Unfortunately, most of the remaining active members of the “Bothans” (for those who don’t recognize the title, the Bothans are a group of our oldest and most infamous sources, all highly placed at one time or another near the Executive Suite at Infinite Loop) are either on vacation, battling serious illness in the hospital, or totally engrossed in work projects to the exclusion of everything else as we speak.

As a result, it has been difficult to attain the kind of clear-cut confirmation of specific product(s), and specific timing of the announcement(s), that we normally enjoy thanks to having the best sources in the industry.

We aren’t the young, bold, go-way-out-on-a-limb rumormongers we were when MOSR was new in the mid 90′s.

More so than most, we take missed opportunities…..inaccurate predictions…..criticism…..and the generalized dramas that go with the territory…..to heart.

You’d think that after more than 14 years in this business, we would have developed thick skins — and in many ways we have had to do just that, as others do, to preserve our collective sanity.

But one of the reasons that we have had, and continue to have, such uniquely remarkable & highly-placed sources who trust us utterly….is because of that sincerity and emotional vulnerability that many of our source-relations team members have diplayed to them over the years.

In an industry full of people who are far less concerned about what people think, have to say, or feel about much of anthing….that is a double-edged sword to say the least and it played no small role in the burnout that produced our inconsistent updates of recent years — just as much as the illnesses that plagued our founder & other team members.

Obviously, given our disinterest in going deliberately & excessively far out on a limb about such predictions in order to gain short-term traffic as some others do…..we are loathe to spin this weekend’s Apple Store lockdown into too much of a story all by itself.

That said….based on the tremendous buzz on the grapevine which existed well before the Lockdown but has clearly been redoubled as a result of it…..we believe that even if it is not immediately imminent, that no less than three separate Mac product revisions are due within the next six weeks at the outside.

At least one of these, we believe rather firmly, can be expected within 7-10 days — and given last night’s online store lockdown, quite possibly much sooner than that.

Rumors will be updating frequently and tracking related developments very closely in the days ahead so stay tuned — big things are in the offing and take our word for it: you don’t want to miss a beat!