Okay, enough with the numbers, already; while we enjoy hearing once per quarter that Apple's doing well, the sheer volume of figures gives us a Bonus-Size Family Pack o' Migraines. Gross margins, unit sales growth, cash balance, profit from recurring items, servings per container-- having to wade through all that stuff even four times a year strikes us as way too often. But until Apple takes us up on our suggestion that the quarterly earnings statements be reduced to phrases such as "two thumbs up-- way up" (hello, fifteen-second conference calls!), we're just going to have to trudge through as best we can... and then leave it all behind and get back to the real dirt, such as new rumors of upcoming product announcements. Good thing there's another one of those, now, too, hmmmm? So long, financial aftertaste.

And so: Portables, anyone? If the buzz from those new eMacs just isn't cutting it for you as you sweat out your jones for faster Power Macs, maybe a swig or two of 'Book-centric newness can steady your shakes. Faithful viewer frozen tundra informs us that AppleInsider now seems darn certain that Apple plans to intro speed-bumped PowerBooks and iBooks in a matter of days. Citing "sources with an unblemished track record," AI claims that, come Monday, Apple will disgorge no fewer than eight "new laptop configurations," and even gives the model numbers of the soon-to-ship bad boys. Assuming those sources keep batting a thousand, by Monday we'll have two new 12-inch PowerBooks, two 15-inchers, a new 17-incher, two new 14-inch iBooks, and a single 12-inch model to kick around.

Unfortunately, AI has nothing new in the way of details other than screen sizes and part numbers (but hey, it's all about the part numbers, right?), and states only that "all models are said to feature faster G4 processors and improved graphics capabilities." Given that, it's a pretty safe bet that you shouldn't expect startling new enclosures or exciting additional features; we're looking at a minor "Hey, remember these? They're slightly better and/or cheaper, now, so you should buy them" sort of refresher update, just like the eMac speed bump from earlier in the week. And while you can never get enough price/performance, we don't mind admitting that we're really starting to yearn for a more drastic change-- preferably of the visual variety. After all, the last one we had was the Power Mac G5, and that was introduced almost ten months ago. How does Apple expect those of us with shallow values and woefully short attention spans to stay interested?

Oh, right-- miniPods. Oooh, look at the pretty colors!

So hang in there, sports fans: the odds seem decent that in a few days you'll have a new batch of portables to poke at, and that'll get you another week closer to WWDC and its associated Stevenote, which is where the really good stuff will probably show up. T-minus ten weeks and counting...