Houston, we have a problem: our drama detectors are evidently on the fritz! Clearly it's a technical malfunction of some sort, because how else could we possibly have missed the inherent sturm und drang lurking just beneath the surface of Apple's 60 GB Toshiba hard drive order? Oh, sure, we mentioned the order and all, but only as circumstantial evidence that a fourth-generation iPod won't ship until September, while, as it turns out, the dramatic implications run so much deeper. Specifically, since the 1.8-inch 60 GB drives won't ship for weeks yet, Apple could only be using them in an as-yet-unreleased product-- so just why was Toshiba blabbing to the press about Apple's purchase in the first place?

Fortunately, while our own metaphorical nose for conflict was all stuffed up (quick, send Psychic Benadryl!), faithful viewer neopod informs us that Think Secret's Spidey Sense was operating A-OK; the site's latest report describes Apple execs' mood after being outed as Toshiba's first big customer for the upcoming 60 GB drives as "livid" and (with the "-v" option) "more than a little mad." Now that Toshiba has revealed that Apple has ordered a slew of 60 GB 1.8-inch drives, Apple has no plausible means to deny that 60 GB iPods are coming a few months from now. In other words, Toshiba has broken the Cardinal OEM Sin: it revealed information about an unannounced Apple product to the press-- indirectly, sure, but it's still a big no-no. As one analyst puts it, "Toshiba screwed up and it could have major consequences, depending on how upset Steve Jobs is."

What sort of consequences, you ask? Well, let history be your guide. As Think Secret so astutely points out, this screwup is reminiscent of the Great ATI Blabbermouth Debacle of 2000, in which ATI issued a press release announcing its new graphics hardware and mentioning offhandedly that, in a few days' time, Apple would "introduce three new systems with ATI hardware on board," including "a new iMac" and "two Power Mac systems." Considering that the press release came out just days before Macworld Expo and Steve's keynote address, ATI had clearly popped open a Bag o' Felines™ and ruined Steve's surprise. In retaliation, Steve reportedly expunged all references to ATI's new "Radeon" chip from his presentation, scrapped a planned onstage demo of the new hardware, demanded all Radeons be removed from the show floor, and then ate three ATI execs and picked his teeth with their charred and splintered bones.

Now, granted, whereas ATI revealed details about unannounced Macs in an actual press release just days before Steve was to unveil them, Toshiba's sin was arguably far less heinous. For one thing, there was no press release specifically intended to disseminate the info as far as the winds could carry it; for another, Toshiba only mentioned the sale of OEM components, not details about individual unannounced Apple products mere days before their unveiling. All told, we think there's a decent chance that Toshiba will emerge from this mess without having to contact any of its employees' next of kin. Of course, that's entirely up to Steve.

And don't ask us for our own official prediction of just what sort of hurty Toshiban ickiness might ensue now that the company has angered the Great and Powerful Jobs; our drama detectors are flaky, remember? Off the record, though, we're thinking Steve's wrath will be relatively mild-- maybe something involving Toshiba execs and hot pokers, but only surface damage and nothing on the face.