Month of August , 2006

Apple announced it is recalling 1.8 million Li-Ion batteries supplied by Sony, as these batteries pose a safety risk (may catch fire). Macs manufactured between October 2003 and August 2006 are concerned by this new major exchange program.

Apple has determined that certain lithium-ion batteries containing cells manufactured by Sony Corporation of Japan pose a safety risk that may result in overheating under rare circumstances.

The affected batteries were sold worldwide from October 2003 through August 2006 for use with the following notebook computers: 12-inch iBook G4, 12-inch PowerBook G4 and 15-inch PowerBook G4.

Apple and Creative have announced in a commun press release that the two companies have reached a settlement in their legal battle over user-interface patents in their, respectively, iPod and Zen digital music players.

Apple will pay $100 million to Creative and both companies are going to stop all ongoing pursuits against each other.

At the same time, Creative announced it will start making accessories for the iPod with the "Made-for-iPod" branding program.

Also, not mentioned in the press release is that in their settlement the two companies have agreed that Apple will receive a com

While regular updates on the site will resume progressively, here is a brief news catch-up for the last ten days.
MacNN notices a new patent filing on the U.S. Patents and Trademarks Office database. The new patent filing describes a device that can be used at the same time for displaying information and as input device.
According to an interview of the "Get A Mac" ad campaign's Mac character, Justin Long, for the LA Times, Apple will be airing nearly twenty spots for this ad campaign by the end of this year. Apple started its "Get A Mac" ad campaign in May with seven spots.

Here's a brief catch-up with some news we forgot to cover:

As pointed out by MacNN in the latest Lion's Gate Entertainment Financial conference, an executive revealed to the press that Apple is planning to launch a movie store by the end of the year and that the movie studio has already closed a deal with Apple so as to sell its movies through Apple's movie  store.

"In terms of iTunes movie downloads, I think most likely some time before the end of the year. We know when they are planning on launching, but since they have not announced it publicly, I do not think it is our place to say anything more about that. Calendar year."

Apple has made available a new version of Boot Camp through its web site. This new version, numbered 1.1 (still beta), brings the following improvements:

Boot Camp 1.1 beta contains many updates and is intended for all new and previous Boot Camp beta users.
Boot Camp 1.1 beta includes:

• Support for the latest Intel-based Macintosh computers
• Easier partitioning using presets for popular sizes
• Ability to install Windows XP on any internal disk

According to RegHardware, an article on the Chinese newspaper, Commercial Times, claims that Apple might be on the way to upgrade both of its laptop line-ups to the Intel's 64-bit Core 2 Duo (Merom) chip.
AsusTek and Quanta which manufacture current line-ups of Apple laptops will produce 200 000 to 300 000 Merom upgraded MacBooks and MacBook Pros this quarter, the report claims.
MacBooks and MacBook Pros are currently equipped with the Intel Core Duo (Yonah chip). The Merom chip offers higher performance, less power consumption and are 64 bit.

With all the companies rushing into the virtualisation battle, some anonymous reports about VMware and their relations with Apple are starting to arrive in our mailbox.

Notes on Leopard Preview :

Developers that have received their copy of Leopard Preview have started providing comments on the web, giving hints at some unnannounced details.

MacFixIt provides some great screenshot-enriched notes, showing new Help and Battery menus, the preference pane of Spaces/Exposé and the new Spotlight menu with its new categories.

While projects such as OpenDarwin have recently announced they would cease operations, Apple has started its own open source community site Mac OS Forge which already provides resources for WebKit, Bonjour and Apple's new iCal/Collaboration server. The site will also host projects transitioning from the defunct OpenDarwin community.

Apple has also eventually released the source code of the X86 version of Darwin Kernel. The company had delayed the release of its source code for unknown reasons.
Additionally, several readers pointed out a strange reference to an Apple application called "Teams" (reader took screenshot just in case) which could be an unannounced yet collaborative tool on Leopard.

Microsoft has taken time to clarify its strategy for the Mac platform during the opening of the WWDC.

Although the company will continue to develop MSN Messenger and Office for Mac, its virtualisation/emulation solution, Virtual PC, aquired from Connectix two years ago, will be discontinued for Mac OS X.

During last year's WWDC, Microsoft was very vague on the development of an Intel version of Virtual PC and said it will provide more information in the future.

Meanwhile, Parallels has released a new beta (v2.1.1) of its own virtualisation solution for Mac, Linux and Windows. The new beta improves USB support and graphics among several other improvements and bug fixes. The company also announced it is working on adding CD/DVD-burning support and 3D accelleration so as to make its software work with Microsoft's Windows Vista.

The 2006 edition of the World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) keynote was not historic but a really great one. Apple has introduced Leopard to developers and officially finished the transition to the Intel architecture several months ahead of the schedule announced a year ago.

