MacRumors

Appleinsider reports that Apple is preparing for product launches as early as September:

Based on various reports from around the world, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company this week is placing WWDC '06 in the rear-view mirror and shifting gears towards its fall product line refreshes, which are due to start turning up next month.

This along with reports end-of-life notices for Apple's current iPod nano are suggestive of imminent product refreshes. This correlates with a recent Chinese report that Apple is readying both of its laptop models for Core 2 Duo "Merom" CPUs next month.

Readers will remember that pre-WWDC reports also claimed that Apple had placed large orders of Core 2 Duo processors, with analyst speculation of the same.

MacBidouille provides the step by step installation screenshots as well as images of the various new features in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.

Last week saw the developer's release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard to developers at WWDC, along with a preview of features in the upcoming version of Mac OS X.

Leopard was quickly leaked to illegal file-sharing sites and possible unannounced features have been making the rounds.

Meanwhile, Macworld has provided detailed look at Spaces, TimeMachine, Dashboard, Universal Access, Mail 3, iChat, and iCal.

Several news sites are reporting on the Nasdaq notice Apple received last week which places Apple on warning for delaying its quarterly filing. Apple has been investigating irregularities with stock option granting over the years 1997-2001 that could have affected their financial statements. As a result, Apple has informed the US Securities and Exchange Commision that it will miss the deadline for filing the most recent quarterly figures.

This delay has prompted a warning from Nasdaq that Apple is not in compliance with the exchange's rules:

"We fully anticipated receipt of this letter," Apple spokeswoman Katie Cotton told CNET News.com. "It's a matter of procedure. We're focused on resolving this matter as quickly as possible."

Meanwhile, Apple has requested a hearing and Apple's stock will remain listed in Nasdaq pending that hearing.

As first announced on June 29, 2006, an internal investigation discovered irregularities related to the issuance of certain stock option grants made by the Company between 1997 and 2001, and the Company has proactively informed the SEC. The Company is focused on resolving these issues as quickly as possible and plans to file its Form 10-Q following completion of the independent investigation by the special committee of Apple's outside directors.

As the Mac Pro starts arriving in the hands of users, more reviews are starting to emerge about the latest Apple tower.

Mac Pro Review - Macintouch
Mac Pro Review - Arstechnica
Video of Mac Pro - Macworld
Mac Pro Benchmarks - Macworld

From the Benchmarks article:

The standard configuration of the Mac Pro outperforms its PowerPC-based G5 predecessors by a wide margin, helping to justify Apples 2005 decision to switch to processors from Intel. Whats more, the system powered by two dual-core 2.66GHz Xeon chips narrowly missed becoming the first machine to ever record a Speedmark score of over 300.

LA Times interviews Justin Long who plays the "Mac guy" on Apple's recent ad campaign.

Justin Long comments on his involvement in Apple's ads and his increasing recognition from the Apple ads:

But now, as he prepares to ratchet up his film career .... he is fending off computer geeks who either find his Mac guy righteous or maddening.

According to the article, while only seven spots have currently aired, there are almost 20 more that will be airing. The Get a Mac campaign kicked off in May of 2006.

Despite being uncharacteristic of the secretive Steve Jobs we have grown to know, AppleInsider reports that the Apple CEO has been boasting about Apple's upcoming phone offering to his inner circle. Apparently, Steve's own excitement over the product has lead him to produce a few "zealous ramblings" dating back as early as this past spring.

AppleInsider also offers a little more information (although cryptic) on the characteristics of the phone.

One person familiar with the ongoings believes the Apple cofounder has commissioned the release of cell phone prototypes to at least two potential OEM manufacturing partners in recent months. Current designs are said to conform to Apple's integrated model and leverage its tightly-knit digital media franchises, that person added.

In addition, AppleInsider quotes a source who states that the phone is indeed set to launch "earlier than some people may be expecting, in the form of a 'big bang' introduction that will catch even some insiders off-guard." ThinkSecret has previously stated that the phone has seen delays that could set it back as far as next year, whereas Engadget has recently stated that the phone could arrive as early as this month.

