MacRumors

Apple is hosting a Media Event on Tuesday, August 7th, 2007 for a Mac-focused announcement. There have been long running rumors about potential iMac updates. The Apple iMac was last updated 334 days ago in September 2006.

We've received word that price points for the new "Good", "Better", and "Ultra" iMac models will fall at $1199, $1499, and $1799 price points. No details beyond this are available, and it does not exclude the possibility of other configurations.

Of interest, this differs from the existing iMac lineup which currently holds a range of 17", 20" and 24" models which hit $999, $1199, $1499, and $1999 price points.

Rumors have previously pointed to the elimination of the low end 17" iMac model, which could correlate with these price points. Other reports have claimed that the new iMacs will see a striking new industrial design.

Since MacRumors was not invited to the Media Event, we will be unable to provide live updates, but we will point you to sites that can and provide running updates as well as the usual lively discussion. We will provide SMS updates for those away from a computer but no spoiler free coverage will be provided as we are uncertain if a full video of the event will be posted.

Apple's .Mac site warns users that the .Mac service will be undergoing maintenance on August 7th between 10 AM an 12 PM PDT.

Due to scheduled maintenance, .Mac members might be intermittently unable to access some .Mac services from 10 AM to 12 PM PDT on 08/07/2007. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Coincidentally, this time corresponds exactly to Apple's Media Event which is scheduled to take place on August 7th at 10AM PDT.

Steve Jobs had hinted that .Mac would see a refresh in the near future during a recent interview.

Walt: .Mac... you guys didn't really develop it.
Steve: I couldn't agree more, and we'll make up for lost time in the near future

Gamespy provides details and video of John Carmack's presentation at QuakeCon announcing a new game called "Rage".

Rage is a first person perspective game which is a bit of a different direction from their previous titles (Wolf, Doom and Quake). According to Carmack, gameplay-wise, Rage is going to be 50% "run-and-gun" but also with a significant amount of driving action and an adventure component "where you build up your car and add things to it".

Of note, Rage is expected to come as a simultaneous release for Mac, PC, XBox 360 and PS3 and was demoed in parallel at the conference.

Carmack had previewed the same technology on a Mac during the WWDC keynote in June. No release date has been set.

Digitimes reports that Apple is said to be unveiling a 16GB NAND Flash-based iPod video in late September, according to sources at Taiwan-based component makers.

The new iPod video will use NAND flash as the major storage media, and will have a storage density of 16GB, according to the sources.

This could be consistent with recent rumors which point to a revised iPod nano with video playback capability. Apple's current iPod nano is a Flash-only device that tops out at 8GB of storage and will not play video.

Apple is holding a media event on August 7, 2007 but this is reportedly a Mac-focused event.

WorldofApple has posted an extensive gallery of screenshots from Apple's latest Leopard (9A499) build that was seeded to developers in late July.

They detail visual enhancements that have been detailed before but along with an extensive gallery of images of Apple's upcoming operating system.

Apple has announced that Leopard will be released in October of 2007.

Despite original plans for a Q1 2008 launch, Xbitlabs claims that Intel is anticipating an early launch for a least some of their next generation Penryn processors.

Initially it was projected that Intels new quad-core processors based on improved micro-architecture that is usually referred to as Penryn will be launched in the first quarter of 2008, but the company has changed its plans and now such chips will be available already in the fourth quarter of 2007, in time to compete against AMD Phenom processors based on the K10 micro-architecture.

Specifically, Xbitlabs believes that a 45nm Quad-Core processor topping out at 3.33GHz with a 1333MHz bus will be released in the 2007 timeframe, with the bulk of the Penryn chips still waiting until 2008.

Whether or not this will affect Apple's lineup remains to be seen. Apple currently uses Intel's Server class (Xeon) processors in the Mac Pro, while it uses Mobile class (Core 2 Duo) processors in the bulk of the remainder of its line (iMac, MacBook Pro, MacBook). The Mac mini continues to use the earlier Core Duo processor.

Apple does not yet use any of Intel's Desktop class processors (Core 2 Duo / Conroe) in any of their shipping models. Of note, Apple is widely expected to release new iMacs at next week's media event. The event will take place on August 7th, 2007 at 10AM Pacific. According to our Buyer's Guide the iMac was last updated 331 days ago.

MacRumors Forums, the discussion boards for the MacRumors family of sites, has reached another milestone: four million forum posts.

The 4,000,000th post was made by member MisterMe at 9:53 AM EST on Saturday, August 4, 2007, in a thread named It's not great viewing photos in the Finder, is it? in the Mac OS X forum. Congratulations, MisterMe, and congratulations, MacRumors!

MacRumors.com opened on February 24, 2000, as a site to consolidate interesting Apple news and rumors. The current forum system opened in April, 2001. The MacRumors forums now have over 100,000 members and over 300,000 threads, with thousands of posts each day about Apple news, speculation and rumors, questions and answers, special topics such as design and graphics, and general discussion.

It took MacRumors 3 years and 4 months to reach one million posts, 1 year and 4 months to reach 2 million posts, 10 months to reach 3 million posts, and just over 9 months to reach 4 million posts. We attribute our rate of growth both to MacRumors' increasing rank among Apple-related sites on the web and to the increased interest in Apple and its wide range of products.

MacRumors is celebrating its 4 million post milestone with a tongue-in-cheek contest to find the Ultimate Apple Fanatic among our membership. See our Contest Announcement for details. Our 3 million post milestone was marked by an Apple Ad Contest.

We thank those who visit the MacRumors sites, participate in the forums, and make MacRumors the popular web destination and daily news stop for so many.

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