The September 12 opening of the Paris Expo and that little surprise event in San Francisco is only a few days away, yet apparently the new iMac can't wait. Apple's gone and announced the up-gunned iMac earlier than expected - media outlets and professional Apple watchers, including us, were guessing the lineup would be announced during either September 12 event. So "12" won't be a number to associate with the iMac.

But two numbers to associate with the iMac are "2" - the Core 2 Duo processor - and 24 - a new 24" screen that caps the high-end version of this latest lineup (And isn't it curious that 2 x 12 = 24? But enough of the math). Apple claims that 64bit Core 2 Duo iMac outpaces its Core Duo predecessor by up to 50%. No need to specify the benefits of the larger screen.

Besides 2 and 24 (and 64 and 50%), here are the other numbers on the upgraded iMac, all involving dollar signs:

• $999 - 17" / 1.83GHz / 512MB RAM / 160GB HD / Combo / Intel GMA 950
• $1,199 - 17" / 2.0GHz / 1GB RAM / 250GB HD / SuperDrive / Radeon X1600
• $1,499 - 20" / 2.16GHz / 1GB RAM / 250GB HD / SuperDrive / Radeon X1600
• $1,999 - 24" / 2.16GHz / 1GB RAM / 250GB HD / SuperDrive / GeForce 7300GT

All versions will include the AirPort Extreme, and versions that cost $1,999 and up will also feature Bluetooth 2.0. However, there's no word on whether Apple will also upgrade the education iMacs.

Reports say that they also decided to upgrade the last of the Core Solo Mini's heart to the 2 Duo as well, eliminating the Core Solo sales lineup and throwing in a new 1.83GHz Core Duo Mini into the mix. Them Cupertino boys do know how to surprise us.

This is a video of a Macbook Pro making odd hissing/whirring noises. The video was submitted by boloncats, commenting "My Macbook Pro has been making a sound I've never heard before in my life. I recommend you watch the last 20 seconds. It's not the hard drive. I sent it once to Apple, they said they fixed it. But the noise came back."

Aside from boloncats, other Macbook Pro users have complained similar problems that include hissing sounds from the LCD, the hard drive squealing , the processor whining when the PC is idle, and the fan engaging in random vacuum-like bursts. In addition to these weird noises, others reported having an incredibly noticeable white strip along the bottom of the LCD, making the bottom significantly brighter than the rest of the display.

Apple have already issued a recall for their defective lithium-ion batteries manufactured by Sony. Would they acknowledge these issues too and fix the manufacturing problems?

The widespread availability of Intel Corp's new desktop processors in the past several weeks is not enough to make Apple introduce new line of iMac computers. We know now why as they confirm previous rumors to sidestep Core 2 Duo and use Merom, the mobile variant of chips, for the MacBook instead.

This month will not be over before they come up with the announcement regarding the next-gen models, including a 23-inch new member of the iMac family. This upgrade will be the third Apple ha made within the last 12 months.

In a related matter, this is not the first time Core 2 Duo was ignored by Apple. The recently unveiled Mac Pro high-end desktops went with Intel's higher-performance Xeon server processor, contrary to earlier reports. Then everybody thought Core 2 Duo will then be going to the iMac line, but here we are, Merom taking the spot.

Merom is said to be capable of up to 2.33GHZ speed, offering a 40 percent increase compared to the previous Core Duo CPU.

This week, the Apple legal team has caused a bit of a stir by trying to claim the word "pod". Even if your product is nothing like the iPod in the way it looks, feels or even smells, it appears that you can still face a lawsuit from Apple if your trademark contains the word Pod in it. This is exactly what happened to a small family business when they invented a digital device to aid in their business of making arcade game machines.

The Ellison family, owners of Mach 5 products, came up with a digital version of the mechanical readout of prizes on arcade machines The readout transmits the accounting information via infrared technology to a notebook or a PDA in a way that the data can be loaded directly into a spreadsheet. They named this device the 'Profit Pod'. As soon as computer giant Apple caught wind of the Profit Pod, the Ellisons received a letter. The letter goes:

Apple recently learned that Mach 5 Products filed an ITU trademark application for PROFIT POD (Serial No. 76/589,480), on April 30, 2004, for "infrared data transmission and collection system, namely an infrared data transmission and collection system for amusement games comprised of a meter for counting input signals from switches, a processor for processing the signals so that they may be transmitted by an infrared signal, an infrared signal generator and software for programming hand held computers that can detect and process infrared signals"

...We believe there is confusing similarity between Apple's IPOD mark and the PROFIT POD mark. PROFIT POD is a POD-formative mark and incorporates a substantial portion of Apple's IPOD mark. The products are likewise related. Accordingly, we must ask that Mach 5 Products immediately abandon the pending application for PROFIT POD, agree to cease all use of the PROFIT POD mark and not to use or file any other applications for similar marks in the U.S. or elsewhere.

The profit pod is in no way similar to an iPod except for having 'Pod' in the name, so why Apple decided to send this letter, I do not know. My message to the Ellison family: Carry on calling your invention the Profit Pod, because I am pretty sure that no court of law would allow Apple to win this one in a million years. But then again, that's just my opinion. How about you, what's your take on this subject? Let us know via the comments.

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]

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.

Intel's quad-core (4 full execution cores) processors known as 'Kentsfield' and 'Clovertown' could ship before the end of the year instead of the first quarter of 2007. After a disappointing Q2 FY2006 results, Intel said it was pushing the launch of its first quad-core processors for high-end desktops and server earlier into the fourth quarter of 2006.

Mansfield is expected to ship in a multi-chip package in order to avoid low yields due to huge die sizes. Clovertown, the server version of the quad-core, is expected to be pin-compatible with the 'Woodcrest' dual-core Xeon DP 5100 family of server chip the company launched earlier. Clovertown is believed to have a TDP of 120W. Official specs of the quad-core CPUs have not been released by the Intel.

The company also said its upcoming Xeon MP 7100 series server processor, Tulsa, was already shipping to server vendors in preparation for its launch.