At first, Mike Dell's apparent fascination with Steve Jobs was amusing; less than two years after his public comment about how Apple should be shut down, the guy sort of recanted when he gave the public a sneak peek of what would turn out to be the ill-fated, iMac-inspired WebPC. Not long after, he introduced a consumer portable available in two colors, and made a push for wireless networking. Isn't hero worship cute? Later on, though, Mike's obsession with being just like Steve reached scary new depths when he went so far as to ape Apple's infamous earnings warning (due to G4 shortages) by issuing one of his own. Still, "scary" and "psychotic" is at least as entertaining as "cute," so we weren't complaining.

These days, though, since it's been done so often for so long, the Steve emulation is mostly just a yawn-fest. In fact, we wouldn't even mention Mike's latest wannabe tactics, except that things are pretty slow in the Apple world right now (the post-Expo lull is always a trial), and Dell's Apple leanings are becoming ever more blatant. Faithful viewer Russell Maggio pointed out that Dell has finally introduced its new notebook with built-in antennas for wireless networking-- you know, the one we ranted about in June? Anyway, that little copycat move has finally come to fruition, according to a CNET article-- which, in itself perhaps wouldn't be all that notable, except that at the same time, a different CNET article discusses Dell's new "shot at design innovation."

What design innovation, you ask? Well, let's see... for one thing, Mike's made the incredibly original decision to retire beige-- next August. In the meantime, Dell's new OptiPlex GX 150 comes in a much more stylish, daring hue: grey. Jump back and slap on the Ray-Bans! But more importantly, these new OptiPlex systems "open like a suitcase, rather than forcing customers to slide off a panel to access the system's innards." Does that sound, perhaps, a bit familiar? So let's see... after trying to dupe the iMac's spirit (if not its form), poaching the iBook "consumer portable" concept, and sticking wireless antennas into its professional-grade laptop just like the PowerBook, now Dell has copped a huge feature of the Power Mac. (At least this time CNET acknowledges that Dell's easy-open case hails from "an Apple innovation introduced with the Power Mac G3.") Wow. Mike's almost out of things to copy-- all that's left is the Cube. Any bets on when Dell will get around to that?