The trouble in paradise continues; while Intel and AMD duke it out in 1 GHz territory, Apple's high-end offerings are looking positively anemic from a clock speed perspective, having climbed only halfway towards the Golden Gigahertz. But Apple doesn't make the chips-- that's up to Motorola. When Motorola was unable to ship 500 MHz G4 chips last year, Apple was forced to downgrade its whole Power Mac line; the unexpected earnings warning, the resulting Apple stock plunge, and the public outcry over the "speed dump" mark a serious stumble in Apple's otherwise glorious rebirth. So Apple turned to IBM and said, "Hey, now that you've licensed Altivec from Motorola, how about cranking out some G4s for us?" IBM agreed, and now we're finally hovering at 500 MHz. Listen... Hear that? That's the deafening silence of the Wintel world who's too ga-ga over 1 GHz chips even to utter a "Big whoop."

Now, rumor has it that IBM's been able to crank the G4 as high as 650 MHz, but Motorola has prevented the company from releasing them by pulling contractual strings in the Altivec license. Granted, 650 MHz still isn't much in the "wow" department next to the Big Gig, but it's a significant improvement, and Apple should be more than a little irked at Motorola not only for failing to reach decent clock speeds itself, but also for stifling IBM-- and, by extension, Apple itself-- for the sake of saving face. Just think of all those power users who could benefit from an extra 150 MHz of supercomputer speed. Remember, it's not just media creation types using Macs; there are also researchers, doctors, scientists-- why, by putting the reins on IBM we bet Motorola's delaying the cure for cancer. Or at least the next installment in the Budweiser "Wazzup!" commercials.

Well, as you know, Apple's not one to stand idly by while diseases go uncured and beer goes unhyped, so the company has sprung into action. According to Mac OS Rumors, the big guns are firing; everybody's favorite potentate, Uncle Steve himself, has gone in to break some heads. Oh, sure, "the many reports on this subject continue to contradict one another on numerous details," but that's the stuff of which legends are made. Fear not; there's no doubt in our minds that Steve's gone in to Motorola headquarters with RDF a-blazin'. And with luck, we'll start seeing Power Mac G4/650s shipping sometime before Intel unveils that 1.4 GHz Willamette...