It's no secret that Motorola has been facing some tough times lately; between multistage mass layoffs, cost-cutting measures like forced vacations for the staff, and the company's first red ink bath in human memory, things have been a bit on the grim side. We suppose it was only a matter of time, but beleaguered (that's right, we said the "B"-word) Motorola has finally resorted to selling off chunks of itself in a bid to become profitable again. Fortunately-- or unfortunately, depending on your perspective-- the chunk that makes PowerPCs is still firmly in Motorola's grasp.

The limb of Motorola that did get severed is the "Integrated Information Systems Group," at least according to the Reuters article kindly pointed out to us by faithful viewer mowabb. And who shelled out $825 million for the portion of Motorola that "provides defense and government customers with technologies, products and systems for secure communications and integrated communication systems"? Why, none other than defense contractor General Dynamics. Which means that 3,000 soon-to-be-former Motorola employees will soon be working for the company producing the "Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarine, Arleigh Burke-class Aegis destroyer, Abrams M1A2 digitized main battle tank, wheeled assault vehicles, munitions and gun systems." These ain't no cell phones, buddy.

Now, anything involving giant defense contractors and the movement of large sums of cash tends to bring the conspiracy theorists out of the woodwork, so allow us to highlight what will undoubtedly become a key point in many a paranoid scenario: General Dynamics also just happens to make the Gulfstream V jet. Yes, that's right-- a large unit of Motorola has just been sold to the company that produces Steve Jobs's personal Business Jet of Choice. Do with that little tidbit what you will.

As for Motorola itself, CEO Chris Galvin states that the sale of the IISG will allow the company to focus on "business areas central to its long-term strategy." We presume that means mobile phones and PowerPCs-- though, of course, Wall Street has been badgering Motorola to sell off its semiconductor business for a while, now. Some may choose to interpret the IISG sale as a sign that despite Motorola's insistence to the contrary, the company might not be quite so averse to the idea of unloading its chipmaking business on an interested third party after all. Let's see, here... Apple's got how much cash in the bank?...

So a businessman is dining in a ritzy restaurant and orders the Apple Cinema Display as a first course. After the waiter brings him his 22 inches of LCD goodness, the businessman soon notices that there's a fly in his display. Appalled and disgusted, the man cries out, "Waiter, there's a fly in my Cinema Display!" The waiter runs over, and in a conspiratorial whisper, replies, "Please, sir-- don't shout, or everybody will want one." Ba-dum-ching! Thank you, thank you... You're too kind. We'll be here all week. Don't forget to tip your waitstaff!

But seriously, folks, you never know what you're going to find in your Apple merchandise these days. Nary a week ago we told you about a customer who found a blank Zip disk rattling around inside his new Quicksilver Power Mac G4 (one without a Zip drive, no less), and now faithful viewer Daniel is upping the ante by pointing out a peculiar discussion thread in Apple's own AppleCare forums. A few months ago, one customer posted to ask how he could remove the "dead fly inside the transparent plastic casing" of his Cinema Display. Apparently said fly corpse was lodged between the power and brightness buttons and was freaking out his clients.

But wait, there's more! Several weeks later, another customer claimed that he was suffering from the exact same scenario: dead fly, Cinema Display, transparent plastic, same exact spot between the buttons. Since neither customer implies that he received his Cinema Display with a fly corpse already lodged within, we can safely rule out the possibility that these are prototype Novelty Cinema Displays, sort of like those fake ice cubes with the dead bugs inside. For some reason, it appears that flies may be somehow attracted to the Cinema Display (hey, who isn't?), enter the casing through the ventilation slots, work their way into the beckoning space between the buttons, and then get trapped there and die. (But at least they appear to die happy.)

So far there's been no word from Apple on how to exhume the flies from their transparent graves, though we can't help wondering whether or not this may be just the marketing hook Apple's been looking for to help move its high-end displays: "The Apple Cinema Display-- sure, it costs $2499, but it's 22 inches diagonally, it's got a widescreen aspect ratio, and best of all, it doubles as a pest control mechanism! Buy two: one for the den, and another for the porch on those hot, insect-ridden evenings." We think we've got a winner, people!

If you think reporting directly to Steve Jobs makes for a challenging career situation, just try holding a position that also involves the occasional interview. We all know that Steve is fanatical about product secrecy, which makes being interviewed particularly tough; you'd have to come off as interesting enough to make the company look good, but you couldn't talk about upcoming products and all the cool stuff that Apple is secretly working on without having your head subsequently removed from your shoulders by a rather agitated CEO. As they say, it's a fine line between Dullsville and decapitation.

So we're rather proud of Apple's software Main Man, Avie Tevanian. In his recent interview for an Australian IT news site, he managed to spill just enough detail to prevent things from becoming a snore-fest, while still managing to keep a tight lid on Apple's trade secrets. Among the little tidbits he dropped to keep us on our toes: in his estimation, Mac OS X 10.1 will be "five times faster" than 10.0 when it hits the streets; it's a "very sound assumption" that Apple won't be porting Final Cut Pro (and Apple's other currently Mac-only killer apps, we suppose) to Windows; and while Apple may not tackle the enterprise market anytime soon, "from a technology viewpoint" Apple is "now much better positioned" to cross that bridge if it so chooses. Nothing earth-shattering, but enough to give us a little thrill.

Most importantly, though, we're extremely pleased to see Avie described as "untense" and "far more relaxed than one might have imagined." Remember, this is the guy ultimately responsible for bringing Apple the Holy Grail of UNIX power and Mac-like simplicity in one tidy package. If he can face that kind of pressure and still be calm, he's either a really centered individual with the near-superhuman ability to relax in the face of Herculean challenges, or he's an android. Either way, we think he's pretty darn cool. A third possibility is that he's just keeping all his tension balled up inside; we sincerely hope not, because if he is, he's going to take an awful lot of innocent people with him when he finally pops. We're leaning towards the whole "android" thing, ourselves.