Six slots. Three Slots. Four slots. No one has any clue anymore just what Apple has planned for the high end of the Mac line when it comes to PCI expansion slots. The current "high end" isn't really high end at all-- the Gossamer motherboard in the Power Mac G3's was obviously designed as the basis for a line of midrange models. One need only consider its limited RAM expansion capabilities, its use of IDE for the main hard disk, its three PCI slots, and even its small size to come to that inescapable conclusion. The high end was supposed to be filled by the ill-fated "PowerExpress" Macs, which died a quiet death a few months ago after years of development. Apple's done a pretty good job of dressing up the current G3's as high end systems, and the fact that they've been able to do so at all is a testament to the sheer speed and power of the G3 processor.

But the real high end systems won't be appearing until November, and while just about everything we've heard about the upcoming designs is good (fast system bus, plenty of RAM and room to grow, kick-ass new industrial design), there's still that ugly sticking point-- the number of PCI slots. Instead of planning to include six slots in the new systems (as they did with the Power Mac 9500 and 9600 models), Apple is reportedly designing the machines with only four, though one of them will reportedly be a 64-bit slot. That just isn't enough to keep some existing Mac users from defecting to readily-available 6-slot Windows NT workstations for their video and graphics needs. That's why it was so cool to hear from Don Crabb that Apple was planning to announce a six-slot G3 minitower at the MacWorld Expo in a couple of weeks, which would include a 300 MHz G3 chip and cost less than $3000 with a 17" monitor included.

Too good to be true? Very possibly. How sad that Don recanted that news today, or he at least placed some serious doubts on its veracity. Other sources inside Apple now claim that Apple has "no plans" to build any systems with any more than the four PCI slots originally rumored-- and that, yes, we'll be waiting until November to see even those. Which means that digital media producers who need more slots either need to resort to a PCI expansion chassis, buy a Umax six-slot clone (while they still exist), or switch over to the Wintel world. None of these options strikes us as particularly attractive. But Apple's changed their minds before when community consensus told them they didn't know their collective ass from their elbow; witness the shift to Mac OS X and Carbon, after developer reaction to required Yellow Box/Rhapsody porting was devastatingly underwhelming. Perhaps we'll see a similar shift in the PCI stance sometime soon.

Speaking of Carbon and Mac OS X, that little move (as well as lots of happy developments in the world of Apple over the past year) seems to have won over the developers at this year's MacHack conference. The standard annual "Bash Apple" session, which always generates a top-ten list of "demands" from the developer community, was altered this year to be a "Thank Apple" session instead. (Now there's something we never thought we'd see.) MacWEEK discusses this year's "more temperate" top-ten list, which, developer A. J. Fuller was quick to point out, is not a list of demands, but rather one of requests.

The developers' demands (er, requests) aren't surprising. Topping the list was the concern that small developers have been priced right out of the market by Apple's new developer program fees (which we had expected to generate lots of ire at MacHack). Other notable points included requests for ways to increase the development of games, ways to encourage students to program on the Mac platform, and an operating system build with debugging flags-- something that Microsoft has provided to Windows developers for a long time, we're told.

What we consider to be the most intriguing suggestion was the request that Apple bundle some development tools on the upcoming iMac. That one move could single-handedly attract hundreds or thousands of new developers; since the iMac is being targeted primarily at the home market (and we expect it'll be popular in schools, too), it'd be great if kids could try their hand at programming without having to shell out the cash for a student version of Codewarrior, for example. We say Apple should go for it.

There's a lot of talk about how Apple's losing its stronghold on the education market, and well that may be, especially given the way that Intel has been giving away "migration grants" to schools who move to Windows NT systems from Unix and Mac boxes. (You remember-- that's what kicked up all that dust with Yale telling their incoming freshmen not to buy Macs, etc.) Add that to the fact that Apple lacked a reasonably-priced school system for a long time until the Power Mac G3 All-in-one (née Artemis) made its $1499 debut, and that is still more than most school systems want to pay for a single system even though it's so powerful. The iMac is incredibly well-suited to the school environment, except possibly for that missing floppy drive, and may further help Apple keep its foot in the school door.

In the meantime, though, it's nice to see Apple is still keeping up its practice of handing out grants to schools who exhibit excellence in their "education technology project plans." In a press release, Apple reveals that they just gave out over $1 million in grants to ten teams of K-12 and higher education partners who have demonstrated "innovative ways to use technology in their classrooms." That helps keep them visible and reinforces their long-standing image as the "education computer" company, while also benefiting schools who are trying to integrate computers into their programs.

By the way, we've received comments from lots of faithful viewers in the school system that indicate that the All-in-one is very popular. Too bad we never hear about that nifty system from Apple, and we're also bummed that it's not available outside of the education channel. When you think about it, it's basically an iMac without USB and 100-base-T ethernet, but with standard Mac serial ports, ADB ports, PCI slots, Rage Pro 2D and 3D graphics acceleration, and floppy drive-- all for only $200 more. (If you really want USB also, just add a $49 card.) For existing Mac users who are looking to upgrade to an iMac, the All-in-one might be a better choice, as there would be no real compatibility issues with existing peripherals. Of course, you wouldn't get the iMac's cool plastics, but Apple could remedy that in a home version of the All-in-one. Anyone listening in Cupertino?