Much of the time, the challenge in producing a new episode of AtAT day after day is coming up with enough material. You know how sometimes your nightly news runs stories on shockers like "your bank may be charging you fees for ATM use," or "eating raw pork may be hazardous to your health"? Sometimes the same "slow news day" phenomenon makes it tough to come up with plot twists for AtAT. So you'd think that the first episode after a Stevenote would be easy, right? Not so, McGee. On days like this, we've got precisely the opposite problem: way too much to say and a limited time slot in which to say it. Plus, just about everyone tuning in already knows every minuscule detail about Uncle Steve's performance (we hear there's already a "Steve! 2001" Vegas night club act going into rehearsals), so simply spitting out the facts isn't likely to entertain anyone. You folks have just been bathed in the full Glory of Steve, and the Reality Distortion Field probably won't wear off for days. So how are we supposed to follow that act? The answer: we're not even going to try. That's right, people, today we're phoning it in even more than normal. So let's get right to it, shall we?

So how about that PowerBook G4? Let's give a hand to the Apple designers who made straight lines sexy again. We are positively thrilled to have been wrong to doubt the inclusion of a widescreen display, although it's worth pointing out that it's nowhere near a 16:9 aspect ratio-- with its native 1152x768 resolution, the G4's display is actually 3:2. Nevertheless, it looks absolutely gorgeous, and we'll take an extra 128 pixels of horizontal real estate anytime. Better yet, our concerns that a widescreen display would make the new PowerBook too large and unwieldy were clearly unfounded. The G4 is actually a titanium paradox: it's wider but thinner, and unlike certain celebrity talk show hosts who have a history of bouncing between the two states like a yo-yo, the G4 accomplishes both at the same time. While it packs a 15.2-inch screen, it also manages to be just an inch thick-- thinner than even the Sony VAIO subnotebook.

Of course, thickness isn't everything, and that huge screen made us wonder whether the G4 would be too large for us to tote around comfortably. But faithful viewer Amy Schneider did a little digging and discovered that the Titanium Sex Machine is actually smaller than our iBook in all three dimensions; the iBook is 13.5" x 11.6" x 1.8" (average), while Apple's latest portable is a mere 13.4" x 9.5" x 1". Furthermore, Go2Mac has posted some photos of last week's Pismo model next to the titanium newcomer, and we definitely get the sense that the G4 is smaller where it counts. With the reduced height and front-to-back depth, the G4 looks like it'd be a lot more comfortable to use during a coach flight-- even if the guy in front of you decides to recline his seat back for a little snooze. (Oh, and how about that right-side-up Apple logo, hmmmm? That's reason enough to upgrade right there.)

Needless to say, this might pretty much nix any chance for that "CubeBook" subnotebook that so many of us have been hoping for. At a smidge over five pounds and only one inch thick, the G4 is darn close-- and personally, we'd be very willing to lug around a few extra ounces of weight, since this puppy packs a DVD-ROM drive and a five-hour battery. The only reason we'd still like to see a Cube-analogous portable in Apple's product matrix is this: if Apple could squeeze so much power into such a tiny PowerBook, imagine what they could come up with if they ditched the DVD-ROM, went with a smaller screen, and used a less power-hungry G3 processor. Maybe a four-pound, six-hour, $1799 slab of ultra-portable goodness?