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Continuing a recent trend, Apple appears to have included another draft 802.11n-compatible wireless card in their recently released Core 2 Duo based MacBook computers. According to ThinkSecret, the wireless chipset is the Atheros AR5008E, apparently the same series as is in the Core 2 Duo MacBook Pros. Apple first introduced draft 802.11n compliant chipsets with the Core 2 Duo iMac, however the ...

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...

TUAW claims that Apple is about to begin seeding a software update for its Backup application to select testers. While unable to pin down what enhancements or features may be in the update, the site speculates that the release may be reliability-related. We're guessing it has something to do with making Backup's .Mac features not suck so much and having it work more than 40% of the time. At least ...

Apple has initiated a repair extension program for the latest generation PowerMacs sold between October 2005 and August 2006 (including Dual 2GHz, Dual 2.3GHz and Quad 2.5GHz G5 models). According to Apple, if your PowerMac fails to start up after the power button has been pressed and its serial number falls within the given range (listed below), your computer may be eligible for repair free of...

Continuing the ever-present hum of Core 2 Duo MacBook rumors, AppleInsider reports that the much-anticipated upgrade may come this week. Some readers will recall that last week was filled with similar but less-certain claims. A page 2 report by MacRumors had pieced a few, apparently coincidental reports together that suggested an update may have been in the works by late last week. Even...

PortalPlayer has announced that NVidia has signed a definitive agreement to buy the company for approximately $357 million ($13.50 per each outstanding share of PortalPlayer common stock). PortalPlayer's media chips have historically been used in Apple's iPods, however the company has seen setbacks in recent quarters with rumored losses to Samsung (iPod Nano). For its part, NVidia has been rum...

One of the less-touted (at the time) features of the Aperture 1.5 update was Apple's opening of a new plug-in architecture to extend Aperture. According to MacWorld, the plug-in interest is exceeding Apple's expectations. We knew that there would be a lot of interest, but we received 150 emails from individuals, companies and organizations that all want to develop plug-ins for Aperture, Richard...

Cingular officially announced today its new mobile music service, deciding to partner with Microsoft, Napster, Yahoo! Music, XM Satellite Radio and eMusic for a subscription-based service model. Many have seen this event as an essential death-sentence to the rumor that Apple would be launching the 'iPhone' as Cingular-only initially. However, the possibility still exists that Apple could...

Just as the Black Hat wireless card exploit was beginning to die down, an exploit in Apple's built-in Airport drivers for some older Macs has been released. According to the site hosting the proof-of-concept, the driver supplied with Orinoco-based Airport cards (1999-2003 PowerBooks, iMacs) is vulnerable to a remote memory corruption flaw, which could lead to arbitrary code execution if the...

ATI (now owned by AMD) has announced the X1900 G5 Mac Edition for PCI-e equipped Macs (i.e. Dual-core G5's). The card contains a X1900 GT processing core and has 256 MB of VRAM with two dual-link DVI ports for support of two 30" Apple Cinema Displays. The card also contains S-Video output for connecting TVs sporting the connector. At the time of this writing, availability and pricing...

While hardly definitive, MacRumors has received a few reports that may indicate the long-awaited Core 2 Duo (Merom) MacBook revision could arrive as early as tomorrow. None of the reports that we have received includes a "smoking gun", however at least one customer has seen his AppleCare MacBook replacement order stalled until Nov 1st, and another has seen pressure from Apple's financial...

While pre-orders of Apple's 2G iPod Shuffle have recently begun to ship to customers, Apple has announced the general availability of the music player in Apple Retail Stores and Authorized Retailers worldwide this Friday. AppleInsider has reported that while retailers may get stock of the players prior to Friday, they will not be allowed to place them out for sale until Friday. Note: 2G =...

Apple has released Boot Camp Beta 1.1.2. Boot Camp 1.1.2 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 -Support for built-in iSight cameras -Support for built-in microphones -Support for the Apple USB Modem -Trackpad scrolling and right-click support on...

According to MacNewsWorld columnist Rob Enderle, Apple may be preparing to launch Leopard at MacWorld San Francisco. Steve Jobs had previously announced at this year's WWDC that Leopard would ship in Spring 2007, however Enderle believes the release will be pushed up to take as much spark away from Microsoft's release of Vista as possible. It looks like this puppy is nearly ready if I'm reading...

MacScoop (formerly MacOSXRumors) reports that Apple's recently released (Product) RED iPod Nano is seeing high demand, with "hundreds of thousands" of orders already placed for the AIDS-fighting product. Overall iPod demand is also said to be high, and the site's sources expect that sales for the holiday quarter will be record-breaking, surpassing even last year's 1Q sales of 14 million iPods. ...

According to multiple sources, orders placed early for Apple's 2G iPod Shuffle are beginning to ship from factories in China. Apple announced the redesigned miniature music player on September 12th at its "It's Showtime" event, with a shipping date in October. If a recent report from ThinkSecret holds true, Apple may be experiencing extremely high demand for the player, as reportedly Apple's...

Apple appears to have pulled the publicly accessible Mac OS 10.4.8 Source Code (Darwin, the open-source foundation of OS X, and XNU, Darwin's open-source kernel), leaving only developers with ADC log-ins with access to the code (public link, ADC link) Earlier this week, the OSx86 project released a version of the 10.4.8 kernel that was hailed to be 100% legal according to the APSL and run on...

Environmental activist group Greenpeace was ejected from London's Mac Expo yesterday, after various other exhibitors complained about the group's activities at the show. The group had purchased a small booth with contract terms to only hand out leaflets within their assigned area and to not take photographs at other stands. The Register got in touch with MacExpo marketing director Matt Denton ...

Apple has released MacBook SMC Firmware Update 1.1, which aims to improve the MacBook's internal monitoring system and address issues with unexpected shutdowns. A number of MacBook owners have had their MacBooks intermittently randomly shut down on them, an issue which has come to be known as MacBook RSS (Random Shutdown Syndrome). In a recent summary of the issue, including a pending...

Adobe has introduced a competitor to Apple's SoundTrack Pro dubbed SoundBooth. Try Adobe Soundbooth. Soundbooth is a brand new application built in the spirit of Sound Edit 16 and Cool Edit that provides the tools video editors, designers, and others who do not specialize in audio need to accomplish their everyday work such as: -Editing audio quickly. -Cleaning up noisy audio. -Visually...