Ask and ye shall receive! So the bad news is that we were wrong last week when we mumbled something about Apple maybe finally sticking a slot-loading DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive in the PowerBook G4 at Macworld Expo in three weeks; the good news is that it happened today, instead. You gotta love near-instant gratification. Hey, if we say "maybe Apple will send AtAT $12 million in funding next month," suppose the check will show up on Thursday?

Here's how the whole combo drive thing evolved from an off-the-cuff prediction to a distinct reality over the course of just three days. On Friday, we floated the combo drive possibility as an educated guess. On Saturday, Think Secret (as pointed out by faithful viewer David Triska) reported that Apple had a combo drive TiBook "in the pipeline" and due for an introduction as early as "Monday or Tuesday." On Sunday, faithful viewer Travis Gee confirmed that MacWarehouse in France had actually added the combo drive TiBook to its online database. And today, just as we were struggling with the baffling ordeal of trying to register at MacWarehouse.fr to confirm that ComboBook sighting, faithful viewer Dart tipped us off to a slightly easier-to-reach and decidedly more reliable hint: Apple's home page.

So yeah, it's official: Apple finally managed to cudgel some poor drive manufacturer into cranking out a slot-loading combo drive thin enough to wedge into a TiBook; as such, the combo drive is now standard. Actually, it's more than standard-- it's absolutely mandatory, as the build-to-order options for the PowerBook's optical drive have completely vanished from the Apple Store. In other words, no, you're not allowed to downgrade to a DVD-ROM or CD-RW. For most people that's no biggie, since they probably like having as much functionality as possible-- though it's probably worth mentioning that the price of the otherwise-unchanged lower-end PowerBook just increased by $100 to cover the upgrade to combo-y goodness.

If you're feeling slightly deflated because this is just one fewer thing destined for a Stevenote introduction next month, relax. Think of it this way: with a perfectly good announcement venue just around the corner, Apple chose instead to spring the ComboBooks on us now. Sure, you could argue that Apple underestimated the size of its channel inventory and didn't want to lose a slew of PowerBook sales due to lack of product right when lots of customers are trying to get their year-end purchases in for tax reasons. On the other hand, it's much more fun to imagine that Apple has so much incredible stuff to show us next month, Steve decided that the new PowerBooks weren't exciting enough to make the cut and launched them now, instead. And if the ComboBooks are the "also-rans," just think of the wondrous sights we'll see next month...