So have you collected all four yet? We speak, as if we had to clarify, of the new Star Wars: Episode I commercials that Apple has posted to its web site. Apple is still riding the Star Wars hype, and we can't think of a better way to increase their visibility. Let's put it this way: remember when the iMac first came out last August? There were customers waiting in line the night before, eager to get their hands on one of the very first Bondi Blue beauties off the truck-- and yet, the frenzy was reportedly nothing like the riots that started when hordes of fed-up Windows 3.1 users finally got within hours of the release date of Windows 95. But even Windows users didn't quit their jobs and move across the country to wait in line for over a month for 95's release, and that's just what some fans are doing to secure one of the very first tickets for the new Star Wars flick. Now that's hype.

So what better way to push QuickTime than by releasing Star Wars trailers and commercials over the Internet exclusively in QuickTime format? Better yet, now that QuickTime 4 is out in "preview" form, Apple's providing versions of the videos that offer better sound and video quality if you're using the very latest and greatest version of everyone's favorite multimedia architecture. And the hype is working, because according to a CNET article, Apple claims the big Episode I trailer has now been downloaded over ten million times-- and a million of those downloads were for the new, improved QuickTime 4-only version of the video. Now that's using the Force.

As for the new commercials themselves, personally, we don't find them terribly exciting, as least not compared to the action-packed trailer. (That didn't stop us from downloading and saving all four, however.) In fact, call us crazy (go on, you do anyway), but they remind us a little bit of the original "Think Different" commercial: emotional, introspective voice-over with music, montage of lots of video clips, closing with a simple two-word phrase on a black background. We really liked the "Think Different" ad, though, so we've got to wonder if these Star Wars commercials would be better with grainy black and white footage instead...