MacBook to hit Tuesday? Apple may be planning to reveal a replacement for the 12-inch version of the PowerBook very soon, perhaps as early as Tuesday May 9. The new model may even become the first sighting of the MacBook range of Apple laptops. In early April Think Secret claimed that Apple has begun manufacturing a 13-inch laptop that would be launched in the next 30-60 days. This new laptop could either be an entry level MacBook Pro, or the replacement for the iBook – likely to take the MacBook name. Further substance was added to the rumour today when it emerged that Apple’s link to its iPod webpage was damaged. Instead of showing details of Apple's iPod range, it showed a reference to "MacBook". The link has since been fixed, but the above screen shot illustrates the reference to MacBook. There are also reports that Apple has issued Apple Stores with new point of sale material with strict instructions not to open before May 9. Should Apple make the announcement on Tuesday this would coincide with the ruling in the Apple vs. Apple case taking place the day before. It may serve to take away some of the flack should the ruling not be in Apple’s favour.

					BBC releases video search widget The BBC's film-footage licensing arm, BBC Motion Gallery, has released a Dashboard widget for Mac OS X that lets users search its online film archives without a browser. BBC Motion Gallery says the release underlines its commitment to providing creatives with fast, simple access to its extensive catalogue of digital assets. The widget is available now for download. The catalogue includes 300,000 hours of video across a huge range of topics, including natural history, news, art, music and more.  "Apple has built fantastic tools into Tiger, like Spotlight and Dashboard, to expedite production workflow and we intend to take full advantage of these innovations to bring our customers better products and services," said Jan Ross, senior vice president, BBC Motion Gallery. The widget lets customers quickly search through tens of thousands of video clips. Its features include a search field, clip preview window and the ability to display up to six video-clip thumbnails at a time.  Motion Gallery is also the exclusive global representative of the CBS News Archive, and has global distribution deals with Japan's national broadcaster NHK and ABC.

					UK Tunes stay low Apple Computers has renewed contracts with four of the biggest record labels to sell songs online at a fixed price. The four companies included in the deal are Universal, Warner Music, EMI and Sony BMG. The company is to sell each song within its iTunes music store for 79 pence each in the UK, or 99 cents in the US. The record companies have been fighting for months to charge higher prices for new releases, rather than charge the same fixed price for all songs. Variable pricing There has been friction between Apple and the music industry, with Apple's chief executive Steve Jobs calling the music industry "greedy." Digital sales - whereby consumers buy songs over the internet - only account for about 5% of the largest record companies revenues, but are growing fast. Warner, EMI and Sony have expressed interest in a variable price system, where newer songs would cost more than older ones. However, Universal has been more flexible, arguing that the market needs time to adapt before changes are made to the pricing system. iTunes is by far the largest player in the digital music segment, with an 80% market share. The success of iTunes has played an important role in boosting sales of Apple's best-selling iPod portable music player.

					UK .Mac £20 off Buy any new Mac together with a .Mac Retail Box or .Mac Family Pack Retail Box between May 2nd and July 17th, 2006, and save £20 (UK) / €30 (Ireland) on a .Mac annual membership*. .Mac extends your iLife experience to the Internet and lets you share photos, movies, podcasts, blogs and more with friends and family in a single click. With up to 4GB of storage, an ad-free email account and seamless integration with iLife and Mac OS X v10.4 “Tiger”, .Mac is the Mac way to experience the Web.

				BitTorrent in Leopard? Andrew from the isayisayisay podcast bought my attention to this Mac OS Rumors says an Apple insider and long-time regular tipster of theirs has told them the next version of the Mac OS X, 10.5, will have a BitTorrent client built-in: “Leopard” will include a system-level “BitTorrent” filesharing client that can be user-customized to ‘donate’ upstream Internet bandwidth for things like pushing Software Update packages to Leopard users, delivering iTunes Store content, and just about any purpose to which Apple puts its bandwidth. …Rewards would include credit at the iTunes Store and the Apple Store as well as other affililated offers like free airtime

				New Mac ad's. Play clip.

				If you're using a Powerbook in the UK, you may have noticed the hash key is missing! To use hash, select a US keyboard from the menu bar and use Shift and 3 to get a hash! Wonderful!

				Using your Mac with a disability

				MUG Monthly

				British Mac Patron

				Listener's Letters

				British Mac Rules the Waves. British Mac TV out now.

				Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (born 19 June 1964 in New York City, USA), better known as Boris Johnson (and occasionally as 'Bo-Jo' within the UK tabloid press) is a British Conservative politician, journalist and historian, with a distinctive scatty and eccentric public persona. He is Member of Parliament for Henley and also Shadow Minister for Higher Education.

				Johnson cultivates an image as an eccentric, straw-haired fop, disorganised and scatty (he once explained the lateness of his work by claiming that "Dark forces dragged me away from the keyboard, swirling forces of irresistible intensity and power"). He has also got his own name wrong on Have I Got News for You, and successfully got locked out of his own home in front of reporters (having just told them his family would definitely forgive his affair).