We've written a few days ago that previous reports hinted at Mac OS X 10.4.7 Tiger update. Now Apple Insider delivers news saying that the Mac OS X Tiger operating system will be getting that (minor) facelift we've all been hearing about in a matter of days.

The update will result to audio enhancements for several of the company's applications. Fixes for audio playback in iTunes, Soundtrack, Final Cut Pro and QuickTime will included. You should also expect improvement in mobile phone syncing, Bluetooth file transfers and mouse pairings, according to people who claim to have tested these pre-release builds of the  Mac OS X 10.4.7 update.

Apple is said to have implemented fixes into this update for saving Quark and Adobe documents to AFP mounted volumes, syncing files and date to .Mac, using iChat to create chatrooms over AIM protocol. Other enhancements will be targeting PDF workflows in apps like iPhoto and iCal, ensuring correctly-spaced icons on the desktop, importing files into Keynote 3, and removing and importing fonts in Apple's Font Book application.

The Delta update form for the Mac OS X 10.4.7 build 8J2133 (Intel) and for the Mac OS X 10.4.7 build 8J133 (Power PC) requiring at least a Mac OS X 10.4.6 will weigh in at 130MB and 64MB. According to sources, Apple has already completed the documentation for the Mac OS X 10.4.7 so we should expect it to be released in a few days.

Sofa Control - that should say it all. But for those who still don't get it, dig this.

Sofa Control is an application that wasn't included in your Mac boxes but should've been, so CASE Apps made it especially for you. This application uses and extends the power of your Apple Remote via the AppleScript which is included in your packaged Macs. Along with automated workflows and controlled applications on the Mac, your Sofa Control also comes with support for several apps like Powerpoint, Preview, VLC, EyeTV, and Keynote, among other things.

If this isn't enough good news, then read this: you can download scripts from a designated place so the number of the applications supported by the Sofa Control gets larger. Scripts will be provided by other users like yourself and share them with other Mac users.

Sofa Control has two modes that you can use to interact with your Mac via the remote control. The first one is the Sofa Mode where you can use your Remote Control to access videos, documents and other files even when you're just resting on a chair (or a sofa). It provides an application switcher, big menus and file chooser.

Auto Mode on the other hand, will allow you to use your Remote Control like another input device when in front of your Mac. Sofa Control will automatically recognize the application which you are using. Default actions are used when there are no defined actions for a certain application.

Lifetime license for the Sofa Control is priced at $9.99 USD.

All you people who've been roasted by your MacBooks listen up. Apple has finally solved this burning issue once and for all. Â?The MacBook is a notebook, not a laptop, refer to your user manual.Â? How does that resolve the MacBook's notorious capacity to stimulate non-spontaneous human combustion? It is not a laptop so what were you thinking setting it on your lap?

Even the manual spells it out loud and clear:

That should be the end of that, right? Not as far as one user is concerned. According to one post on a decidedly not pro-Apple site, the company has been promoting the MacBook as a machine designed to sit on your lap:

See that catchy advertising phrase egging you on to put it right where lapdancers hold office. It gets even better (for crispy fried MacBook users, not for Apple). The post also included a damning evidence (see "pictograph" above) depicting the fun way to use the MacBook - on your lap. We guess it all broils down to this: Do as Apple tells you. Not as Apple sells you.

Sure, the MacBook and MacBook Pro looks professional and almost classic. Yet sometimes, you just want more color in your life and the Apple laptops' white or black just doesn't cut it. The French painter Pierre Bonard once said, "Color does not add a pleasant quality to design - it reinforces it" - so this must mean putting color in an already fashionable laptop won't be such a bad idea, right? If you answered yes, then you might want to take a look at Colorware's offering.

Colorware is offering the MacBook and MacBook Pro, with a deluge of colors to choose from. Offering a range of 24 colors (one less for the Mac Book Pros), Colorware's MacBooks and MacBook Pros are powered by Intel Core Duo Processor and has the iSight camera built-in. Other softwares included in Colorware's offerings are iLife '06, iWork '06, Front Row, Photo Booth, Comic Life, and OmniOutliner.

Of course, all these come with a price - a high price, I have to say. While the white 13" 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo MacBook sells for only $1,099, Colorware's version will make you $1,749 poorer. Colorware's 15" 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo MacBook Pro sells at $2,649 (vs. the white one for $1,999). If you do have the money to burn and would like to own a different-colored Apple laptop, visit the Colorware site to see other offerings and to decide which color strikes your fancy.

Those of you with iPods may have already tried out the products from Invisible Shield.  They make super scratch-resistant plastic skins for iPods, digital cameras, and more (pretty much any electronic device out there).  Among their offerings, are skins for laptops - those from Apple being among the main models.

Just a day ago they released the new product created specifically for Apple's 13.3" MacBook.  With all the recent hubbub about the discoloration of white MacBooks, this release couldn't have come too soon.  I ordered one, in hopes of having it here in time for my MacBook purchase.

The question remains, as to whether the discoloration (if it's as rampant as the blog posts make it sound) is caused by oils/chemicals on peoples' skin, or an internal heat/light issue.  As I get my white MacBook and use the Invisible Shield from day one, I'll post to let everyone know if any discoloration occurs in my case (which would obviously point to the latter issue of heat/light as the culprit.

