Are you so anxious to get your grubby lil' paws on Mac OS X 10.4-- that's "Tiger" to us cool kids, ya know-- that you're gnawing off your own limbs in anticipation? That could be a problem, since Uncle Steve only said that Tiger would ship in the first half of this year, which means it can arrive as late as June 30th and still be technically on time. By then, even if you're a slow and thorough chewer, you're not likely to have any limbs left-- which would probably seriously reduce your enjoyment of the operating system in the first place. What to do?

Well, you could always hinder your limb-chewing progress by coating your arms and legs in MAVALA Stop or bat guano or something, but before you go to such extremes just to save your limbs, it's worth noting that you may not have to hold out for quite so long after all. Remember about a week ago when we alluded to hints that Tiger might ship a bit earlier than the end of June? Now Think Secret gives us even more hope-- and a date. Reportedly Apple is preparing to announce Tiger's imminent release at a media event slated for April 1st, with the operating system reaching customers and store shelves by April 15th. That's less than a month away-- the odds are pretty good that you'll still have at least a leg or two left by then, and mousing with one's toes is probably a lot easier than it sounds.

In addition to citing "sources close to the company" when tossing around the April 15th date, Think Secret also points out numerous clues that Tiger will ship in April, including more frequent developer builds of the OS, Apple's alleged doubling of its estimates for software sales by the end of May, the planned release of Tiger-only software apps at NAB on April 18th, and the expected introduction of Tiger-preloaded iMacs and eMacs in mid-April. Okay, sure, plenty of that is also predicated on info from "sources close to the company," but if it's still not good enough for you, then take a gander at eWEEK, which is arguably closer to "legitimate press." eWEEK sides with Think Secret, claiming that its own company sources confirm the April 15th in-stores date. So apparently we'll all be Tigering ourselves into a frenzy sooner rather than later.

April 15th: finally, something good to associate with that date! And wow, is it really possible that Amazon.com's specified Tiger ship date (most recently reported to be April 18th) was based on something more relevant than a series of coin tosses and games of rock-paper-scissors? It's like finding out that Santa Claus is actually real, or that the Milli Vanilli guys were really singing after all. Of course, it was probably just a coincidence, but still, it's as close to spotting the Virgin Mary in a grilled cheese sandwich as we're ever likely to get.