We've said it before, and we'll say it again: sometimes we love being wrong. Of course, we haven't said it often, because, well, let's face it-- 99% of the time we're almost annoyingly accurate. Nigh-perfect, some might say. We'd even hazard to claim that we only make a mistake about as often as AppleInsider posts an update, and that just about qualifies as papal infallibility these days.

However, while the jury's still officially out on this one, it appears that we probably erred last month when we hinted that the refreshed PowerBook G4 (whenever the heck Apple sees fit to ship the thing) would appear in slot-loading DVD-ROM and CD-RW configurations, but not with a combo drive option. At the time, we were going off the best info we had-- namely, a hastily-scrawled message someone left by applying a finger to the dirt on our car. We passed that info along to you as the likely truth, because after all, when have we ever been led astray by anonymous car-dirt messages before? (Actually, there was that one which told us that if you flap your arms hard enough, you can hover. And another time we got one which said that drinking pickle brine and Mr. Pibb promotes gastrointestinal health, which, we can attest, was criminally inaccurate. Other than that, though, we're talking about at least a 40% accuracy rating!)

Anyway, what we're trying to say is this: contrary to what we've heard from the Car Dirt Prophets, it looks like the new PowerBook might just boast a DVD/CD-RW combo drive after all. As faithful viewer dzhim! indicates, Mac OS Rumors is reporting that a few customers who had shipped their problematic PowerBook G4s off to Apple for repair have since gotten their titanium babies back-- with slot-loading combo drives built-in as a little bonus. Now, it's up to you to decide whether Mac OS Rumors is more or less trustworthy than a message left in the dirt on a '92 Geo Prizm sedan; personally, we're a little suspicious of reports that Apple is just randomly installing free combo drives into damaged PowerBooks, but seeing as we're trying to believe the best about people these days, heck, why not?

So if Apple really does have access to slot-loading combo drives which fit in the PowerBook G4, and it even has enough of them to be able to sling them out to existing customers willy-nilly, the odds of them not being used in the upcoming PowerBook are pretty darn slim. The reason we're happy about that is because we harbored serious doubts that a PowerBook without a combo drive would sell well, and so we're pleased that, in all likelihood, Apple's going to have another hit on its hands. Of course, now that we've reversed our earlier stance on the combo drive issue, we're guaranteed of being wrong one way or the other-- which just makes us all that much more human, approachable, and lovable. Perfection is offputting. Watch our ratings skyrocket!

Speaking of sketchy predictions about upcoming Mac hardware, if you're a regular viewer, you already know that a few days ago we pointed out The Register's supposed insider specs and release schedule for the PowerPC G5, and yesterday we noted that, according to the MacEvangeList, an unnamed "Motorola executive" had allegedly laughed himself half to death over the inaccuracy of said specs. If you're not a regular viewer, well, completely aside from the fact that you're clearly what's wrong with society today, see what you've been missing? All we need is a snide retort from The Register and we'll have ringside seats to a full-fledged Rumor Feud, and that's always good for a thrill or two.

Well, get out your scorecards, because as if on cue, The Register has fired back; faithful viewer Thomas McBride forwarded us a new article in which The Reg provides some juicy details about Apple's next Power Macs, allegedly slated to ship in January. Those would be the legendary Power Mac G5 systems that have Mac fans slavering uncontrollably and listing their kids on eBay in hopes of raising enough cash to buy one when they emerge from Apple's labs. The latest dirt is that these things are going to support a slew of new technologies right out of the box, including USB 2.0 (which raises the bandwidth from 12 Mbps to 480 Mbps) and IEEE 1394b (which we like to call Son of FireWire, and which boosts its throughput from 400 Mbps to 800 Mbps). Expect a new memory spec as well; The Reg currently expects the new Power Mac to require DDR266 RAM when it bursts onto the scene.

Of course, while that's all plenty exciting in its own right, it has very little to do with escalating the whole G5 brouhaha that's been playing out over the past few days. The relevant dig comes right at the end, just after The Reg claims that, if the G5 processor itself isn't done in time, Apple will drop back and punt by shipping these zippy new Power Macs with "Apollo" G4s instead: "At least one Motorola executive has apparently poo-poo'd our report, which we understand hasn't gone down too well with Apple's own chip development staffers, who have contributed heavily to the design and implementation of the G5." In other words, at least in The Reg's eyes, that Moto exec is singularly in the dark about this subject. Whom to believe is up to you, but when you consider that Motorola executives are evidently the sort of people who come up with brilliant plans like forcing a company-wide migration away from Macs to standardize on Windows systems using the competition's processors, well, we generally don't put a lot of stock in what those suits say, unnamed or otherwise.

So, if this plays out well, with any luck we'll see the unnamed Motorola executive respond to The Register with a hearty "Oh yeah? Well, so's your mother!" and then we can all just sit back and watch the fur fly. Anyone got any microwave popcorn?

It just goes to show you that even when the world is thrown into upheaval, some things just never change. We don't mind telling you that, like most Americans, we've been in a state of shock for the past week and a half, but we've found an unlikely anchor to cling to in these times of uncertainty: Microsoft. Yes, just this week we've had to deal with the fallout of two nasty viruses that were made possible thanks to Microsoft's omnipresent security holes, and as if that wasn't comfort enough for our troubled souls, the latest developments in "Redmond Justice" have proven to us once and for all that, fundamentally speaking, we're still in the same ol' country, and for the most part, the same rules still apply.

See, Microsoft's antitrust case has been plodding along in one form or another for about four years now, and according to the New York Times, it may very well continue to plod along for several more years to come. The government just proposed a timetable by which it hopes to wrap up this marathon case, and apparently it could take "years to conclude"; according to the government's plan, hearings to determine Microsoft's penalty won't even start until next February. Remember, the government's the side that should want this finished quickly, so we can only imagine what Microsoft's proposed schedule must look like-- we figure it features remedy hearings commencing shortly after intelligent apes enslave man and rule the earth and finishes up roughly twenty million years after our sun goes nova.

The upshot, of course, is that no matter what, Microsoft gets to ship Windows XP sans interference, and by the time any kind of resolution reaches this case, whatever remedy that's imposed on Microsoft will likely be moot. It's certainly not going to bring Netscape back from the virtual dead, and if anything, Windows XP is far more anticompetitive than Windows 95 ever was. Remember Windows 95? The operating system that kicked off this whole hullabaloo? That's okay, neither does anyone else... and if you also said "Whatscape?" you're in good company, too. See? Business as usual. Comforting, isn't it?