MacRumors

TUAW believes that the upcoming MacBooks will indeed be powered by NVIDIA chipsets and will be delivered on October 14th.

A source tells us that Nvidia is showing off new MacBooks to their employees, and word is going around that the new versions will be released as soon as October 14th.

Apple was first rumored in July to be incorporating alternative chipsets in future laptops. While Apple would still be using Intel CPUs to power their laptops, the support chips (including graphics) were said to be supplied by a company other than Intel. NVIDIA topped some lists as the most likely supplier. A subsequent report pointed specifically to the use of the MCP7A-U chipset in future MacBooks. This NVIDIA chipset was briefly detailed by Expreview:

MCP7A-U is the top class chipset in the MCP7A family. Though it could be named as GeForce 9XXX, it will be come the first mainstream uATX mobo with DDR3-1333 support. Sources inform us the MCP7A-U will be the fastest mGPU, but who knows.

Such a move would address user complaints about the use of Intel's slower integrated graphics chipsets in current MacBooks. The move would also prepare Apple's laptops for the release of Mac OS X Snow Leopard which will allow applications to utilize the more powerful graphics processing units.

MacRumors has also heard similar whispers which lead us to believe these reports could be true.

9to5Mac finally puts an end to 'Brick' speculation and claims that 'Brick' refers to the new manufacturing process for MacBooks.

The MacBook manufacturing process up to this point has been outsourced to Chinese or Taiwanese manufacturers like Foxconn. Now Apple is in charge. The company has spent the last few years building an entirely new manufacturing process that uses lasers (w/o sharks) and jets of water to carve the MacBooks out of a brick of aluminum.

9to5Mac speculates that this will give Apple strategic and technical advantages over other manufacturers, including improvements in complexity of case design, strength and quality. They also point out that Steve Jobs has been known to focus on the details of factory design with his NeXT startup in the 1980's.

The site also ties this back to recent comments by Peter Oppenheimer that Apple will continue to introduce state of the art products that their competitors are unable to match.

Finally, they expect that the MacBooks will indeed be released on October 14th.

Fring has released the iPhone version of their service today as a free download in the App Store.

Fring allows you to chat and interact with others on a variety of networks including Skype, MSN, GoogleTalk, AIM, Yahoo, Twitter, and ICQ. In addition, Fring offers Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) using the iPhone's Wi-Fi connection. Features listed include:

VoIP (Voice) Calls over WiFi
Instant Messaging
Integrated dynamic contact list 
with real-time contact availability
SIP integration
Multiple Connection types

Fring supports SkypeOut and SIP which allows you to make calls to landline and mobile phones. Some charges may apply depending on the type of call and plan. Fring is available as a free download in the App Store. (App Store Link)

Steve Jobs had said that VoIP calls over Wi-Fi was allowable in the App Store when the iPhone SDK was first released. Fring should also work with the new iPod touch, which supports an external microphone.

Update: Some are confused about the benefits of fring. One user details some of the features:

- Can call directly using iPhone to another person with iPhone running Fring
- Call MSN or Skype users that are using their computer
- Call using Skype account, which allows you to have your own Skype number and at a discount rate for international calls
- Receive phone calls using Skype with your own custom Skype number
- Basic chat functions with most chat platforms, such as AIM, Yahoo and ICQ

Update 2: This YouTube video demos using Fring on an iPod Touch to call a cell phone for free. This Video walks through how it is accomplished.

Last night, an individual started spreading fake rumors of Steve Jobs suffering from a heart attack. The story was posted to CNN's iReport "unedited" and "unfiltered" citizen journalism site and subsequently submitted to Digg.com.

The Digg story then gained attention on 4chan, an unmoderated discussion board, which then proceeded to promote the story as a prank. 4chan most recently gained (even further) notoriety as the discussion forum where vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's email account contents and password were posted.

Apple's stock took a brief dip this morning based on the rumors. An Apple spokesperson has confirmed that the rumor is "not true".

Update: The SEC is investigating to see if this was intentional stock manipulation.

Businessweek's Arik Hesseldahl raises some questions about what the strategic direction Apple will pursue in the next 6 to 24 months.

As obvious as the path to a tablet device seems now, I have trouble imagining the next obvious path that Apple might follow in 2009 and 2010. In fact, the company may very well be nearing a product plateau. And here's the real kicker: That may not be a bad thing.

While Hesseldahl has no hard answers, he suggests Apple might do well to further establish their existing product lines rather than trying to branch out into new territory.

Now, Apple and its customers would be well-served if the company concentrates on making everything better, faster, and cheaper. While the Mac is in the minds of many already a better personal computing platform than Microsoft's Windows, it's time to press the offensive.

The thoughts reflect some comments by our own readers who have felt that Apple has been neglecting their core business of Macs and may have spread themselves too thin with the troubled launch of MobileMe.

Apple generated some headlines on Tuesday when statements by iTunes vice president Eddie Cue suggested that Apple might shut down iTunes rather than pay increased royalty rates to music publishers.

Few took the threat seriously, but CNet reports that the Copyright Royalty Board decided to keep royalty rates at 9.1 cents. Music publishers had been pushing for an increase to 15 cents per track, while Apple was insisting that the price increase would not be tolerated by the market.

