New Macs: If Not Now, When?New Macs: If Not Now, When?

I'm dying to get my hands on one of the new Intel-based iMacs or MacBook Pro laptops, just to see what Steve Jobs' "twice as fast" would feel like. I've offered up my first-born child to the hardware loan people at Apple (I didn't tell my first-born, because if Apple turns me down it would probably hurt his feelings), but I'm not counting on hearing from them any time soon. I just called my neighborhood Apple store and . . . I'm not counting on seeing the new Macs there anytime soon either.All I got out of my telephone call, in fact, was a pre-recorded brush-off. I can expect to find the new iMac in the Apple stores on Jan. 17, said the dvotoeotl ("disembodied voice on the other end of the line"), which is like next Tuesday and not too bad. But the MacBook Pro isn't expected to be available until the "end of February," which sounds suspiciously like code for "it hasn't made it out of manufacturing yet."

The new version of iLife '06, on the other hand, should be available today. Maybe somebody with a lunch hour in the Eastern Standard time zone could drop by an Apple store, verify this, and drop me a note? Thanks.