Oh, wait, here's a beef with the G5 upgrades: where the heck are the new displays to match?! Not that we have anything against the displays as displays; they're marvellous all 'round. But c'mon, folks, this is really starting to get ridiculous; the G5s were first unveiled nearly a year ago, they started shipping last August, and the "Mirrored Drive Door" Power Mac G4 has ever since been relegated to an unadvertised, semi-official bottom-of-the-page product that was only still offered for the poor slobs who, for whatever reason, couldn't yet leave Mac OS 9 behind. So why haven't Apple's displays adopted the same minimalist aluminum look that Apple's other professional hardware uses?

And it gets even worse; now even the Power Mac G4 has been discontinued, which means that once inventory runs out, Apple won't sell any Mac that matches the clear-lucite-translucent-pinstripes-'n'-chrome look of the current displays. It just seems a little... well, contrary, we suppose. And it doesn't help that we've been hearing rumors of imminent aluminum displays for even longer than we'd been hearing about imminent G5 speed bumps-- and that's saying something.

Well, thanks to the watchful eyes of faithful viewer Vertti Koskinen, we can now toss another "any day now" display rumor to the pile-- but this one's from Think Secret, who gave us a G5 rumor that actually came to pass, so you might want to look upon this report more favorably than most. According to Think Secret, Apple is "on the verge" of introducing a "totally redesigned family" of displays that sound pretty stunning; the smallest will be 20 inches diagonally, with a 23-inch hitting the mid-range, and a whopping 30-incher (with a 2560 x 1600 resolution) taking over the top of the line. Pixels to spare.

On top of that, Apple is adding a couple of FireWire ports alongside the existing USB ones, and is reportedly nixing its proprietary ADC connector. That latter point is sort of a bummer, since we have to admit that it's nice getting video, USB, and power all through a single slim cable. Still, while switching to the industry standard DVI may escalate cable clutter (and introduce a separate power supply described as "one big honkin' block"-- 150 watts for the 30-inch model?! Yikes), at least making the switch might let Apple sell some pricey displays to the Wintel crowd, as well as to PowerBook owners who don't want to shell out for an expensive adapter.

Of course, that's all secondary to what's really important: what these long-awaited displays will look like, because we're firmly convinced that Apple's low Power Mac sales have nothing to do with the longstanding rumors of faster models, or Steve's promise of 3 GHz by summer, or missing apps for Mac OS X or anything like that; the lack of sales is directly attributable to pros who just can't bear to drop four or five grand on a computer and display that don't even match. (Trust us, those graphics pros are picky about stuff like that.) Well, good news; Think Secret confirms that, yes, the new displays "will have an aluminum, brushed metal look," and the structural design looks pretty spiffy, too-- check out the artist's renderings to see if you can picture one of these on your desk next to a G5. Frankly, we're having a hard time trying not to.

So-- when when when? Think Secret isn't committing to an exact date, but mentions that "it is expected the new displays will be released before the Worldwide Developers Conference, scheduled for June 28." Given that Apple's "Brilliant Savings" rebate offer ends just two days before then, that sounds like a good bet. Here's hoping. Because really, who mixes spots and stripes?