Okay, so AppleInsider's info is sometimes a little sketchy-- that doesn't mean we don't love 'em to death. In fact, we love all the rumors sites, no matter how wildly inaccurate or unbelievable they may sometimes be, because they all provide grist for the mill. We firmly feel that Mac people, as a general rule, would much rather encounter a wide spectrum of info about their platform of choice, because they're capable of deciding for themselves what to believe and what to discard. Hey, it beats being spoonfed nothing but corporate press releases and pasteurized, sanitized, "official" news. (For proof, just take a gander at the voluminous and scathing reader messages posted at the end of MacWEEK's "we 'retired' Mac the Knife because we're a serious news organization now" editorial.)

So we're tickled pink that, undeterred by the ridicule they suffered after posting their, um, "unlikely" 3D sketches of Apple's new mouse, those fabulous dirt-dishers at AppleInsider have now gone and posted sketches of the new multiprocessor Power Mac G4, code-named "Mystic." That's right, kids, the fabled MP G4 boxes that we were all supposed to see way back in January are reportedly in a "near finalized" state and may show up as early as-- all together, now-- Macworld Expo! But it sounds like everyone's favorite desktop supercomputer needs to lay off the Twinkies; Mystic (as well as a new single-processor G4 unit) sports a revised enclosure that is "1 to 2 inches wider than the current models." Indeed, the sketch shows the case bulging outward as if the Mystic in question has a litter of little Mystics on the way. Supposedly this extra room is necessary to accommodate the second processor (c'mon, a G4 isn't that big) and more ventilation (ah-- that makes more sense). And check it out-- there's also a slot-loading CD/DVD-ROM drive just like in the current iMacs, and a larger "much improved speaker" as well.

If you're scratching your head and wondering what happened to Apple's alleged plans to hold Mystic's release until after Mac OS X's release would actually let it use both those processors in a reasonably efficient manner, c'mon, get on the stick-- there are lots of ways to explain the alleged new decision. What about that rumored symmetric multiprocessing support being added to Mac OS 9? Or maybe Apple figures some Mac geeks will want MP boxes as soon as the Mac OS X beta is available. And in any case, AppleInsider's thrown in a particularly heavy-handed disclaimer: "recent history has taught us that Apple often changes its mind in the latter weeks leading up to a product launch, where they find significant evidence that launching the new product in its current state would be unjust." Waffling just doesn't get any better than that.