"What happened to the Mac?" That's the question that was just foisted upon us by faithful viewer Riccardo, who finds Apple's increasing focus on music products and services somewhat disquieting. And he does have a point, you know; ever since the launch of the iTunes Music Store coincided with our return to the airwaves after eleven weeks in rehab at fat camp on hiatus last April, we've noticed that our own little drama here occasionally spends entire episodes insulting Scott Blum and pontificating on the ins and outs of Canadian music licensing issues instead of speculating endlessly about imminent additions to the Mac family. As Uncle Jessup has been heard to remark, "'tain't natural."

So it's back to the Mac buzz, albeit briefly, in part because, hey... weren't we supposed to get faster Power Macs right around now? The last pack o' rumors we had heard on the subject said something about 90-nanometer G5s running as high as 2.6 GHz making their way into that aluminum thingy with the holes and handles right around January 20th, and we can't help but notice that the date went thataway without those zippy new machines ever coming thisaway. Well, the rumor mill says to be patient, kiddies; Mac OS Rumors offers a heavily-"don't read too much into this"ed projection of "either this coming Friday or the following Monday," whereas AppleInsider cites "consecutive mumblings" (that's a new one) which hint that January 24th would be the obvious choice, what with it being the Mac's twentieth birthday and all.

Personally, we're a little ambivalent about the 24th's suitability as a possible G5 revision date. (Wait, are we? Maybe we aren't.) On the one hand, it is the Mac's twentieth birthday, so what better time to take the platform to hitherto unreached levels of performance? On the other hand, the 24th is a Saturday, which traditionally isn't a great day for a product unveiling, because there's almost no press coverage and no one cares because they're all out playing volleyball or looking at carpet samples or whatever else it is that normal people do on weekends. Oh, sure, freaks like us will care, because we're glued to our Macs every waking minute just waiting for Apple's next move, but those ball-spiking, carpet-shopping folks in the "real world" wouldn't bat an eye for a product announcement on a Saturday.

There's also the fact that speed-bumped Power Macs would be sort of... well, anticlimactic for an occasion as august as the Mac entering its third decade; it'd be kind of like the World Health Organization celebrating the cure of all known diseases with an Entenmann's cake and a two-liter bottle of Fresca. Then again, we could see it happening if the real announcement slated for the 24th is some sort of super-special Happy Birthday Mac and the G5 speed bumps just tag along for the ride. So who knows? Certainly not us, but we'll be on alert on Saturday just in case. After all, what else are we going to do, pick out a nice wall-to-wall for the rec room?