On the Stevenote front, new miniPods and no new desktops or laptops weren't all that Think Secret revealed: we're also supposed to prepare ourselves a "total revamp" of the iLife suite (including new versions of all four of its component applications) and "major announcements related to Xserve." However, details on either of those new developments are left as an exercise for the reader, and personally, we lack the imagination necessary to get all giddy about iMovie 3.5 without someone at least giving us a hint about what might be so special about it. (Tell us there's a working "X-Ray Spex" effect and we'll talk.)

Xserves, on the other hand, we find a little more intriguing, in part because there's no way Apple can make "major announcements" about them without telling us just when the heck they're going to get G5 processors-- at least, not without inciting coast-to-coast riots. G5 Xserve rumors have been making the rounds for just about as long as the G5 itself has been public, and word has it that sales of G4-based Xserves bottomed out hard last summer as buyers held their breath (and their purchase orders) for G5-based updates that most of us just assumed had to come out "any minute now." Needless to say, we're still waiting.

If you regularly keep your ear to the ground (or jammed up against an air duct while hiding in a bathroom stall at One Infinite Loop), you no doubt hear all sorts of interesting and contradictory rumors about G5 Xserves floating around out there. For a while one of the bigger ones was that the 1U rack-mountable server was about to get super-sized to a whopping 3U to accommodate all the cooling junk necessary to keep G5s from bursting into flame. Most of the rumors dealt primarily with the "when" of the situation, since that's the real crux of the matter, and so far we've all been disappointed a bunch of times. (Remember when we were supposed to get G5 Xserves in "early September"?) And less than three weeks ago there were "no reports [that] specifically place the Xserve at Macworld SF," and now that situation's been turned on its ear. But that's what makes this all so interesting.

Well, like we said, there are lots of contradictory rumors about G5 Xserves floating around, and none of them seems particularly trustworthy right now, but for those of you in dire need of a massive dose of unfounded optimism, here's a handful of happy dust in the form of the most deliriously positive Xserve rumors currently making the rounds, regardless of believability! First of all, we hear it's still a 1U form factor, so that's nice. Secondly, the best specs we've yet heard insist that dual 3.0 GHz models are already in use in the field, in a strictly hush-hush capacity. Thirdly, and this is where you'd need some serious self-control not to roll your eyes or burst out giggling, we've actually heard that the G5 Xserves are going to cost no more than what the G4 Xserves will run you right now. (Was that a guffaw? We thought we heard a guffaw.)

Like we said, believe it or don't-- right now, we personally choose to do neither. We just thought you might enjoy a taste of what the optimists are grinning about. We suppose we'll find out on the 6th whether or not those grins were justified.