Believe it or not, AtAT actually does have a few well-placed "sources" who occasionally choose to submit material for the show's scripts, purely on a freelance basis. Most of the time, we choose to defer talking about some of the dirt that gets dished because we consider the possibility of Apple losing a competitive edge if products are publicly discussed before Apple's ready. Well, despite having been fed tantalizing little morsels over the last few weeks, we were trying to do Apple a favor by not focusing attention on their Apple Media Player project, code-named "Columbus," but now that CNET's posted an article on it, it's all over the net like a rash; just about every Mac site has a piece of the action.

In case you've been negligent in your net-surfing duties, let's bring you up to speed: the Apple Media Player is one of Apple's "thin-client" projects reportedly based on Allegro Lite, the version of the Mac OS destined for Apple's next-generation of handheld computers. The AMP is reportedly an entertainment appliance, capable of playing audio CD's and DVD movies, while also allowing internet access. Yes, it sounds like a warmed-over Pippin, but it's actually something quite new, and it is rumored to be related both to Apple's Newton successors and to their NC's. We've even heard from one source that there's a possibility of an eMate-like device-- just a few pounds, in a sturdy plastic housing-- that basically combines a DVD player and a color LCD screen to yield what is essentially a Sony Walkman that plays movies. It's a neat idea, and if Apple manages to be the first company who can successfully build and market information appliances, well, that could be a key in their return to sustained profitability and growth.

And actually, it's not as if CNET broke the story-- Apple Recon's been talking about the AMP for quite a long time now, and in fact you may recall that its possible lateness is what supposedly has the whole town of Hollywood out for Steve Jobs' blood in one of Recon's latest posts. (You can understand the appeal of such a computer to the likes of Hollywood.) Still, we hope that this sudden media focus on Apple's (now formerly-) Top Secret project doesn't put them at a major competitive disadvantage-- they've had enough competitive disadvantages to last them well into the next millennium.

Sorry as we are to have to miss next week's Seybold conference, our spirits are lifted slightly by the announcement that Steve Jobs' keynote will be broadcast via satellite downlink, both to your very own dish and to the Apple Offices in eight cities. Satellite info and registration for viewing at your local Apple office is available on an Apple Seminars page. If you have a satellite dish, or you can escape work to watch from Apple's offices, you're luckier than we are.

All hope is not lost for us, though, as we're hearing that the speech will also be we webcast by various organizations, including Apple. Unfortunately, as we've seen time and time again, webcasting is still in its dark ages, and we're expecting ridiculously overloaded servers and bandwidth clog to render the keynote unavailable. If we happen to get lucky, we'll probably post a midday extra summarizing what we hear and how we react. Jobs is expected to announce several new Apple products, such as the hypercool 15" LCD monitor, a new 300 MHz Powermac G3, possibly the Wall Street and Main Street Powerbooks, and maybe even the Mac NC and Columbus.

Incidentally, Jobs isn't the only keynote speaker we're sorry we're missing; Nicholas Negroponte is also delivering an address. You may know Negroponte as the guy who writes the last-page article for Wired magazine. He also happens to be the director of the MIT Media Lab, where we once frittered away many a youthful night making holograms in the basement. Negroponte's an interesting guy who works in a really interesting place, and we're sure he'll bring some great thoughts to share.

And the "Redmond Justice" wheel grinds on... Yesterday, Microsoft filed their final written arguments in their appeal to overturn Judge Jackson's preliminary injunction-- which prevents them from requiring that Wintel manufacturers ship Internet Explorer loaded on each and every Windows 95 system. Details are available in a Reuters article.

There's nothing particularly enlightening in the arguments, apparently. Microsoft continues to claim that the Justice Department's interpretation of the 1995 consent agreement (which Microsoft is accused of violating) "does not make sense." Furthermore, they claim that "no pro-competitive purpose would be served" by allowing manufacturers to ship systems without IE. (Personally, if we were considering writing a web browser for Windows, and found out that IE came preinstalled on all Windows 95 systems, we wouldn't bother-- how is that pro-competitive?) Microsoft wants the preliminary injunction overturned, and the DoJ's charges dismissed entirely.

Personally, we at AtAT are getting a little tired of this particular case; it's so limited in scope. Who cares whether Wintel manufacturers should be allowed to unbundle IE? Most of them probably don't want to. We hope the Justice Department is serious about waging full-scale antitrust battle against Microsoft before Windows 98 ships. It's not that we think it'll necessarily make a bit of difference in the end, but the ensuing courtroom drama would give us fresh episode material for years. Go on, guys-- sic 'em!