As expected, all of Apple met this morning to hear Steve Jobs talk about the State of the Apple. The Mac-using world held its breath and teetered on the edge of its seat, ready for anything: speculation ran wild in some circles about whether Steve would take the CEO post himself, or introduce another to step into his shoes; other factions expected to hear that the newly-rechristened Filemaker, Inc. was to be sold off; and those way out on the edge even reported that Apple may have been purchased outright. But as MacWEEK points out, what really happened wasn't nearly so dramatic: Steve declared that the next big product announcement would be in March; a new TV ad campaign will kick off later this week; he mentioned the new G3-based Powerbook (code-named Wall Street); and Apple plans on tackling the home and education markets this fall. In addition, he spent a little time going over the new "exclusive retailer" arrangement with CompUSA.

Is that hollow feeling of disappointment ringing any bells? Well, it's not all that surprising if you're experiencing déjà vu; after all, today's let-down was just like the November 10th non-event on a smaller scale. If you recall, the buzz preceding that media circus was legendary. Rumors flew about a buyout by Sun or Oracle, or major announcements about the Apple NC project (which still isn't public, incidentally). Instead, we got a formal announcement of the Powermac G3's and the build-to-order Apple Store, both of which everyone already knew about.

So what keeps fueling these rumors of impending high drama? If you ask us, it's all due in part to the souped-up imaginations of Mac users, given the high concentration of "content creators." Mostly, though, it's because of the sensationalistic and irresponsible coverage that often passes for news on the internet. We blame ourselves. (That doesn't mean we're stopping, of course.)