MacRumors

Macworld Expo has opened registration for January 2008.

The 2008 Macworld Conference & Expo takes place between January 14 - 18, 2008 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA. The keynote address will likely take place on Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 with the expo floor opening immediately afterward.

Apple announced the iPhone at the 2007 Macworld Expo, and early rumors are pointing to at least a MacBook Pro update at 2008 expo. A circulating priority code (08-E-VF01) promises free Exhibit Hall passes until October 5th.

MacRumorsLive will return in January for keynote coverage, and this year MacRumors will provide extended Macworld Expo floor coverage. Vendors exhibiting should feel free to contact us for possible coverage.

After nearly a month without an update, Apple has delivered a Leopard update to developers. First, a new version of the Leopard Software Update Client has been seeded through Leopard's Mac OS X Software Update. Once this new Software Update tool is installed, Apple also provides Mac OS X Leopard Client Seed Update.

The new Seed Update is "recommended for all users running Mac OS X Leopard 9A527 or 9A528" and brings the Leopard build up to 9A528d. The update includes general fixes and is also meant to test the new version of Software Update.

Leopard seeds have been notably absent in the past 3-4 weeks. Apple's October deadline for Leopard is quickly approaching. Leopard will need to be finalized soon to ramp up duplication and distribution for the October release timeline.

Apple's last major Mac OS X release (Tiger, 10.4) was declared Gold Master on March 31, 2005. Tiger was later launched in retail stores on Friday, April 29th, 2005, almost one month later.

Walt Mossberg reviewed the iPod touch and notes that its battery life falls short of the other iPods.

He also describes the screen issue that has affected "a small number of" iPod touch screens, and notes that Apple is addressing it:

Also, some early iPod Touch units have had defective screens, where images appeared too dark. Apple says this problem affected a small number of units and is being remedied. My two test units displayed beautiful images.

There's been no indication how many units have been affected, but an informal poll showed it affected 30% of iPod touch respondants. This is likely an overestimate as affected owners are more likely to seek out these forums/polls.

Anecdotal reports from the newest iPod touch buyers indicate that the problem may have been solved.

As has been rumored, Orange announced today that they have signed an exclusive agreement with Apple to distribute the iPhone in France.

No details (price or plans) have yet been provided, and Apple has not yet announced the partnership. Apple Expo, however, takes place next week starting on September 25th.

Earlier this week, Apple announced the iPhone for Germany and the UK.

Crave TV posts a 13 minute hilights video of Steve Jobs at the London Apple Store launching the UK iPhone on September 18th.

While there was live text coverage, watching the video itself provides a better feel for the event.

Includes portions of the Q&A session where he talks about 3G, iTunes activation, iTunes Wifi store, Fair Usage limitations, Unlocked iPhones, iPhone pricing, and more.

Appleinsider compiles information from Digitimes about upcoming Penryn processors which are expected to be used in upcoming MacBook Pros. Intel detailed their Penryn and Nehalem processor plans earlier this week at the Intel Developer Forum.

Intel is expected to launch five 45nm dual-core notebook CPUs in January of 2008 with CPU speeds ranging from 2.1GHz up to 2.8GHz.

The new Intel mobile CPUs are expected to refresh the current Santa Rosa chipset which powers the current MacBook Pro. The MacBook Pro currently maxes out at 2.4GHz speeds.

Meanwhile, it has been previously revealed that new MacBook Pros are expected to be released in January 2008 which would coincide with these processor updates.

NBC announced today that they will be launching a new service called "NBC Direct" which will allow users to download and view NBC's popular primetime shows to their desktops for free and watch them for up to one week after broadcast.

The first version of this software will launch in October for Windows PCs only, but "future versions" are said to add Mac compatibility.

At launch the shows will include "Heroes," "The Office," "Life," "Bionic Woman," "30 Rock," "Friday Night Lights," "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" and "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."

