Microsoft's starting up the new year with a minor victory in the ongoing Department of Justice drama. A few days ago, the U.S. District Court of Appeals granted them an "expedited hearing" for their appeal of Judge Jackson's temporary injunction, which orders them to stop forcing Wintel manufacturers to ship Internet Explorer on all Windows 95 systems. While an actual hearing date hasn't been set, all case-related briefs are to be filed by March 9th. Computer Reseller News has the details.

Microsoft is trying to get the case settled quickly, so that they can continue forcing IE onto as many machines as possible; Windows 98, which really integrates IE much more intractably into the OS, isn't due for months yet. In the meantime, if Wintel manufacturers want to ship Netscape Communicator on the desktops of their systems instead of IE, that might slow Microsoft's attempt to steal market share from Netscape in the browser market.

The next episode of "Redmond Justice" airs on January 13th, when Judge Jackson holds a hearing to decide whether or not Microsoft should be held in contempt of court for violating the very injunction that Microsoft is appealing. The chronology's a little mixed up, but isn't it exciting? ;-)

Okay, so it's not a huge advance, but new 275 MHz G3 chips are on the way, and as we've mentioned before, they may appear in shipping Macs as early as next week (though probably not until March or thereabouts). An article at News.com has IBM claiming that the modest four-percent speed boost is important because it beats out the top-of-the-line Intel chip: a 300 MHz Pentium II. Gee, remember when everyone said that the PowerPCs would soon totally outstrip any CISC-based Intel offerings? So how come we're always just inching ahead of the competition?

Anyway, while the new chip is supposed to find its way into both new Powermacs and new upgrade card offerings from Newer Technologies, etc., the ever-erstwhile Mac the Knife (or, in this case, his feckless intern, Brett) reports that the CPU-upgrade manufacturers may have a tough time finding G3 chips of any speed. Why, you ask? Because Apple is rumored to be stockpiling every G3 processor it can beg, borrow, or steal. And with the supply of these puppies limited, the upgrade manufacturers may be hard-pressed to supply any product.

Could this be more anti-competitive behavior as alleged by PowerTools? Are the G3 upgrade cards horning in on Apple's Powermac G3 sales heavily enough to warrant such a move?

Uh-oh... Here come the buyout rumors again, right on schedule. Apple Recon is talking about sources who are feeding them the same old IBM saws we've been hearing for years. But while we've always heard that IBM is "imminently close" to buying Apple, consider this: With the recent demise of OS/2 and the recent shipping of a developer release of Rhapsody for Intel, IBM's got a solid motive. And with Apple's stock price hovering near a ten-year low, a buyout is becoming more and more likely.

Now, don't get all bent out of shape just yet... you know how these rumors go. It's interesting to consider what would happen if IBM did buy Apple, though; continued Rhapsody development would be pretty much guaranteed, but would the Mac OS continue as planned? Would IBM try to port it to Intel hardware? Would IBMacs ship with a little blue striped apple on the front?

And most importantly, would Steve Jobs have to wear a suit? ;-)