Amazon may have blown the cover off of Adobe's strategy by inadvertently leaking information on pricing and release dates days before the scheduled announcement of its high-end Master Collection suite and other applications.

According to Amazon, the Adobe software will be classified and labeled as "OS X" and "OS X Intel" compatible versions. While there will indeed be a dichotomy, the fact of the matter is that Power PC users will be able to run the products with ease and that's saying a lot.

The prices revealed by Amazon are a little stiff, though. The Contribute CS3 package sells for US$ 95, the Master Collection goes for US$ 2,969 while web artists will have to shell out US$ 1,186 for the CS3 Design and Production Premium bundle. All of these are reportedly shipping in April, but users who prefer Encore, Premiere and Soundbooth may have to wait until July to get their fill.

We'll keep you posted on how accurate the Amazon revelations are when the official announcements hit on Tuesday.

Mac News World reports that Aspyr Media has released a demo of Star Wars: Empire at War for the Mac. The demo, which weighs in at 892MB, is free and can be downloaded at Macgamefiles.com. PowerPC users are out of luck, though, as the demo is only for Intel-based Macs.

Set a few years before Star Wars: A New Hope, the game lets gamers experience the creation of the Rebel Alliance and the Empire's struggle to keep its iron grip on the universe. Players can choose to play as one of the two aforementioned factions. As in all RTS games, they must collect resources, build bases, recruit units, and research new technology.

If you're thinking of getting a copy of the demo, here are the system requirements for the game, courtesy of Mac News World and the Mac Game Store: Intel processor, Mac OS 10.4.8 or later, a CPU speed of 1.83 GHz or greater, 512 MB of RAM, and one of the following video cards: ATI Latest News about ATI Radeon X1600, Nvidia Geforce 7300 or Intel GMA 7300 with at least 64 MB of VRAM.

Star Wars: Empire at War is slated for a North American release this week for a price of US$ 49.95.

So we told you before how the possible release of the Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard this Spring could be delayed. It turns out that this rumor holds no truth. Apple has responded to these reports, saying that Leopard will be released this Spring as scheduled and not on October, as previously thought.

We all know how risky believing in rumors is, but sometimes it's nice to dream. We guess the worth of the rumor must always depend on the worth of the sources. There were a lot of clues that eventually pointed out a Spring release for the Leopard. Besides, it's always safe to stick with the official announcements from the Apple people themselves.

After the long wait and disappointment of repeated delays, the Apple TV has finally started shipping.

According to Engadget, emails have been sent to those who preordered the Apple TV from the shipping companies and tracking numbers have been duly supplied. So what can we expect under the Apple TV's hood anyway? High definition 720p (and of course standard as well), PC or Mac connection (up to five), downloads via iTunes, a 40GB hard-drive and an Intel processor.

We'll see in the long run how the Apple TV will be received by consumers, right after it gets delivered to their doorstep.

 Apple just came out with the latest update to its operating system called OS 10.4.9, which fixes some compatibility issues as well as added security. The update may not be for everyone, so don't get too excited. Apple recommend it to Power PC users running the OS X tiger and OS 10.4.8 versions.

ZDNet, however, advised everyone to wait a few days before installing the critical update. This is to help users know what they'll be getting into as other people try installing the update. This will protect users from bugs that may come along with the new software.

The update has the following features:

1. RAW camera support
2. Handling of large or malformed images that could cause crashes
- Image capture performance
3. Mouse scrolling and keyboard shortcuts
4. Font handling
5. Playback quality, and bookmarks in DVD Player
6. USB video conferencing cameras for use with iChat
7. Bluetooth devices
8. Browsing AFP servers
9. Apple USB Modem
10. Windows-created digital certificates
11. Open and Print dialogs in applications that use Rosetta on Intel-based Macs
12. Time zone and daylight saving for 2006 and 2007
13. Security updates

We'll update you on how the Macintosh community responds after trying out the new software.

"The Efficient Mac User" at Low End Mac has listed 11 ways to optimize the performance of your Mac - whether it be a high-end or low-end unit. Yes, some items on that list are pretty simple and well-known, but they're all good basics that any Mac user should know, so we're putting them here as well.

The goal here is to save on RAM and processor resources - even by doing something as simple as turning off or removing unwanted applications and widgets.

QJ.NET also has a guide on troubleshooting OS X from July, 4, 2006 based on an article from Apple Matters. There is also an article on clearing up more hard drive space.

Remove unnecessary code. A significant number of recent software for the Mac are programmed to work with PowerPC processors and Intel processors. If you have a PowerPC processor and don't intend to migrate to an Intel Mac, or if you already have an Intel Mac, then you don't need the software code that lets your applications run on PowerPC! You can look for utilities like XSlimmer that will "slim down" the code on your software.

(For example, my friend Samantha has an Intel Mac, so she uses XSlimmer to strip away the PowerPC code in her applications - this makes her applications run faster. There's a bonus: it also reduces the size of the applications so she saves on hard drive space!)

Clean out startup items. Some applications entrench themselves in your Login Items folder, and that makes these applications automatically open each time you restart or login to your account. Go to Apple Menu > System Preferences > Accounts > Login Items to see a list of these startup items. Click on one item in the list and hit the minus button at the bottom of the list to remove that item. NOTE: Be careful about removing important or critical applications - just remove the ones you know you don't need.

Turn off Universal Access, Bluetooth, Speech Recognition, and Internet Sharing. If you don't use any of these, turn them off (go to the Apple Menu > System Preferences).

