Strange things are afoot... Remember how Apple recently added a 366 MHz Power Mac G3 to its price list, only to pull it again almost immediately? Unfortunately, they didn't pull it fast enough to prevent several catalog resellers from printing and mailing thousands of catalogs advertising the nonexistent machine. Prospective customers called to order one, only to be told that the computer was not yet available.

Granted, there's nothing too strange about Apple deciding not to release a specific configuration at the last second, due to availability concerns. But what is strange is that a reader over at MacNN claims that the 366 MHz G3 systems have shown up at his local Fry's Electronics. That's right-- according to Scott Kingston, the Fry's in Sacramento received twenty-four of the mysterious phantom computers, of which twenty-two had already been sold. And Scott sounds pretty sure of his data; since he was skeptical, the Apple rep at Fry's took him into the back room to have a look for himself.

Now, one firsthand eyewitness report doesn't necessarily mean much, especially given the fact that Edelman Worldwide, Apple's new PR firm, firmly denies that Apple has ever shipped a Power Mac in a 366 MHz configuration. But if there were a very limited number of G3/366's produced before Mitch Mandich pulled the plug, and somehow twenty-four of those machines made it out to Fry's in Sacramento, there are twenty-four very happy Mac users right now, feeling the wind in their hair as they enjoy the fastest Macs ever made. Or never made, depending on whom you believe. Perhaps AtAT viewers in the market for a new Mac should keep their eyes open at their local retailers-- there's no telling how many 366's snuck into the channel. Hey, maybe Scott's experience is just the beginning, and reports of phantom G3/366's will become as popular as Elvis sightings and tortillas containing the image of the Virgin Mary.

For those of us poor schmucks who aren't lucky enough to stumble across one of the magic G3/366's, we have to look forward to Apple's next-generation Power Mac G3's, expected for introduction at January's MacWorld Expo. There's been a ton of speculation on these systems so far, and Mac OS Rumors has just thrown more data onto the pig pile.

According to Rumors, current prototypes of the next-generation Power Macs are using 100 MHz system busses to run G3 processors at 350 and 400 MHz. Altivec, the processor extensions that several people are referring to as "MMX done right," will show up in systems running 500 MHz and faster G3's probably in spring, and eventually Apple will transition over to G4's in the summer. The new Power Macs also include a 2x AGP slot on the motherboard, allowing for super-fast graphics expansion (though it may be a while before graphics card vendors start bringing AGP cards over to the Mac).

The new systems don't seem to represent any real breakthrough in performance, with the 400 MHz model benchmarking only 30% faster than a current Power Mac G3/333. Still, that's a respectable improvement, and given the fact that the price of these new systems is expected to start at around $1800, Apple's making sure that it has attractive computers to offer at several price points. And when we say "attractive computers," we're not just talking about the feature set; if all the rumors flying around are true, the industrial design of the new systems makes the iMac look like a beige box. We're still hoping for a sneak preview during Steve Jobs' Seybold keynote, but we're not holding our collective breath...

Uh oh... Judging by the 500 or so new Mac applications announced since the iMac's May unveiling, most developers are eager to get back on the Mac development bandwagon, but apparently Macromedia may be jumping off. According to a MacWEEK article, the company plans to announce Authorware 5.0 this week-- but only for Windows.

Authorware is a tool that lets users create interactive multimedia applications. According to Macromedia, the Mac version hasn't sold very well for the last few years, and the company decided to jettison it, in hopes of improving their financial picture. Apparently the choice came more from the company's shareholders than from Macromedia themselves, who still claim to be Mac folk at heart.

Looks like we're going to be seeing spillover from Apple's painful slump for a while longer. The decision to kill Authorware for the Mac was reportedly made several months ago, and was likely based on sales figures accumulated during Apple's massive red ink spill. What a shame that, due to delayed reaction, there are developers leaving the platform at a time when the Mac's future is brighter than it has been in years-- perhaps the brightest it's ever been. But that's the speed of big business...