MacRumors

Appleinsider claims that Apple will be releasing their 17" MacBook Pro at the National Association of Broadcasters conference next week.

The NAB Conference takes place between April 22-27 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Last year, Apple announced Final Cut Pro 5, Motion 2, SoundTrack Pro and DVD Pro 4 HD.

The new 17" MacBook Pro is said to be similar in form factor to the current 15" MacBook Pro but offer faster speeds, more storage, and, of course, a 17" display.

There are also hints that Final Cut Pro 6.0 could be sighted as well as potential updates to Apple's other Pro applications. Finally, the 13.3" MacBook is said to have been pushed to "next month".
Update: ThinkSecret agrees that a 17" MacBook Pro is coming at NAB.

A couple of reports have claimed that Asustek is the manufacturer for Apple's upcoming 13.3" MacBook.

One reader reports that a search of Asustek's site shows one existing 13.3" Intel laptop model (W6F) that may provide some hints as to what can be expected from Apple's implementation.

The specs for the 13.3" Intel Core Duo laptop from Asus includes:

- Intel Core Duo 1.60GHz-2.16GHz, 2MB On-Die L2 Cache, 667 MHz
- Mobile Intel 945GM Express Chipset
- On board 512MB, 1x SO-DIMM socket up to 1536 MB (512MB+1024MB)
- 13.3 wide active matrix TFT LCD (WXGA)
- Embedded Intel 945GM (Video)

Obviously, the form factor will be different, but the overall specs could be similar. It has been felt that Apple will tier the processors available to the MacBook to be less powerful than the MacBook Pro, however, if Apple is positioning the MacBook to also replace the 12" PowerBook, such a limitation may not be necessary. This all remains speculative at this time, however.

A market research company is (again) predicting that Apple will be entering the cellphone market soon. Visiongain argues that Apple sees the mobile phone market as a threat to its current iPod lead and is taking steps to address this by launching their own cell phone service and phone.

Rumors and speculation of an Apple-branded cell phone have been ongoing for years. Visiongain, however, is matching up Apple with Helio (interview) - an upcoming youth-oriented cell phone operator that operates as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). MVNOs are virtual cell phone providers which lease the wireless intrastructure from existing providers.

The company also suggests that Apple will somehow integrate Voice-over-IP (VOIP) technology into the phone service. This would presumably allow the phone users to talk directly to users of other VOIP internet services (Skype, iChat).

Helio is due to launch this spring, but appears to have its own set of exclusive phones and services.

With the rapidly rising popularity of the Apple iPod, imitators are trying to cash in on the phenomenon.

They've gone so far as to create counterfeit iPods (photos). These iPods look-alikes are similar to the Apple iPod and can even be labeled with Apple serial numbers. Both counterfeit iPod nanos and iPod shuffles have been spotted. Both products share a general resemblance to the original products, but have some key differences:

The counterfeit iPod nano has a non-standard headphone jack located on the lower-right and has no dock connector. Meanwhile, the counterfeit shuffle comes in a convincing box but has the words "Digital Music Player" on the top, which the original does not. Other differences in the shuffle are the lack of a repeat setting on the switch and no battery light or status button.

Apple, of course, does not provide service for these imitation iPods, and claims they are taking these matters seriously and are investigating these devices. Apple has warned resellers of the existence of the fake iPods and what to look out for.

News.com reports on a lawsuit by Burst.com claiming that Apple is infringing on patents held by Burst.com. The claims cover patents involving "the delivery of music or video over the Internet 'faster than real-time.'" This involves the technology involved in streaming and delivering video and audio content on the internet as Apple does with iTunes and Quicktime streaming software. Burst is demanding royalties as well as an injunction.

In January, Apple filed for a declaratory judgment in January that it is not infringing on Burst's patents after discussions with Burst "broke down".

Burst made similar claims against Microsoft and received a $60 million settlement as well as an ongoing technology license to Microsoft.

Apple has posted early program information about what developers will learn at the Worldwide Developer's Conference 2006.

Apple's intention to demo Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) at this year's WWDC has been no secret. Steve Jobs announced it last year at the WWDC 2005 Keynote, and Apple's BootCamp page indicated that "Developers can learn all about the sixth major release of Mac OS X [Leopard] this century at Apples Worldwide Developer Conference."

WWDC takes placed between August 7-11th of this year.

Join the thousands of Mac developers who will be attending WWDC 2006, and be one of the first to preview Mac OS X Leopard. Youll get the chance to explore the latest Mac tools and technologies, and to learn the advances that are keeping Mac OS X far, far ahead of the competition.

While the topics covered at WWDC are primarily developer-focused, in recent years, Apple's Keynote address has been targeted at developers and consumers alike. Last year, Apple first announced that they would be moving to Intel processors. This year, PowerMacs are rumored to be in the pipeline at or around WWDC in August.

The wait for the revised Intel iBook (aka MacBook) continues, alongside speculation about the release date of the MacBook. Several readers have pointed out analyst speculation that the Intel iBook could be released as soon as tomorrow. This would be on the eve of Apple's Q2 2006 Financial Results.

If that date falls through, according to reports, internal CPU sales goals at retail Apple Stores have been increased substantially starting in May. These estimates suggest Apple is expecting a boost to sales for their CPUs in the next four weeks.

The most recent reports have claimed that the 13.3" Intel MacBook is in production with target release dates ranging from May to June.

Several readers have noted that the Firefox browser has been updated to 1.5.0.2. Amongst other things, this includes support for Intel processors in the new Macs. New features listed include:

- Universal Binary support for Mac OS X which provides native support for Macintosh with Intel Core processors. Firefox supports the enhancements to performance introduced by the new MacIntel chipsets.
- Improvements to product stability.
- Several security fixes.

