And once again the rumor mill comes through with the goods; mere hours after we'd mentioned the buzz that Apple was about to disgorge a trio of revamped iBooks and a new low-cost Power Mac config for the ravenous consumption of the credit-abusing masses, faithful viewer John Maton was first to inform us that all four machines touched down exactly as predicted on Tuesday morning. One Apple press release details how digital lifestyle mavens on the go can now snag faster iBooks with AirPort Extreme built-in for less than a grand; another touts the appearance of a $1,499 single-processor 1.8 GHz Power Mac G5 for sedentary power users on a budget. As far as this particular batch of releases is concerned, the grapevine was batting a thousand.

Unfortunately for us, though, earlier rumors of an imminent PowerBook update turned out to be six shades of bogus with a side order of wrong-- and not just as far as the Tuesday updates, you understand; we're talking wrong through January at least, because apparently that's the absolutely earliest we'll see new pro portables on Apple's menu. See, Apple has a strict policy never to discuss unannounced products-- unless, of course, it's talking through MacCentral, the company's unofficially official third-party leak straight to the Mac Faithful. Whenever Apple needs to keep its user base's product expectations in check, it simply makes a few strategically-placed comments to MacCentral, and voilà: we're no longer expecting 3.0 GHz G5s, PowerBook G5s, or iMac G5s with our customary zeal. And this time the message is "no new PowerBooks until next year."

Yes, apparently David Moody, Apple's veep of Worldwide Mac Product Marketing, conveniently commented to MacCentral that "this new line-up of iBooks, along with the current PowerBooks we have will make up the complete portable line-up we will be offering for the holidays." In other words, if you're in the market for a new PowerBook but were holding off because the current line-up is due for a freshening up, you might as well blow the cash now, because PowerBooks won't be getting a boost until New Year's at least.

True, Apple's comments to MacCentral haven't always been totally straight with the public, like when Tom Boger's "no iMac G5"-themed comments came just six weeks before that product was unveiled but while iMac G4 sales were apparently in the toilet. (Gee, how convenient.) But you have to remember, Boger never flat-out said that an iMac G5 was way off in the future; he merely implied it by saying that a PowerBook G5 wouldn't surface in 2004 and that "it's the same story" with trying to squeeze a G5 into an iMac, which "would be a heck of a challenge." Sneaky? Sure, but not technically untrue. But there's a lot less wiggle room when an Apple rep comes right out and says that the "current PowerBooks we have" will be in the portable line-up through the holidays; if someone goes out and buys a PowerBook now and Apple winds up shipping newer models in three weeks anyway, rest assured that there'll be violence done.

So apparently we here at AtAT have a decision to make: we can try to squeeze a few more months out of our Pismo by spending some dough on a new battery, or we can buy one of the new iBooks, or we can buy a current PowerBook knowing full well that faster, cheaper models will probably surface in January. We know, we know-- none of the three options is exactly a fate worse than death, so it seems ungrateful to complain, but we look at it this way: if Apple isn't going to ship us a truckload of free Macs every three weeks like we so obviously deserve, then the very least it can do is psychically schedule its product intros around our own wants and needs. Is that really so much to ask?