MacRumors

Electronista claims that Apple may be holding a special press event on September 12th, 2006 based on an "official" email sent to Your Mac Life.

The date corresponds to the start of Apple Expo Paris which runs from September 12th to 16th. It has already been announced, however, that there will be no Keynote event for the Apple Expo.

Meanwhile, Businessweek also places an announcement from Apple in the same time frame. According to their sources, Apple plans to start offering Movie downloads through iTunes in mid-September at $14.99 for new releases and $9.99 for older movies.

Finally, many users are expecting Apple to release Core 2 Duo based laptops in September, but no further hints of this have been revealed.
Update: Mac4Ever is also reporting that Apple will be hosting a September 12th Event which will take place in San Francisco and be streamed to London.
Update 2: MacBidouille confirms that there will be a Keynote in San Francisco on September 12th that will be relayed to London.

- It was originally reported that Steve jobs will not deliver a Keynote at Apple Expo. He will indeed not be in Paris; but a Keynote will be organized in cupertino and relayed in London at Apple Europe HeadQuarter, where journalists have already been invited. There will are not relay organized at AppleExpo so far.

Several readers have noted that Apple's online store now has an estimated ship date of October for external iSight cameras.
Slipping ship dates can be an indicator of updated or new product offerings, although other causes such as increased demand (perhaps due to increased Mac Pro and Display purchases which lack built-in iSights) can also contribute to longer ship times.

The iSight was last updated in March of 2005. Of note, the iSight (along with some other Apple products) has not been available since early July in Europe due to the RoHS directive. As such, any Apple revision may be focused around compliance with the RoHS directive, especially in light of current environmental pressure by Greenpeace.

Apple sent the following email to customers who had purchased the Mac Pro with the ATI X1900 Video Card Build-to-Order option.

Apple is pleased to announce a price drop for the Mac Pro you recently
ordered. We have automatically adjusted your order to reflect the new price.

For up-to-date information on your order, please visit our Order Status
website at http://www.apple.com/orderstatus. Once your order is shipped, you
can also obtain tracking information on this site.

Thank you for your interest in Apple products.

The Apple Store shows that the ATI X1900 dropped from $350 to $250 for build to order purchasers of the new Mac Pro. Meanwhile, the individually sold card also represents the lower price at $399 (vs $499).

The ATI X1900 was announced alongside the Mac Pro but has yet to start shipping.

In a press release, Apple announced that Dr. Eric Schmidt was named to Apple's Board of Directors today.

Dr. Schmidt has a long resume, including current positions as CEO of Google, as a member of the Google board of directors, and on the Princeton University board of trustees. He was formerly CEO of Novell and Chief Technology Officer at Sun Microsystems Inc.

This brings to eight the number of Apple directors. The last appointment was Fred Anderson, who retired as Apple CFO and joined the Board in June 2004.

"Eric is obviously doing a terrific job as CEO of Google, and we look forward to his contributions as a member of Apple's board of directors," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "Like Apple, Google is very focused on innovation and we think Eric's insights and experience will be very valuable in helping to guide Apple in the years ahead."

Late last week, environmental watchdog Greenpeace released their Guide to Greener Electronics (pdf) which rates how eco-friendly different tech companies are based on publicly available information. Apple scored 4th lowest, beating only Leveno, Motorola, and Acer. Among the top-scorers were Nokia and Dell.

For a company that claims to lead on product design, Apple scores badly on almost all criteria. The company fails to embrace the precautionary principle, withholds its full list of regulated substances and provides no timelines for eliminating toxic polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and no commitment to phasing out all uses of brominated flame retardants (BFRs). Apple performs poorly on product take back and recycling, with the exception of reporting on the amounts of its electronic waste recycled.

News.com has received a statement from Apple responding to the Greenpeace claims.

Apple has a strong environmental track record and has led the industry in restricting and banning toxic substances such as mercury, cadmium and hexavalent chromium, as well as many BFRs. We have also completely eliminated CRT monitors, which contain lead, from our product line.

Apple does note that their LCD monitors do contain small amounts of mercury, for which they are working to find a suitable alternative. Apple began an expanded computer recycling program in April 2006. Apple has had an iPod recycling program in the US since 2005.

Apple's annual shareholder meetings have seen frequent protests from environmental groups (2005, 2006).

Think Secret claims to have information on the rumored revision to the Mac Mini. According to the site, Apple will replace the existing Core Solo model with the existing 1.66 GHz Core Duo model, and add a 1.83 GHz Core Duo model, effectively eliminating all single-core CPUs from Apple's computer product line.

The new systems are said to be "ready for production." Think Secret believes the models will be introduced in a few weeks time with little fanfare, although not totally under the radar like the last Mac Mini update.

Yesterday, Microsoft inadvertently released the pricing of its upcoming OS called Vista on their Canadian website. The prices were picked up by the NeoWin blog and are also neatly layed out at Wikipedia.

Vista Home Premium will retail for $239, with upgrades available for $159. Additional licenses will be available for discounts as well. Vista Home Premium edition has evolved from XP Professional, Media Center, and Tablet product lines, and probably is also the edition which can most closely be compared to Mac OS X.

Many comparisons have been made between Vista and Mac OS X, and with many expecting Apple to continue its pricing tradition of $129 for Leopard (Mac OS 10.5), further comparisons can be made on price as well.

All prices in USD

Update: Amazon has Vista available for Pre-order at the above prices.

