What do you mean, AppleInsider is still alive? But it's been missing since October 23rd! That's like a couple of decades in web years. The search party was called off weeks ago, the insurance companies proclaimed the site officially dead, the rest of the Mac rumors community attended the funeral, and Mrs. AppleInsider has since moved on and remarried. Oh, what a mess this is going to be.

Still, there's no denying it; we're smack-dab in the middle of one of those "dead guy returns" plot twists, and we, for one, are thrilled-- as are, we imagine, several AtAT viewers. Many of you had written in asking why we hadn't publicly addressed the somewhat suspicious-looking manner in which AppleInsider's formerly semi-regular updates had ceased completely. Longtime viewers know exactly why; because the last time we did something like that, the irony-challenged subset of our audience caused an embarrassing scene by pestering the site's proprietors with a torrential flood of questions. This time we figured we'd just let AppleInsider rest in peace, and see what happened.

What happened, of course, is that the site stumbled back into town last night as if nothing had happened, bearing gossip about the long-rumored Apple subnotebook. Sure, the update is sort of light on new inside info-- don't expect product code names, specs, projected prices, or stolen prototype photos-- but there are some genuine nuggets of crunchewy goodness for those with patience. One is that, despite the constant demands from the road warrior contingent ever since the PowerBook 2400 got the axe, a replacement for the four-pound powerhouse is "at least another eight months" away, so if you're the rumor-heeding type, don't go delaying your PowerBook purchase in hopes that a subnotebook is just around the corner. On the other hand, the product sounds like it might be worth the wait; AppleInsider also quotes "an Apple employee" on the prospect of the company returning to the subnotebook market, who said "you'll be very happy with what we have planned down the road." Do with that intriguing comment what you will.

Whatever transpires when Apple finally decides to fill in the mysterious sixth square of its product grid, we can say this: it's nice to have AppleInsider back in the game. Here's hoping the site can readjust to life among the living. Now, how do we get our money back on that donation to the AppleInsider Memorial Fund?

While the nation impatiently awaits the resolution of our roller-coaster-ride Presidential election (not to mention the eagerly anticipated premiere of Dude, Where's My Car?), the only higher concern in the minds of the Mac community is the approaching end to the Great 500 MHz Stall-out. The most recent rumors regarding Apple's product roll-out plans at next month's Macworld Expo indicate that the company expects to introduce Power Mac G4 systems running at the breakneck pace of 600 MHz, thus putting an end to a drought that reclassified Moore's Law as Moore's Friendly Suggestion.

Now, we're quite aware that there are some hotheads out there who aren't exactly pleased with that news. After a year of waiting, they consider a jump (well, more of a hop, really, or a sort of upwards limp) to 600 MHz to be laughable at best, if not downright pathetic. After all, Intel and AMD are duking it out around the 1.5 GHz level, while we're all supposed to be jumping for joy because soon we'll have processors running at fully 40% of the clock speeds that those Wintel saps are using.

But relax; time passes quickly in this day and age, and before you know it, another year will have passed and the PowerPC will be tooling along at a healthy and strapping 1.5 GHz. What's that, you say? You thought that the G4 was only supposed to reach 1 GHz in 2001, in the best-case scenario? Yeah, we heard that too-- but we never said the G4 would hit 1.5 GHz. According to the latest dirt over at Mac OS Rumors (who continues to be the gold standard source for unsubstantiated PowerPC clock speed scuttlebutt), while Motorola continues to try and increase the G4's clock speed from "undeniably embarrassing" to a far more respectable "arguably embarrassing," IBM has plans to take the G3 to strange new heights of performance.

Check it out; rumor has it that IBM's "next-generation G3 architecture" (er, G3.5?) will not only top out at up to 1.5 GHz before the end of next year, but it'll also "improve per-clock performance up to 15% over present G3s." So whereas the Pentium 4 often performs slower than a Pentium III with a 500 MHz clock speed deficit, these next-gen G3s may well kick an entirely new brand of booty. The big problem, of course, is that Apple has pretty much bet the marketing farm on the "supercomputer" G4 and its Velocity Engine technology; for the company to switch back to G3s just for the higher clock speeds would be PR suicide.

Worse yet, there's no way Apple's ever going to ship consumer-grade G3 systems with higher clock speeds than their pro-level G4 counterparts-- so don't expect to see a 1.5 GHz iMac when the Power Mac G4 only manages to hit 1 GHz or so. Still, Apple is nothing if not resourceful; if these speedy new G3s really do come to pass, we're sure Apple will find some way to exploit their advantages. Say, what about a new dual-processor strategy-- Macs with one 1.5 GHz G3 for most office-type uses, and one 1 GHz G4 for AltiVec-enhanced applications? (Yes, we're kidding. Sort of.)

You can say what you like about Steve Jobs and his managerial techniques, but the man clearly knows what constitutes a pleasant and productive work environment. In a recent Macworld article, Richmond City Council Member Tom Butt (no jokes, please-- the man's suffered enough) is quoted as saying, "Steve Jobs didn't like [Pixar] being near Chevron, because every once in a while something over there blows up." Yes, when the occasional explosion or two at the nearby refinery unnerved those sensitive souls at Steve's "other" company, the bossman immediately set about finding Pixar some new digs in an area less closely resembling a war zone. (Evidently stuff blowing up nearby is counterproductive to the creative process.)

So get this; Steve bought an old Del Monte cannery way back in May of 1997, and has been working on its renovation into the new Pixar offices ever since. Anyone who's familiar with Steve at all realizes that he wouldn't just fork over a wad of cash and say "make it look nice." Instead, in classic Steve micromanagement form, he "called all the shots." He even special-ordered the bricks to his exact color specifications. And when the dust finally cleared, Pixarville turned out to be "very much Steve's vision."

All this means, of course, that for the past three and a half years Pixar employees have been stuck in the old offices, and thus have had to continue dodging the occasional explosion-- but now that they're apparently finally getting to move into Pixarville, the years of toil in a twitchy mine field all seem worth it. The new headquarters features "a terraced amphitheater, basketball and volleyball courts, a jogging path, and a lap pool." Still not lush enough? Well, wait a few months more, because there are plans to add "a swimming pool and apple orchard" to Club Pixar. What, no water slides? What a rip-off!