Hmmm... we're not about to quit our day jobs and go into the "fortune telling through imitation goat innards" business full-time anytime soon, but our first foray into that potentially lucrative field sounds startlingly on-target-- provided you believe that a letter just posted to Mac OS Rumors is indeed from a well-informed Apple employee, as it purports to be. Regular viewers will recall yesterday's revelation that our initial gut-gazing attempts had yielded a prediction of a serious speed boost due for Apple's Power Mac line in three weeks, with the current top-of-the-line 733 MHz dropping to the low end, and the new high water mark hitting the elusive (well, to Motorola, anyway) holy grail of 1 GHz. And yes, we were as skeptical as you are.

Which brings us to today. After faithful viewer The M@d H@tter tipped us off to MOSR's latest update, we eagerly devoured the report on Apple's plans for future PowerPCs, which flatly contradicts those worrisome hints dropped earlier in the week that Motorola's commitment to development of future desktop-suitable PowerPCs may be flagging. Word has it that work on both the G4 variant code-named "Apollo" and the mythical G5 (code-named "Goldfish") is progressing nicely, with Apollo G4s destined to fuel Apple's consumer Macs and portables once Power Macs go G5. When, you ask? Allegedly the G5 is targeted for "volume production" late this year "in order to have systems ready for release at the January Macworld show."

More interesting from an immediate-future perspective, however, is the claim that "recent yields are good on G4 processors greater than 733 MHz, with 5-6 chips per wafer testing at 1 GHz." We were gratified (and more than just a little creeped out) to discover that, according to this alleged Apple employee, come Macworld Expo, "733 MHz may become the bottom end, with 800 MHz and 933 available now, and 1 GHz ship[ping] come Seybold [in September]." Yowza! If this does come true, maybe we can get a cushy gig as the official White House soothsayers. Or perhaps we'll just start a call-in business, shoot our own TV commercials, and take on that cocky Miss Cleo; she needs to be taken down a peg or two. (Which incredibly fake accent should we use as a lame gimmick-- Swedish or Italian?)

Of course, there's always the possibility that the "letter from an Apple employee" was actually written by an AtAT fan who chose to incorporate portions of our hieromantic ramblings into what is one smashingly well-done hoax-- either as an homage to our happy little show, or simply to mess with our heads. In any case, we're just stoked to see the drama flowing again-- and now we're more anxious than ever to see what Steve will have up his sleeves come July 18th. Bring in da noise, bring in da funk!