We love the fourteen days prior to any Macworld Expo for two reasons: one, we're less than a fortnight away from yet another scrumptious Stevenote; and two, it gives us a reason to use the word "fortnight" without people looking at us funny. (Try slipping "sennight" into your everyday conversation and you'll see what we mean.) Actually, there's a third reason, as well: as the keynote draws ever closer, the rumors and speculation kick into high gear. Usually that means that additional details start to leak through Uncle Steve's Silicon Curtain and the rumors tighten up, take shape, and really start to approximate the rapidly approaching reality. And sometimes it just means things get weirder, and consequently, lots more exciting.

On the "weird and exciting" front, we have to say that our favorite Expo rumors these days are streaming fast and furious from Go2Mac. If the "Son of Pismo" 14-inch iBook scenario hasn't quite sated your appetite for "fringe" speculation, the site's latest update on Expo hardware may give you a bit more to chew on. Instead of further info on Son of Pismo, this time around Go2Mac has an interesting revelation about the new LCD-based iMac and details on the speed-bumped Power Macs-- two products that even conservative pundits are predicting for a July 18th unveiling.

On the iMac front, Go2Mac claims that one of the new product's code names is "Tessera," which, according to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, is "a small tablet (as of wood, bone, or ivory) used by the ancient Romans as a ticket, tally, voucher, or means of identification." A small tablet, you say? Well, most of the more rational prognosticators have long since abandoned the early reports of the "iMac with removable wireless tablet" as little more than a beautiful, beautiful dream-- but if you were casting about for reasons to keep that dream alive, this may be your ticket to happiness. Personally, we remain skeptical that Apple could produce something that cool and keep its price down to iMac levels, but we're always more than willing to be pleasantly surprised. More likely than not, though, the alleged "Tessera" code name simply alludes to the product's physical size and shape, and the whole "tablet" thing is a fun coincidence.

As for the Power Mac, well, here's a bit of juice to get your brain's rumor centers pumping: Go2Mac claims that in addition to faster processors, Apple's pro desktop line will also be adopting "a new color scheme that is a total departure from the [current] Graphite design." Whether that refers to a simple plastics change or a complete enclosure overhaul remains to be seen, but we've heard from a number of sources that the Power Mac won't be making a drastic leap to PowerBook- and iBook-like designs until the advent of the G5 next year. Recently the Naked Mole Rat indicated that the new G4s will sport a "redesigned front panel," but not a completely new enclosure. We're banking on Graphite sticking around for a while, yet; now that the Cube is toast, the Power Mac is Apple's only product that will connect directly to its line of LCD displays, the most recent of which (the 17-inch model) was only just introduced less than two months ago. So unless Apple's planning to change the plastics on those a bit, too, good ol' Graphite will likely remain until the next Expo. (At least, we hope so-- it's a classy shade.)

So was it a wuss-out intended only to save face and grant false hope to its grieving customers, or is Apple genuinely open to the possibility of someday popping the Cube out of its deep-freeze tray and sticking it back on store shelves? Apple fans the world over zeroed in on the company's unusual wording in its official notice of the Cube's demise: "Apple Puts Power Mac G4 Cube on Ice"; the company will "suspend production"; "there is a small chance" that Apple will "reintroduce" the product in the future. That's hardly the same as saying "the Cube was a massive sales failure and we're cutting our losses by rounding up all unsold units and firing them directly into the sun so that they may blight our balance sheet no longer."

What's the deal? Apple could just as easily have granted the Cube a silent and obscure death, letting it slip quietly from the price list when new Macs debut in two weeks' time. Instead, the company issues an honest-to-goodness press release announcing the fate of the product. Does that seem normal to you? Product introductions are one thing, but we can't imagine that any company typically expends the time, effort, and money to tell the world when it's cancelling a product. (We notice that the usual "quote from Steve" is conspicuously absent; since the Cube was Steve's baby, he may have been too overwrought to comment.)

