At Apple's Word Wide Developer's Conference (WWDC) last week, the developers of the Mac OS X, surveyed by PiperJaffray analyst Gene Munster, were pretty unanimous in their observation that Apple's Intel transition is progressing optimally.

Munster said that all developers who had ported an application from PowerPC to Universal Binary reported that the process went easier than they had actually expected. Meanwhile, 15 out of 16 developers predict that there will be a greater number of Mac applications in the future because of the Intel transition.

A total of 90% of the developers also believe that the enhancement on Mac's ability to run the Windows operating system - which Munster believes will be integrated in the release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard - will positively impact Mac application development.

If the Intel transition continues on its progressive path, it is without a doubt that it will not be long before Mac applications get an upgrade that consumers will definitely enjoy.

Export Address Book is an application from Dibomedia that exports all the data in your Address Book into an independent data file that you can archive or import somewhere else or use for merges with applications like Word and Filemaker.

Updating the version of Export Address Book, Dibomedia now makes it possible for you to export your contacts on vCards, either as multiple files or as one vCard with multiple entries. This allows you to create vCards while keeping private those information that you deem is unnecessary to be made known to others, without having to alter the original contact in your Address Book.

Also, you can now create documents, which take care of changed group contents automatically. For example, when you add contacts, you can add and store references to groups instead of letting the application split up the group into their members.

Available as a Universal Binary, the Export Address Book runs with full speed on any Mac with PowerPC or Intel processor. The current version is free for those who have the old version of the app. If you have yet to try Dibomedia's wonder, you can give the demo a try by clicking the download below.

Download: [Export Address Book 1.3 Demo Version]

A new version of the popular relational database application for Macs has been released for those of you running a Mac with an Intel core processor. The Firebird 1.5.3 SuperServer version for that platform was released just a couple of days ago, with those who own Intel Macs probably jumping up and down when they heard the news.

Firebird is a relational database offering many ANSI SQL standard features that runs on Linux, Windows, and a variety of Unix platforms. Firebird offers excellent concurrency, high performance, and powerful language support for stored procedures and triggers. It has been used in production systems, under a variety of names since 1981.

With the success of the Intel Macs it's hard to see why it has taken so long for Firebird to be Intel Mac compatible, but we cannot complain as the moment is now here.

Download: [Firebird v1.5.3 for Intel Macs]

Last June, Adobe made Flash Player 9 for both Macintosh and Windows. Now, Adobe has relased another version of the Flash Player 9 that is reported to work better with Intel-based Macs.

According to Sydney Sloan, group product marketing manager of Adobe, the old Flash Player 9 version "has been rewritten to improve the performance and "expressiveness," or interactivity, of Flash applications." If that's the case, then Intel-based Mac users could expect a far better performance from the newly-released Flash Player 9. Say bye-bye to creepy dialog boxes informing you that your current flash player couldn't support a certain flash presentation.

Interested Mac users can get their hands on the new Adobe Flash Player 9 by clicking on the link below.

Download: [New Version of Flash Player 9 for Intel-based Macs]

Once upon a time, Apple decided to run on Intel processors. And so it did, starting with the MacBook Pro, followed by MacBook laptops a couple of months later. Everything went smoothly, and most Apple-users lived happily ever after.

Or is it? Apparently, the tides turned when the said laptops were shipped in quantity. Before we draw speculations, let's take a look at the complaints from most Mac users:

• Whining: The MacBook Pros seem to churn out an ominous whining noise that could be temporarily stopped by opening Photo Booth and closing the said appliction again. The cause? We have no idea. Apple responded though, by telling disgruntled users to contact AppleCare.
  

• Heat: Another source of frustration for MacBook and MacBook Pro users is heat (you might also want to check our article regarding the "exploding Apple Powerbook"), especially if they place it on their laps. Apple's advice? Don't use your laptop on your lap. Hmmm...
  

• Discoloration: Some users claim that there's an "odd discoloration on the casing around the plam rest ares on MacBooks, particularly white ones." Apple acknowledged the problem, admitted it was a "manufacturing defect," and told users to contact AppleCare.
  

