Katie, AtAT's resident Fact Checker and Goddess of Minutiae, came across an interesting fact while reading up on the big Microsoft-Justice showdown. Most of you, like us, were aware that both sides of the conflict had reached a temporary truce last Thursday; Justice and the states agreed to hold off on filing suit, and Microsoft agreed to postpone its shipment of Windows 98 to manufacturers. The goal was to meet and negotiate last Friday, in an attempt to come to a mutually amicable agreement that would avoid costly and bothersome litigation. On Saturday, of course, talks broke down, and Windows 98 shipped last Monday, even as the government filed its antitrust suits.

So much for the recap. The detail about last Friday's meeting that was missing from most accounts was this: Friday's talks got off to a terrifically bad start. The government representatives showed up to antitrust chief Joel Klein's offices for the "intensive meeting" at the appointed time, and sat there twiddling their thumbs because the Microsoft team never showed up. After half an hour, a staff aide came in to tell them that Microsoft thought the meeting was supposed to be at their law firm's offices. This little tidbit was apparently reported in the New York Times coverage of the event, though it was missing from the Washington Post's. A Boston Globe article discusses the misunderstanding in more detail, though it cautions that the whole incident may have been a government-manufactured anecdote to help their side. (We love it when the mainstream press are even more paranoid than we are!)

Now as for whether that misunderstanding was a misunderstanding or something else entirely is a matter of conjecture; Microsoft's arrogance throughout the whole DoJ ordeal has been astounding. It seems impossible that Microsoft's expensive lawyers could have misunderstood the location of such an important meeting; likewise, though, it seems unlikely that even a giant such as Microsoft would deliberately snub the federal government at a crucial point in the negotiations. But even if it was all just a misunderstanding, to the feds, it revealed at the very least just how little Microsoft seemed to care about the whole issue at hand. As one of the government representatives apparently stated when he was told why Microsoft was a no-show, "Microsoft executives assume that the world will come to them."

O'Grady's PowerPage has a quick "first look" at the new PowerBook G3, based on their receiving one of the first shipping units with the mid-range 13.3" TFT display. Based on initial impressions, they've given the new design a big thumbs-up: the screen is "big, bright, and sharp," the overall design is "top-notch," and it should garner "serious consideration" from people looking for a new laptop-- even those looking for a new Wintel laptop. We agree on all points, as Yours Truly was also blessed with the joy of handling one of these new-fangled puppies today. (Yes, it was an event of nearly religious significance.)

First of all, the PowerBook is packed in a new-fangled kind of shipping material; instead of styrofoam, it's twisted up in what looks like a large, inflatable plastic six-pack holder-- you know, the ones you're supposed to cut up when you throw them out, to prevent birds and other animals from getting tangled in them? This greatly reduces the mass of shipping material used, while providing an air-cushion to protect the laptop-- so you start to notice examples of "thinking different" before you even get to the PowerBook itself. The unit we got to handle also had the 13.3" screen, and yes, it's gorgeous. I hadn't realized that it was 1024x768 until I saw the boot-up screen, and noticed how similar it looked to my 17" monitor's screen at home. In addition, that bright, beautiful display is capable of cranking out 24-bit color in those 1024x768 pixels. Yes, you could probably do actual Photoshop work on this thing. Mind-boggling!

I hadn't yet received the software I needed to install on it, so just to test things a bit, I temporarily installed VirtualPC 2.0. Even though this PowerBook was a 233 MHz model with no backside cache, VPC performance was palpably faster than the time I tried VirtualPC on a 200 MHz 604e/1MB L2 cache-- but then again, that was version 1.0, and 2.0 is apparently tuned very well for G3 processors. Messing with standard Windows control panels, playing Solitaire, etc. felt perfectly zippy. And when we popped in a U.S. Robotics installer CD-ROM, the Macromedia Director presentation-- including video, sound, and animation-- played perfectly smoothly.

Did I mention that this thing is huge? I laid it on top of a 190 and it spills over by a couple of inches, but that's the price you pay for a big screen and a really nice keyboard. In fact, everything about the new PowerBook just oozes quality and style, from the two-textured curves of the case to the raised, translucent crystal Apple on top. Lastly, no, this Powerbook is not for me (alas); I'm setting it up for someone else "in real life." I'll be sorry to see it go once it's ready to ship back out. But now I've got something to save up for... ;-)

Just in case you were wondering if anyone else has noticed how cool the Apple Store is, fret not-- MacCentral reports that the Apple Store won the Gold Pencil award for the best "Direct Marketing/Internet Commerce" site. So rack up another award for Apple's WebObjects-based ordering site, which, we strongly suspect, serves primarily as a place where geeks like us can hang out, pump up all the options on the systems, and drool while dreaming of winning the lottery...

But wait, that's not all! Apple's online build-to-order site has also received the prestigious Gold Clio award for being the best site on the world wide web. (The Clios, as you probably know, are awards honoring excellence in advertising.) One of the judges points out the Apple Store's simple navigation and "clear, thoughtful, and different" presentation were major factors in Apple's win.

Of course, while Apple's build-to-order site beat out Dell's for these awards, Dell's site is currently clearing almost $5 million in orders every single day. The Apple Store, by contrast, clocked something like $16 million in sales for the entire second quarter; remember that the $1.9 million day they had when the PowerBook G3's were released was a very big deal. Still, as Applefolk, we're generally more impressed with quality over quantity, right?