Geez, we're still getting the white flaky stuff falling from the sky out here in Beantown, and yet Hewlett-Packard apparently thinks it's summer already! Jump the gun, much, guys? Because the last time we checked, up here in the northern hemisphere, summer doesn't kick in until Julyish, and according to the threatening letter we just got from the bank inquiring as to the whereabouts of our January mortgage payment, it's still only March. It seems that HP isn't clear on the Golden Rule of high-tech product rollouts: never ship anything early. It only confuses people and makes their eyes glaze over.

What are we on about, you ask? Well, you might recall that when HP shocked the planet by announcing its partnership with Apple on digital music for HP's consumer customers, the company said that its HP-rebranded iPod and iTunes products would emerge "this summer," but as faithful viewer The Professor points out, there's already a page on HP's site talking up the wonders of iTunes-- and linking to a special Apple download page to grab a version of the software that's expressly for HP and Compaq customers. (Incidentally, HP's marketing fluff wins this week's "We Know All Those Words, But That Sentence Makes No Sense" Award: "Now you can enjoy the revolutionary digital music experience that's changing the way the world listens, all in the comfort of a Windows-based environment." We suspect that "comfort" was actually a typo for the phrase "bottomless well of pain.")

And here's the thing: that download link is live. Yes, HP and Compaq customers can feel special by grabbing their exclusive "HP and Compaq Customers Only" version of iTunes right now, at least three months before HP's projected "summer" timeframe. We haven't a clue as to what's so special about the HP/Compaq version versus the standard Windows version, but The Register has a theory: "The chief difference is believed to be code to allow Apple to track downloads made by HP customers rather than those of its own." That makes sense, but of course it's only speculation-- and The Reg also continues to surmise that HP will be using an iTunes back-end for its upcoming Starbucks "Get Wired and Burn Mix CDs" initiative "through its partnership with Apple," despite a fair number of hints to the contrary, so who knows?

Anyway, the point is, this software is out months in advance of that "summer" projection-- although it's just one teensy part of the whole package. Reportedly HP's rebranded iPods still won't surface until bikini season, and HP had really only said it would start preloading its consumer computers with iTunes this summer, so technically the arrival of the mysterious "HP-Compaq Only" version of iTunes isn't early at all. Still, it flies in the face of the spirit of the whole "never ship anything early" edict, and it taunted us with thoughts of summer when we're still dealing with snowfall, which is just mean. Boo, hiss.