Reghardware claims cites a Chinese language report that Apple is readying both of its laptop models for Core 2 Duo "Merom" CPU's, due next month. There had been some Page 2 rumors that Apple would update the MacBook pro to include Merom at WWDC which failed to materialize, but this is the first report that has indicated that Apple would also move its more consumer-oriented laptop model to Core 2 Duo that quickly. AppleInsider has previously suggested that the MacBook would remain a Core Duo "Yonah" CPU for the time being.

While no hard insider information exists pointing to the specs of the new machines, currently Merom tops out at 2.33 GHz, so it is not unreasonable to believe that Apple will use the 2.33 GHz chip in its MacBook Pro, and slightly slower speeds in its MacBooks. Also of note, Merom being a Core 2 Duo chip has architectural advances over Core Duo ("Yonah") such as 64-bit support and a 4 MB L2 Cache in higher end models.

The presence of a Teams project at Mac OS Forge prompted a lot of speculation about what Apple's "Teams" could be.

An update describes Teams as "feature of Mac OS X Server, slated for Leopard (10.5). Among its features, it includes a web-based calendar client which works with the Calendar Server."

Apple's Eric Zelenka offers some additional details on the OS X Server mailing list:

Teams is a revolutionary new way for people to work together. Teams lets people share contacts, resources, information and communicate more effectivelyas a team.

With Teams, groups receive their own website--an online Wiki Server-- listing the latest news, upcoming events and providing people access to online documents. This Wiki-powered website makes it easy for people within the group to create and edit web page content, hyperlink and crosslink between page and maintain history of all past changes. In addition, this group website provides web-based access to a shared group calendar, and a blog communication and podcasting.

But thats not all. Launching the new Teams Directory application gives you access to shared accounts for people, groups, locations and resources within your organization. You can use Teams Directory to find information, or define new shared contacts, assign people to groups and logically organize groups based on hierarchy. With Teams Directory you can define office locations complete with searchable building and location maps, as well as manage shared resources such as conference rooms and projectors.

Apple's Leopard Server Sneak Peak pages provide some screenshots of the features described.

Apple posted a Mac Pro Developer note which simply provides a block diagram of the Mac Pro architecture.

Meanwhile, MacRumors users have started getting their Mac Pros. The shipping version of Mac OS X with the new Mac Pro is 10.4.7 (Build 8K1079). This Photoshop test was performed (under Rosetta) at 4min 8seconds on a Dual 2.66GHz Intel Mac Pro with 1GB RAM.

Macintouch posted their own impressions of the Mac Pro with their own benchmarks.
Meanwhile, ThinkSecret reports that thew new Mac Pro features a new version of the Airport wireless card:

Those products are still referred to as being equipped with "AirPort Extreme" cards, although they differ from Apple's AirPort Extreme card for PowerPC systems. Like the Atheros cards, however, the Broadcom card in the Mac Pro connects to two antennas, suggesting Apple may be planning to support the 802.11a protocol in the near future.

Missed by many yesterday due to the fervor of the WWDC Keynote address was an announcement by Apple's Open Source Project Manager, Ernest Prabhakar, concerning Apple and its Open Source initiative.

Mac OS Forge
With the recent announcement of the demise of OpenDarwin.org, Apple has stepped up to the plate and has created Mac OS Forge, a community site hosted by Apple to "support WebKit and other open source projects focused on Mac OS X, especially those looking to transition from OpenDarwin.org." Current projects include the Bonjour, Collaboration (iCal Server), Kernel (XNU), Launchd, and WebKit.

XNU x86 Source Released
Apple has released the source code for the Intel x86 version of the Darwin Kernel, beginning with Darwin 8.7 (Mac OS 10.4.7). While apologies were offered for the delay in releasing the source, no explanation was given. Speculation had begun earlier in the year that Apple was closing the XNU x86 source due to piracy concerns. MacGuides has an introduction to Darwin and XNU for readers unfamiliar with the technologies.

iCal Server Source
As many readers have noted, Apple has indeed released the source for iCal Server (slated to be released with Mac OS 10.5 "Leopard" Server) under the Apache License.

Other Licensing Changes
Bonjour and Launchd projects are now being distributed under the Apache License. The projects were previously relegated to Apple's Apple Public Source License.

