Apple may be able to do amazing things with Xserve machines and Mac OS X Server, but that doesn’t mean they’re the only ones who can offer affordable services to Macintosh users.

Rumor has it Apple will discontinue the iPhone 5S on Monday and release a new version of the iPhone 6. A smaller version. A 4″ version that’s just a bit better than the iPhone 5S it will replace.

Okay, for those of you unsure about The Rumor Mill, here’s the lowdown: it’s a farce. There are no contacts at Apple Computer. There are no leaks from anyone reaching us. There is no Anne Onymus.

Unless you live in a cave or on a desert island with no Internet, no TV, and no radio, you’ve probably heard that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is calling for a nationwide ban on mobile phone use while driving – even when used hands-free.

Buffalo Japan has introduced a brand new USB mouse that looks and works a lot like an iPod with a tail. Seriously, Buffalo’s new scrollwheel mouse has a round control pad that looks just like the ones you’ll find on the iPod nano and iPod classic.

It isn’t easy being green, but one California legislator wants to make it the law. Lloyd Levine thinks traditional incandescent light bulbs and CRTs are bad for the environment and should be outlawed in California.

Taking a page from Microsoft’s play book, Apple announced several new versions of OS X this morning. After all, if two editions of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger (regular and server) are good, eight must be better.

It was the best of times for IBM. Nintendo, already using a PowerPC processor in its GameCube, will be using a new IBM CPU in Revolution, its next generation gaming system. 

2004 – In the old days of MacWeek, Apple used to send up “trial balloons” to see how the market might respond to a new product. Today we have websites that exist only because of Mac rumors, and they’ve been at the forefront of the “flash iPod” craze.

2004 – If our usually reliable sources are to be believed, Steve Jobs has finally relented. After the stunning success of the iPod, Jobs now agrees that users may be able to handle more than a single button on a mouse.

2004 – If June is approaching, Intel must be preparing a newly improved and faster than ever before version of the erstwhile Pentium 4 processor.

2003 – Just when you thought it was safe to recommend an eMac, Apple thows another wrench into the works, the eMac II, or so our anonymous janitor at One Infinite Loop leads us to believe based on reconstructions of shredded documents and late night visits to the design labs while in a drunken stupor.

2003 – New Gigacelleration Alien World Technologies this morning announced the first G5 processor upgrade for AGP Power Macs. The dual 2.0 GHz PowerPC 970 promises the same level of performance as Apple’s Power Mac G5 at half the price.

2003 – It’s been over a month since Apple surprised us all with 12″ and 17″ PowerBooks, their smallest and largest laptops ever. (The Mac Portable still takes the cake for heaviest at nearly 16 pounds!)

2002 – Personal computers fall into a few broad categories: all-in-one, modular, and portable.