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NEWS/FEATURE: (5.14.07)-- Earlier this year, PBCentral.com reported that Apple had declared certain Mac models (like the 12" PowerBook G4 that this article is being typed on) officially "dead." To add insult to injury, if your "current" Mac model is on display at a museum in the Italian province of Savona, it's probably about that time to, think different about your non-Intel Mac.

Everyone knows there's a "little Italy" in some major city in the United States, but hardly a person on U.S. territory has heard of the "little Big Apple" in Italy, and know we're not talking about Yonkers here. We're talking about the All About Apple Museum in the city of Quiliano, the greatest of its kind in the world.

Over the weekend, the Apple Macintosh User Group (AMUG) "All About Apple"--the first of its kind in the northern region of Italy--celebrated their fifth anniversary in that same museum named after their group, which they opened up about two years ago.

According to Fabio Zambelli, editor-in-chief of the Apple-related news site "setteB.IT" (aptly named because they cover Mac news seven days a week) even the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA doesn't come close to what the All About Apple Museum has in terms of Mac paraphernalia/nostalgia.

"This museum (All About Apple Museum) is a little space but with a huge number of Apple computers, manuals, books, softwares, parts, accessories. For example the Computer Museum in Silicon Valley is very large but with a little part dedicated to Apple and with few computers. This one in Italy is really 'the greatest' in Apple words," Zambelli says.

In fact, Apple themselves crashed in on the party via iPhone, oops, tele-phone and congratulated the Italian AMUG on celebrating five years of existence, along with their accomplishments with the museum. (And here's their proof).

According to setteB.IT, more than 90% of the computers in the museum are fully functional and museum-goers are allowed to touch and use them at will. For the special event, the public was granted entrance into the museum, a perk usually only open to registered AMUG members.

During the anniversary celebration on Saturday, a replica of the "Apple I" computer was donated to the museum by a Paolo di Leo (no relation to this columnist) who created it using an A-ONE logic board from the Netherlands that is a clone of the original. Leo appears to have given his replica as a temporary gift though, until the museum can get their hands on an original.

This museum and subsequent AMUG apparently goes against a recent article last month by InfiniteLoop.com who reported that "Macintosh User Groups [are] Going the Way of the Newton."

Reporter Justin Berka writes: "In the olden days of computing, when hard drive space was measured in megabytes and the disks were floppy, Macintosh and PC User Groups (MUGs and PCUGs) were a veritable fount of knowledge... Sadly, user groups and computer clubs are slowly fading away, due in large part to the rise of the Internet."

What would be more sad is if you point your mouse to the All About Apple AMUG's site, and find the computer that you're currently using is being showcased on their shelves. Thankfully, none of the photos of the museum that we could find show any PowerBook G4s on display-- save for the one being used by one of the event staffers... though that could be a MacBook Pro.

PowerBook G4 and iBook G4 users can take comfort in the fact that at least for now, even though Apple has given these users the boot and declared their machines vintage and obsolete? They're not yet in the All About Apple Museum. (So don't go yonkers, uh, bonkers just yet!).

NOTE: Special thanks to Fabio M. Zambelli, editor-in-chief of the website setteB.IT (7B.IT) for contributing to this article and providing images for us to use. Grazie infinite! (Also check out their coverage last week of our article written on 5/10... though, it's in Italian.)

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