So whaddaya think-- are the streets in Cupertino running red with torrents of blood, or what? We're actually on the fence about this one: do you suppose the Power Mac revision photos floating around the 'net are actually raising Steve's blood pressure at all? What we mean is, while they clearly depict a product that hasn't yet been announced, and while they allegedly came from Apple itself (and leaks from within are usually the bitterest pills to swallow), they don't exactly tell us a whole lot about the product in question. Assuming the images aren't total fakes, we suspect that Steve himself is wondering whether or not he should be angry. (The torrents of blood are ready to roll at a moment's notice, of course.)

In case you're not up on the latest and have no earthly idea what we're talking about, check out this AppleInsider article (pointed out by faithful viewer Frozen Tundra), which includes comparative G5 photos supposedly culled from Power Mac service manuals. AI has selected six images-- three from a new service manual they claim was distributed just last week, and the corresponding three from the previous edition-- and arranged the images side by side in a sort of Jared Fogle "before and after" deal (only without the "after" G5 holding up a giant pair of pants) to emphasize certain architectural changes between the two pictured units.

Don't get too excited, though, because like we said, the differences aren't terribly drastic looks-wise, so don't go expecting an anodized purple case with fins and dangly bits and some really cool racing stripes. (That's next year's model.) As far as we can make out from the side view and three-quarters shot (both of which, admittedly, show the unit with the whole side panel off), the new G5 looks just like the old G5-- at least, from the outside. But there are clearly differences in the system's guts; most obviously, that metal heat sink cover with the "G5" etched in the side has gotten freakin' huge-- roughly twice the size of the original, which AI interprets as confirmation that when they finally ship, all of the new Power Macs will be dual-processor models.

The other changes are relatively subtle: a smaller motherboard, some missing fans (although they may have just been removed for the service manual photos to show the relevant parts more clearly), RAM slots that are now oriented vertically instead of horizontally. But there's a little weirdness, here: for one thing, we're wondering why the G5 would drop from eight RAM slots to four; for another, a couple of viewers who claim to have access to Apple service manuals say they can't find any sign of the "published on May 28th" one from which the "new" photos were allegedly taken. And, uh, where are you supposed to plug in a display?... In other words, there's no guarantee that these images are legit; if nothing else, you'd have to wonder if Apple would have allowed them to remain online this long if they were real. Then again, like we said, maybe the photos don't reveal enough for Apple to really care.

Of course, the bottom line is that, if you accept the new images as genuine (and, hey, it's Friday... so why the heck not?), then you finally have proof positive that new Power Macs are coming eventually. And while that may sound like a no-brainer, given how long we've been waiting for these revisions to show up, believe us-- we're grateful for any evidence we can scrounge...

Listen! Hear that? That's the sound of people not yammering on incessantly about an imminent Apple-branded handheld computer. No rumors of a cobranded PalmOne PDA, no whispers of the Newton's rise from the ashes in "iPhone" form, no nothin'. Isn't it just bliss? And it's been that way for quite a while, now; right next to our count of consecutive accident-free days (three and counting!), there's a sign that currently reads "113 DAYS SINCE OUR LAST APPLE HANDHELD RUMOR." As we're sure you'll agree, that's quite a record. In fact, we even received an OSHA commendation a few days back.

Well, okay, technically it was a condemnation, not the other thing, but it's an anagram. Mostly. Besides, we don't even know what those jerks were yowling about anyway; everyone puts land mines under the carpet when their workplace has an ant problem. Right?

Anyway, just because the rumors have died down doesn't mean there isn't any interest in an Apple PDA; the thing is, though, it sounds like plenty of people are still content with the original Apple handheld: the venerable and much-beloved Newton. Sure, it's been dead in Apple's eyes since 1998, but the users have kept it alive on their own terms. Less than two years ago WIRED was talking about how, four years after the platform's alleged death, the Newton community appeared to be growing rather than fading away, and now it looks like there might be some more evidence supporting that theory: the The Cult of Mac blog (by the same Leander Kahney who wrote the original WIRED article) mentions an upcoming WorldWide Newton Conference.

