Good news!!! Previously a rumor, AppleInsider confirms that the Wi-Fi card in your Apple Intel-based Core 2 Duo iMac IS 802.11n ready! This means your stylish, spankin' Apple desktop can enjoy all the benefits of next-generation Wi-Fi connection! The catch? You owe Apple five bucks (or US$ 4.99, to be exact). Either that or get the new AirPort Extreme Base Station, itself 802.11n-enabled. Do that however, and you'll owe Steve Jobs ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY NINE BUCKS for the AirPort and the 802.11n. Take your pick.

Yes, Virginia. Apple has been quietly shipping your iMacs to you with such advanced capabilities, without telling you about it. To enable it, though, will require a patch that will begin shipping next month when the new AirPort comes out. But why the nominal five dollar fee? (But the cheapskate in this writer replies: Nominal my butt!)

AppleInsider offers an explanation from iLounge editor Jeremy Horwitz, based on talks with Apple reps. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act prohibits companies from selling products without advertising their features, and there are financial/accounting penalties for doing so. 802.11n was unadvertised, but as AppleInsider confirmed, it's there, in the box, and all ready but for one measly patch.

The five dollars (or five dollars from the US$ 179 of Uncle Sam's notes) might be part of that accounting penalty - to balance the books, so to speak. If it didn't collect the additional fee for the unadvertised next-gen Wi-Fi feature, Apple could be held liable for improper accounting, Horwitz says.

Hey, no one wants an Enron - even over five dollars a patch.