In case you were wondering, yes, as pointed out by faithful viewer Jeremiah Bornemann, those new Power Macs do have the long-awaited "Apollo" G4 chips inside-- more technically (and far less colorfully) known as the MPC7455. At first we weren't at all sure, because for some reason we had this wacky notion that the Apollos were supposed to have clock speeds starting at 1 GHz, but that's clearly just something we made up to make ourselves feel better. Rest assured, though, those 800 MHz, 933 MHz, and 1 GHz chips shipping in Apple's latest pro desktops are indeed Apollos, at least according to Will Swearingen, Motorola's Director of Strategic Communications, as quoted by MacCentral. And unless someone digs up some dirt tying ol' Will to Enron, the missing 18 1/2 minutes of the Watergate tape, or the Milli Vanilli scandal, we're inclined to believe him.

So these are the chips that got us all drooling some fifteen months ago, when Motorola outlined the technology at the Microprocessor Forum back in October of 2000. Apparently all the planned bells and whistles made the cut: the silicon-on-insulator technology, the optional 2 MB DDR L3 cache, the lemony-fresh scent-- it's all there, and we only had to wait slightly over a year to get it. Interestingly enough, back then we were whining that Motorola still hadn't even shipped the 700 MHz V'ger G4, which had been discussed at the previous year's conference; we assume that the V'ger surfaced in early 2001 as the 733 MHz chip in the first SuperDrive-enabled Power Mac. So there's evidently a fairly regular fifteen-month cycle between Motorola's MPF presentations and the technology actually getting into customers' hands.

Which, of course, raises an obvious question: what did Motorola show at last October's MPF? Because if history is any indication, whatever it was is probably going to wind up at the heart of an Apple product roughly a year from now, right? Thus, we spent a little time digging around for clues, and came up with this: an official Motorola press release from MPF2001 describing the MPC8540, the company's "first e500 integrated host processor to employ RapidIO interconnect technology." Apparently it's a "Book E"-based PowerPC chip that will run between 600 MHz and 1 GHz and was "designed for high-speed networking applications" and other "embedded market" uses, such as "communications, automotive, and consumer applications."

So there you have it, folks: come Macworld Expo San Francisco 2003, we'll all be gaping in awe as Steve takes the wraps off Apple's first high-performance router. Or maybe a line of digital-hub kitchen appliances, or possibly a car. But you can be sure that whatever it is, it'll have an e500 at its core and not a G5, because history always repeats itself. Without fail. Yup.

Could it be? Gee, the guy looks so guileless and honest, it never even occurred to us to check up on his facts-- but it is with deep shock and an ultimate sense of betrayal that we inform you that, evidently, Phil Schiller has been yanking our chain (and our chain doesn't like it one bit). Regular viewers will recall that just yesterday we told you about Phil's wide-eyed, gushing announcement that Apple has racked up over 150,000 pre-orders for the G4 iMacs in just three weeks-- and that those pre-orders outnumbered all the ones that Apple ever received for the original iMac. That would, indeed, be impressive, since the first iMac was introduced over three months before it finally shipped.

But faithful viewer Paul points out that Phil might have been massaging those numbers just a little bit; earlier today, MacInTouch reported that another Apple press release from back in 1998 indicated that the company had taken orders for "over 150,000 of its new iMac computers since beginning to accept orders a week ago." Over 150,000 in one week, out of a three-month pre-release period? If that's true, then it doesn't sound likely that the current iMacs are really out-pre-selling the original. Suddenly Phil's pants are looking a little smoky. (Smoky. As in, they're about to catch fire. It's a "liar, liar, pants on fire" thing. Ah, forget it...)

We can't believe that Phil would lie to us, the big galoot! Yeah, he's a marketing guy, so you almost have to expect it, but still, he was always the one we trusted. Steve's got them shifty eyes, but Phil has always seemed like a stand-up individual, a real mensch. You can imagine how disappointed we were when we heard the news.

But what's this? When we calmed down and looked at both press releases again, suddenly it all came clear: Apple may have introduced the original iMac in May of 1998, but it didn't actually start accepting pre-orders for it until August 3rd-- a mere week and a half before the ship date. So those 150,000 pre-orders were taken in a single week, but really represented three full months of pent-up demand. Given that fact, it's entirely possible that Apple did receive more new iMac pre-orders in three weeks than original iMac orders all told. (Presumably that's why the story disappeared from MacInTouch, too.) Oh, thank goodness... and here we thought we might have to dismantle our Phil Schiller Shrine of Honesty. Forgive us for having doubted you, Phil! Our self-inflicted penance will be fittingly severe.

We'll sign off with a quickie today, because we have to begin our elaborate preparations for tonight's new episode of Buffy (and it can take hours of intense meditation to attain the proper state of cosmic enlightenment). You probably remember that, a couple of weeks ago, CNET started profiling the "top chief executives in high technology" in something they dubbed the "Vision Series." At the time, we harped on the heinous injustice that a fearless leader as innovative and forward-looking as His Steveness could somehow have been omitted from such a list.

Well, we've since heard from many AtAT viewers who complained to CNET that Uncle Steve was definitely considered for the series, but he declined to be interviewed, hence his conspicuous absence from his rightful spot among the giants of the industry-- so sayeth CNET, anyway. However, faithful viewer T.S. McBride informs us that today we've got the next best thing: yes, it's Mike Dell Day over at the Vision Series headquarters. And about the only thing funnier than the holding-cell charm of ol' Mike's mug shot is the way that CNET practically bastes him in praise for-- get this-- doing "nothing at all."

Yes, folks, today CNET honors Mike Dell because he "did not join the rush to make handheld devices," and he did not "open stores" (actually, he did, for a while, didn't he?). Moreover, his pathetic attempt at a "stylishly designed PC" failed miserably and was axed after six months on the market, which was evidently a masterstroke of strategy in CNET's opinion. In other words, he's a visionary because he really just doesn't do anything but buy cheap components in absurdly high volumes, slap them together, and starve the competition by driving margins through the floor. Forget about excellent (or, indeed, any) industrial design, shaping the functional destiny of the personal computer, or any of that crap-- it's all about sledgehammer-tactic price wars. Now that's vision, baby! (But heck, even we admit that it works.)

To their credit, the folks at CNET only gave Mike a B+ for vision on his report card, with an A for leadership and an A- for execution. We suppose that's all fairly reasonable. At first we had to wonder about the A for "star power," since, as far as we've been able to tell, the man is about as charismatic as a block of wood with a pair of dots drawn on it for eyes, but we got to thinking... you can't be obsessed with Steve Jobs for four years without at least a little of the guy's showmanship rubbing off on you, right?