MacRumors' Mac Blog: Mac Apps, News and Rumors

As noted by Engadget, Apple's iTunes store is now offering a Next Big Thing (iTunes Link) section with albums that are priced at $5.99 and $6.99 per album: Well, we're halfway through the year and iTunes has a fine selection of artists who we think have the true grit (or pure luck) it takes to become...

CrunchGear believes multi-touch capable MacBooks will arrive in October. According to the site, the technology would piggyback off the technology currently found in the iPhone, however, the trackpad would act as the input device rather than the screen, presumably to keep costs down. Crunchgear has not been a particularly reliable source of Apple rumors. Their previous claim believed that OLED...

We've heard some unconfirmed rumblings that Apple may be set to reveal two more announcements related to the iPhone on its launch day (tomorrow). The source is uncertain what these announcements could entail, or whether they concern already-leaked information (i.e. .Mac iPhone RSS Reader). Of course, Apple has yet to announce iTunes 7.3, which is a requirement for the iPhone. One rumored...

AT&T's iPhone and entire wireless site is down for maintenance. Some are hoping that this may represent addition of rate plan information prior to the iPhone launch. Update: The site is back up, with no new revelations in plan...

Smarkofficenews.com.au claims to have heard that Apple is talking to manufacturing partners in Asia about the next generation iPhone: Among the new capabilities will be GPS and expanded WiFi capability as well as the ability to sync with email servers. Apple research and development executives are according to sources in Taiwan trying to overcome a lack of expanded media support for Flash memory. ...

The Boy Genius Report has obtained an internal memo that states that AT&T stores should prepare landlords for the iPhone launch next Friday, June 29th, including the acquisition of crowd control fences. Also mentioned in the report is an initial inventory rumor that states that AT&T stores should receive between 100-250 units in the initial shipment. If this rumor holds true, it should still...

WebShell is a web-based AJAX interface for the Apple iPhone. It requires users to install the Python application on the server they would like to access via SSH. They will then be able to access the server through a web browser. For security reasons, they do recommend the use of https SSL/TLS if you are accessing your machine...

Unconfirmed but potentially true tidbits coming down the line: The data plan for the iPhone will be "required" but may be canceled online after the sale. Meanwhile, Apple Stores will only be selling the iPhone itself but have nothing to do with cellular service activation itself. Instead, this will go through an automated service through...

NoHeat.com claims that Nintendo has begun working with Apple on exclusive games to be released for the iPhone at $29.00 a piece and sold through the iTunes Store. A major hangup in development has been the lack of buttons on the iPhone that was remedied by a touchscreen D-pad. One might wonder how Nintendo fans may see view playing on a phone without a traditional D-pad....

Over 10 years ago, during the transition from Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X (Rhapsody), Apple promised write-once, deploy everywhere functionality ("Yellow Box") to developers in the then upcoming Mac OS X platform. Yellow Boxes for Intel and Mac OS would in theory make the Yellow Box the premiere choice for cross-platform development, because developers could deliver applications that run on Rhapsody...

Developers at WWDC are realizing that Steve Jobs made a purposeful omission when he didn't include Carbon in Leopard's list of 64-bit compatible libraries at this year's WWDC keynote. At last year's keynote, Apple had claimed that both Carbon and Cocoa would be 64-bit, adding to the 64-bit fundamentals that Tiger had laid. A photo from last year's presentation, courtesy of Engadget: ...

Beginning the trickle of purported last-minute leaks, german language website apfelkuceche.de claims to have obtained today's keynote transcript via an anonymous submission. The report suspiciously echos many recent rumors, and says that the "one more thing" section of the speech will introduce a new product called iPhone@home. We publish this report for interest only, and currently have no...

And what would an Apple event be without the required Spy Shot... this time not in an elevator, however. The backstory to this dubious shot is that it was obtained by camera phone in the WWDC main event hall when this slide was shown on the screen. (click for larger) The photo is posted for speculation and entertainment purposes only. Few purported "spy shots" have ever been legitimate. ...

A screenshot posted to Flickr points out that one portion of the New York Times website shown during the most recent iPhone ad correctly renders a Flash-based video. Apple has not yet confirmed whether or not the iPhone's browser will support flash. This is not definitive proof that the iPhone supports Flash, however, as the screens could have been fabricated for the purposes of the...

A MacTechNews.de user report claims that iWork '06 shipments have been delayed until June 12th -- the day after the WWDC keynote. Apple surprised many by not updating the iLife/iWork suites in January at Macworld San Francisco 2007. Many speculated that the next version of Apple's productivity software would incorporate features from Mac OS X 10.5...

Based on all rumblings, we are very confident that MacBook Pros will be arriving in the morning (Tues, June 5th)... but the exact specs of the new laptops are uncertain. However, piecing together various reports, here are the possible specs for (some) of the new MacBook Pros. - 2.2GHz, 4mb shared L2 cache, 2GB of 667mhz ram, 120gb, GeForce 8600M GT 128mb - 2.4GHz, 4mb shared L2 cache,...

Apple has reposted Security Update 2007-005, initially released on May 24th. Apple gives no explanation for the reposting, but simply re-interates the initial security update's purpose. From Apple's detailed information on the update: Security Update 2007-005 v1.1 was released to remove a configuration file that prevented the BIND service from automatically starting after applying the...

Gizmodo's Brian Lam believes that AT&T's iPhone Data Plan will be $30. The report is somewhat suspicious, as the information comes from a sales agent who also quotes a release date of June 11th. Meanwhile, other reports have pointed to a June 20th release date. The report comes on the heels of information regarding possible iPhone calling plans, including pre-paid...