Are you one of those people who's just never satisfied? You know what we mean; like, you know you should be happy with that tricked-out icebox G3/400 with a full gigabyte of RAM, three 36 GB Ultra2 SCSI hard drives in a RAID array, DVD-RAM, and gigabit Ethernet (only $17,817 at the Apple Store with an Apple Studio Display 20" monitor! Isn't it fun maxing out all the options?), but somehow you still find yourself pining for the Next Big Thing™. Congratulations-- you're what keeps the tech world moving forward. If it weren't for people like you, we'd probably all still be using Mac II's, or even (shudder) DOS. So give yourself a big pat on the back as your reach for that overstressed credit card to make your next purchase.

As for what that next purchase is likely to be, well, the Next Big Thing™ in Macintosh computing promises to be the Power Mac G4. Yes, the G3 will get a speed bump, probably within the next few weeks, but besides faster processor speeds there won't be any real differences from the very first icebox G3's that shipped back in January. (Can you believe it's really been almost four months?) The G4, on the other hand, will be a whole new cup of noodles, according to Apple Insider. If you'd like to drool over the rumored specifics of the new machine due this fall; reportedly the new Sawtooth motherboard will finally gain a 4x AGP graphics slot, a 100-133 MHz system bus, and will debut pushing Altivec-enhanced G4 processors running at 450, 500, and 550 MHz Beyond that, it's far too early to tell whether Apple will change the plastics of the current El Capitan case when the G4 ships, but personally we don't expect much of a change beyond a big "G4" on the side and maybe a new color.

But wait! There's more. For those among you who aren't all that interested in speculation about a computer that won't see the light of day for at least another five months, Apple Insider includes some background on the project that should also appeal to drama fans who remember Apple's ill-fated Power Express project. Power Express, you may recall, was going to be the "pro" G3 Mac; the beige G3 we got back in November of 1997 was originally supposed to be a mid-range motherboard, but Apple was forced to re-cast it as a pro system when Power Express (a six-slot system, incidentally) went kaput after two years of work. Think of it as the Copland of Mac hardware-- except that Power Express was apparently pretty good and actually got Steved, prompting several of the engineers who had been working on the project to leave Apple and find work elsewhere. The Power Mac G4 is the project that fills Power Express' vacant shoes-- but that still doesn't mean it's going to have more than three slots.