The Keynote started with a little message from the "PC" character of Apple's latest ad campaign, the PC urged developers to take a year off. Steve Jobs then started his speech, as usually, with some great numbers and facts: 4200 developers from 48 countries in the audience. He reminded that Apple has achieved record Mac sales this quarter and claimed that the market share has been skyrocketing in June. He did not take a minute on the iPod as the event is mainly focused on Macs and software (good point!).

Apple has quietly updated its Cinema Displays line-up, along with the release of new products during the WWDC opening keynote.

The specs of each model have slightly changed as the 20 inch model sees its brightness jump to 300 cd/m2 (previously 250 cd/m2), the 23 inch model jumps to 400 cd/m2 (up from 270 cd/m2). All the models now have contrast ratio of 700:1 (from 400:1 for the 20 inch and the 23 inch models).
Prices have also significantly dropped accross the line, the 20 inch model is down $300 to $699 from $999, the 23 inch model is also down $300 to $999 from $1299 while the 30 inch m

Here is a summarized live coverage of WWDC 2006 Keynote. For a more detailed live coverage, we suggest you these links:

- www.macrumorslive.com

- www.macworld.com

- www.macgeneration.com (in french)

Keynote announcements :

- Mac Pro:
All dual Woodcrest based, same enclosure, 2 optical bays, 4 PCI-E, room for 4 hard drives, 1.6 to 2.1 faster than the quad G5, until 16GB of memory and 2TB of storage, 1.33Ghz FSB.

WWDC 2006 rumour roundup and crucial last minute drops The much anticipated World Wide Developers Conference 2006 will start today with a keynote performed by Apple's CEO, Steve Jobs. During this event, Apple usually previews the next version of Mac OS X and makes major and sometimes strategic announcements.

Last year, the company shaked the whole tech industry by announcing it is switching to the Intel platform. As a result, this year, it's the first time that the event is subject of so many rumours, fakes and discussion. So what the Mac community can expect to be announced in a few hours? We'll give you a summary of the biggest rumours and add to it our last drops of confirms and new information.

VMWare, subsidiary of EMC announced a beta of its virtualisation solution, VMWare, for Mac OS X.

The company invites customers to pre-register for the VMWare beta test program through its web site. However the beta software will be made available for download only in October.

Information about the features included in the Mac version, availability and pricing was not provided by VMWare yet.
This is a clear confirming the exclusive report we publi

Our recent report on the features of Mac OS X Leopard has fueled new reports from anonymous sources that confirmed recent revelations and added some crucial information.

Apple announced that it has agreed with Ford, GM and Mazda so as the auto-makers bring "seamless iPod integration" in all their brands and cars.

With these new auto-makers joining the board of iPod connectivity, more than 70% of the cars shipped in the US by next year, will have iPod connectivity.

Apple has previously claimed that more than 35% of the cars shipping in the US already have this feature.

A specific "iPod In

One week before WWDC, MacosXrumors has obtained some very exciting reports from anonymous sources. The reports reveal features of Apple's next generation operating system, Mac OS X Leopard.

Among the biggest revelations of these recent reports is that virtual desktops are finally arriving on Mac OS X, allowing users to arrange their windows in a much larger workspace than currently.

Another important improvement on Leopard is file syncing. The .Mac-based file syncing is now account-wide and not only for contacts, mail, calendars and keychains as it is the case on Tiger. Sources also told us that syncing has its own API, allowing any developer to implement .Mac file syncing in its software very easily.

The iPhone coming in August? Engadget believes that the long rumoured Apple branded mobile phone that is expected to be named the iPhone, would arrive as soon as during the month of August.

A reader is reporting to us that a coworker's tech-unsavvy friend, who is regularly hired by Apple to do marketing photo shoots, was recently brought on to take some shots of "the sleekest, sexiest damn phone he's ever seen."

Meanwhile, analysts and other rumours suggest that the iPhone will rather be introduced next year but another report recently hinted that the Apple branded mobile phone could come earlier than thought.

Apple has posted a new Security Update labelled "2006-004". The update waights 5.5MB and is available through the Software Update utility.

Here is the description provided by Apple for this update:

"Security Update 2006-004 is recommended for all users and improves the security of the following components.

AFP Server
Bluetooth
Bom
DHCP
dyld
fetchmail
gnuzip
ImageIO
LaunchServices
OpenSSH
telnet
WebKit

For detailed information on this Update, please visit this website: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61798."

Here is a catch-up with the news we did not cover last week and ealier this week:

Intel's new chips

As expected, Intel has announced its new generation Core 2 Duo processors. One line-up of five desktop processors code-named "Conroe" and a line'up of another five processors designed for laptops, code-named "Merom". The company had also recently announced the Xeon 5100, code-named "Woodcrest" end intended for servers and high-end workstations. All of these processors may potentially be used by Apple for its future Macs.