Five days and counting... and with only 120-odd hours before Steve Jobs struts his stuff onstage at Macworld Expo, Apple's patented Veil of Secrecy is apparently drawing too much power. Tantalizing details about Steve's planned surprises are starting to trickle through the cracks. As faithful viewer Dan Asselin pointed out, there's a CNET article floating around out there that's chock full of enough Expo rumor fodder to keep even the hungriest dirt-disher satisfied. There are bits and pieces about the PowerBook G4, new DVD/CD-R combo drives, and an update to Mac OS 9-- but the real juice is about the Megahertz Gap. Get this: Apple must be holding the families of key Motorola executives at gunpoint or something, because those ever-lovin' "sources familiar with Apple's plans" claim that Steve is going to spring four new Power Macs on us next week-- running at clock speeds of up to 733 MHz. (The lesser models will probably ship at speeds of 466, 533, and a diabolical 666 MHz-- nothing to sneeze at.)

733 MHz? From Motorola? Offer up a prayer of thanks to the deity of your choice, because it looks like the new millennium may be kicking off with an outright miracle. And here we were, hoping against hope for even a modest bump to 533 MHz, barely daring even to consider the merest possibility of a 600 MHz G4. Why, the announcement of an imminent 733 MHz G4 at a time when Apple's competitors are shipping 1.5 GHz systems is almost a reason not to raid Motorola headquarters and start chuckin' pies at the management-- and for that we're thankful, because we're not really up for any more travel for a while, especially while lugging a few dozen aerodynamic creamy pastries.

Better still, these new Power Macs also boast a 133 MHz system bus, which ought to boost performance still further on top of the processor speed gains. Things aren't all sunshine and puppies, however; if these "sources" are correct, these blistering new Power Macs are missing what we'd consider to be a fairly crucial component: a second processor. Yes, Apple shipped dual-processor systems last summer long before the symmetrically-multiprocessing Mac OS X was ready for public consumption, and now that the operating system is finally mere weeks from emerging to unlock the full potential of those extra processors, Apple is reportedly planning to ship entirely single-chip models again. Makes perfect sense, doesn't it? You can interpret that as evidence that either CNET's sources are smoking crack, or Apple's execs are. We'll know for sure once the new Macs grab the spotlight on Tuesday. (Hopefully.)