In light of all the recent iMac hoo-haa, we wouldn't blame you if you totally forgot (heck, we sure did), but it's that time again: it's earnings call season. Yes, kids, tomorrow afternoon Apple has to take a deep, cleansing breath and announce to Wall Street just how well-- or how not-so-well-- the company did last quarter, financially speaking. Earnings reports are always a relatively twitchy proposition, but these days they're positively nerve-wracking for skittish investors, since sharply-reduced revenues and tidal waves of red ink are increasingly becoming the status quo for tech companies in general.

Even if you're not an investor in AAPL, odds are you at least have an investment-- emotional or otherwise-- in Apple technology and the Mac platform (and if you're not, why the heck are you tuned in here? Go watch Gilligan's Island or something), so you've still got a stake in Apple's continued fiscal solvency. As such, you may well be interested in getting in on Apple's conference call with the analysts tomorrow. An official Apple media alert indicates that, as usual, you'll be able to hear Money Czar Fred Anderson do his thing either by calling the press dial-in number or by pointing your QuickTime-enabled browser to the official webcast page come showtime.

One important note: if you're a regular fan of the quarterly Fred Anderson show, we should inform you that the time slot has changed slightly. Whereas it's always broadcast at 2 PM Pacific for as long as we can remember, for some undisclosed reason, tomorrow's show starts half an hour later. We suppose it's possible that the time change indicates that Phil Schiller will be warming up the crowd for thirty minutes with his own patented blend of wry social commentary and outrageous prop comedy, but so far we doubt it-- and it's a good thing, too, because a normally hilarious rubber chicken gag can really flop over the phone.

For what it's worth, we're hoping that Fred just needs that extra half hour to get his giggles under control because Apple raked in so much filthy lucre last quarter. The analysts are expecting a profit of eleven cents per share, or about $39 million-- but heck, what do they know? Apple consistently beats their consensus quarter after quarter. If you think you can do better than those know-it-all Wall Street types, don't forget to enter our quarterly Beat The Analysts contest; you've only got until noon Eastern tomorrow to register your own guess for what Fred's going to say. You've got nothing to lose, and everything to gain-- well, at least an Apple-branded travel mug, and either an AtAT t-shirt or some ancient software from our Baffling Vault of Antiquity™. (Hey, it beats an icepick in the brainstem.)