Apple's next major release of OS X is expected to deliver many significant Intel-specific improvements and features. Rumors are also flying around the possibility of Apple introducing the first Pro-level desktop Mac at the conference. Following Intel-Mac naming conventions to date, the new machines would be called MacPro, and could possibly feature the new Intel Core Duo 2 processor in a quad-core configuaration.

Read Apple's very own press release on WWDC here.

Of Mooing, Whining, Bad Batteries, Discoloration, and Heat
It's not that first-gen Apple hardware doesn't work. It just doesn't work very well.

I've been keeping close tabs on my credit card ever since the MacBook came out, fighting off my desire to upgrade to a speedy new Intel-powered, widescreen Mac by reminding myself how nearly every Rev A Mac over the past four years (more?) has had some pretty annoying, widely documented issues. If you believe half the stuff you read on the Internet, new MacBooks suffer from everything from discoloration of the palm rest to nagging "whining" and "mooing" sounds, overheating (both caused by renegade plastic strips and not), and magikal "swelling" batteries.

The good news is that Apple usually gets it right by Rev. B. The other good news is that refurb'd MacBooks have already surfaced at the Apple Store online for $150-200 off of new-model prices. The third bit of good news is that I still have that $1200 I might have already spent on the white 2.0GHz model.

There's some bad news in there somewhere ... but it only applies to you early adopters out there.

nano to Become Giant at 12GB?
So not only is Apple sucking the world's NAND flash memory reserves dry, but apparently they're gearing up to churn out Man-sized nanos with capacities as large as 12 gigs by Christmas.

First of all, never believe anything that's attributed to an "analyst." Second of all, if all the hype surrounding the Meizu Miniplayer M6 is true, maybe Apple should make the nano hold as many iTunes as possible. This here Meizu thing looks pretty hot if you ask me...

Are Geniuses Dumb?
The richer they come, the harder they fall, or so the story goes. As Apple's popularity and market share have grown, so too has its hate mail Inbox. Over the past few months I've heard tell of more and more complaints of the staff in various Apple stories being, a)Not so knowledgable about Apple products, b)Rude, c)Arrogant, or d)All of the Above. None of this applies directly to the new Cube flagship store in Midtown Manhattan, mind you, but I myself even had a Taste of the Doltish when I inquired at the Emeryville, CA store about the internal hard drive capabilities of the various MacBooks.

The official Apple Store employee helping me didn't know how fast the stock MacBook IDE drives spun, nor what kind of effect said speeds might have on the MacBook's ability to record multitrack audio using GarageBand or Logic. Fair enough, it's a bit of a wonky question. Thing is, his non-Apple-T-Shirt-clad buddy did know the answer (or at least claimed to). So while the kindly non-employee talked to me about the real world difference between RPM, cache size, and seek/write times, the guy getting paid by corporate to sell me on the computer took a walk with nary a goodbye for my troubles. Sigh.

My story's not so bad, really. Is yours? Drop me a line with your tales of Apple Store Genius, be they good, bad, or otherwise.

Have a question, comment, rant, or hot tip? Send 'em my way: pbc at threebase dot com.

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