MacRumors.com

Blurry photos taken in an elevator and posted at our sister site MacGerüchte prove convincingly that Apple will release iCenter, their previously rumored home-management system, possibly next week at MacWorld Expo Boston.

iCenter, priced at $299, controls not only audio and video in a home setting, but lights, temperature, appliances, phone systems (including the recently upgraded iPhone Pro), home security centers and burglar alarms, and even lawn sprinklers.

iCenter uses the Intel Yonah II processor and an embedded version of Darwin known as Erasmus. Both wireless and Firewire 1600 (IEEE 1394C) interfaces are supported for communication with home control systems throughout a residence.

A leak in the Microsoft Knowledge Base reveals that Apple, with the support of Microsoft, will convert the iTunes Music Store and the iPod music storage format from protected AAC format to the more-widely accepted Windows Media Audio format, with its Windows Media DRM (digital rights management) system.

All songs previously purchased from the iTunes Music Store will need to be converted to WMA DRM using a free application named Tuneabout and all iPod owners will be required to register under Microsoft's Palladium system (formally named the Next-Generation Secure Computing Base) so that Microsoft can monitor their use of music and related media.

Deals between Microsoft and Apple are not unusual, including the Office for Mac support agreement and the iPhoto for Windows announcement last month, but the change to WMA is a notable change in direction for Apple. Trying to put the best possible spin on the decision, K. Rose, Apple Vice President for Media Relations, said

Microsoft's Windows Media Audio format and its digital rights management system are far superior to protected AAC. Like all Microsoft initiatives, Palladium has been popular and successful. We've been planning this switch ever since Playfair hacked the m4p format in 2004. We put our best engineers on the project to keep ahead, but we were outsmarted by the codebreakers at every turn. We just blew it, that's all.

ZDNET reports that Apple Computer, Inc. and The Walt Disney Company have purchased each other in a complicated takeover involving stock swaps, leveraged equities, debt refinancing, capital consolidation, and value-enhancing asset redeployments.

As a result of the deal, former Apple CEO Steve Jobs now reports to himself.

ZDNET notes that MacNN, detailing a digg.com followup to a CNET press release, has confirmed that AppleInsider quoted a Spymac story on an article in TheRegister reporting Think Secret's confirmation of the HardMac claim traced to an item at MacMinute based on an anonymous post at MacRumors about the Apple/Disney deal.