Well, we're coming to the end of another quarter, and the industry analysts are predicting another loss for Apple. However, the loss they predict isn't all that bad, according to an article in MacWEEK. On average, the financial crystal-gazers are guessing a loss of $17.8 million, which is a drop in the bucket for a multi-billion-dollar company. Better yet, some analysts are predicting a small profit.

And keep in mind, this is just a prediction. Remember how at the end of last quarter, Apple beat the industry analysts' predictions by tens of millions of dollars? There's always the chance that that will happen again. In fact, we're considering holding a week-long "Beat the Analysts" contest in which faithful viewers like yourselves would enter guesses as to Apple's final quarterly results, and the closest guess would win some token prize. Any interest? Let us know on via the Feedback page.

Still, let's keep this in perspective. This was originally going to be the quarter that Apple would return to profitability, remember? More red ink is more red ink. Keep your fingers crossed for some black for a change.

Well, we're embarrassed to admit it, but this blew right past us, and O'Grady's PowerPage beat us to the scoop. Do you watch Seinfeld? Hey, who doesn't? Well, as a Seinfeld-watching Mac user, you've doubtless noticed Jerry's Mac sitting on his desk in the corner. In the early days it was some sort of Classic-format Mac, and in later episodes we saw that Jerry had upgraded to a Duo and dock-- a combination that we at AtAT heartily recommend if you happen to be a frequently-traveling stand-up comedian.

Well, apparently last week on the season premiere, if you looked hard enough, you could've seen that Jerry's upgraded once again-- in a serious way. (We'd confirm this, but my tape of the episode is currently circulating amongst coworkers.) Reportedly, his new machine of choice is none other than the 20th Anniversary Macintosh, aka Spartacus. We got to drool over one of these choice machines at the MacWorld Expo, but unfortunately the $7500-price tag doesn't mesh well with our financial situation. Heck, even the $6750 discounted model (sans valet installation and training) is a little out of our reach. But then again, we're not broadcasting on NBC like some people we could mention. Hey, Jerry, how about getting us the 8:30-Thursday time slot? We'll be your best friend...

Goodness gracious, we knew things would get interesting when POWERtools announced they were going to ship PPC 750-based Mac clones, but we thought the ruckus would be between POWERtools and Apple. As it turns out, Apple has so far stayed out of the public fray... Instead, it's Apple's sanctioned "clone buddy" UMAX who's mixing it up with POWERtools.

Last week, it was widely reported that POWERtools head Victor Wong was claiming he held a cloning OEM agreement from UMAX. It didn't take long for UMAX's Larry Herman to go public and state that POWERtools had no such agreement; this was posted to the MRP. Well, the latest in the argument seems to be Victor Wong's letter that was posted to MacNN, in which he states that his agreement is with UMAX Taiwan, and that the details would therefore never have been disclosed to the U.S. consumer division of UMAX. He also states that he has spoken personally with the Apple Mac OS licensing group in California, and that everything's just peachy.

At least, that was the latest, until the MRP posted last Friday that UMAX's Larry Herman was flatly contradicting Victor Wong's letter, and states quite clearly that POWERtools holds neither a sublicense, nor any kind of OEM agreement with any branch or division of UMAX. This argument may be raging for a while. Suppose it's all a big misunderstanding? Who's on first?