iPods aren't the only thing on the agenda for tomorrow's big dog and pony show, however. According to Think Secret, there will also be "at least four new Mac configurations" sharing the stage. (And also, we assume, dogs. And ponies.) Details are woefully absent, but the site had previously specified that the new models would be Power Macs and PowerBooks, which makes a fair amount of sense from a product refresh timing cycle. So if you've been waiting for a new pro Mac, start loosening the money belt, Big Spender.

What's that? You say you're waiting for Intel-based pro Macs, which are slated to debut next year? Yeah, so were we. At least, we were until we realized a few important consequences that waiting for the jump to Intel would bring.

For one thing, when they finally ship, Intel-based Macs will run most PowerPC code via Rosetta-- but at a speed hit compared to native x86 code. Considering that we recently spent over a thousand dollars on major upgrades to most of our professional software applications, all of which is (obviously) PowerPC-native, and considering that we generally only pay for major upgrades every few years (we aren't exactly rolling in dough over here, ya know), it probably makes good fiscal sense for us to stick with PowerPC Macs through one more hardware upgrade cycle. And let's not forget that Rosetta apparently won't handle Altivec code (or has that changed? We've been out of the loop, remember), so lots of the software we just paid to upgrade would have to be upgraded again, not just to run at full speed, but to run at all.

For another thing, Intel-based Macs won't run Classic anymore. Believe it or not, yes, we still rely on Classic for a few applications that it would cost us an arm and a leg to replace with Mac OS X-native equivalents. We know we'll have to make the jump eventually, but again, conspicuous lack of dough-rolling behavior over here. And you know we aren't exactly the sort of folks who have all kinds of time to implement new solutions and fix what isn't (entirely) broken. (Jeez, just look at what's in your browser window, fer cryin' out Pete's sake. We're still partying like it's 1999.)

And last, our current Power Mac is hurting pretty badly. There are fan issues, and power supply issues, and while that's all fixable, we're finally at the point where a dual 800 MHz G4 isn't quite cutting it performance-wise anymore, so sinking time and money into keeping this ailing beast alive is probably a lousy investment. So if Apple does in fact unveil shiny new Power Macs tomorrow-- potentially the last PowerPC-based Power Macs ever to be produced-- we may well try to scrape together some cash and buy one. We know, it sounds counterintuitive to us, too, but somehow buying "dying" technology actually seems like a good investment in this case.

Besides, we've never been all that thrilled about shelling out cash for version 1.0 of any major new product, especially if it's something we rely on to pay the bills. We'll let the rest of you beta test it first. You're welcome.