This seemingly bizarre behavior and open-ended wording has prompted several true believers to cling to hope of a Cube resurrection someday. The Cube-Zone has already launched a petition-- and as faithful viewer the M@d H@tter (who else?) points out, Mac OS Rumors claims that Apple is indeed keeping the Cube on ice until the company needs "reserve firepower" in the form of a "marketing boost." One current plan? "Bringing the Cube back with spiffed-up plastics or even a stamped-metal enclosure as the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Mac next year."

Not to be party poopers or anything, but we can't see Apple reviving the Cube anytime soon... if at all. Think about Apple's history in the Second Jobs Dynasty. For the most part it's been a rousing tale of success despite overwhelming odds; you've got your return to sustained profitability, your skyrocketing stock price, the iMac phenomenon, etc. There have really only been two big stumbling blocks in recent memory: the original G4 speed dump (and its resulting earnings warning), and deadly slow sales of the Cube (and its resulting earnings warning). Sure, the Cube won a zillion design awards, but it's been forever tainted with the stigma of failure. We don't expect Apple to ship a revamped Cube as the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Mac any more than we'd expect the company to ship a 450 MHz Power Mac G4 next year at $2499 "just for old times' sake"; it's only going to remind the press of one of Apple's biggest missteps since kicking Steve out in the first place.

No, the way we see it, the Cube is gone-- and either Steve couldn't bear to admit that the product (at least the way it was sold) was a mistake, or Apple thinks it's helping Mac fans by leaving the door open for a "Search For Spock"-like return that it never actually plans to bring about. (Actually, we're betting the press release was an attempt to get the bad vibes and stock price deflation out of the way now, so it doesn't taint the good news in store at the Expo-- but that's just us.) In our opinion, it's far better to mourn the Cube's passing and move on than to cling to false hope of a miraculous rebirth. Besides, miraculous rebirths aren't nearly as impressive if you're actually expecting them.

You all know that Adobe is skipping Macworld Expo this time around, allegedly for financial reasons (though the company seems to be doing pretty well on the money front, relatively speaking). For the most part, we ignored the first round of conspiracy theories regarding Adobe's no-show status, because most of it was simply too obvious for words: "News flash! Sources report that the real reason why Adobe is skipping the Expo is because none of its flagship products are ready for Mac OS X!" Well, duh. We can just imagine Adobe spending a couple hundred grand on a booth so that it could be present at Mac OS X's coming out party to exhibit-- Acrobat Reader. Oooooooo.

So yeah, the fact that Adobe doesn't have its stuff Carbonized yet is a pretty compelling reason to skip the show. But why doesn't it have its products ready? After all, the company showed off a preliminary Carbon version of Photoshop over three years ago, which had been cobbled together in one engineer's spare time. So what's the delay? That's where The Register comes in; as faithful viewer Tony in Japan pointed out, an "unconfirmed product release schedule" fell into that publication's hot little hands-- and if it's legit, then things don't look good for Mac OS X users jonesing for Adobe products.

While the schedule lists several Mac OS X ports "underway," none of them is slated to ship anytime remotely soon-- and that's not likely to change, assuming that The Reg's source is correct in stating that Adobe's Carbonization development has "ground to a near halt." Reportedly Adobe is "dismayed" by "bugs and performance issues" in Carbon, and that (coupled with "longer term doubts about the competitiveness" of the G4 and G5 processors) has been enough to prompt the company to stick its Mac OS X development efforts on the back burner. Meanwhile, we seem to recall hearing Adobe making noises about having Windows XP versions of its software ready as soon as that operating system hits the shelves in October, but maybe that's just the product of our overly-paranoid minds...

In any case, one thing is pretty clear to us: Adobe isn't playing ball. While we're not quite ready (yet) to suspect that the company is preparing to go Windows-only anytime in the foreseeable future, if Mac OS X is going to become a hit in the creative world, it may just have to do so without Adobe's help. Hmmm... how much effort do you suppose it would take to add CMYK support and decent color management to MacGIMP?