Gee, does anyone remember back when Apple guarded the secrets of its upcoming products so thoroughly that the press practically chewed off its own limbs trying to figure out what "Columbus" was? It turned out to be the original iMac, which nobody expected-- and keeping a product like that under wraps was a true feat of godlike secrecy. Maybe it's just us, but when it comes to keeping secrets, it sure seems like the company is slacking off a little in recent years. There were all those accidental leaks by the gnomes running Apple's own web site, for example, and then there was Steve at the (spoiled) unveiling of the G5, coming right out and telling us all that it'd be running at 3 GHz within a year-- a move that made fine strategic sense, sure, but it just ran so counter to the company's whole "we don't comment on unannounced products" cloak-and-dagger approach to product development and release that it left us feeling slightly clammy.

And now, of course, it's like Apple isn't even trying anymore. Faithful viewer mrmgraphics forwarded us a job posting publicly viewable on Apple's own web site which advertises for a "Playback Firmware Engineer." Nothing too juicy there, but that's before you take into account all those rumors of video iPods coming soon. See, this "Playback Firmware Engineer" needs to have "experience in overall system design of audio and video products." Applicants also need a "thorough knowledge of multimedia file formats (MPEG-4, QuickTime)," a mastery of "details associated with audio and video codecs," and "familiarity with audio and video compression standards." Tell us that this doesn't all just scream "next generation iPod product."

Oh, did we forget to mention the fact that, in addition to listing all these video requirements, the posting specifically states that the focus of the job is "to develop [a] next generation iPod product"? Because, you know, that might be sort of revealing.

So there you have it: barring a massive shift in direction, future iPods will indeed have some sort of video capability built in-- and this fact has been all but confirmed by none other than Apple itself. So much for keeping details of unreleased products under lock and key behind the Silicon Curtain. Just about the only saving grace here is that Apple somehow managed to prevent that listing from showing up in a job search for "iPod" (despite the fact that the word appears in the job description), which might indicate that the company hasn't completely given up on protecting the secrets of its upcoming products. But if this sort of thing keeps up, someday we're going to see revelations on Apple's own site that'll make Hot News look nearly identical to Mac OS Rumors-- and we won't be a bit surprised.

And, of course, we just have to finish out the week before Christmas with a touching tale of the triumph of the holiday spirit. No, seriously, we have to-- it's actually mandated by the FCC. If we don't, we risk some sort of citation or something; we're not too clear on the details, because man those regulations are dry, but suffice it to say that unless we supply the obligatory dose of holiday cheer, Bad Things Will Happen™. We hear there was once a promising young network just finding its audience and everything was going great-- until it failed to comply with paragraph 3, subsection 6a of the Holiday Cheer Regulations. After that, things started to go downhill, and today that network is known as... UPN. Oooh, scary. So you can see why we have to be careful.

So without further ado, here's the setup: perhaps you've seen an article at the Sacramento Bee which tries to go all Grinchy on those who dare to purchase Macs as gifts this holiday season. The problem, says the Bee, is that there are still some Macs out there that have sat on shelves or in warehouses since before the release of Panther, which means that when some folks unwrap their new Macs on Christmas morning, they may find that they're still running Jaguar. Nothing against Jaguar, mind you; it's a fine operating system. But Panther's been available for almost a couple of months, now, and by rights, any new Mac under the tree on the morning of the 25th really ought to be Pantherized.

As the Bee points out, sure, there's the Mac OS X Up-To-Date program, which allows new Mac owners whose machines didn't come with Panther to upgrade for a "nominal fee," but there are a couple of problems with that. The first is that anyone receiving a brand spankin' new Mac for Christmas isn't going to want to write a check for $19.95 "shipping and handling" (plus sales tax-- since when does sales tax apply to shipping and handling fees?) and then wait "3 to 7 working days" before the upgrade arrives. The second is rather worse, which is that Up-To-Date orders for Panther "must be postmarked by December 17th, 2003, and received by December 26th, 2003"-- not an easy task when the Mac doesn't even get unwrapped until the 25th. Recipients would have a one-day window during which they'd have to place a phone or fax order for the upgrade, or wind up having to shell out a full $129 for Panther at a later date.

But here's the Festivus miracle that's supposed to make you feel all warm and sunny inside while fulfilling our broadcast content obligations to the federal government: possibly in reaction to the Bee's complaining a couple of days ago, the Mac OS X Up-To-Date program has just been extended through the end of January! So now Christmas Mac recipients who get stiffed on Panther will have over a month in which to fork over their twenty clams to eventually receive in the mail what should have come in the box in the first place. Okay, fine, so it's not exactly on par with flying reindeer with light-up noses, but hey, customers getting screwed for $20 instead of for $130 counts as a heartwarming holiday blessing in our book. Let's just hope it meets federal standards for substantive Christmas-themed cheer.