Still fuming over the Blue Blocker scandal? That's this rumor that Apple deliberately rendered blue and white G3 systems incapable of booting when a G4 upgrade is installed; allegedly they built the disabling code into the last firmware update for those machines, supposedly to force people who need G4 performance to buy whole new systems from Apple instead of just buying CPU upgrades from some other company. Blue G3s without the firmware update reportedly work just fine with G4s installed, but systems with the latest firmware choke hard. This, understandably, has lots of people upset-- and Apple's continued reluctance to deny the rumors has only fanned the flames. We've actually been getting mail from people who threaten never to buy another Mac again because of Apple's insidious upgrade-killing behavior.

Whoa, there, Tex-- holster that six-iron for a sec and put away the tar and feathers. In addition to Apple's standard policy of never officially commenting on rumors, they've got another problem with this whole Blue Blocker thing as well: if they so much as utter the word "upgrade" in an official capacity, they court Death by Ten Thousand Lawyers. Perhaps you recall the Performa upgrade nightmare from a few years back? Apple marketed several 68040-based computers as "upgradeable to PowerPC," but neither Apple nor third-party companies ever made those promised upgrades available. Apple lost a class action lawsuit, had to pay through the nose, and now realizes that the word "upgradeable" is anathema. So they can't deny the Blue Blocker rumors without putting themselves on shaky legal ground. At least, officially...

That's why MacNN has posted a letter from an anonymous Apple employee which explains the whole situation. Sort of. According to this (admittedly confusing) letter, the G4 block in the latest firmware is not intentional, and has something to do with being a short-term installer hack for determining whether or not G4-specific libraries should be installed. In addition, there are worrisome claims that earlier G3s were having their power supplies fried when a G4 over 400 MHz was installed, and that somehow factors into the equation. But if, after reading, you have doubts about the legitimacy of the letter, you're not alone: a MacNN reader points out that, according to Apple's posted specs, the power supplies in the G3 and the G4 appear to be identical. That's a little fishy. At this point, though, the issue really is entirely one of intent, since most everyone agrees that a new firmware update and/or Mac OS 9 will re-enable G4 upgrades in all blue and white systems. Of course, that's only a rumor, too...