The 9.1 cents/track rate is now set for the next five years. An Apple spokesperson stated they were very pleased with the decision.

Apple has also released the Apple TV 2.2 update tonight. Apple TV owners can download the new updates from their Apple TV's by accessing the "Update Software" menu option in their Apple TV's settings.

Aside from addressing some security issues, Apple has also included support for features introduced in iTunes 8.0, including Genius playlists. Features discovered by our forum members include:

- Music Video playlists
- Genius playlists
- On-the-Go Playlists
- Standby Option
- HD TV Show Playback and Purchase

Apple has released an update to iTunes to version 8.0.1. The update is available in Mac OS X's Software Update and provides the following features:

iTunes 8.0.1 improves stability and performance and provides a number of important bug fixes, including:

Seamlessly plays the current song when creating a new Genius playlist.
Improves syncing spoken menus to iPod nano.
Addresses an issue of deleting HD TV episodes when downloading.
Improves checking for updates from the App Store
Improves accessibility with VoiceOver.
Addresses problems syncing Genius results to iPod.

Apple released iTunes 8.0 on September 9th. iTunes 8 introduced Genius playback, High Definition TV shows, and a new iTunes visualizer.

While many readers await definitive news of a MacBook update, the void of legitimate rumors have triggered ongoing speculation about the anticipated release.

For lack of any new details, a lot of speculation has focused on the "Brick" codename that was first revealed by 9to5Mac. It seems any story about a possible Apple product tries to tie it to the mysterious codename. The problem with most of these predictions is that they ignore that the origin of the name relates exclusively to the new MacBook. There seems little chance that "brick" represents a new class of product.

The July rumor that Apple may adopt alternative chipsets has recently gotten a bit of traction with speculation that Apple could adopt the NVidia chipset which is scheduled for release on October 15th.

Readers may recall that October 14th is the rumored date of the Apple notebook refresh. There have been some incorrect reports that Apple had planned some sort of announcement on September 30th, but that simply turned out to be a routine conference call with their resellers.

And no lead up to a release would be complete without likely fake spy shots which claim to depict the new MacBook Pro.

Netflix posted an announcement about new content available for streaming, including new movies and television shows:

Today we announced an agreement with Starz Play that adds around 1,000 choices that you can watch instantly today, and will add another 1,500 by the end of the year. Movies include No Country for Old Men, Ratatouille, Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End, Superbad, and more.
...
Recently we also added a lot of new CBS, Disney and NBC TV episodes including of CSI, NCIS, Numbers, Jericho, Hannah Montana and Heroes.

Netflix is best known for its mail-order DVD rental service but also includes unlimited video streaming with their fixed monthly plans starting at $9/month. Netflix also recently launched a $100 set top box that allows customers to stream video straight to their television.

The blog post also confirms that Mac support for streaming video will arrive by the end of the year:

And, for all of you Mac users (of which I am one) weve been busy working getting a solution that will allow you to watch instantly on your Mac. So hang in there - well have something for you by the end of the year.

Netflix had previously revealed planned Mac support in January 2008 during Q4 financial results.

Earlier this week, a report posted to a French newspaper claimed that an odor being emitted from some Mac Pros could actually be toxic fumes.

A scientist quoted in the article says the odor contains several toxins, including benzene. Prolonged exposure to benzene raises the risk for diseases, including cancer.

An Apple spokesperson spoke to Macworld and stated that they have not found any evidence to prove this claim, but states they will continue to investigate it.

A strange startup odor has been noted by some Mac Pro owners on Apple's discussion forums.

Scott Davilla has released a method to (relatively) easily install Boxee onto your existing Apple TV. The process involves using the atvusb-creator software (Intel Mac only) to create a bootable USB drive which you plug into your Apple TV. That bootloader will subsequently patch your Apple TV to install the Boxee interface as a separate menu option in addition to the existing Apple TV functionality.

Boxee is a free personal media center that offers an alternative and flexible media browser for several platforms. Boxee originated from the XBox Media Center project but has added social networking features and multiple platform support, now including the Apple TV. CNet took an early look at the software back in June and thought it was going to be the "next big thing" in media center software.

So what does Boxee do? If you've ever used Joost, it's somewhat similar. You can plug in feeds of Web videos and browse through them, complete with video thumbnails and meta data. What makes it different is that it taps into your local media like videos, photos, and music you have saved on your hard drive. Both layers of media (online and offline) are wrapped up together with a social network of other Boxee users, so if you like something you're watching you can recommend it to friends.

While the social networking features are nice, Apple TV owners will also enjoy the ability to browse media on their compuetrs, across a network, or on the Internet and playback a wide variety of video/audio formats including hard-drive saved DVD video with menu support. iTunes protected content, of course, is not available under Boxee, but those can still be played with the original Apple TV menu options which are preserved.

A demo video shows off the interface for Boxee. Boxee remains in alpha testing, so users should proceed with caution. At present Boxee is invite-only but users can easily apply and we've been assured that they will try to issue invites "as quickly as possible". Users can also invite other users and we ask that readers focus invite requests in this thread rather than cluttering up the article discussion thread.