Speaking of sketchy predictions about upcoming Mac hardware, if you're a regular viewer, you already know that a few days ago we pointed out The Register's supposed insider specs and release schedule for the PowerPC G5, and yesterday we noted that, according to the MacEvangeList, an unnamed "Motorola executive" had allegedly laughed himself half to death over the inaccuracy of said specs. If you're not a regular viewer, well, completely aside from the fact that you're clearly what's wrong with society today, see what you've been missing? All we need is a snide retort from The Register and we'll have ringside seats to a full-fledged Rumor Feud, and that's always good for a thrill or two.

Well, get out your scorecards, because as if on cue, The Register has fired back; faithful viewer Thomas McBride forwarded us a new article in which The Reg provides some juicy details about Apple's next Power Macs, allegedly slated to ship in January. Those would be the legendary Power Mac G5 systems that have Mac fans slavering uncontrollably and listing their kids on eBay in hopes of raising enough cash to buy one when they emerge from Apple's labs. The latest dirt is that these things are going to support a slew of new technologies right out of the box, including USB 2.0 (which raises the bandwidth from 12 Mbps to 480 Mbps) and IEEE 1394b (which we like to call Son of FireWire, and which boosts its throughput from 400 Mbps to 800 Mbps). Expect a new memory spec as well; The Reg currently expects the new Power Mac to require DDR266 RAM when it bursts onto the scene.

Of course, while that's all plenty exciting in its own right, it has very little to do with escalating the whole G5 brouhaha that's been playing out over the past few days. The relevant dig comes right at the end, just after The Reg claims that, if the G5 processor itself isn't done in time, Apple will drop back and punt by shipping these zippy new Power Macs with "Apollo" G4s instead: "At least one Motorola executive has apparently poo-poo'd our report, which we understand hasn't gone down too well with Apple's own chip development staffers, who have contributed heavily to the design and implementation of the G5." In other words, at least in The Reg's eyes, that Moto exec is singularly in the dark about this subject. Whom to believe is up to you, but when you consider that Motorola executives are evidently the sort of people who come up with brilliant plans like forcing a company-wide migration away from Macs to standardize on Windows systems using the competition's processors, well, we generally don't put a lot of stock in what those suits say, unnamed or otherwise.

So, if this plays out well, with any luck we'll see the unnamed Motorola executive respond to The Register with a hearty "Oh yeah? Well, so's your mother!" and then we can all just sit back and watch the fur fly. Anyone got any microwave popcorn?