Photo Credit: Woz.org

Apple fanboys have been clamoring for it over and over again: “give us a tablet, for crying out loud”. We all know that the iPhone or an iPod touch doesn’t compare to a full Mac OS X experience.

People were looking for the closest thing to an Apple tablet, and the CrunchPad came out. Oh wait, it didn’t. It got killed before it even came out, and is now being sold under a really meh branding. “Joo Joo”? Really?

Anyway, it’s reported that Apple rented the stage at t the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco for late January.

According to Techvibes:

While both Apple has made no comment about the event, sources familiar with the event say that Apple plans to make a significant product announcement early next year.

The device is expected to be announced in January, where it will then go into mass production and be sold a later in the year. Very little is known about the device itself, but it is expected to have either a 7 or 10 inch screen. It is also expected to look like a blown up iPhone. It’s been reported as well that the tablet has been developed under the close eye of Steve Jobs himself.

Remember, it’s just a rumor, but who knows? I’m rather excited at the prospect of a blown-up iPhone working as an Apple tablet, running Mac OS X. Imagine what you can do with it. But then, I don’t remember a single tablet computer that did well. I can’t wait to see what Apple does with it and how they’ll redefine the market.

TechCrunch has found some videos of a purpoted Apple Tablet in action. It looks more like an expanded iPhone screen, and it’s probably fake. But we’re still hoping.

Anyway, the videos are below, and they look rather awesome to me.

The new updates address about 18 security vulnerabilities. Most of the identified vulnerabilities are considered critical and could have the potential of actually being exploited. For example, a vulnerability in the ColorSync profile could mean that opening a malicious image file will result in someone taking over your computer. Other similar flaws have been plugged with the new update. Among these is a potentially catastrophic vulnerability regarding AppleTalk response packets maliciously encoded that can execute arbitrary code execution.

You can access the update by visiting http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/.

Generally, Apple uses the WWDC as the platform for announcing new iterations of the iPhone. Expect to see more of the same for the upcoming event (we’ll finally see if the rumored OLED iPhone is true). Also to be highlighted will be the Mac OS X Snow Leopard, a new update for the vaunted Mac OS X. Apple fans are also highly anticipating a possible appearance of CEO Steve Jobs who has been on sabbatical to address some health problems.

This is great news for those who think the 17 inch Macbook Pro is too expensive for their budget and can only afford the 15 inch model. With the upgrade, buyers can now enjoy increased speeds.

The new version of the 17-inch Macbook Pro is both underwhelming and just right. The fact that it was underwhelming was because of rumors that it will get the aluminum brick chassis, glass trackpad and Intel CPU.

But as revamps go, it was still (a little bit) okay. The biggest news is the now non-removable battery. Apple said that a removable battery left a lot of “wasted space”. By making it non removable it gave it more space to put in a higher capacity battery. The company claims the new battery can work up to 7 to 8 hours in a single charge. It also has a new LCD screen and with option to get a glare or non-glare screen.

The new Macbook Pro will retail at $2,799.

Apple COO Tim Cook has taken over Jobs until his return in June.

What is further fueling speculations is Jobs’ continued refusal not to speak to the press regarding his health.

I do hope that Jobs gets well soon.

An update released this Monday for the Leopard operating system is proving to be a faulty one with users reporting that the update to Mac OS X 10.5.6 has completely killed their units.

According to reports, some people who turn on their updated Macbooks will hear a spinning sound, the LED lights will turn on but then nothing else will happen. The initial speculation is that it could be a logic board failure. The solution is a replacement board but then the cost of the board is as much as a new unit.

The update to 10.5.6 was released in order to make improvements to some features, and this includes syncing between the address book and the iPhone, the roaming capabilities of AirPort connections, encryption alert that appeared in the iChat window.

Now the errors reported with the update include broken Bluetooth connections, no sound to popping sounds during boot-up, and dead USB ports.

Apple has not yet issued any statement regarding this problem.

Apple released last Monday a security update for both the Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5, client and server. The new update will bring the versions of the OS to 10.4.11 and 10.5.5.

The update was developed to fix 21 vulnerabilities of the OS. About seven of the vulnerabilities have been linked to the Adobe Flash plug-in.

The updat will affect a number of system components and are deemed critical. One example of this would be a bug in CoreGraphics that has been described as “viewing a maliciously crafted image may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution”.

Even though the bugs that were identified are not at the level where remote users can gain access to your system even without any user interaction, it is still best to update your Macs immediately.