buy iMacs at, say, CompUSA and give them away. (Hmmm, will our dealer get harassed by Apple if word gets out that we bought an iMac there and gave it to a family member?)

And so, FreeMac is dead. We think we may have come up with a way to get around Strum's roadblocks, though. Since FreeMac customers had to accept a First USA credit card as part of the deal, why not arrange delivery of the iMac from a mail order reseller like MacConnection, have the end-user's credit card charged for the iMac purchase price to comply with Apple's regulations, and then pay First USA and have them issue a credit to the customer's account? Ta-da-- the customer gets a free iMac (and a nice credit rating boost, to boot), FreeMac gets to buy the iMac and give it away, and as far as Apple's concerned, it's just one more iMac sold via retail. So Apple sells a million iMacs via MacConnection to end users at full retail price, a million customers get free iMacs, FreeMac gets its distribution problems hammered out, and First USA puts a million credit cards in the hands of "qualified" consumers. Everybody's happy. See? All it takes is a little ingenuity. Now, did you really want a free iMac from a guy who couldn't even come up with a simple plan like that?

As for just what Apple's problem was with the whole FreeMac concept, we can't say. We imagine it had to do with worries of weakening the brand-- having Apple's product, name, and logo associated with a startup that could very likely crash and burn. Remember how Steve went ballistic when he found out a third-party company was making Apple logo watches? And then there's the factor of the public eventually thinking of the iMac as a "cheap" system-- not good for sales of the iMac DV Special Edition, for instance. Still, passing on an opportunity to put a million more iMacs in the homes of qualified consumers... well, we've just got to wonder.

The clock is ticking... Go2Mac reports that the official, Palm-branded Palm IIIc is now entered in the Best Buy computer system. It sports 8 MB of RAM, the long-awaited color screen, and a $450 price tag. Oh, and an availability date of February 20th.

Now, we're certainly not ones to put a whole lot of stock into product ship dates entered into the systems of stores like Best Buy or CompUSA-- or even the Apple Store, for that matter, whose ship dates always seem way off to us. Still, if we're to take that February 20th ship date as gospel, then Apple's got a mere two weeks or so in which to release the first color Palm device, as rumored. Is this shaking our resolve that the Apple-branded Palm is real? Nope, not a bit. But we're a bit skeptical that it'll surface within the next fortnight, maybe just because we've been waiting for so long already.

Then again, think about what big event falls squarely within that time frame. Yup, Macworld Expo Tokyo kicks off on February 16th. We know, we know, Apple's never unveiled a major product at an overseas Expo in the past-- but an Apple-branded Palm wouldn't fit into the "magic square" of product lines, and the Japanese market would be especially interested in an Apple-branded handheld computing device. Who knows? The more optimistic among you may want to start praying for an Apple-Palm introduction in the Land of the Rising Sun. Hey, anything's possible. But don't ask us for odds.