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Last week we, along with virtually every other Mac Website, reported on comments that Alpha-Top Corporation spokesman (Alpha-Top is the Taiwanese subcontractor that builds Apple's iBooks) Wang Hsin-wu made in an interview with Bloomberg News to the effect that colored iBooks with larger displays are being prepaerd for introduction at MacWorld Expo New York in July.

As I noted last week: "I find it more than a bit remarkable that Apple would upgrade the screen size on the iBook just two months after its introduction, although I have speculated myself that such an upgrade... was pretty much inevitable in the fullness of time, but I never expected it this soon."

On Friday, MacCentral published an emphatic denial of the rumor by an Apple spoksman, who commented: "The Alpha-Top spokesperson quoted in the article was incorrect in regard to Apple's iBook plans. What he said is not true."

Still, it's hard to credit the notion that the Bloomberg story was a fabrication, so Mr. Wang must have been getting at something.

Jason O'Grady at Go2Mac.com thinks he has a line on what it might be. "According to sources close to the project, Apple is hard at work on a new PowerBook model that will sit neatly between the newly announced iBook Dual USB and the PowerBook G4 Titanium. The new model will ship with a 14-inch TFT display and a G3 processor and the will essentially be a Pismo-like machine in a new 2001 enclosure," Jason notes. For more detailed speculation, visit here: http://ogrady.com/

I also am constrained to observe a factual error in Jason's report. He says: "Alpha-Top has made the last several PowerBook models (including Pismo, Lombard and Wallstreet) under a contract from Apple Computer."

Uh.. no. Pismo, Lombard the TiBook, and the second-generation (PDQ) Wallstreet were/are all made by Quanta, another Taiwanese laptop specialist. Quanta was responsible for a substantial chunk of the TiBook's engineering as well. Alpha-Top makes only the iBook for Apple (and various PC laptops).

As for "Son of Pismo," could be, but I'll withold judgment for now. I think the safest bet for a MW NY intro is a new iMac, possibly with an LCD display.

Charles W. Moore

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