The Wrath of Steve is both legendary and terrible in its fierceness, but has it been blown way out of proportion? In particular, unsubstantiated reports filtering into the AtAT Mobile Production Unit (currently chasing storms in the lush, rolling hills and valleys of Urbana, Illinois) indicates that the most infamous recent example of Steve's awful vengeance-- the ATI Incident-- may have been all smoke, no fire. These days parents frighten their young children with tales of Steve's retaliation after ATI's little "indiscretion": the way he ripped the Radeon demo right out of the middle of his keynote agenda at the last minute, the frenzied mandate that all Radeons be pulled from every Expo Mac just before showtime, etc. "To this day," the story goes, "a visit to the Apple Store reveals that ATI's Radeon is nowhere to be seen!" (Cue thunder crash, howling creature of the night.) We think there's also a bit about a bloody hook hanging from the car door, but we're not too sure about the details.

Anyway, the question that's been raised by the aforementioned unsubstantiated reports is this: did Steve pull all references to the Radeon because he was angry with ATI, or was he angry with ATI because he had to pull the Radeons? Rumor has it that the Cube production really came right down to the wire, and the Radeons had only been tested for a few hours just before Steve was ready to take the stage. It was at that point that someone discovered a show-stopper bug-- a hardware error in the Radeon that couldn't possibly be fixed in time for the keynote. While Apple engineers were hard at work trying to find a workaround right up to curtain time, the glitch proved not to fixable, and so the Radeon was history before it even hit the present. So yeah, Steve was none too pleased, but if this story is true, then the decision to remove the Radeons was an engineering one, not motivated by malicious revenge. Much.

Given ATI's none-too-spotless track record with shipping not-ready-for-prime-time gear (witness the crash-prone blue and white G3s, whose Rage 128 cards had drivers suitable only for use in concrete radiation-proof bunkers), we find the above scenario eminently believable. Then again, it's not hard to imagine Steve carrying a grudge too far, either, so it's just a matter of which story you'd rather believe. That said, we often think that the Mercurial Mr. Jobs may be associated with lots more "erratic" behavior than perhaps is strictly accurate. Reputations can be such awful things, can't they? We bet Vlad the Impaler wasn't that bad a guy, either, if one met him socially. He probably would have been a pretty good bowler. (Insert crack about human heads here.)

Incidentally, the bottom line for ATI is pretty much the same either way; either they're on Steve's bad side for leaking the new Mac info too early, or they're in the doghouse for continued spotty Mac development efforts. Take your pick. Either way, we wouldn't be surprised if next year's Macs start sporting graphics hardware made by another vendor.

Apple's history is littered with the remains of weird proprietary technologies that eventually died horrible deaths: NuBus, ADB, the DIN-8 round serial port, etc. Back when the first PCI Power Macs were introduced, it looked as if Apple had finally joined a twelve-step program and was on its way to standards-based health; PCI slots, standard VGA video ports, and later, USB and FireWire-- there was every sign that Apple had fully recovered. But proponents of the widespread benefits of using industry standard technology heaved a collective sigh of grief when Apple fell off the Standards Wagon last month and introduced the Apple Display Connector, an admittedly innovative technology that unfortunately doesn't play well with others.

The ADC, available only on Apple's new displays and on the ATI graphics cards shipping in Apple's latest Power Macs and Cubes, is a kickin' little connector that carries analog and digital video signals, USB traffic, and power all at once. The upshot is that one skinny cable connecting your Cinema Display to your Cube is all you need-- no messy "power brick," no tangle of cords, no karmic penalty for polluting the world's aura with increased complexity. Unfortunately, since this marvel of a connector is only available on Apple's latest gear, you can't use one of Apple's sleek new displays unless you own a sleek new Mac to match. No adapter is currently available, and depending on what day of the week it is and the relative humidity in Fargo, Apple representatives either say they're working on one, or that they're leaving it up to a third party to fill that need. (Incidentally, the lockout doesn't apply in the other direction; if you have a sleek new Mac and a non-ADC monitor, you can still connect them via the Mac's VGA port.)

But wait, what's this? A third-party graphics manufacturer publicly voicing support for Apple's proprietary connector? Believe it, buddy; according to The Register, the folks over at 3dfx (the maker of them new-fangled Voodoo 5 cards all the game kiddies are drooling over) have announced that they "look forward to supporting this connection standard in our future products." Wow. Can anyone imagine 3dfx having supported, say, that wacky Apple AV monitor connector that shipped on the first Power Macs? Either Apple's really hit it right this time, or 3dfx is desperate enough financially to start seriously sucking up to new niches. Either way, we're not going to complain.

Don't get too excited, though; 3dfx's promises won't help you much right now. In fact, it's not even clear if the company plans to retrofit its current product offerings with ADC connectors, or if we'll have to wait for a Voodoo 6 before we have an alternative graphics card offering that'll work with Apple's spiffy new displays. But for those who lament that only two companies are ADC supporters, hey, look on the bright side-- these days, how many Mac users are going to buy a graphics card that isn't made by ATI or 3dfx? At least, until NVIDIA climbs on board...

There's no shame in winning a bronze medal, but neither is there much glory standing on that third step. That's why we're a little disappointed that, according to Go2Mac, the American Customer Satisfaction Index only ranks Apple third in the industry. Worse yet, Apple got beat out by Gateway (who captured the silver) and (gulp) Dell, who actually walked away with the gold. We imagine Mike Dell is dancing his little "Better Than Steve" dance right about now.

What's particularly galling about this revolting situation is that Apple has always been known for customer satisfaction-- or, at least, customer loyalty. To get beaten by the company that made the butt-ugly Astro and the company that has been aping Apple's every product move for the past year and a half, well, it's almost too much to bear. We'd almost think the ratings were fixed, if we hadn't just been regaled with horror stories of several Power Mac G4s arriving DOA and the ensuing nightmare of trying to get the problems fixed. Declining quality control and quality of service really look like they're becoming Apple's biggest bugaboos, and we hope the trend stops soon.

Now that we think about it, getting trounced by Dell and that cow company might be just the kick in the pants Steve needs to start taking product quality and customer service ultra-seriously. While we're not expecting a return to free lifetime phone support, or the introduction of a guaranteed 24-hour free replacement policy for all out-of-box Mac failures (why doesn't Apple have that implemented?), we figure at least some improvements are probably forthcoming just so Steve can stick it to Dell. Hey, at least Apple finished higher than Compaq.