MacRumors' Mac Blog: Mac Apps, News and Rumors

Certain websites (including nbc.com and wired) are showing a new Get A Mac ad. The ad involves the PC getting an "add on" upgrade of a webcam from an IT guy, and gets dismayed when he learns that Mac already has built-in iSight webcams. As of this writing, the ad has yet to be revealed on Apple's...

MacRumors founder and Editor-in-Chief Arn is once again scheduled to be interviewed on the CNBC On the Money program. The financial news show (today, 7pm EST, 4pm PST) is already in progress as we report this. In constrast to the previous taped interviews, Arn is to be on the show "live" this time. Arn was first interviewed on CNBC on November 16, discussing the iPhone rumors. This...

Forum member, applemax, had spotted something interesting at an Apple store in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. It appears to be a stand for some sort of iPod device: On holiday, I went into an Apple Store (today), and, you know in mobile phone shops, they have those little podiums where the phones are on the top where you can use them, etc...? Well, there was one in the store. The podium...

A few readers have noted that Apple is listed at CES, but the registration reveals Sling Media's address. Sling Media produces the Slingbox, device that allows you to watch your shows from your television over the internet. Of course, some people have drawn bold conclusions from this, but it may simply be Apple demoing Mac support. Slingbox appears to have 5 booths at CES, but only one...

TheStreet.com is publishing a rumor that Steve Jobs may be taking a leave of absence from Apple. No further explanation is provided, as the rumor is simply stated as an announcement is forthcoming. Rumors regarding Steve Jobs can often get out of hand, and the current rumor may simply reflect speculation based upon the ongoing SEC stock option backdating investigation. The Street in 2005...

Amazon had previously posted placeholders for iLife '07 and iWork '07 (both Single and Family packs) which are expected to be released at Macworld Expo 2007. They've since changed the names of the products to Apple MacWorld 2007 Announcement #1 [Mac] Apple MacWorld 2007 Announcement #2 [Mac] Apple MacWorld 2007...

Now available via Software Update: This update renews the .Mac certificate required by iChat for encrypting text, audio and video conferences. For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304899...

We get a lot of unconfirmed and outright fake rumor submissions here at MacRumors.com. We are unable to verify many of our submissions and so they go unpublished. Here's a collection of rejected/unconfirmed rumors in the days leading up to Macworld: MWSF Releases: iPhone, iMac Quad Core, true video iPod, something related to iTunes Cingular Technical Support mentioned they just had a...

Amazon has posted placeholders for iLife '07 and iWork '07 The items are listed as "currently not available" Amazon frequently posts placeholders for unreleased products and these do not necessarily correlate with actual released dates. For example, Amazon already has Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard listed as...

Digitimes claims that Apple and HP are preparing to launch LED-backlit based notebooks in the 2nd quarter of 2007. Digitimes has had a unreliable record in the...

Some readers note that Steve Jobs keynote is 2 hours long... 09:00 AM - 11:00 AM http://www.macworldexpo.com/live/20/events/20SFO07A/keynotes This likely insignificant fact was popularized by this digg story. Of interest, last year's keynote was scheduled for 1 1/2 hours....

According to several anonymous and unconfirmed reports, Apple will be announcing new Displays at MacWorld San Francisco. The new Displays are said to include built-in iSight cameras, making up for the recent discontinuation of Apple's external iSight camera. Reseller sources have reported conflicting stories, with some saying that Apple had told them that the reason for the discontinuation of ...

Apple has posted an additional holiday Get A Mac ad to their website, called Goodwill. In the ad, PC and Mac "pledge" to put aside their differences for the holidays, even though PC believes that the Mac engages in frivolous pursuits such as "home movies and blogs." Nevertheless, the two hug in the end, and live happily ever...

The Apple iSight appears to be no longer available on Apple's U.S. online store. No reason for the removal is indicated. Instead the item simply no longer appears. Meanwhile, the iSight Accessory Kit and Griffin SightLight remain available. The Apple iSight has seen limited availability for some...

In September, Apple released 9 new downloadable games for the Apple iPod. These games (Bejeweled, Cubis 2, Mahjong, Mini golf, Pac Man, Tetris, Texas Holdem, Vortex, and Zuma) were made available through the iTunes Store for $4.99/game. Some Mac developers were critical of Apple's approach to the development of iPod games, which has prevented long time Mac developers from participating in...

ThinkSecret publishes a hearsay report citing a few readers who have apparently received USB keyboard replacements from Apple repair depots that have built-in iPod docks. According to sources, who were unable to see the keyboard themselves but heard about its existence from those who had, a small number of the unreleased keyboards were sent out to customers on the east coast who had sent their...

ThinkSecret believes that Apple will start to receive Blu-ray drives from Sony in February. While the site has previously reported that Apple may also back rival format HD-DVD, this information perhaps pegs Blu-ray equipped Mac Pros early next year. The information is tempered by the fact that ThinkSecret has not been extremely accurate in recent history. In addition, AppleInsider currently...

Security company Secunia reports that a new vulnerability in the way Mac OS X handles the "fpathconf()" system call has been discovered. The vulnerability exists due to an error in the "fpathconf()" syscall when it is called with an unsupported file type and can be exploited to cause a system panic. The vulnerability was initially found in FreeBSD and was discovered in the latest version of...