Actually, we might as well admit it: no matter how much rationalizing we do about the quality and breadth of tomorrow night's prime-time line-up, we are a mite disappointed that we aren't going to be able to witness the Macworld Expo Tokyo keynote live. Partially it's just that anything starring Steve-- even a smeary, pixellated Steve-- is a guaranteed rollicking good time. Partially it's that, as studies have proven conclusively time and time again, Reality Distortion Field energy is physically addictive, and the buzz from last month's San Francisco gig has just about worn off. But mostly it's that we like to be either tuned in or standing there live whenever Proud Poppa takes the wraps off a new batch of Macs.

What's that? Some of you are still skeptical that new gear will see the light of day in less than thirty-six hours? Good gravy, people, even Dana Scully eventually came around to believing in aliens when confronted with seven or eight years' worth of pretty compelling evidence. We've covered this ground before. But if the mountain of existing clues isn't enough to convince you that, at the very least, iMacs with CD-RW drives are being polished for their imminent debut even as you shake your head in obstinate doubt, perhaps we can toss one more teensy little scrap of evidence on the pile: Apple said so.

Well, okay, no, Apple didn't quite say so-- there wasn't an official press release or anything-- but according to The Register, an official company representative dropped some pretty substantial hints. In an interview with the Irish Times last week, Apple's European Education Director Brendan O'Sullivan reportedly stated point-blank that "Apple will introduce several new products at Macworld in Tokyo next week." Is that straightforward enough for you? Oh, sure, you could argue that the European Education Director isn't necessarily high enough in the pecking order to know what Steve's got up his sleeves, but we'd consider that reaching, at best. Face it; in a matter of hours, a packed house in Tokyo is going to be drooling over some shiny new Macs.

As for what those Macs turn out to be, well, the CD-RW iMac is just a heavily-informed guess. But Mr. O'Sullivan made another interesting remark: "We will keep innovating with portable products such as the iBook." We're still undecided about whether or not we should take that comment (in conjunction with the statement about "several new products") to mean that a revised iBook is waiting in the wings in Tokyo; we're inclined to say no, although The Register claims that, yes, a slimmer, lighter iBook with a 13-inch screen and a 100 MHz system bus is in the cards. We'll reserve our doubt for that little detail, but we're completely and utterly expecting something new tomorrow night-- and we're not talking about Regis's little show.