Oooh, if the twists and turns in this plotline get any wackier, we're leasing it out to Six Flags as the hot new summer ride. To recap: on Thursday, we somewhat skeptically noted that a spokesperson for Apple's Taiwanese manufacturing contractor spilled the beans about yet another new iBook due in July, sporting a wider screen and a choice of enclosure colors. (In other words, "new iBook.") But then on Friday we told you that Apple had uncharacteristically gone on record to deny those claims, calling them "incorrect" and "not true." (In other words, "no new iBook.") And what should the weekend bring, you ask? Why, nothing less than a claim that both factions are right, sort of. (So now it's "there's a new iBook but possibly not and we're not being indecisive"... or, put more succinctly, "splunge.")

Yes, just to muddy the waters a bit more, Go2Mac recently leapt into the fray with a claim that the Alpha-Top spokesperson was, in fact, not high on low-grade crack, and was actually referring to a real, honest-to-goodness Apple portable. However, said portable is "technically" not an iBook; Go2Mac is referring to it as "Son of Pismo." Reportedly this mysterious third laptop will "sit neatly" between Apple's shipping consumer and pro road machines, boasting a 14-inch display, a G3 processor, and a $2000 price tag. It's apparently supposed to be Pismo guts stuffed into a thinner "new 2001 enclosure," and it's currently rehearsing and nursing its part so that everything will go swimmingly when it joins Uncle Steve onstage at Macworld Expo in July.

Personally, we're not entirely sure what to make of this. On the one hand, as happy Pismo owners, we'd be proud to see the product live on in some form in Apple's line-up. On the other hand, the last time Apple introduced a system to "sit neatly" between its consumer and pro models, all hell broke loose. Considering that a brand-new, top-of-the-line $1799 iBook has almost everything a Pismo has to offer (minus a physically larger screen, a second FireWire Port, dual-monitor support, removable media bays, PC card slots, and a few other minor niceties which Apple would probably strip out since they don't even grace the top-of-the-line PowerBook), we're a little iffy on just who would shell out $200 more for a repackaged Pismo and wouldn't be willing to make the $700 jump to a PowerBook G4 instead. And that has us a smidge worried, because while it's not a perfect reflection of the original Cube-shopper's dilemma (for what you get, the rumored price isn't quite as scary as the Cube's was), it's probably close enough to inflame the ulcers of the shareholders.

All we can say is, if Apple is seriously planning to bridge its pro and consumer portables with a third product, we sincerely hope that it has a very specific market in mind this time around-- and that "Son of Pismo" has one or two very compelling features that will attract buyers that wouldn't otherwise just get a PowerBook instead. Not that earnings warnings and swelling channel inventory aren't exciting, mind you, but we think we're still full from our last meal of that particular brand of drama.