Wow, this sure has been a pretty dead week for Apple watchers. Not much of anything really happened, and we can only surmise that after the whole "G4 Speed Dump" fiasco, Steve and the gang are taking some time to cool their jets before poking their heads back out into public. And who could blame them? The whole cancellation and slow, cumulative reinstatement of G4 pre-orders was a corporate embarrassment that not only took some of the shine off of Apple's hard-won public image, but also might wind up in the history books as one of the big business boo-boos of the latter twentieth century. The result? What we can only assume is an Apple-mandated radio silence that has driven most Mac news sites to post enthusiastically about incredible new software updates and competitive upgrade prices. (By the way, have we mentioned that Insider Software now offers FontAgent 8 for just $34.95 to owners of Extensis Suitcase 8? Check it out!)

In fact, the news has been so slow lately that some of us having been praying for something-- anything-- to happen. Apple announces it's buying CompUSA and turning all stores into Mac-only retail outlets. Larry Ellison spills the beans on Apple's development of a top-secret line of kitchen appliances. Steve Jobs freaks out and runs naked through the streets of Cupertino, baring his NeXT chest tattoo for all to see, as he flings fistfuls of mashed potatoes at the local populace. Anything. (Heck, we'd give up our cable modem if it would make that last one come true. Well, okay, maybe not.) Instead, though, what we got was yet another Apple PR fiasco-- but this one hit the U.K. instead of here in the States. It would appear that Apple has once again bowed out of the Apple Expo in London; if that's true, then this makes Apple's no-show status an official hat trick. Macworld UK has more on the sticky subject.

See, Apple pulled out of the 1998 show when the conference's organizers tried to take the event cross-platform. Then this year's show, originally scheduled to kick off on November 25th at London's Olympia Hall, got shelved in favor of a much bigger Apple Expo 2000 in March at the larger Wembley Centre. The idea was that Wembley could hold 2600 Apple fanatics all eager to catch a Steve Jobs keynote. Unfortunately, as rumored by Mac the Knife, now it looks like Steve has other plans that day; he wants to keynote at Internet World, instead. What that means is that all the irate vendors who got shafted by sinking money into the 1998 Apple-less Apple Expo (and its consequently anemic attendance numbers) may in fact have been shafted again, since now Apple may not attend the March show either. Imagine a Macworld Expo in San Francisco, for instance, without Apple showing up. Yikes. So of course the vendors are "furious," and they've got a few choice words on the matter in further Macworld UK coverage. But hey, look at the bright side-- at least the Mac news sites now have something to write about other than what dish soap is best for cleaning your mouse. It ain't Streaking Steve, but it's something.