Apple has released a new iPod + iTunes Ad featuring Bob Dylan and promoting Dylan's new album Modern Times.

The ad can be found via Apple's website, and Modern Times is available for pre-order via the iTunes Music Store (link).

Apple has recently posted a number of ads including new Get a Mac Ads. The last new iPod ad was posted in May 2006 which used the usual silhouetted dancers.

As expected, several laptop manufacturers have released the first of the Core 2 Duo (Merom) based laptops today.

Dell, Toshiba, Samsung and Alienware announced laptop models which utilize the new Core 2 Duo processors.

Apple, however, has yet to announce a Merom/Core 2 Duo upgrade to their laptop line (MacBook and MacBook Pro), but several rumors suggest that these upgrades will come in September.

Historically, Apple's processor upgrades have been tied to Motorola/IBM's PowerPC upgrades which have generally been less frequent and less public than Intel's. With the switch to Intel, Apple may have to provide timely upgrades to remain competitive with Windows-based PC manufacturers.

Apple posted three new "Get a Mac" ads on their website. The new ads debuted during the 2006 Emmy's tonight on NBC.

The three new ads include:

Accident (magnetic power cord)
Angel/Devil (iPhoto book)
Trust Mac (Spyware)

Justin Long previously stated that almost 20 more ads will be airing.

eWeek reported that PC manufacturers are expected to announce availability of new Core 2 Duo (Merom) notebooks on Monday August 28th.

The Core 2 Duo for notebooks, otherwise known by the code name "Merom," offers buyers a performance upgradean increase of about 20 percent, according to Intelbut holds power consumption to nearly the same level as its predecessor, the Core Duo.

According to Intel, the Core 2 Duo processors fit into existing notebook systems with only a system software update required to work. The new chips are to range from 1.66GHz to 2.33GHz. Apple is expected to join in with Core 2 Duo based Macs as early as September, according to early reports.

The next major upgrade to Intel's notebook design isn't expected until early 2007 with a new notebook platform named "Santa Rosa". Santa Rosa will combine the Core 2 Duo processors with new supporting chips as well as Intel's AMT (Active Management Technology) and Robson technology. Robson uses flash memory to improve startup times and to cache frequently used applications. Previous rumors have placed Robson technology in future Mac notebooks.

Over the past month or so, there appears to have been an uptick in user dissatisfaction with Apple's handling of support incidents. While overall satisfaction is extremely hard to gauge due to the fact that typically only disgruntled users notify sites of issues and the uptick could also simply represent Apple's increased marketshare, it does come amongst reports of Apple firing its online forum moderator staff and an Indian support center that was shut down as quickly as it was opened. Similarly, many people felt that Apple was ill-prepared for yesterday's 1.8 million battery recall, as Apple's support site was quickly overloaded with requests and there was a lot of confusion as to what batteries were affected.

This all could, of course be coincidental. Of note, Apple has consistently been a market leader in surveys on customer support.

Carsguide.com.au reports that Pioneer spokesman Michael Broadhurst has claimed that Apple will be introducing a bluetooth iPod adapter that will allow music to be streamed to their new line of bluetooth-equipped car stereos (and presumably other bluetooth equipped devices supporting audio profiles as well).

This is not the first time a 3rd party manufacturer has claimed Apple is working on such capability, as a Motorola spokesman made similar claims in February 2005. However, with Apple expected to re-focus its attention on its consumer product line (including the iPod) in the coming month(s), resonable speculation would suggest that Apple may introduce the adapter with updated iPods (if the rumor pans out this time, that is).

One blog claims that bulk orders for the Mac mini are currently being denied until after Labor Day.

I needed to order another bunch to use as Mac mini servers (and to add to my great wall of Apple boxes) but I was told by the reseller (name withdrawn so they dont get in trouble) that they cant take big orders (again), but after Labor Day theyd be able to ship plenty of the new model.

The same blog reported a similar pattern prior to the last Mac Mini update in February. Meanwhile, Appleinsider claims to have independent confirmation of the delay in large orders of Mac Minis.

This timeframe supports earlier claims that Apple would be launching Core 2 Duo (Merom/Conroe) Macs as early in September. The new Core 2 Duo processors are drop-in replacements for existing Core Duo processors which power the Mac Mini, MacBook, iMac and MacBook Pro.

News.com is reporting that Apple has issued a recall for 1.8 million PowerBook G4 and iBook G4 Lithium Ion (Li-Ion) batteries that used technology from Sony. Batteries with the Sony technology (used in Apple, Dell, and Sony laptops, among others) have recently been catching fire, with Dell recently recalling 4.1 million batteries.

The recall effects a variety of machines manufactured from October 2003 and August 2006, but does not effect the MacBook or the MacBook Pro, as they contain different battery technology. Yesterday, Apple announced that it would be joining Dell and Lenovo in creating Li-Ion standards.

More information can be found on the battery recall's site.

Update: News.com had multiple errors in their original post. The number of recalled batteries is 1.8 million (not 1.3 million), and we have since corrected the battery recall site's link.

Affected models include:

12-inch iBook G4, Model #A1061, Serial #s: 3K429 through 3K611, 6C510 through 6C626
12-inch PowerBook G4, Model #A1079, Serial #s: ZZ411 through ZZ427, 3K428 through 3K611, 3K425 through 3K601
15-inch PowerBook G4, Model #A1078 and A1148, Serial Numbers: 6N530 through 6N551, 6N601

Update 2: Apple appears to have updated the battery model numbers listed on its site. The new models affected are as follows: