Well, it's Seybold keynote day as far as Apple as concerned, and since we find ourselves with neither a physical presence at the event nor a webcast peek at the festivities, we're awfully grateful for MacMinute's darn-close-to-real-time updates on the sitch as it unfolds. As expected, Uncle Steve appeared in person instead of live via satellite (satellite broadcasts from Paris, possibly cost-effective; satellite broadcasts from six blocks from the Moscone Center, not so much), but to his credit, instead of swiping Phil Schiller's soapbox, he made his little intro and gracefully handed the reins to Phil. The man's a class act.

As for the real star of the show, however, that's clearly Mac OS X 10.1, which, as no one should be surprised to hear, is going to be available in stores as of this coming Saturday. Most reports imply that Apple will be handing out free upgrade CDs at its stores, so that apocryphal tale about customers having to bring in blank CD-R discs to have copies burned while they wait finally appears to be dying a horrible death. About all we can say for sure, though, is that Apple is giving away free copies of the 10.1 updater to Seybold attendees-- and we strongly doubt that the company is making people line up at the booth with blank CD-Rs in hand to get them. (Like we're ever lucky enough to be given something that perfect for our little show...)

So, Mac OS X users, save your blank discs for that "Songs With The Word 'Kidney' In The Title" compilation album you've been working on, and pop on down to your local Apple dealer this weekend to snag an upgrade to 10.1 for free. Details are sketchy, but we're guessing you won't need proof of purchase because the updater will be useless without an existing licensed copy of 10.0.x. Don't hold us to that, however, since at this point, anything can happen. For all we know, come Saturday Apple will require an original Mac OS X CD-ROM, the front cover of the owner's manual, a dated original sales receipt, a notarized affidavit from your local zoning board, a blood sample, and your first-born child before the stores will dish you a free CD. It's sort of a "wait and see" thing for now.

As for those of you who have been holding off on upgrading from Mac OS 9, if your hardware can handle the juice, it sounds like now is the time to consider making the leap to X. According to Uncle Steve, 10.1 represents the "mainstream release," as opposed to the "fools rush in" releases that the rest of us have been dutifully beta-testing for you all for the past year. At this point, you can be reasonably confident that upgrading to Mac OS X won't result in massive data loss or those pesky hardware fires we all try so hard to avoid, so if you've got a spare $129 just lying around and you don't mind dealing with a minor dearth of native applications, join us over in Aquaville. Everything's translucent and shiny here, and we're ever so happy. ("ONE OF US... ONE OF US...")