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Intel has begun shipping Core Duo T2700 series (2.33 GHz), the company's latest and greatest "Yonah" derived CPU (via DailyTech). It is currently expected that this will be the last Core Duo release before the mobile Core 2 Duo, aka "Merom" is released in August. It is unknown whether Apple is planning to upgrade its line to accomodate the T2700 at this time. Currently, Apple's top of the...

The Mac web is buzzing with a report yesterday by ChinaCSR , a corporate social responsibility website focused on China, which claimed that iPod manufacturer Foxconn had admitted that their employees work about 80 extra hours each month, which is 44 hours over the maximum 36 hours overtime work allowed in Chinese law. The site also claimed that Apple's special investigatory team had signed off...

A recent Gartner report points out that Apple's buying power may be able to press NAND flash prices low enough for greatly increased capacity Nano's when their rumored refresh appears in the fall. Gartner forecasts that a 16Gb (2GB) device will be available in the third quarter for about $30, down from its current price of about $35. Due to Apple's procurement power and investment, it is...

Apple has announced an eMac Repair Extension program for eMacs that were sold between April 2004 and June 2005 and are experiencing scrambled and/or distorted video, no video, or no power. Users who feel that their eMac may be affected by the issue can learn more about the program by visiting the program's site. This issue was initially brought to light on various discussion boards and was...

Some supposed screenshots of OS 10.5 Leopard are gaining some traction on the Mac web. Originally posted on this Blogger blog, the screenshots depict the following features: - Mac OSX ability to run Windows programs natively (with Windows installed). Beta of IE 7 for Windows depicted. - A refined metal interface (iTunes 5+) for Finder (with tabs) - Multiple Desktops, with "peephole"...

AppleInsider is reporting that an updated release of iTunes Producer includes the ability for record labels to encode music in Apple Lossless Codec (ALC), which may indicate that Apple is preparing iTunes for distribution of music in ALC. There has been other evidence of these developments, with one MacRumors source claiming that Apple is indeed planning to add higher quality songs to iTunes...

With the recent release of the final version of Parallels Desktop for Mac OS X (Intel), some are wondering where market-leader VMWare is in developing a virtualization solution for OS X, if at all. While previous comments by VMWare CEO Diane Greene had stated that their product was running on Macs in their labs, little has been indicated about a release timetable, or if the company was going to...

Aperture 1.1.2 is now available via Apple's website. Aperture 1.1.2 addresses issues related to overall reliability and performance. This update is recommended for all Aperture users. Users will need to have both Mac OS 10.4.6 and Aperture 1.1.1 updates installed prior to installing the...

Hip hop artist 50 Cent is in talks with Apple about a 50-cent branded Mac that is affordable for inner-city residents according to Forbes (summary by AppleInsider). "[Jobs] is setting a new standard in the music business," said 50's manager, Chris Lighty. "Let's just say we get each other." No technical or pricing details are given, but one can assume that the price will be more than $.50. Upda...

Variety has posted an update on negotiations between Hollywood execs and Apple on the rumored iTunes Movie Store. According to the report, negotiations are still ongoing with Hollywood execs, who don't know whether to regard Jobs as a friend or foe. "He came in with a lot of bravado and said, 'We set our mind to what we were going to do in the music business and revolutionized it, and now we want ...

During Hon Hai's annual meeting, Chairman Terry Gou made a startling, albeit brief revelation about Apple's iPod plans. Apple is about to unveil the next generation of iPod, the best-selling music player in the U.S., using a "none-touch" concept, Gou said without elaborating. --ChinaPost.com.tw Hon Hai manufacturers Apple's iPods among other things. It is unclear what exactly "about to unveil"...

Over the past week, a firestorm has brewed over a report in Britain's Mail on Sunday which claimed extremely harsh working conditions at iPod factories. The original story is not available online, but Arstechnica has posted a good summary of the article. In brief, two factories were visited by Mail on Sunday reporters. The first factory was found to be forcing its staff to work 15 hour days...

TGDaily reports that Intel has announced a press conference on June 26th, presumably to officially launch its Xeon 5100 processor, aka "Woodcrest." The Xeon 5100 will be available in 6 versions according to the site, ranging from 1.6 to 3.0 GHz using 1066 and 1333 MHz Front Side Busses. All models will sport 4 MB of L2 cache. An unverified MacRumors source had previously reported that their...

AppleInsider has found a recent patent filing, presumably by Apple in conjunction with some select 3rd party manufacturers, that describes a device that can "compress, enhance, encode, transmit, decompress and display digital video images in real time." The device depicts a modified 1G/2G iPod with a color display with a headset hooked up to the traditional headphone jack and a video camera...

Macenstein is reporting that a hacker with access to a Core 2 Duo "Merom" CPU clocked at 2.16 GHz has successfully upgraded his Mac Mini. According to the hacker's benchmarks, the upgraded Mini beat out a Dual 2.5 GHz G5 in an iTunes encoding test by 15%. Note that these benchmarks could not be confirmed by MacRumors, but are placed on Page 1 for interest's sake. Both the Mac Mini and the...

According to AppleInsider and corroborated by a MacRumors source, Apple's upcoming 10.4.7 update to its Mac OS will include, among other things, an updated iSync utility. According to AppleInsider and our source, Build 8J2126 for Intel Macs includes iSync 2.3 (current is 2.2) and includes support for "many additional phones" including Motorola's RAZR v3x. There are some indications that...

Apple today quietly released new ads featuring the Mac and PC duo that have been the staple of Apple's "Get A Mac" campaign. Multiple users report having seen the ads, with themes including the following: - Macs do "fun stuff" - Macs work "out of the box" - Macs are "PCs too" The ads have not been posted to Apple's Get A Mac site. At one point they could be reliably found at ESPN's...

According to Macworld, Intel's researchers have created tri-gate transistors that better insulate circuits, which could enable either a 45% increase in speed or a 35% reduction in power used when compared to today's processors. This will help Intel to extend Moore's law, which states that that number of transistors on a chip would double about every two years, or in layman's terms, chip...

Chris Stevens from CNet.co.uk revives a long-standing rumor that Apple may be eyeing a merger with Nintendo. A city analyst told Crave that agressive takeovers of Japanese companies can be difficult and expensive. Japanese companies use the keiretsu system of interlocking holdings and partnerships, which makes conventional takeovers exceptionally hard. If Apple was to acquire Nintendo, a...

AppleInsider is confirming that Apple's upcoming Mac Pro will indeed be quad-core in at least one model. However, with quad-core on a single chip (Kentsfield) not due until Q1 2007, Apple will have to employ two dual-core chips like today's Quad. The use of multiple processors in the Mac Pro would require Intel's Woodcrest chip. Early rumors had indicated that Conroe was on tap for the Mac...