Speaking of next month's new iMacs, you've probably noticed the way in which we blithely refer to them as if their introduction during the next Stevenote were a sure thing, an utter certainty etched in stone-- despite the fact that there has been absolutely no official announcement from Apple to that effect. How can we take such a risk? The answer is simple: we have zero journalistic integrity.

But that's just as well, seeing as we're not journalists. (Just keep reading that disclaimer down there, Sparky.) If we're wrong about the new iMacs, we'll just shrug our shoulders and launch immediately into an elaborate conspiracy theory explaining Uncle Steve's personal master plan to discredit us by altering Apple's well-laid product rollout plans at the last possible minute. So come July 18th, we'll either get to write about spiffy new iMacs destined to take the world by storm, or we'll craft a portrait of a madman willing to risk derailing the multibillion-dollar company he cofounded purely in the self-serving interests of personal vengeance. Heck, drama's drama, and we'll take whatever comes our way.

That said, even if we were actual journalists (instead of just playing them on TV), we'd still be pretty gosh-darned sure that new iMacs are just over a month away. There have been so many little clues that we'd be fools to ignore them, not the least of which is Apple's recent thematic CRT-bashing and predilection for straight lines and silvery-white; clearly the iMac is due (or overdue) for an overhaul, and we don't mean just replacing Flower Power with Autumn Mist or Happy Lemur or whatever. We're talking about a big change, to go hand in hand with the shift to Mac OS X and the rollout of more retail stores. We're talking about something that'll make the iMac truly different again.

But if you're still not convinced, faithful viewer Nina Tovish has yet another piece of circumstantial evidence to throw on the "gut feeling" pile: according to MacMinute, Apple has just introduced a new promotion which grants iMac buyers either six months of interest-free financing and no down payment, or a free Rio 600 portable MP3 player. This promo in good on any iMac purchase from an authorized dealer from now until-- ready for this?-- July 8th. ("Hey, kids, can you say 'channel-flushing'? I knew you could!")

At broadcast time, this reported deal still hadn't shown up on Apple's promos web site, but there's another iMac promotion listed-- one which offers customers free or cheap color printers to go with their iMacs. And while that promotion has been active since the middle of April, it, too, expires on-- all together now-- July 8th. That just happens to be ten days before the Stevenote on the 18th, which is close enough to make you wonder. In fact, it nearly fits the profile perfectly; remember all those PowerBook and Power Mac promotions that ended on December 31st of 2000? And then Apple introduced new PowerBooks and Power Macs on January 9th-- just nine days later. Gee, where's Sherlock Holmes when you need him?