Clean out "Other" System Preferences items. While you're in Apple Menu > System Preferences, you can also remove Preference Panes in the "Other" section.

Know the build of your software. If you're using an Intel Mac, you may be better off upgrading your software or application (most likely there's a patch available online). For example, your software may be currently running on the Rosetta translator that lets PowerPC applications run on an Intel Mac. If your application has a patch that can upgrade it to an Intel or "universal" version, then your application won't need to call on Rosetta anymore.

Remove languages and translations. Utilities like Monolingual will remove language localizations that you don't need. As Ed Eubanks Jr. said in his article, chances are you're not using Catalan, Farsi, or Klingon.

More ways to optimize your Mac's performance - after the Jump.

Apple is known for revolutionizing our lives. The iPod alone has deeply rooted itself into cultures internationally. The more recent iPhone has also generated a lot of attention as well. Now, here comes Apple's latest product: a product-unveiling product, the iLaunch.

Now how is this revolutionary? As The Onion (*hint-hint*) reports, Steve Jobs introduced the iLaunch at a media event in San Francisco, and as the device was revealed to the audience, Jobs said:

Get ready for the future of product introduction. The iLaunch will be able to make announcements from this, or any other stage, making human participation in generating consumer awareness almost entirely unnecessary... CEOs have devoted their valuable time to strutting around on stage and breathlessly describing the features of their new products... Apple's goal within the next 12 months is to make me totally obsolete.

Powerful statements, yeah? The device, powered by Intel dual-core processors, runs Keynote-formatted presentations in high-definition through a projector, and, at the same time, displaying a rotating 3D image of the product. The iLaunch can also recite speeches via voice-recognition software built into the device. An AI is even incorporated into the system so much so that, when a glitch occurs during the presentation, it will generate humorous remarks to egg on the audience.

What's surprising: the whole presentation of Steve Jobs was produced by the iLaunch.

What isn't surprising: Microsoft just announced a similar product, the Launch-O, scheduled for 2009.

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Update: Apparently this bit of "news" has caused quite a stir at Digg (from 10 to 1000 Diggs in just a few hours). Do know that this story came from The Onion, and from that alone, most of you internet-savvy folks would know how... how shall we say it... satirical they are. So, just to make things clear, consider this as a pre-April Fool's piece. It's been fun while it lasted. To the guys up at The Onion, a warm round of applause for spread yet another great meme.

Parallels announced today that Parallels Desktop, its virtualization software for the Mac, has been updated. Parallels Desktop allows users running Intel-powered Apple Macs to run Windows, Linux or any other operating system at the same time as Mac OS X, without re-booting.

This new version of Parallels Desktop is anchored by a completely customizable new feature called Coherence. Coherence allows users to run Windows applications on their Macs like they were native applications.

When users switch to Coherence mode, the Windows desktop disappears, leaving Windows applications, such as Outlook and Internet Explorer, running directly on the Mac desktop and from the Mac application dock.

"When we introduced Parallels Desktop in April, we blurred the lines between the Mac and Windows worlds. With the introduction of Coherence, we completely blow that line away," said Benjamin Rudolph, Director of Communications, Parallels. "This is a game-changing technology that gives users the ability to choose the best application for the job at hand. We intend to expand the Coherence function to help computer users move to a truly operating system-agnostic desktop."

Parallels Desktop also includes a powerful new migration tool called Transporter that gives users the ability to move their entire existing PCs Â? including all of its settings, applications, files and profiles -- directly to a Parallels virtual machine running on their new Macs, without re-installing Windows. Perfect for users who are just switching from a Windows PC to a Mac.

You can grab a copy of Parallels Desktop on the Parallels website for US$ 79.99. A trial version is also available on the website. Kudos to ben for the heads up.

More features after the jump!

Back in 1994, Marc Andreessen, founder of Netscape, and chairman and co-founder of Opsware, was a Mac user. And although it was quite a surprise that he jumped fence towards Microsoft, he's setting things right once again by going back to Mac.

It's a phenomenon observed many times before, but this time, it's all about the head of a company that was once against the Redmond giant.

Andreessen is best known for being part of the Internet revolution back in the early 90s, pushing out his masterpiece: the Mosaic browser. Netscape Communications soon became his greatest achievement when he co-founded it and lead it up the industry ladder. When AOL got their hands on Netscape, he remained as Chief Technical Officer.

Today he stands at the top of data center automation provider, Opsware, and was pretty disappointed when his Lenovo ThinkPad T60 just couldn't keep up. He swapped the machine for an Intel 15-inch MacBook Pro and was pretty chirpy about it. As he said, "I used to be a Mac user till 1994 and now I am a Mac user again.Â?

Because his Mosaic browser was turned against Netscape's Navigator in the form of Internet Explorer, it's a surprise that he even considered grabbing a Windows laptop in the first place.

The people behind Joost, which has been formerly known as "The Venice Project", have just recently announced that a beta version of Joost for Mac Intel is now available.

Thanks to the work done by the Client team for the Windows version as well as the cross-platform power of Mozilla, Mac users can now enjoy a version of Joost that "looks very much like Joost for Windows, while behaving very much like a Mac application." The Joost FAQ notes, though, that while the application works fine under Bootcamp, it doesn't work under Parallels yet. Joost needs to access the GPU for some of its operations, and Parallels does not support that at the moment.

If you want to try it out for yourself, you can still sign up for beta testing by clicking on the "via" link below. Remember, the whole thing's still in beta, so be on the lookout for bugs. The devs are going to be giving out t-shirts to those who submit the best bug reports, so keep your eyes peeled.