Okay, okay, we lied-- we're not all speculated out. We've got a little more juice left when it comes to guessing at the "big thing" that Steve's got crammed up his sleeve for Monday's hoedown. It has to be something pretty special to live up to Apple's own hype, right? Well, this whole "to go where no PC has gone before" teaser got us thinking (always a dangerous thing, we know), and we found ourselves taking that phrase in a rather literal sense. In other words, what if Apple is hinting at technology that can be physically used where personal computers typically aren't taken? Basically, we're pondering the idea that Apple might be looking to take the wireless freedom of AirPort networking to the next logical stage; instead of being tethered to a Base Station with an invisible 150-foot leash, what if Apple found an easy and reliable way for its customers to stay "wirelessly wired" anywhere in the country, or even the world?

And what if Apple invented a new device that's "almost a Mac," which can tap into that service and is small and rugged enough to take anywhere? It's not exactly revolutionary, we admit, given the existence of handhelds like the Palm VIIx and services like OmniSky, or those Blackberries that have become so ubiquitous at corporate three-martini lunches. But remember, the iPod isn't exactly a "breakthrough" device either, yet Apple called it one-- because while we already had MP3 players, Apple presented the iPod as an MP3 player done right. What if Monday's "big thing" is the Palm VIIx or Blackberry done right? Maybe with color, better useability, more (LOTS more) bandwidth, and the like. What if it's that tablet Mac we've all been waiting for, and it's a fully functional Mac with take-anywhere wireless Internet capabilities? Presumably that could go "where no PC has gone before."

Most of this is idle and baseless speculation, with a healthy dose of wishful thinking thrown in, but there is a basis for at least the "wireless 'net" stuff we're tossing around. If you're a rumor hound at all, presumably you've heard the term "Gigawire" kicked around in the context of allegedly leaked info about Apple's upcoming Mac products. We never really ran across anyone who could tell us what Gigawire actually is, but based on the context of its usage, we had taken to assuming that it's Apple's name for the next and higher-bandwidth version of FireWire. But if it is, it's apparently capable of much more than just hooking up hard drives and pushing digital video data.

Try this: take a virtual visit to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Click to search for trademarks, and opt for the "New User Form Search (Basic)." Search for any trademarks whose Owner Name and Address field contains "Apple Computer." You'll wind up with a list of some 600-odd trademarks registered by Apple. Among them is FireWire, and if you pull up the detail listing, you'll note that under "Goods and Services" is a pretty lengthy list of stuff like "computer peripherals and consumer electronics, namely, scanners, smart monitors, modems, printers, disk drives," and all sorts of like devices. So far so good.

Now find the entry for Gigawire, registered this past September. If it were just a faster version of FireWire, the "Goods and Services" entry should be pretty similar, right? But instead, we see this: "Telecommunication services; cellular telephone communication; Communication by computer terminals, communication by telephone, facsimile transmission; providing of electronic mail (E-Mail); computer aided transmission of messages and images; communication between computer peripherals and devices; information about telecommunication." Doesn't that sound like a lot more than a zippier peripheral interconnect bus to you? Just something to think about while you're killing time until Monday.