Looks like we were right to bite the bullet and finally get TiVo, since it's now been confirmed that, despite its "digital hub" strategy, Apple has no current plans to make its own similar device. Faithful viewer Stephanie pointed out that ZDNet's David Coursey is still bragging about his recent hour-long meeting with Steve Jobs. (Meanwhile, Steve has never even so much as sent us a birthday card; we are so unloved.) In his latest piece, Mr. Coursey reveals that Steve flat-out told him that Apple isn't planning to delve into the "home entertainment business" for the next twenty-four months, at least as far as personal video recorders and set-top boxes are concerned. So with no Apple equivalent in the works, as fans of "managed TV," we're in for at least two more years of wondering why the heck TiVo keeps thinking we want to watch old episodes of the "$1.98 Beauty Show" all the time. (Note to TiVo: the "Thumbs Up" and "Thumbs Down" buttons on the remote are great, but AtAT's resident fact-checker and Goddess of Minutiae Katie sees a desperate need for the addition of a "Good God, NO" button as well.)

So what is Apple working on, if not a set-top box that will let Mac users tune in to whatever channel Phil Schiller is currently watching? (We bet the guy's a big "T.J. Hooker" fan. Just a hunch.) Well, Coursey claims that Steve's not saying, preferring to play it all cool and mysterious in that way that's so popular with the ladies; you know, kind of like Fonzie. "Aaaaay." But apparently the subject of UNIX came up in a big way; for the uninitiated, UNIX is that scary junk lurking under Mac OS X's Aqua-tinted hood which, thankfully, Apple has done a commendable job of hiding from "regular people"-- but hardcore geeks just love that stuff. And apparently Mac OS X's UNIX core is quietly winning Apple some fans among certain UNIX-breathing denizens of the scientific and corporate realms.

According to Coursey, Apple is "quietly gearing up, adding technology evangelists, developer support staff, and the other people and programs necessary to launch a drive to sell OS X versus other UNIX systems." And guess what? Some of the company's moves in this arena aren't exactly rating "Silent As Shadow In Fluffy Bunny Slippers" on the Ninja Scale of Divine Sneakiness. Take, for example, Apple's new press release announcing the availability of its free, Open Source enhancement to a popular bioinformatics application called BLAST. The new version, co-developed by Apple and Genentech, just happens to run five times faster on a dual-1 GHz G4 than on a 2 GHz Pentium 4. Is Apple, as faithful viewer Socky suggests, simply trying to accelerate the research into what genetic accident led to the existence of Steve Ballmer? Or is this a not-so-subtle limb of Apple's grand scheme to become a major player in the scientific UNIX community?

So there you have it: evidence of one long-term strategy to extend Apple's share into markets beyond those of consumers, graphic artists, and schools. If this plan to exploit Mac OS X's inherent UNIXy goodness plays out the way we suspect it might, a couple of years down the road we might not even be completely surprised to find that Apple has also quietly made inroads into what were formerly all-beige corporate arenas. Heck, it's no iTube featuring glorious SchillerVision™, but we'll take it nonetheless.

Speaking of Apple sneaking into new markets, what's up with the company's stealth purchase of Nothing Real? If you're a slave to Mac dirt, you've doubtless heard about this by now-- as noted by faithful viewer Jason Wardle, several news outlets (including VFXPro and MacMinute) are reporting that, yes indeedy, Apple busted out the checkbook again and forked over an undisclosed sum for the creator of such applications as Shake and Tremor. Before your trigger fingers get too itchy, we should mention that Shake and Tremor are not excessively violent sequels to Quake; we're told that they're actually extremely high-end 3D compositing apps. We'd go check 'em out ourselves, but Nothing Real's web site is currently down while the company's web hamsters "make some changes"-- which, in itself, certainly lends credence to the buyout reports.

First of all, take a minute or two to get all the "Apple just bought Nothing Real" / "I hope they didn't pay much, then" jokes out of your system. We'll wait.

Ready? Okay. Now consider what this move might mean-- after all, this is some pretty hefty tech, here; an article at Digital Post Production has a list of Shake-enhanced films as long as your arm (well, maybe not as long as your arm, but it's still pretty long), including such special effects showcases as Contact, Titanic, and The Matrix; most recently it was used heavily in The Lord of The Rings. Shake users are reportedly totally gaga over what this software can do, and many digital production houses apparently consider it absolutely indispensable. And lookee here-- it's currently only available for Windows, Linux, and SGI Irix. Hmmmm.

So there are a couple of possibilities when it comes to Apple's plans for Shake and Tremor. The first is that Apple will simply rebrand the software, port it to Mac OS X, and continue to develop and support the versions for other platforms. The other is that Apple will let the versions for competing platforms wither and die while only the Mac OS X version gets any real attention. Which do you suppose they'll choose? (While you're pondering that toughie, keep in mind what happened to all the other software that Apple has quietly gobbled up over the past several years, and ask yourself whether there are non-Mac versions of iMovie, Final Cut Pro, iTunes, iDVD, or DVD Studio Pro. Or is that too big a hint?)

Bzzzzt! Time's up. Reportedly an official company statement indicates that Apple "plans to use Nothing Real's technology in future versions of its products," so we're expecting Shake's functions either to get absorbed into Final Cut Pro (making that gorgeous bundle o' fun even more of a killer app-- as if the real-time effects didn't do that already), or released as a repackaged Mac OS X-only application. If Shake is as good as its users think it is, a move like this might just prompt a slow but steady mass Mac migration in Hollywood over the next few years. And you know what they say: the platform that controls Hollywood, controls the world! Or at least the world's popcorn consumption rate.

The people have spoken-- and the people don't like it. We speak, of course, of the latest development in "Redmond Justice," which, at 412 years and counting, is the longest-running antitrust drama still on the air. You may recall that the last time we checked in, despite having proven repeatedly that Microsoft illegally abused its monopoly power, the Justice Department came under new management and subsequently folded like a cheap card table among a stampede of elephants. Microsoft and the DoJ came up with a settlement proposal so toothless it made your average Elmo and Ernie look like Marie frickin' Osmond.

As it turns out, though, according to a provision in the Tunney Act, no such settlement could be approved by the judge until after a sixty-day period of public comment; the idea is to help ensure that any such settlement be in the best interest of the public at large. Well, that 60-day period has come and gone, the comments were counted, and the numbers are pretty much what we expected: according to a CNET report, the DoJ received approximately 15,000 comments against the proposed settlement, and a mere 7,500 in favor of it. That's two to one looking for a real remedy, among people who cared enough to write in.

Strangely enough, CNET reports that the DoJ also received 1,250 responses "unrelated to the case" and another 7,000 that "expressed no sentiment either way." The unrelated messages we understand, since spam is rampant, but why would 7,000 people bother to write in just to say, "Ah, whatever"? Faithful viewer Bill Lisowski got to the bottom of that, though, by noticing that CNN reports that the messages that allegedly "expressed no sentiment" generally expressed strong sentiment, but were actually "dismissed as opinion, like 'I hate Microsoft.'" (Personally, we'd think that 7,000 "I hate Microsoft" letters might actually say something pretty important about the case, but hey, it's not our show.)

Anyway, apparently Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has hinted that Microsoft and the DoJ should consider reworking that settlement a little bit in light of the fact that so many people are opposed to it in its current form. She's supposed to meet with both sides tomorrow, at which point we may get some indication as to whether or not she plans to accept the proposal in a month or two. In the meantime, those of you who took time out to send your comments to the DoJ-- whether for or against the settlement proposal-- should give yourselves a pat on the back for doing that whole civic duty thing. (That sounded appropriately impartial, right?)