Alas, poor iReview; we hardly knew ye. When Apple's collection of web site reviews first debuted a little over a year ago, it was a joke; while it boasted some nifty features (such as letting iTools members append their own user reviews to Apple's official ones), only a handful of sites were represented, so it fell far short of its stated intent of being a useful one-stop resource for surfers looking for the best and worst of the web. Most importantly, it lacked a review of a certain Apple-themed soap opera, which obviously meant that its scope was sadly limited to more "mainstream" content, and therefore it deserved our constant ridicule.

Of course, six months later, that all changed-- suddenly iReview boasted hundreds of useful critiques, many of them containing wonderfully insightful commentary about their subjects, and the site earned our wholehearted endorsement. (Coincidentally, this wondrous transformation took place in July, at roughly the same time that AtAT received the coveted five-star rating from Apple's reviewers. Small world, isn't it?) Suddenly we found ourselves visiting iReview on a fairly regular basis, and not just to bask in the glow of an ever-growing collection of user-submitted five-star reviews of our own little production, here (though, okay, that was the main reason). We found that iReview really did tip us off about some very cool content out there on the 'net that we otherwise would never have discovered on our own. And we've gotten plenty of mail from AtAT viewers who tuned in for the first time after reading the iReview of our show. Eventually, Apple even sent us a little badge that linked people directly to our review, and we displayed it proudly.

Now, though, that badge has been retired. After Steve's keynote, we discovered that trying to load iReview brought up a "temporarily down for scheduled maintenance" message. No problem, we thought; after all, iTools and iCards generated the same message. We looked forward to updated versions of Apple's nifty web sites, replete with new features and a slicker, more Aqua-y look. But alas, whereas iTools eventually resurfaced sporting spiffy new threads and iCards reemerged featuring additional font support, iReview's "scheduled maintenance" page turned into this stark error instead: "Not Found-- The requested object does not exist on this server. The link you followed is either outdated, inaccurate, or the server has been instructed not to let you have it."

We'd love to believe that iReview is just taking longer than expected to update, but faithful viewer David Marcantonio noticed that the entire iReview tab is now missing from the toolbar at the top of all of Apple's web pages. We're forced to take that as Apple's tacit admission that, for whatever reason, iReview is no more-- and with it dies our one reliable source of ego-boosting praise. Now where are we going to get our regular doses of life-sustaining flattery? We've got self-esteem issues and need constant reassurance!