Not long after Steve Jobs' spirited (and probably somewhat misdirected) targeting of Dell Computer as the enemy to beat, a Mac-lover in Dell Online's midst reported to MacCentral about a Dell "All-Hands" meeting which assessed the online stores of Dell's competition, including the Apple Store. There are a couple of noteworthy points in the undercover agent's report.

Despite some boos from the Dell-faithful, the display of the Apple Store onscreen prompted one manager to say, "You shouldn't boo them, because, after all, they are really legitimizing the way we do business." And while the Dell employees wanted to criticize Apple's online ordering system, they apparently thought it was "kind of neat," especially the way that the toll-free phone number was contained in the URL (though one guy reportedly scoffed that it didn't "conform to the 8.3 standard;" if he wasn't joking, he really needs to get a life). All in all, it looks like Dell may be a little nervous about the competition (or, more likely, just a little envious of the competition's technology).

The double-agent in enemy territory concludes with what we feel is a very good suggestion for the Apple Store: Dell now has passworded "Premier Pages" for its corporate customers, which contain customer-specific and targeted information about what kinds of systems and equipment that company buys, so they don't have to navigate through stuff they don't care about. Sounds like that would be a big draw to bringing some corporate clients back to Apple-- and it'd be excellent for education customers, too. We say Apple should go for it.

Much to our befuddlement (boy I love that word), Apple Recon has neither retracted their "Windows 98 for Mac" unconfirmed rumor, nor have they abandoned it as a one-trick pony. Instead, they've updated it with further speculation based on the "1 - 2 year" time frame given for the beta.

Since this time frame roughly (and we mean roughly) corresponds to Rhapsody's release date, Recon sees things thusly: the Apple-Microsoft deal went down in August of this year, granting Microsoft the right to access Apple technologies, which includes Rhapsody and Yellow Box. So Microsoft, when alluding to "Windows98 for Mac," may in fact have been alluding to something "based on the Mach kernel" or "Yellow Box compatible," even to the extent that "Win2000 is Rhapsody."

Recon suggests that Applewatchers pay close attention to any and all dynamics between Apple and Microsoft at the January MacWorld Expo for further clues on this one. We wish we could, but unfortunately we're grounded on the East Coast. Are there any faithful AtAT viewers out there who would like to be our special correspondents from the Moscone Center?

Meanwhile, the legal battle of the hour actually doesn't involve Microsoft, which these days is noteworthy in itself. Instead, it embroils Apple Computer in a struggle with a group calling itself Consumer Advocates over the current state of Apple service and support. MacAddict has the heads-up.

Think back to the halcyon days when Apple had free lifetime phone support; you remember, you were able to call 800-SOS-APPL on those rare occasions when something went wrong, and you could rest easy knowing that all you needed to get some help was the model number of your Mac. No purchase dates, no serial numbers, no code words to talk to a real live person who was there to help you. Well, Apple pulled the plug on that stellar support structure earlier this year when it moved to what it called a "Microsoft-like" pay-per-incident strategy. And given this lawsuit, it appears that we at AtAT weren't the only ones who disliked the move. Consumer Advocates is suing on the grounds that people bought Apple products in part because of a promised service, which Apple has since revoked.

It's interesting to note that in addition to demanding the return of free technical support, Consumer Advocates is suing for "monetary damages or the repurchase of the machines in question." Meaning Apple would have to buy back our LC 575? Not bloody likely.