Apple to launch iMac II next week

The next version of Apple's iMac, the so-called C2 revision, will be launched on Tuesday, according to sources cited by Apple-watching Web magazine MacWeek. The event, to be hosted by interim CEO Steve Jobs, will also mark the availability to the public of MacOS 9. Of course, if MacWeek's sources are correct, it does rather make a mockery of Apple's aggressive stance against various other Mac-oriented Web sites for daring to publish pictures of the new machine in each of its three anticipated configurations. Apple's lawyers went into overdrive this week threatening to have some sites pulled from their ISPs' computers and others with damages in the order of the losses Apple may have suffered from would-be buyers putting off their iMac purchases until the C2 iMac ships. One site owner told The Register: "Apple's Legal Department has told me to remove some images and have threatened me with a lawsuit. They also have said that they will contact my ISP or Web Host and have my site shutdown if I do not comply with their request." Of course, if the C2 iMac is out next week -- just seven days after the first leaked pictures were posted -- Apple really can't complain about lost sales. Especially when it has apparently been keeping the channel free of the current iMac line-up for some time. As one US reseller source put it: "I haven't been able to order new iMacs for weeks." All of which suggests Apple's legal moves are more down to the management being pissed off about the leaks rather than the copyright infringement implicit in posting the company's photos without permission. Indeed, one site, MacFuture went so far as to suggest that the pics had been deliberately leaked to smoke out which employees had been spreading rumours. ®