This week I’m issuing another of the “Whatever you do, don’t buy a new Macintosh” warnings that I broadcast from time to time. Why, you might ask, would a “cheerleading” Mac advocate like me tell you not to buy a new Mac? Can you keep a secret? Can you wait until Monday?

On Monday Apple CEO Steve Jobs delivers his Keynote address at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco. The only details released to this point are that Jobs will introduce the next major revision to the Macintosh operating system, Mac OS 10.4, codenamed “Tiger”. That in itself should provide enough “Oohs and Aahs”, but there could be hardware announcements as well. Last year the PowerMac G5s were introduced during Steve’s WWDC Keynote.

Already this year we’ve seen upgrades to the PowerBook, iBook, and recently the PowerMac lines. The one piece of the Mac computer pie that is getting “long in the tooth”, however, is the iMac. Apple’s “normal” major product updating cycle is around 18 to 27 months. The current iMac form factor and feature set has been around for about 24 months, and is in need of a facelift. While you certainly can’t bank on rumors, there are whispers of an all-new iMac in the offing, as well as new flat-panel monitors, including a 30-inch diagonal high definition model.

So, let me rephrase my buyer alert. If I was spending your money, and I was in the market for an iMac (or an eMac, for that matter), I would delay my purchase to see what Monday will bring. You can, of course, even wait until next Friday, when I will give you the full WWDC report right here in this space. We’ll see.

You’ve hopefully noticed that I have been discussing spam lately. Without stealing thunder from future articles, one of the ways you can protect your email address from spam is to not use it to request information from retailers, or to sign up for online services. .Mac subscribers can now assign up to five email “aliases” to each .Mac email account. Each alias is an email address that delivers mail received under the alias to your main .Mac address. So, you give the alias address to the spammers, and as soon as the spam starts to flow, you cancel the alias and come up with another one. Cool.

© 2004 Peter F. Zimowski