Personally, we have a feeling that these long-rumored PowerBook updates (when they finally surface in the year 2525) will be minor enough-- yes, even the 15-incher's induction into the Hall of Aluminum-- that normally they'd probably just get a press release; we doubt they'd warrant the full-blown Steve treatment what with the "one more thing" and the products magically rising out of the stage floor and the intro video with Jon Ive and Phil Schiller and whichever random celebrity Apple was able to lure into the studio that day with a Twinkie on a string. That sort of stuff is usually reserved for the big changes: new enclosures, new processors, an all-new menu with a wider selection of appetizers (try the Blooming Onion!), etc.

However, given that the term "noodle juice" was still in widespread use the last time these products were refreshed, circumstances might necessitate a little more of a to-do, just to get the new gear back into the public eye. A Stevenote might be just the ticket-- and, as faithful viewer Michael McKinney pointed out, Macworld UK reports that El Stevo will indeed be handling his usual keynote duties at Paris's Apple Expo in three weeks' time. (This shouldn't come as any particular surprise, since we're pretty sure he's done every Apple Expo keynote since at least 1998, but the fact that every Mac site on the planet is reporting this as if it were some sort of mindblowing revelation just shows how slow the news has been this week.)

Anyway, if your spirit hasn't been so crushed underfoot that you can still assume that new PowerBooks just might be ready sometime within the next three weeks, Apple Expo might indeed be an ideal venue at which to cry havoc and let slip the 'Books of war. Granted, it's slightly uncommon for Apple to introduce new hardware at the Paris show (heck, a couple of years ago the company even sent out a press release warning fans not to get their hopes up), but it has happened before; remember the bigger-disk Pismos and the FireWire iBooks in 2000? So, provided that Motorola will have finally figured out how to make more than one G4 processor at a time by then (to Motorola's credit, not many companies take the time and care to whittle each chip by hand anymore), Steve might have a new trio of PowerBooks to trot out in Paris. In fact, while he's at it, why not intro the speed-bumped iMacs as well? And the G5 Xserve?

Aw, heck... it's the City of Lights, so we say Apple should just update everything for one massive Paris blowout. Dual-processor eMacs! iBooks with 17-inch screens! Anodized Power Macs in Think Pink, Electric Blue, and Mr. Yuck Green! iPods that can be fitted nasally! C'mon, Apple, you've got three whole weeks; how hard can it be?