Remember how much fun we had, revelling in the sheer injustice of being charged $30 for the privilege of working as Apple's operating system guinea pigs? Yes, the Microsoftesque practice of charging for beta software had finally spread from Redmond to Cupertino last September with the release of the Mac OS X Public Beta, and we, for one, were thrilled to have something new to whine about. In particular, we gleefully bristled at the way in which Apple first didn't announce any sort of compensatory discount on the full 1.0 release for beta testers, and then flat-out announced in plain English that no such discount would be offered. Da noive o' some people! You'd think our hard work, willingness to risk data loss, and thirty bucks ought to be worth at least our original thirty bucks back on the full version, right?

Well, good news. Apple has indeed reversed its earlier decision not to offer a beta tester discount, if the email that we received is any indication. Imagine how special we felt when Apple thanked us personally for "being one of the pioneers who... helped make Mac OS X the world's most advanced operating system." (Blush, stare at shoes, mutter "Aw, shucks, ma'am, 'tweren't nuthin'...") And here's the really ginchy bit: "To show our appreciation, we are offering you a $30 discount on the final version of Mac OS X." Score! All we have to do is follow the handy link and pre-order our copy at the Apple Store, and we get our thirty bucks back. The original fee was sort of like a bottle deposit, apparently.

Actually, now that we think about it, this is better than getting our money back. Since the public beta really only cost $29.95 and the discount is for a full $30, we're actually up five cents on the deal. You do realize what this means, don't you? Apple is actually paying all of us beta testers the discount equivalent of a shiny new nickel for our toils! Time to list "Paid Beta Tester, Apple Computer, Inc., September 2000 -- Present" on the old résumé. As for what we plan to do with our beta-testing earnings, our heads are awash with visions of penny whistles and moon pies... but in the end, we'll probably suppress our urge to spend wildly and use it as a down payment on a new no. 2 pencil. Our current one's getting a little stubby.

For those of you who haven't received your email coupons yet, be patient; Apple's got 100,000 of these things to send out. We fully expect that discount notices will be emailed to every single person who registered a copy of the public beta. Er, you did register your copy, didn't you?...

Apple's lawyers are back on the prowl, and these days the targets are all things Aqua. Clearly (that's a joke, son) His Steveness is even more torqued up about Mac OS X's next-generation graphical user interface than he was about the iMac's distinctive look and feel, because the Aqua Police are suited up and busting heads. The latest to feel the cold, wet slap of an Aqua-flavored cease-and-desist demand is none other than the first known group to "borrow" Aqua for its own uses: a company called Stardock, who appears to specialize in user interface overhauls for existing third-party products.

If the name "Stardock" rings a bell, it's because you're a long-time AtAT viewer and you recall a certain plot thread involving a Stardock product and a very familiar-looking user interface that surfaced literally on the same day as Aqua's public debut in January of last year. Well, here we are a year later, and as faithful viewer Mark Sutton notes, The Register is reporting that Apple has finally swooped down on Stardock and demanded that the company immediately remove, the words of Stardock's president Brad Wardell, "anything that even remotely looks like Aqua." To comply, Stardock operatives are reportedly combing their corporate offices and bathrooms and flushing all Jelly Belly jellybeans and tubes of Aquafresh toothpaste, just to be sure.

Given the current climate of legal doubt surrounding all things Aqua, we're unsure whether Apple Legal's current beatdown mode extends to web sites and soap operas-- so you can understand AtAT's continuing reluctance to spruce up the show with a more lickable look and feel. Hopefully once Mac OS X is officially out the door, Steve might rein in the hounds a little, but we really have to adopt a "wait and see" approach on this one. If March 24th comes and goes and representations of Apple's new interface continue to draw fire from the company's legal eagles, we'll officially be "retro" for some time to come. Just consider us the "Nick At Nite" of Apple-themed dramas.

So you bought one of those spiffy new iMacs when they came out last summer, and up until now you've been really happy with its nearly-silent operation, thanks to its innovative convection-cooled fanless design. But just recently you were over at your Wintel-using friend's house, and after noticing that you could hear the drone of his computer's six fans even from his driveway while your car's engine was still running, you've decided that a whining, irritating hum from a cooling fan is integral to the modern computing experience. You tried putting an electric desk fan in your office to augment the iMac's anemic white noise output, but the beige appliance clashes with your system's stylish translucent color-- and besides, it's taking up valuable desk space. What to do?

It's minkaAire to the rescue! As faithful viewer Mike Daisey was kind enough to point out, minkaAire has a line of ceiling fans called the eMotion. These puppies stay up and out of your way, while representing the best in "form, function, and innovation" the fan world has to offer. With its "semi-transparent [perhaps Apple has trademarked the word "translucent"] colored housing and matching blade tip accents," the eMotion is the perfect way to add a little whirr to your iMac's soundscape. And best of all, by an utterly amazing coincidence, the eMotion is available in five familiar colors: Indigo, Ruby, Sage, Graphite, and Snow. So no matter which of Apple's current iMacs you own, you can get a ceiling fan to match.

That's great news for you iMac owners who want to add a little extra hum to your working environments: now you can enjoy the background noise of a "real" computer while simultaneously moving some air around the room, and it won't even disrupt your room's carefully-planned decor. But if you want one of these things, we'd recommend that you act fast; you never know whether Apple's lawyers might take offense at the (again, utterly coincidental) similarity of minkaAire's color choices and those of the iMac. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but that doesn't carry much weight down Cupertino way.