Meanwhile, if you're wondering how you're going to kill time until Panther becomes available on the 24th, why not follow that epic battle between titans known as the (dun dun dun dunnnnnnn!) Clash of the Rumors Sites? Yes, Clash of the Rumors Sites, everyone's favorite distraction; marvel as 100-foot goliaths cross Big Scary Swords and trail vast swaths of terror across the night sky! Tremble in awe at the prospect of godlike toothy entities tearing at each other's colossal throats as the fate of worlds upon worlds hangs in the balance! Reel with cosmic horror as one rumors site says one thing, and another says something vaguely contradictory! AAAAIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!!!

Ready? Here we go: AppleInsider reports that Apple is finally just about ready to revamp its line of displays again. Word has it that Apple will soon be adding a new 30-inch Cinema Display HD and jettisoning the 17-inch model; each of the new 20-, 23-, and 30-inch displays will allegedly boast "stunning color and faster refresh rates," and will sport new aluminum enclosures with an integrated USB 2.0 hub and a design emphasizing "less body and more screen." According to AI, we should expect these new lookers early in November alongside redone iBooks and eMacs.

Great stuff, yeah? But prepare to go limp with fright, because herein lies the Clash of the Rumors Sites: Think Secret concurs that iBook and eMac updates are due soon, but cites a source reporting that any new displays won't turn all aluminicious (and possibly not even USB 2.0-y), but will instead wrap the same ol' enclosure around "updated internals featuring better color and a faster refresh rate." Quick, fetch the smelling salts... or possibly a priest!

If we had to pick which report to believe, we're not at all sure which way we'd lean. On the one hand, AppleInsider mistakenly asserts that "currently, Apple offers Cinema Displays in 17", 20" and 23" High-Definition flavors," whereas every Mac fan obsessive enough to care about any of this stuff in the first place knows that the 17-incher has a traditional 1280x1024 native resolution and is therefore a Studio Display, not a Cinema Display. Is that enough to cast doubt on AI's display predictions? Because on the other hand, we'd have trouble standing behind the Think Secret report just because we find it hard to believe that Apple would actually ship non-matching displays that long after the aluminization of the company's entire professional product line. Then again, the 15-inch PowerBook stayed titanium for how long after the 12- and 17-inchers debuted?

Nope, we just can't pick a side. Instead we're going to huddle under this here table as the two leviathans duke it out and then sacrifice a goat to whichever one leaves the battle clutching the other's still-beating heart in a twisted claw. Heck, that's always a safe strategy. It's even how we refinanced our house.