If brand new Apples are way, way, way out of your pocketbook's league, you may want to consider these refurbished MacBooks and iMac G5s that come with much lighter price tags:

• 1.83GHz MacBook Pro notebook with 512MB of memory for $1,599 (21% off )
• 2.0GHz MacBook Pro 1GB of memory for $1,999 (21% off)
• 2.16GHz MacBook Pro 1GB of memory for $2,199 (22% off)
• iMac G5 systems with SuperDrives includes 17-inch 2GHz iMac with a 128MB ATI Radeon 9600 graphics card ) for $949 (save $550)
• 17-inch 1.9GHz iMac with 128MB DDR ATI Radeon X600 Pro graphics card for $999 ($300 discount)
• 20-inch 1.8GHz iMac with a 64MB DDR NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra graphics card for $1,099 (save $800)
• 20-inch 2.0GHz iMac with 512MB of memory, a 250GB SATA hard drive, and a 128MB DDR ATI Radeon 9600 graphics card for $1,249 (save $550)
• 20-inch 2.1GHz iMac with 512MB of memory, a 250GB SATA hard drive, and a 128MB DDR ATI Radeon X600 XT graphics card for $1,299 ($400 savings)

Also available:

• Intel Core Duo iMacs with SuperDrives which includes 17-inch 1.83GHz Intel iMac with 512MB of memory, a 60GB SATA hard drive, and a 128MB GDDR3 ATI Radeon X1600 graphics card for $1,099 ($200 less)
• 20-inch 2.0GHz Intel iMac with 512MB of memory, a 250GB SATA hard drive, and a 128MB GDDR3 ATI Radeon X1600 graphics card for $1,399 (save $300).

We reported earlier that white MacBooks are somewhat prone to discoloration and the affected areas are usually the trackpad and keyboard areas. Apple forums have been covering this issue for quite some time now and a lot of speculations came up at those discussions - discoloration was caused by Mac users who are smokers, Windex doesn't work, soap doesn't work, yada, yada, yada....

But there is someone claiming that the miracle solution for the discoloration is a Non-Acetone nail polish remover. Apple and cosmetic products...that doesn't sound like a happy union...but then again, whatever works. And he or she is getting some support from other Mac users.

When the other forum members read the post and tried it, they swore that it worked...although they say that their fingers felt like sandpaper afterwards. We just want to remind you guys that nothing is official here. So if you wanna try it out for yourself, do so at your own risk! And if you did try it, tell us what happened, we here are good listeners!

We've already posted reviews of the new Apple MacBooks and some of you may have been tinkering with your MacBooks for quite a while now. Ever wondered what's the difference between a white and black MacBook? Did it ever cross your mind? Aside from the obvious color difference, the only difference between the white and black 2GHz MacBook is the hard drive - 60GB 5,400-rpm drive in the white model and an 80GB, 5,400-rpm in the black. Scores on over all system performance testing tool, Speedmark have backed that up.

James Galbraith of MacWorld discovered some other differences that you might be interested to know:

The differences in some of the individual tests that make up Speedmark were big enough that we rushed the black the MacBook back from its offsite photo shoot to run some more tests. After testing the white 2GHz MacBook and comparing the results to the published scores of the black model, we saw small performance differences in many of the tests, with the edge going to the white model in most cases. Retesting leveled out a few tests (though I canÂ?t explain why), but still shows the white 2GHz model performing better than the black model, most notably in our Compressor MPEG-2 Encoding test and our iMovie test applying the Aged video effect to a clip.

With the systems shipping with identical processors, RAM and graphics, we focused our testing attention on the hard drive. Thankfully, switching hard drives between the MacBooks is fairly painless, because we did a lot of it and found that the results in question followed the drive to whatever system it was installed in. We bought and installed a 100GB, 7,200RPM Seagate drive in the black MacBook and saw its performance benefit immediately, reducing the gap between white and black on many of our tests, like Compressor, iMovie and iTunes, while whipping the white in the more drive-intensive tasks like zipping, unzipping, and duplicating files.

Read the full test results by clicking on the "Read" Link

California hardware company FirmTek, LLC, has announced the release of their highly-anticipated SeriTek/2SM2-E ExpressCard Adapter for the MacBook Pro. This device will allow MacBook users to stream live video directly to their disks, and make the lives of videographers much easier, enabling them to perform most of their work in the field. The ExpressCard Adapter also features "hot-swap" compatibility, simplifying the chore of moving drives and arrays from the MacBook to any FirmTek equipped desktop system. While designed for the Apple, the new device is also compatible with ExpressCard equipped Windows machines.

The SeriTek eliminates the data "bottleneck" caused by the inherent limitations of the stock machine, such as the internal drive and USB ports. While this is wonderful for those who need to work with video files, they can be useful for almost anyone whose work requires them to deal with huge amounts of data.

The SeriTek/2SM2-E ExpressCard will retail for around $120. Additional drive trays will be available for about $23.00 each.

One thing that you can say about Jonathan 'Wolf' Rentzsch is that he definitely thinks outside the box. Trouble is, his MacBook Pro had some difficulty mounting the disks. "The same disks mounted fine in my Quad and my old Pismo, so they werenÂ?t the problem. Furthermore, CDs mounted fine in the MBP, so its mechanism wasnÂ?t shot. The MBP didnÂ?t have problems with these installation DVDs in the past." said Rentzsch.

After some more deductive reasoning, he narrowed it down to that day's fairly warm and humid weather. So what he did was put his MacBook Pro and DVDs in the fridge for 45 minutes and tried again. Well, you know what happened next. Inspired by the success of his endeavor, using his iSight, he plans to discover if the light inside the fridge actually does go out or if it's a big conspiracy.