• Batteries: There are also reports on warping batteries, which made many concerned about fire hazards. As a response, Apple had an official battery recall for MacBook Pro batteries sold before may 2006.
  

• Logic Boards: Complaints were made regarding random shutdowns "while plugged in or on battery, and usually multiple times in a single computing session." As a result, Apple launched a logic board repair program.

Some attribute these problems to the "rushed manufacturing" of these laptops. Many anticipated the Intel transition, and probably Apple responded by well, rushing the production of the said computers.

However, that's just a speculation. Do you share the same opinion? Let us know.

As usual, this WWDC is generating a minor controversy (for Apple newbies, the WWDC is the World Wide Developers Conference where Apple shares some love with developers and the media).

Apple announced that it has opened its kernel source for the OS X Intel build to developers. For those not in the know, the kernel is the core of most operating systems like OS X, Windows, Linux, or Unix; the kernel "sits in the middle" and manages the back-and-forth between hardware (especially the CPU), software, and the system's resources; in short, the kernel is very, very important.

The source that Apple is opening up to developers is not the source of the entire OS X. The source is only for the kernel of Mac OS X 10.4.7, but this is still big news for developers. Why? Because looking at the kernel for the Intel version of the OS X will allow software developers to make more stable programs for the OS X Intel version. The kernel source for the OS X for the PowerPC was made available a while back, but the source for the Intel version wasn't made available (even though Apple started switching to Intel processors after the transition to Intel was announced last June, 2005).

What's the controversy? Well, it's only a minor one. We just notice that this news reopened the debate in various forums between those who like open source and those who fear that this will lead to a whole slew of crappy software that will just end up crashing the OS X. And since the "crash-proof-nessity" of the OS X is a major selling point against Windows, the anti-Windows faction fears that this will make the OS X into "another Windows." In my humble opinion, while this may be a valid concern, history has shown the opposite to be true: everyone ends up happy with the resulting software, software sales increase (or at least remain stable), and people become happier with all the alternatives and software that become available for the OS (of course, that's just my opinion of the general nature of things; please don't hunt me down if you disagree, ha ha, but feel free to flame me, ho ho).

There's more big news: Apple announced the next major OS X release: Leopard, scheduled for 2007. It looks like Apple is looking forward to how opening the open source will boost development. However, there's not much more we can say about the Leopard because Steve Jobs is keeping all the important details secret.

And a bit more open source news: Apple has launched Mac OS Forge, a website that should allow Apple developers to work more closely together. You can find the kernel sources there. In fact, Apple is so behind this idea that they even included the instructions on how to build from the kernel sources. And the really geeky Apple fans will be glad to know that Apple is releasing the sources for iCal Server, Bonjour, and Launchd.

Let's see how it all works out! Check back for us for more details!

I remember debating, about a decade ago, the sensitive issue of "x86 versus PowerPC performance" with my fellow nerds while dealing with dandruff.

So look at where we are now. I still have dandruff, but the Apple Mac Pro is getting a whopper of a processor that promises to send professional desktop consumers to high heaven on fluffy clouds of cheddar (for the Apple noobs, the "cheddar" joke refers to the "cheesegrater-like appearance" of the Mac Pro casing - look at the picture above).

The Mac Pros are getting 64-bit dual-core Xeon Woodcrest processors. With 4MB L2 cache (for the non-technical, that just means the processor has a lot of built-in space to do extra things). Top speed? 3GHz. For those Appletons not familiar with the Xeon, the Xeon series of microprocessors are Intel's server-class PC microprocessors. They are usually used for multiple-processor PCs. And now, for multiprocessor Macs, because Apple is putting two (that's 2) of those Xeon beauties in each Mac Pro.

This new Mac Pro definitely promises to be better than the G5. While this is more or less what was previously anticipated, the details about the cheesy insides are just yummy: it has room for four (that's 4) internal HDDs, although the basic Mac Pro will "only" have a 250GB HDD. And 1GB RAM. And the NVIDIA GeForce 256MB 7300GT. And a 16x SuperDrive. That sounds about right for a powerful office server.

Not good enough you say? Can't grate the cheese you say? Well, you can opt for up to 16GB of RAM and up to 2TB of disk space (for noobs who don't know what a "TB" is, let me just say that one "TB" or terabyte is roughly one trillion bytes, one million megabytes, or one thousand GB). Now that's some serious cheese.

