Where to begin? We're suffering from an advanced state of information overload, following Steve Jobs' Expo keynote. He had such sights to show us-- important sights, like the network booting feature of the imminently-shipping Mac OS X Server; real-time video netcasting to fifty iMacs connected to a single Mac OS X Server box; new commercials, featuring the new iMacs and the Y2K bug; and so much more. Perhaps even more notable were the omissions: no P1 (as Apple had stated, though we had to keep hoping), no MacMate or Apple/Palm announcement, no official release of QuickTime 4 even though it was used in the videocasting demo. And of course there were the biggie announcements-- iMac features boosts and price cuts, Yosemites available now from the Apple Store, a fifth consecutive profitable quarter... out of all of this, where could we possibly begin?

Why, at the conspiracy theory, of course! Believe it or not, the biggest news of the day may well be the official announcement that the iMac is now available in five different colors. Sure, the increase in clock speed from 233 MHz to 266 is a nice little bump, and increasing the hard disk capacity from 4 GB to 6 is a pleasant bonus. And the price drop of $100 is nothing to sneeze at, either. But let's face it-- those changes aren't going to attract new buyers in droves the way that being able to choose a color will. The iMac, whose translucent case was actually designed with the input of professional candy makers, now comes in five fruit flavors: lime, tangerine, strawberry, blueberry, and grape. And they sure do look yummy. (The iMac is, to the best of our knowledge, the first computer that users must suppress the urge to lick.) And as faithful viewer Steve Pissocra points out, "the new colors of the iMac very faithfully mirror the color bands of the old logo." Almost.

Which is where the conspiracy theory comes in. As faithful viewer Jim rightfully exclaims, "WHERE'S BANANA?! I WANT iMACS TO BLEED IN 6 COLORS!" Yes, he's shouting, and we think he has a right to. Why did Apple stop one color short of making iMacs available in versions of the six colors from the groovy 70's style logo? A "banana" or "lemon" iMac would have completed the set. Granted, they couldn't call it a "lemon" without becoming the butt of endless new jokes, but "banana" would have been quite suitable. Maybe their market research shows that few people would buy a yellow computer, but what about the Apple-crazy Mac collectors? Those same people who laid out $7000 for a 20th Anniversary Macintosh when they first shipped probably wouldn't hesitate to drop $7194 on a complete set of six iMacs, just to line them up in the order of the old logo. So what's the real reason that there's no yellow iMac in the product line? Our guess: Steve doesn't like bananas.