Wow, it's rather uncharacteristic of the folks behind a staid and well-respected publication like MacInTouch to initiate rampant speculation about unannounced upcoming Apple product intros based on nothing more than a sprinkle of sketchy evidence-- but that doesn't mean we don't love them for it. Seriously, ever since Apple's Greg Joswiak squelched our collective hopes and dreams of shiny new Macs at the Tokyo show by publicly announcing that the company's product line was "set for some months now," the usual rumormongers have been moping around with dazed looks on their faces and vacant despair in their yellow, watery, red-rimmed eyes. It's rather sad to see. And kinda gross, too.

But it's worth noting that Joz spilled those particular buzz-killing beans way back in early February, which means that a time span accurately describable as "some months" has passed, so we can shrug off the weight of his dire proclamation and once again don our Rumor Caps. Personally, we were perfectly comfortable interpreting Joswiak's comments to mean that we shouldn't expect new Macs much before Macworld Expo this summer, but like we said before, if you're itching for some speculatory fodder, MacInTouch has what you need. There's an intriguing note on its home page from a reader who claims that last week, distributor Ingram Micro went from having over 200 PowerBooks in stock to having zero, all in the space of about two hours. A sudden run on TiBooks, perhaps? Nope. Abduction by aliens who need titanium to power their ship's return to a faraway galaxy? Closer, but still no cigar. Allegedly Apple "took the inventory back."

That's certainly suspicious enough in its own right, but even more interesting is the fact that resellers apparently can't even backorder PowerBooks right now, which is reportedly very unusual, even when Apple is preparing to introduce a new product. And according to the same tipster, yesterday build-to-order PowerBooks configured at the Apple Store were showing an estimated delivery time of fourteen days, which, amazingly enough, coincides exactly with the kickoff of next month's Worldwide Developers Conference. Since Apple has unveiled new products at WWDC in the past (new PowerBooks, even), the conclusion you're expected to draw is obvious. Speed-bumped, SuperDrive-packin' PowerBooks at WWDC, anyone?

Of course, you might hit a teensy bump while barrelling down that road, since when we configure a PowerBook at the Apple Store, our reported lead time is a mere ten days, which kind of throws off the blinding synchronicity a bit. But still, if you're really hurting for a dose of semi-informed speculation, don't let a little thing like that stop you. Just amend your frothing Apple forecast from "new PowerBooks at WWDC" to "new PowerBooks at WWDC-- and it's starting three days early!" See? Piece o' cake. Have fun with it, kiddies.