On a somewhat unrelated note, I'm now waiting for the Mac Pro to get the quad-core processor so I can calculate the meaning of life. And yes, I'm still dealing with dandruff.

Merom, which is the code name of the mobile variant of the Intel Core 2 processor, is allegedly going to replace Yonah. Yonah is another code name for the Intel Core Duo chip found in the iMac, MacBook, MacBook Pro and Mac mini, and now it is one step away from being somewhat outdated, but not obsolete.

When asked for more info on Merom, Intel could only say that it is "a mobility-optimized, dual-core processor based on the new, state of the art, Intel Core microarchitecture". Their selfishness on details resulted to more backfence talks about the product which was recently announced together with its desktop counterpart -- the Conroe. One of those rumors that have been gaining ground is that Merom will be marketed as the Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile and is destined to replace the current 2MB Yonah chips found in MacBook Pros.

Merom comes with a 667 MHz frontside bus and 4 MB of L2 cache, double the 2MB found in current MacBook Pros. Intel is offering Merom in 2.0, 2.16 and 2.33GHz clock speeds. Apple will most likely announce new Intel-based Mac Pro desktops at WWDC on August 7. And until nothing official comes out from Apple, this will just join the long list of WWDC 2006 Apple rumors.

As Apple gears up to reveal OS X Leopard (among other things) at next month's Worldwide Developers Conference, some people are beginning to wonder precisely which Mac models are going to 'make the Leopard cut'.

What's left discussions on this topic wide open at this point is the fact that no one knows for sure how Apple's going to do it. Will those that run the G3 or even the G4 processor be excluded from the list? Or are the good folks at Apple to decide based on the speed of the machines' processors?

eWeek's David Morgenstern thinks that if the decision is to be processor-based, it's unlikely that Apple will exclude all the G4 and G5 machines, at least not just yet. Apple still does sell computers that run on PowerPC processors; the company's transition to Intel isn't complete yet, which means that there isn't a large enough base for Intel machines for the company to go by. In addition, the last G4 machine, a 14-inch iBook G4, was discontinued just last May. If Apple does choose to go by processors, it's likely that it's the G3 machines that'll be denied a chance to 'get with the program' due to their age; the last G3 model sold was a variant of the iBook that was axed in 2003 (two OSs back).

But Morgenstern also thinks it's possible for Apple to base its decision on video RAM, or VRAM. Many older Macs lack VRAM, so, if Apple goes by a base level of installed video RAM, most (but not all) G3 models and many of the older G4 models, like the Cube, the older PowerBooks and the first few PowerMac G4s could be left by the wayside.

Any ideas? What do you folks think? Hopefully Apple will clear up this issue next month at the WDC.

Sure, you all know that the iPod is now on its fifth generation and that the Macs are now getting Intel processors. But just how well do you know the Apple products? Just when you think you know enough to make a smart decision on an Apple purchase, something comes along to let you know that there are more to Apple products than meets the eye.

If you're out to make an Apple purchase, you might want to check out Designed in California beta - an Apple reference that documents 24,298 details of 299 Jobs-era Apple products. As stated in its "About" section brags, this Apple library "aims to be more detailed, more comprehensive and more searchable than existing databases".

As Designed in California is "in no way affiliated with Apple Computer", the team admits that there may be some errors and omissions. But you can still enjoy scanning the database for the following:

• All retail Mac models available in the US featuring G3, G4, G5 and Intel processors. Xserves are included; Server versions of Power Macs are not. Certain build-to-order, education and other special models are also included, but several are not.
• All models of display introduced on or after November 10, 1997. There is some confusion about the availability of Colorsync AV models, so currently they are excluded.
• All retail models of AirPort equipment and iPod.
• The introductory price of almost all models, plus many - but by no means all - price changes.
• Events in Apple's history concerning changes to the above models. Information about other events will be added later.

Designed in California will let you compare the five generations of six iPod models and the different Macs now out in the market. Standard and even disappearing features in Apple computers are also in display. News about Apple products can also be searched in this Apple database.

Check out the Designed in California database here.