In 2008, NBC plans to offer expanded sales options which could include download-to-own, rental and subscription models.

NBC recently withdrew from future iTunes distribution of their television shows due to a contract dispute with Apple.

Research firm iSuppli has torn down the latest iteration of the iPod nano to find hefty component changes.

"The changes in components have resulted in significant cost reductions in the nano design, allowing Apple to offer a product that is less expensive to build and that has enhanced features compared to its predecessor," said Andrew Rassweiler, senior analyst and teardown services manager for iSuppli.

Specifically, iSuppli estimates the bill of materials (BOM) at $58.85 for the 4 GB nano and $82.85 for the 8 GB version. Apple sells the 4 GB model at $149 and the 8 GB model at $199.

As usual, the estimate is limited to the BOM and does not include costs for manufacturing, software, intellectual property, research and development, accessories and packaging. Still, the estimate can provide some insight into Apple's profit margin on a given product.

Apple has announced that they have partnered with T-Mobile to be the exclusive German carrier of the Apple iPhone.

"We're thrilled to be partnering with T-Mobile to bring the iPhone to Germany," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "Customer response to iPhone in the US has been incredible, and we can't wait to introduce T-Mobile customers to the most revolutionary mobile device on the planet."

The iPhone will go on sale on November 9th through Telekom Shops of Deutsche Telekom and the T-Mobile web shop. iPhone requires a new 2-year T-Mobile tariff and will be available in an 8GB model for 399 including V.A.T.

More information has been posted to t-mobile.de.

Engadget posted a gallery of photos showing the UK iPhone which carried version 1.1.1 of the iPhone firmware. The new firmware show a number of new features for the latest iPhone update which is not yet publicly available.

- Home Button Preferences - Home, Phone Favorites, iPod, Show iPod Controls
- Version 1.1.1
- International Prefs - keyboards, region format
- TV Out - Widescreen, NTSC options, Closed Captioning
- Edge Roaming - on and off
- Wifi iTunes Store
- Carrier Preference - (present on current iPhones and only available when roaming)

An iPhone update has been rumored to be coming shortly.

Microsoft's Office for Mac team blog wrote about their thought process in developing the user interface for the upcoming Mac Office 2008.

Mac users have strong expectations about their user interface. We're often told by our users that they definitely want us to look Mac-like. .... We could have just left the Apple and app menu in place, and ignored the rest of it. Not only is this a waste of screen real estate, it breaks the user's mental model. But the Ribbon does some great things, and we want to capitalise on their innovation while still ensuring that we keep a Mac-like experience.

They've also posted a sneak peak of Mac Office 2008 at http://www.macoffice2008.com/

Today at the Intel Developer Forum, Intel CEO Paul Otellini affirmed that Intel's Penryn and Nehalem family of processors are on track for their releases this year and next year, respectively.

"We expect our Penryn processors to provide up to a 20 percent performance increase while improving energy efficiency," said Otellini. "Intel's breakthrough 45nm silicon process technology allows us to provide low-cost, extremely low-power processors for innovative small form factor devices while delivering high-performance, multi-core, multi-featured processors used in the most advanced systems."

Penryn will start shipping in November of this year, and it is expected that Apple will use the variants in its products.

Meanwhile, Otellini also previewed Intel's upcoming new Nehalem architecture.

"Nehalem is an entirely new architecture that leverages Intel's Core Microarchitecture, bringing leading-edge performance advantages, power efficiency and important new server features to market just a year after Intel leads the industry to 45nm technology," said Otellini.

One of Nehalem's advancements will be the use of the QuickPath Interconnect system archetecture, which includes an integrated memory controller and improved communication links between system components to significantly improve overall system performance. An advanced version of hyperthreading will also make a comeback in Nehalem.

While Nehalem will begin on 45nm technology in late-summer 2008, Intel plans to quickly move to 32nm production in 2009. DailyTech notes that Mac OS X successfully boots on Nehalem.