Parallels spokesman Ben Roudolph has revealed that Parallels is working to support 3D acceleration in an upcoming release of the company's flagship Mac product, Parallels Desktop for Mac.

What's more, Parallels Desktop for Mac will see "fast 3D graphics support," presumably to help cater to gamers who want to run Windows games without having to reboot their machine using Boot Camp and a separate Windows partition. --via MacWorld

The news comes as Microsoft has announced plans to cease development of a univeral-binary version of VirtualPC for Mac and VMWare is showing off a beta of their virtualization soluation. Both VirtualPC and VMWare to date do not offer full 3D acceleration. However, recent announcements by TransGaming and CodeWeavers, both of which promise to allow more games to run well natively in Mac OS X (albeit via different methods), has stepped up competition in the Mac gaming realm.

Apple introduced the Mac Pro at WWDC today. A few photos and videos of the new machine have been circulating:

* Photos inside the Mac Pro - PowerMax
* Hands on (video) - CNet
* Hands on (photo) - Engadget
* More Photos - MacObserver
* More Photos - PC Watch

Apple also gives its developers some Apple-branded items for attending:

* Apple gear given out at WWDC (photos) - TheAppleBlog

Readers are reminded that despite detailing many features of the upcoming Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, Steve Jobs opened his presentation by stating "There's some top secret features we're going to keep a little close to the vest."

Other tidbits from WWDC:

* XCode 2.4 was released today.
* An unconfirmed forum post claims that the Mac Pro CPUs are swappable.
* Leopard Server Sneak Peak with iCal Server, Wiki Server, Spotlight Server and Podcast Producer.

Finally, higher quality versions of the promotional screenshots from Leopard have been posted to our guides page.
* More screenshots from Leopard preview.

Microsoft has announced that it has halted development on a universal version of VirtualPC for Mac.

In a statement on Monday, Microsoft said it "has made the decision not to move forward with a Universal version of Virtual PC at this time." -- via News.com

VirtualPC has long-been the king of the hill for Virtualization on Macintosh. With the Intel transition, however, came competitive pressure from Parallels, which has since released the final version of its product, and VMWare which is showcasing a beta of its solution at WWDC.

Microsoft has claimed that to port VirtualPC to Intel would be much like making VirtualPC 1.0 all over again.

Because of how closely virtualization software is tied to an operating system, Microsoft said that moving Virtual PC to the Intel-based Mac would be "similar to creating a version 1.0 release."

Today, Steve Jobs gave the 2006 WWDC Keynote speech and introduced Mac Pros, Intel Xserves, Display Price Drops, and previewed Leopard.

Apple has already posted the Quicktime stream for the event.

MacRumors covered the event live, and a transcript of the coverage is provided here. Stay tuned for a rumor wrapup and more details from WWDC.

Also during Apple's WWDC keynote, Steve Jobs previewed Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard). Among the features demonstrated were:

- 64 bit application support extended throughought the User Interface layer of the OS, allowing "full" 64-bit application development and deployment.
- Time Machine, automatic backup and restoring of files corrupted or accidentally deleted or overwritten by the user.
- Spaces, Apple's implementation of virtual desktops.
- Core Animation
- Enhancements to Dashboard, Spotlight, Mail, iCal and Universal Access
- Boot Camp, and "next generation" Front Row, and Photo Booth bundled

Apple plan to release Leopard in "Spring 2007."

More information can be found at Apple's Leopard Sneak Peek pages.

Although not mentioned during the keynote, Apple has reduced the prices on its Cinema Displays. The 20" Cinema Display now sells for $699 (down from $799), the 23" Cinema Display now sells for $999 (down from $1299), and the 30" Cinema Display now sells for $1999 (down from $2499), representing cuts of $100, $300, and $500 respectively.

The new displays can be found at Apple's online Apple Store.

Update: MacForum member BlizzardBomb notes that the specifications for the 20 and 23" displays have been bumped. The 20" display now has a brightness of 300 cd/m2 (up from 250 cd/m2), and the 23" display has a brightness of 400 cd/m2 (up from 270 cd/m2). Both models also now feature 700:1 contrast ratios (both up from 400:1). The 30" display remains at 400 cd/m2 and a 700:1 contrast ratio.