Wave bye-bye to summer, kiddies, 'cause it's gone, gone, gone; at some point over the weekend, we officially clicked over into autumn (well, at least in our hemisphere), which means the days of beach volleyball and backyard cookouts are now over. On the other hand, seeing as here at AtAT we're not really beach-volleyball-and-backyard-cookout sort of people, personally, we're digging the change; the end of summer also heralds the end of summer reruns, it's easier to get to sleep (on those rare occasions when we find we have time to bother), the leaves all turn nifty colors, and since we're working stiffs, we get to feel really good about not having to go back to school. Who knew there was an upside to not having summer vacation?

Of course, the other noteworthy thing about our headlong plunge into fall is this: Apple's late. Even slightly later than late, actually. You may recall that way back in March when Steve rolled out Mac OS X 10.0, it was missing some pretty key features, such as CD-burning support, DVD playback, and a compatible version of iDVD. At the time, Steve announced that CD-RW support would arrive in an update "next month," DVD playback was slated for "sometime in the spring," and iDVD for Mac OS X would show up "later this spring or early summer."

Well, Apple almost made that first deadline; Mac OS X 10.0.2 (which featured audio CD-burning capabilities via iTunes) surfaced on May 2nd, just a couple of days late... of course, we still couldn't burn data CDs, but that's a mere technicality. iDVD looked like it might ship on time, since in July Steve announced that the Mac OS X-only iDVD 2 would materialize in September. That's still likely to happen, but as of a couple of days ago, it missed its end-of-summer target. As for DVD playback, well, that's way overdue-- spring ended three months ago.

Still, all the good stuff we've been missing-- even Disc Burner support and a healthy dollop of raw speed that brings to mind the mental image of Speedy Gonzales all sugared up on mochas-- is coming to us in Mac OS X 10.1, which, as we mentioned last week, is now officially done. And guess what else autumn has brought us? That's right: Seybold. Phil Schiller's keynote address is tomorrow, and if Macworld UK is correct (which is pretty likely-- this isn't exactly a tough thing to predict), 10.1 will indeed be the star of the show tomorrow. We're figuring on an official release either tomorrow or this coming Friday, so get your update mojo workin'.

Incidentally, you may have heard a wacky rumor about Apple retail stores not handing out free 10.1 update CD-ROMs, but actually burning a copy for any customer who saunters in with a blank CD-R. We've considered that pretty unlikely all along (the store personnel have nothing better to do but burn CDs for the customers?), but we're coming right down to the wire, here, and various sources still insist that this is indeed the way it's going to work. Even stranger, faithful viewer Spaceman Spiff claims that the "Hey, Barkeep, Burn Me A Slug O' Puma" distribution strategy isn't limited to Apple's own stores; his local CompUSA told him that they're going to be burning copies of 10.1 for customers next week. It sounds like a painfully inefficient way to distribute software, but hey, whatever.

Heads up, Memphis-area Mac fans-- if you're about to get in line for this Saturday's Germantown Apple store grand opening, you should be aware that you're going to be even earlier than you planned. Whereas Apple's web site had indicated that the store would be opening this Saturday, September 29th, faithful viewer The M@d H@tter just pointed out that the happy event has been postponed-- so sayeth MacCentral. For those of you wondering if the Mac community can survive going over two weeks without a retail grand opening, take deep breaths and remember that we've done it before. Heck, we survived over two months between the openings of the Glendale/McLean stores and the second run starting in August; we can go three weeks standing on our heads.

As for why the Germantown opening has been postponed, no reason was given; we can only hope it wasn't another "accidental" flood like the one that made the Plano store all soggy and hard to light. Alert viewers will recall that Apple has been having a bit of a tussle with the Germantown signage laws, which include such arbitrary restrictions as a ban on store signs that include images of food items-- we imagine that's sort of a problem when a company's decades-old and world-famous corporate logo just happens to be an apple with a bite taken out of it. For all we know, the delay is due to Apple's replacement signs not being completed in time. Or maybe Steve is opposed to opening a store on an occasion as sacrosanct as International Rabbit Day.

Anyway, if you still plan on getting in line, more power to you, but there's no word on when the store will eventually open; it could be months from now, so be sure to pack a sandwich or two. On the plus side, you'd be virtually guaranteed of being first in the store, provided you can drag your weatherbeaten, dehydrated, malnourished near-carcass over the threshold. If you can, it's party time!

You know, we've spent so much time recently talking about the possible speeds and technological advances likely to surface in Apple's next Power Macs, we figured it would make a nice change of pace to check in on a real innovator for a change. (No, Mike Dell, we're not talking about you. Sheesh.) Forget about superslim titanium enclosures, wireless networking, and slot-loading CD-RW drives; if you want some seriously groundbreaking stuff, look no further than premium-priced jumper blocks, computers that (if they actually existed) look like oversized microphones, and breakthroughs in trademarking sets of initials like ACS™ and SSD™. In short, our old buddies at Xtrem are your guys. Faithful viewer Ryan Redekopp reminded us that it's been a while since we've checked in with Xtrem, and with innovators like that, you just know they're cranking out a zillion fabulous new technologies with each passing week.

Basically there are two mammoth new developments that bear mentioning. The first actually surfaced many moons ago, and we were all stoked to tell you about it-- but then we started playing with our car keys and, well, that was the end of that. Anyway, better late than never. Xtrem is working on the "ultimate display for professionals," a veritable leviathan whose 24-inch diagonal measurements makes the Apple Cinema Display look positively chintzy with its dwarfen 22-inch proportions. Even better, this is a 24-inch CRT-- none of that wimpy LCD stuff for Xtrem-- so it has its own palpable gravitational pull, which is especially handy for storage purposes; when you run out of space on your desk (and with a CRT that big, trust us-- you will), you can just place small items like pens, paper clips, and even soft drink cans into orbit around your big honkin' monitor with a minimum of fuss. Of course, the Xtrem Display™ (as it's so cleverly called) features the company's patented "NoPhotosJust3DModels™" and "NeverShip™" technologies, and boasts a stunning space-wasting enclosure which we strongly suspect was modeled after the side mirror from an indeterminate '50s-era automobile.

The other big advancement comes with the system that put Xtrem on the map in the first place: its superfast G4 system called the XtremMac. Or, rather, it used to be called the XtremMac, for you see, Xtrem has done it again: back in February the company tweaked the system's already ultra-impressive list of features by reducing its clock speed by eleven percent, but this time, the change is even more dramatic-- the XtremMac is now known as the XtremMc™. Truly this breakthrough in antilitigational nomenclature is one for the history books. Sure, they could have wussed out and gone with "XtremMic," which would have been appropriate, given the fictional enclosure's shape, but instead those brave souls said "Pronouncability be damned!" and dared to think differently. You have to respect that.

Of course, some people are sure to wonder whether the removal of yet another crucial vowel from the product's name is going to make much of a difference; when Apple was stuck at 500 MHz and Xtrem first burst onto the scene in August of last year flapping its gums about a single-processor G4 running at 1200 MHz, folks got excited. Now the company's talking about 1066 MHz instead, while Apple is shipping 867 MHz machines-- and the XtremMc still isn't shipping. Gee, it's almost enough to make some Doubting Thomases lose their faith...