Let's face it: the high-tech world changes faster than any other business we can think of, which makes trying to follow all the rumors sort of a futile endeavor. After all, any rumors of technological advances or new-fangled hardware are often talking about products that aren't expected to be unveiled for six months or longer, which is almost a lifetime in the fast-paced tech world. On top of that, rumors only spread if they're exciting, so you typically wind up hearing that a certain computer (not due for another half a year or so) is going to include every single one of whatever features currently occupy the Top Ten List of What's Hip in High-Tech-- even if the price of those ten features added together is three times more than the product itself is expected to cost. Yes, staying on top of all this stuff is futility indeed-- but that doesn't mean we aren't going to try. It just means that we can't mind being disappointed on a fairly regular basis.

Take, for example, the P1 consumer portable, due by mid-1999 from our friends in Cupertino. This "portable iMac" is arguably the most eagerly-awaited system among Macophiles, and rumors about what it is (or is not) have run rampant. When you add up all the stuff that we've heard will be included, like DVD, wireless CDPD networking, a fast G3 processor, etc., it just doesn't fit into the P1's expected $1000-$1200 price range. Realistically, some of those features just aren't going to make the cut. For crying out loud, the iMac has a pretty minimalistic feature set (no floppy, SCSI, standard Mac serial, or ADB) and it still costs $1299. That's why, sad as the news might be, we're inclined to believe the "reality-adjusted" P1 specs reported on O'Grady's PowerPage.

According to the PowerPage, one source has come forward to say that the P1 will not include built-in wireless Internet access. From a price standpoint, that makes a lot of sense, even though it flies in the face of all kinds of news reports flying around for the last couple of weeks. While some P1 prototypes included this capability, it would seem that it's been left on the cutting room floor. Still, we find ourselves unable to shake one crucial datum from our collective skull-- Steve Jobs' CAUSE98 keynote, in which he alluded vaguely to a portable system that was always connected to the Internet. Who's right? To be honest, it doesn't matter. The P1 is so far from a public unveiling, whatever the right answer is now may well be wrong tomorrow, or in a week, or a month. Our money's still on P1 shipping with some kind of wireless net capability, though.