Current Intel Mac Firefox users need to download the Intel version directly, as the updater won't succesfully update a PowerPC binary to a Universal one.

ThinkSecret reports that the long-rumored Video iPod with Touchscreen (mockup images) has been delayed due to technical issues.

Sources speaking on condition of anonymity say issues emerged with the technology that have sent Apple and the display's manufacturer back to the drawing board to find a solution.

As a result, the final release date for the product remains uncertain, however, it is still expected by to be release in time for the 2006 holiday season.

As previously reported, the video iPod is expected to be launched alongside a movie-download service for iTunes. Apple is said to still be in negotiations about licensing content for this service.

Update: Apple's site has been updated and shows the update and also the new price of $299. $149 for Educational price. Official press release here. Aperture 1.0 users who bought Aperture for the previous price of $499 are eligble for a $200 coupon good at the Apple online store.
Apple's Hot News Feed (RSS) reveals that Apple appears to be releasing Aperture 1.1 on April 13th. The news appeared on their RSS feed this evening with the following description:

Aperture 1.1, a significant update to the revolutionary all-in-one post production tool for photographers, runs natively on both Intel- and PowerPC-based Macs. The update features dramatically improved RAW image rendering and a new set of advanced RAW adjustment controls. Likewise, it delivers impressive speed gains on any Mac. At a new lower price of $299, Aperture is within reach of anyone shooting with a digital SLR camera. [Apr 13, 2006]

- Apple Hot News 4/13/06 8:30 AM

The RSS description appears to have been posted prematurely as it simply links to Apple's old Aperture page but does include a detailed Aperture 1.1 description.

New features include:

- Improved RAW Image Quality
- RAW Fine Tuning
- Auto Noise Compensation
- New Color Meter
- Enhanced Export Controls
- Universal Binary support
- Other Improvements

The new $299 price represents a $200 drop from the previous retail price ($499).

According to Starpulse, the Beatles catalog is in the process of being remastered for distribution on iTunes.

"We're remastering the whole Beatles catalog, just to make it sound brighter and better and getting proper booklets to go with each of the packages. I think it would be wrong to offer downloads of the old masters when I am making new masters. It would be better to wait and try to do them both simultaneously so that you then get the publicity of the new masters and the downloading, rather than just doing it ad hoc."

This was reportedly revealed in court by Neil Aspinall of Apple Corps record label during the Apple Corps vs. Apple Computer trademark dispute. No confirmation is available at this time.[Update] Macworld UK reports that Apple Corps has confirmed Aspinall's statements.

The same XtremeSystems site owner who reported that the Mac mini could be processor upgraded simply by swapping out the socketed Intel processor, now reports that the unreleased Merom 64-bit mobile processor is also similarly compatible:

It is possible to drop in Merom into Mini, one hell of an upgrade path. confirming this is a working combo, just drop the chip in.

Further details are limited, presumably due to non-disclosure agreements for pre-release hardware. Intel's Merom processor is a mobile 64-bit processor due in late 2006.

The Merom is said to offer 20% more performance than the current Core Duo at the same battery life. The Merom will reportedly come with 4MB L2 Cache (up from 2MB on Yonah). This backward compatible capability has been advertised by Intel:

During a separate briefing, Intel's Mooly Eden showed a benchmark pitting a Dell Core Duo system against the same system with a Merom processor (Eden literally swapped out the Core Duo CPU and stuck in a Merom processor, partly to showcase its backwards comptability). The benchmark was a custom Quake 4 timedemo, with the Core Duo system scoring 106.6 fps while the Merom system scored 134 fps: advantage Merom by just over 25%. We don't know any of the specifics of the settings on the systems, other than they were claimed to be identical.

While the Intel iMac also has a socketed CPU, the MacBook Pro CPU is soldered to the motherboard.

Appleinsider revives a rumor that Apple may reintroduce colors into the upcoming Intel iBooks (MacBooks).

Apple introduced colors to the Mac platform in the Bondi Blue iMac in 1998. This was followed by a number of different colored iMacs and patterns. Later, Apple settled back on the current glossy-white enclosure of the current iMac and current iBook.

Given the recent success of the black-iPods, Apple is reportedly considering introducing other colors into the upcoming MacBook notebooks.

According to the rumor site, Apple has been especially secretive about the potential colors that they are testing for the upcoming notebook, but there are suggestions that there will be at least two colored MacBook models. Instead of semi-translucent colors, they are reported to be solid-shade colors.

An earlier unverified report had claimed that Apple was going to be introducing light-weight notebooks with a "stylish design" aimed at targeting female customers.

Apple announced the release of Apple Remote Desktop 3 today. The upgrade to the desktop-manangement software is now a universal application and comes with over 50 new features.

"With Apple Remote Desktop 3, we've delivered powerful innovations that make it even easier and more affordable to manage Macs," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.

New features include Spotlight searches across multiple Tiger systems, Automator tasks for administrators, AutoInstall, System Status Indicators, Power Copy, Remote Drag and Drop and more.

The new version of Apple Remote Desktop is available now for $299 (10 systems) and $499 (unlimited).

NWSource publishes a brief Q&A session with Steve Wozniak, one of the co-founders of Apple Computer.

"I didn't want to start this company," said Wozniak, known in Silicon Valley simply as "Woz." "My goal wasn't to make a ton of money. It was to build good computers. I only started the company when I realized I could be an engineer forever."

Wozniak reports that even he does not get a "heads-up" on upcoming Apple products and that he "would never ask" because he feels bad about "all the rumors and leaks from the inside [of Apple]." Woz also prefers to avoid the beta-hardware bugs and instead likes to experience finished products just like all the other consumers.

Woz also reveals he was only recognized once at an Apple store, and was given two 65-watt AC adapters for free.

According to the article, an autobiography entitled "I, Woz" will be published this fall.