One of my favorite podcasts is Stuff You Should Know [iTunes link]. Hosts Josh and Chuck (call him "Chuckers") are smart, funny and professional.* There's an article on the show's companion site this week that explores 5 myths about Apple. I encourage you to go and read it, but here are some highlights.

"Apple is going out of business." If we had a dollar, nay, a penny for every time we heard that, we'd all be eating caviar in the South of France. While the funeral dirge may have been warranted in the '90s when Gil was building beige boxes, things have been going swimmingly since Steve returned with the iMac in tow.

That doesn't stop pundits from making claims of Apple's demise, however. But they're greatly exaggerated.

Myth number four on their list is that Apple can't survive without Steve Jobs. This has been a hot topic since Steve took medical leave and opinions are as numerous as stars in the galaxy. Our take in a nutshell: Apple will be just fine without Steve.

We won't spoil the rest of the list for you, so go ahead and check it out.

*Maybe I'll get a shout-out on an upcoming show for this post. What do you say, guys?

Hon Hai, aka Foxconn Electronics, won't comment or confirm, but the cat seems to really be out of the bag now. This latest batch of iPhone reports feels like less of a rumor than previous iterations. According to this Forbes article, Hon Hai has "secured contracts from Apple Computer for 12 mln mobile handsets that also function as music players, the Commercial Times quoted industry sources as saying." Yes, that's 12 million. Also, that "Apple will launch the mobile handsets in the first half of next year."

Financial analysts everywhere are going to be speculating (or continuing to) on what this move could mean to AAPL. We happened upon the Bear Stearns IT Bytes newsletter from earlier today and they've done a bit of extrapolating. They say the "iPhone" (we really don't know if that's what these handsets will be called, but we'll continue to refer to them as iPhones to keep things simple) should/would be priced around $300 and sales could earn shareholders an EPS (earnings per share) of about $0.70 on $6 billion in incremental revenue. They are assuming between 20 million and 29 million handsets would ship during 2007, implying a potential market share of approximately 3% of the total mobile phone market. Furthermore, they guestimate that an iPhone would "cannibalize iPod (mostly nano) sales" and assumed that iPhone would eat into around 30% of existing overall iPod sales.

I'm an AAPL shareholder myself, but all those numbers and forward-looking statements make my head hurt, so I'll stop now. What was more interesting about the IT Bytes newsletter and other Bear emails I've seen is that Bear Stearns is aggressively promoting the iPod itself (and AAPL by association) by including a picture of the iPod in every single email they send (html + an attachment). The iPod is unmistakably a part of their BearCasts logo. It's not a generic digital audio player. It's a 3rd 4th gen an iPod, no doubt about it. The logo is all over their website as well. That strikes me as an endorsement. I'm just sayin'...

Thanks, Mike!

AppleInsider, one of our primary sources for that contraband we like to call "Apple rumors", is claiming to have the word on a new education Mac to replace the now defunct eMac. Apparently the all-new eMac will be based around G5 processors and.... wait. That article's from two years ago! We can only conclude that when AppleInsider brought us news of the G5 eMac that they were joking. Obviously, now they're being serious.

This latest rumor features several key points:

• There was an education based Mac in the past and there isn't one now. AppleInsider connects the dots using complex logic to predict that Apple is making a new education Mac.
  
• Teachers and schools will be buying computers in the summer to be ready for the next semester. When people want to buy things, you should try to sell things.
  
• Apple went Intel, so the new eMac will feature an Intel chip. Not a G5 or any of those crappy PowerPC things - who ever liked them anyway?
  
• The eMac's bulky enclosure was its most expensive part. Apple will therefore choose NOT to lose money on an expensive, pointless and bulky enclosure for the next eMac. A tough choice to make.
  
• Thanks to that aggressive rumor scrounging that AppleInsider does on our behalf, they obtained the extremely specific information that the new eMac *might* be available to the average consumer. But it also might not.

For extra entertainment, place the word "duh" after every bullet point.

Ok, folks, here we go again. Another blurry, nondescript photo of a supposed Apple product has made its way to the web (and what a coincidence, just a day after Apple announces a press event). This time, MacDailyNews is playing host. An anonymous tipster writes:

"I was only able to snap one quick shot of this as I was only in there for about 30 seconds. I sort of stumbled upon it - can't say more about how or why...there are a bunch of ports (and maybe a button or two) neatly arranged on the back (?) of the cube in a line along the bottom edge. It's about 8-inches square and 8-inches tall - a perfect cube. It seems to be made out of a similar material as a Power Mac - aluminum perforated with a round hole pattern, but they're smaller holes than found on a Power Mac. The top is the same material as the sides with the addition of the Apple logo, even though it doesn't look like it in the photo - I had to snap it quick, sorry."

First of all, thirty seconds is a long time to spend taking a single picture. When was the last time you spent a full thirty seconds on a single photo? Plus, if you've got all that time and this killer exclusive, why not get a shot of the ports on the back? And why must all of these things be blurry? Are we the only ones who think this looks like a doctored Apple Design Award? Finally, the Apple logo seems to be missing its leaf. Have at it, Photoshop pros.

And if you think we're going to launch a "Create Your Own Blurry Photo of a Secret Apple Product" contest, you've got another thing coming.

Update: I think Kevin's comment nailed it: You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile! Apple is in league with the Borg!