Hey, look, we're back! We know, we know-- we said we'd try to produce the show while on the road in Nevada and Arizona last week, but things didn't quite work out. (You're shocked, we can tell.) As it turns out, it's one thing to have technical access to wireless broadband and a nice new PowerBook, but quite another to wrangle physical access to same when family members have scheduled every minute of your trip down to the sweep of the second hand. Not that we're complaining, mind you, since the Grand Canyon was, well, grand, and Sedona's red rocks are (all together now) red, and there's something indescribably bizarre about seeing London Bridge-- yes, the real, honest-to-beans original London Bridge-- in Lake Havasu, Arizona. And the timing of the unplanned hiatus was such that we could pretend that our sloth was some sort of vague protest of the continued lack of a firm Tiger release date from Apple. You know, kinda like that guy way back when who vowed never to shave until the Cubs won another World Series and was eventually crushed to death under the weight of his own beard.

But after a week of the hardcore tourist thing (and a cross-country red-eye flight with a cranky two-year-old-- wheeee!), we're finally snuggled back into the familiar clutter of the AtAT compound-- and just in time, too, because as you all know, we finally have something momentous to talk about. We speak, of course, of the impending release of a long-awaited and life-changing milestone now officially slated for public consumption on April 29th. Remember that date, for it will live on in legends sung by future generations who will always honor it for what it is: the release date for the movie adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

Oh, and Tiger. That too.

Yeah, see, faithful viewer Jonathan Wallis was the first to confirm that the recent rumors of Tiger having gone gold master were apparently true, since Apple's home page is now trumpeting April 29th as the operating system's official birth date. Apple even kindly includes a running countdown to Tiger Day, just in case you don't feel like doing the math to figure out that it's just 17 days until you get to Dashboard to your little heart's content. So circle those calendars and plan those release parties, because you'll want to celebrate a little extra hard to make up for all those Windows mopes who will be waiting another year for Longhorn (or, at least, for what little of it still remains in the version planned for a 2006 ship date).

Incidentally, Apple finally declaring a Tiger release date means that Great Things Are Afoot for multiple-Mac households, since now, in addition to offering a $35 rebate on the standard edition of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, Amazon.com is also accepting preorders for the 5-client Family Pack, which carries a hefty $50 rebate on what is already a pretty sweet deal for anyone looking to Tigerize at least two Macs. If you're not in any particular hurry to put a Tiger in your tank, you can even opt for free ground shipping, and if you order directly from those links we just pimped at you, you also get the bonus karmic satisfaction of stuffing a few bucks down the collective AtAT G-string. What more could you possibly ask for?

And by the way, you're welcome. See, you owe us for this Tiger release date, because while folks like faithful viewer Peter Jetton might concoct wild conspiracy theories about the confluence of Tiger's arrival and that of the Hitchhiker's flick (especially since Douglas Adams was a huge Mac fan, and the original Hitchhiker's trailer clearly lists a May 6th release date-- oooooo!), the truth of the matter is, Tiger's coming on out the 29th solely because we scheduled a meeting that evening just last night. Apple will no doubt be throwing gala release parties at all of its retail stores on Tiger Night much like it did for Night of the Panther, when it offered 10% off all Macs, gave away free and highly eBayable dog tags ("Switch" celebrities not included), and granted all customers a free superpower of their choice. (Why we opted for "Talk To Fish" we'll never know.)

But whatever fun goes down in Retailville on Tiger Night, we'll be holed up at one of the local music schools with an up-and-coming Boston Rock God and his iBook, teaching him Mac OS X geekery in exchange for guitar lessons and groupie points. Which isn't by any means a crappy way to spend an evening, but still, it's pretty darn obvious that Apple was just waiting to schedule Tiger's release for a night on which we'd be otherwise occupied. Curses! Foiled again!