Have you finally all but given up on the prospect of an Apple handheld? That's probably wise, seeing as most sane individuals quit waiting for such a product well over a year ago when Apple marketing veep Phil Schiller publicly called the handheld rumors "totally unfounded" and stated that, as far as handheld development at Apple was concerned, there was "nothing going on." The rest of us clung desperately to the outside possibility that Steve never let ol' Phil in on the big secret, or that Apple was deliberately trying to quell PDA rumors so that its eventual leap back into that market would be heralded as a wonderful surprise. Still, it's getting late enough that even the most diehard Apple handheld conspiracy theorists must be getting ready to call it quits, right?

Wrong! As long as the teensiest shred of hope remains, you can expect the obsessed to pounce upon every possible piece of evidence with the intensity of a starving tiger. That's why we're eternally grateful to faithful viewer Jeff Duran for noticing that 3Com has just added an Apple personality to its board of directors. MacMinute reports that Apple money dude Fred Anderson has just been roped into serving on 3Com's board. If your reaction to this news is either "So what?" or a simple "Well, good for Fred!" then you're clearly not a hardcore Apple PDA nut-- because otherwise the very fact that 3Com used to own Palm would be enough to get you nodding knowingly as a certain manic look creeps into your eyes.

Keep in mind that most of the work on Apple's new retail store initiative occurred once Gap CEO Mickey Drexler joined Apple's board, and Steve joined the Gap's. So doesn't it seem perfectly natural that Fred's stint on 3Com's board has something to do with a secret partnership and Apple's imminent push into one of 3Com's markets? Er, former markets? C'mon, use your imagination. Perhaps Fred has advised Steve to wait until Palm and Handspring are seriously weakened before swooping in and stealing market share. Well, have you seen Palm's and Handspring's stock prices lately? Surely this is proof positive that an Apple handheld device is due any day now.

Do we have more to offer than this most tenuous connection? Heck no, but that's okay-- we Apple handheld theorists have survived on far thinner scraps in the past. Just get us an Apple-branded Palm OS device, a boxed copy of Mac OS X for Intel, and a press release affirming that Disney has purchased Apple and we'll be right as rain.