If there's any one psychologically self-destructive behavior that's endemic to Mac fanatics, we'd have to assume it's the process of building up one's hopes regarding a future product's release date, only to see those hopes get sledgehammered into smithereens again and again. Witness Wall Street. Witness Lombard. Witness the iBook and the new PowerBook (formerly known as P1 and Pismo). Then there's the mythical Apple-branded Palm device, now expected by July's Macworld Expo. And where clock speeds are concerned, boy howdy, we've sure gotten burned on that front; 500 MHz G4s didn't become available until almost six months after they were announced. But still we get our hopes up time and time again, always so sure that the Next Big Thing™ is right around the corner. Fun, isn't it?

So it's time to play again! Do you suffer from the heartbreak of Gigahertz Envy? Are you frustrated that the fastest, most expensive Mac you can buy today has a clock speed that's just half that of the speediest processors available from Intel and AMD? Well, stop worrying, because, as always, the Next Big Thing for Mac users is-- you guessed it-- right around the corner! According to a MacUser UK article, that G4e chip we've all been waiting for will hit production-level yields by "October or November." What's that mean for us Mac fans? Well, it means that we could see a Power Mac G4 running at 800 MHz by the end of this calendar year. And more importantly, since the G4e uses much less power than the current G4 (and might be "even cooler than the current G3"), we may well see a PowerBook G4 by then as well. So start trying to get on Santa's "nice" list. In fact, get ready to watch the Mac break through the 1 GHz barrier by this time next year-- a mere solar year behind the competition, as far as raw clock speed is concerned. Optimistically speaking.

And now that we've built up some hopes (!), it's time to smash apart some others. The same article claims that "it appears that May's Worldwide Developer Conference will not, as predicted, see the debut of any new hardware." Oh, well... It's certainly not like MacUser is the end-all be-all when it comes to setting Apple release dates. Feel free to cling to hopes that something as out-of-place as the fabled 17" iMac will still surface at, of all things, a developers' conference. We know we will.

There aren't many drawbacks to iMovie that we can see. It's reportedly very easy to use, great for consumer-level video editing, and free with the purchase of an iMac DV. In fact, there's only one big drawback that's immediately obvious: we can't actually use iMovie to find out if there are other drawbacks. Since it's only available bundled with the iMac DV, folks without one of those fanless wonders (such as ourselves) are rather out of luck. Oh, sure, we could opt for Apple's high-end professional video-editing package instead-- but who really wants to shell out a grand on Final Cut Pro just to string together a bunch of footage of the kids playing on the monkey bars? At that price, people whose editing needs lean toward the casual would almost be better off spending $300 more on a complete iMac DV in addition to their existing G4 or PowerBook.

So there's little doubt that a demand exists for iMovie, sans iMac. Don't believe us? Just check eBay. People who bought iMac DVs and don't own a digital camcorder are auctioning off their copies of iMovie to aspiring filmmakers everywhere. One such auction is up to $105. If Apple were to slap iMovie into a box, shrink-wrap it, and throw it onto the shelf at $99, a certain segment of the population would be tripping all over each other in the mad rush to buy it. C'mon, who doesn't want to be in pictures? If nothing else, "Hey, baby, I'm a director-- want a part in my next project?" is as decent a pickup line as many people are ever going to get.

Well, soon those of you with FireWire-enabled non-iMac Macs may well be able to indulge your inner DeMilles without breaking the bank. According to a Go2Mac "exclusive," an unbundled iMovie will soon be sold at least within the educational channel, and hopefully to the general public as well. (We look a bit askance at Go2Mac's claim of "exclusive" info, though, since it was a full two weeks ago that Mac The Knife talked about iMovie 2.0 shipping for $99 in the first week of April.) So warm up those camcorders; you've got nine months to qualify for next year's Oscars.

We're experiencing the most fascinating sense of déjà vu right about now. Everybody knows that in the computer industry, it's not uncommon for Apple to lead and everyone else to follow. But sometimes the way in which those others imitate Apple just defies explanation. iMac copycats we can totally understand-- it's a way to capitalize on a hot seller. It's just that when other companies seem to copy Apple's stumbles and missteps, we have to scratch our heads in wonder. C'mon, folks, not every Apple innovation is worth stealing.

The latest instance of this bizarre phenomenon involves those graphics software heavy-hitters at Adobe. Those of you in the graphics biz are probably aware that the company recently released version 1.5 of its supposed "Quark-killer" page layout software, InDesign. But the thing was, version 1.5 was the first update since the notoriously buggy 1.0. Everyone who bought 1.0 was expecting a free bug-fix update, but instead found that upgrading to 1.5 would cost them $99. As you can imagine, uproar ensued. Not long after, Adobe amended its upgrade policy, making version 1.5 free-- but only to those poor saps who had paid the full $699 for the original InDesign release. The vast majority of users had in fact paid only $299 in Adobe's introductory cross-grade offer, and thus were still subject to the $99 upgrade fee.

More mayhem ensued. Finally, according to MacWEEK, Adobe relented again. Now the cost of the upgrade is free to those who paid full price for InDesign 1.0, and $29.95 to all other users. That hasn't silenced all the grumbling, but it's probably as good as things are going to get. Now, what struck a chord with us was how similar this whole fiasco was to Apple's AppleShare IP 6.2 scandal in May of last year. Remember that? Apple initially charged $499 for the primarily-bug-fix upgrade, and when customers started screaming for blood, the company relented, and gave the software away for free. Granted, Adobe's move wasn't quite as cool or dramatic, but it sure seems familiar. Too bad Adobe hadn't learned from Apple's mistake-- the company could have avoided a lot of bad press.