Yes, a Newton conference. The MessagePad may have been Steved all the way back in the dark days of '98, but that won't stop Newt users worldwide from converging on Paris, France in early September for Newton-related "lectures, sessions, chat, and fun" (and, um, possibly that Apple Expo thing that starts a few days beforehand). Sure, there won't be a show floor because the number of companies selling Newton products is presumably kindasorta close to zero, but when you've got a closely-knit community of users, who needs exhibitors? At least, IDG World Expo would seem to agree, seeing as next month's Macworld Expo only has 42 more vendors signed up than WWNC does.

That brings up an interesting side point, actually: does anyone know the Vegas odds on which conference will rack up more attendees? Because as faithful viewer mikl points out, if Macworld Boston winds up with a lower headcount than a vendorless conference for users of a six-years-discontinued handheld platform, well, somebody's going to wind up looking pretty stupid. Apparently IDG knows this, since we're pretty sure there are now two more vendors on its exhibitor list than there were just two days ago-- go man go! Make those deals!

Whatever. We've long resigned ourselves to a lonely experience at Macworld Boston, and we're actually kind of looking forward to the peace and quiet. The real question now is, should we dig out our trusty ol' (make that ol' ol' ol') MessagePad 100 and hop a plane for Paris in September?

We're going to have to make this quick, folks, because it's been one loooooong short week, and we're fading fast. That said, tradition mandates that today is Wildly Off-Topic Microsoft-Bashing Day, and we would never besmirch the solemnity of the occasion by bringing in such unwelcome vectors as logic, rationality, or conclusions forged in any time longer than that of a knee jerk. We have standards, you know?

For example, faithful viewer chipGeek pointed out an article in Seattle Weekly penned by a former Microsoft employee who has since become so fed up with how his ex-boss's products are "endlessly frustrating to use" that he finally took the plunge last month and bought a G5: whereas his Wintel required that he restart at least once per day and pummelled him with bizarre behavior like self-bulleting word processing documents and hit-or-miss shutdown commands, with his G5 he was "surfing the Internet, sending email, and ripping a CD" all within "the first five minutes." As this former Microsoftie puts it, "OS X has been a breath of badly-needed fresh air after Windows."

So the chipGeek passed it along to us, describing it as Microsoft-bashing, but "thoughtful, well-reasoned Microsoft-bashing." And it is-- which means its wholly inappropriate for our purposes here today. Heck, it never even once stoops to the level of a dirty personal attack! Good read, though.

Instead, let us turn to a Washington Post article (as forwarded to us by faithful viewer mrmgraphics) called "The Ballmer Treatment," which sounds to us like some new fad diet or something, but it actually refers to the guy's hands-on style of micromanagement when he finds a department in Microsoft that's just not kicking enough kiester. Case in point: the company's Business Solutions group is posting net losses each quarter, so Ballmer is sweeping in to make some changes. He's cutting 100 jobs, adding 100 more (different ones, one would hope), throwing an extra $150 million at the problem (always a clever solution), and-- here's the kicker-- requiring that the division's head, senior veep Doug Burgum, now report directly to him.

In other words, Burgum is now going to have to see Ballmer-- a lot. And of course Burgum claims that "it's a great benefit for our business to engage with Steve at this level," but c'mon, he has to say that stuff to the press. Privately, we expect he's freaking out about months of vastly increased one-on-one Ballmer exposure, because, well, wouldn't you be? We'd be living in constant fear that he was going to start shrieking and jumping around like a howler monkey on banana-flavored crack, or maybe sweating through the elbows of his shirt and chanting "developers... developers... developers..." over and over again in a cracking voice. Icky!

The thing is, this is Ballmer's modus operandi; the Post reports that he "has a long history of getting personally involved in rescuing struggling Microsoft units," to the degree of even having "moved his office to Microsoft's RedWest campus to delve into the company's Internet efforts." In other words, if you screw up at Microsoft-- lord help you-- he comes near you. How sick is that? No wonder the company's so profitable.